Prairie Schooler, Carriage House; RACHEL HYDE, Anne Gill

Have spent the past few days getting some orders of my repro samplers and a few mini sampler charts ready to mail. Quilted two crib quilts for charity and bound them on Saturday. Tried some new quilting designs and am happy at how they turned out. They are pieced by a group and I quilt and bind them. Spent Sunday afternoon weeding my garden and pulling grass from where it should absolutely not be growing. How is it that it grows where you don't want it and not where you want it to grow? Was I sore in the legs yesterday from squatting in the yard. Can't imagine how sore I'd be if I didn't go to yoga twice a week. The weather here in Chicago has been beautiful and one of the warmest springs in history. This morning I went to a local book store to hear one of their employees speak on books for book groups. What a great list of books she came up with. Finished the book Roses yesterday. It was a Texas sage but it was okay. I started Kristen Hanna's Winter Garden last night and am just getting into it. Still trying to get my old work horse printer to connect to my new Mac operating system. Have tried everything I can think of and still no luck. Will venture into the Apple store tomorrow after yoga.

Finished #7 of the Old World Santa's and hope to finish #8 the last one tonight. Looked on line to see if there was an Old World Santa's I from Prairie Schooler designs but couldn't find one. Am ready to think about my next project. I have all the charts for the Prairie Schooler ABC's and think I'll start it next. I love the rich colors. Have to go upstairs and pull some linen. Will stitch it over 1 thread with continental and basket weave stitches.

Below are two designs from Carriage House that I stitched on needlepoint canvas several years ago. They are actually the same size as I made them to fit into two hand grain-painted frames that I received from Ted Kriebel a million years ago. I  lengthened the designs and stitched them with probably 4 strands of floss. Have them on a shelf in my kitchen. Love them.

RACHEL HYDE SAMPLER 

This is one of my favorite samplers of the ones I reproduced. The blue flowers and the grapes are unusual. The large center flower was stitched in rice stitch as I recall. I didn't stitch this model. It was stitched on 36 count linen by Marge Gaebel of Alexandria, Virginia, who stitched several other samplers for me. This is the reproduction.

I call the brown blob at the right of the house "the beast."

This is the antique sampler. It resides at the Sterling-Rock Falls, Illinois, historical society. A friend of mine who had been on a motorcycle tour of the Lincoln Highway with her husband spotted it at the museum and notified me. I called the historical society right away and spent probably 4 days there graphing it. I brought my lap top computer and my boxes of floss and set off to Sterling. This was on my old old laptop computer. It was when I had to decide whether or not to get a black and white one or spend the extra bucks on color! I got the color one.

Rachel Hyde is one of a school of samplers from Norwich, Connecticut. One of her relations stitched a wonderful sampler that is in Betty Ring's 2 volume book of samplers. In earlier samplers from this school, the motto was God Save the King, not God Save America!

This is a cute sampler that was in one of my magazines. I loved stitching it. Can't remember the name of the designer though I can picture her face. She has taught at many EGA conventions and has many sampler designs on the market with many different kind of stitches. My mind is going...

I own this sampler stitched by 7-year-old Anne Gill in Strabane, Northern Ireland. The stitches are so tiny that you would be amazed and the numbers are over 1 thread. She stitched the 23rd Psalm and the Lord's Prayer. I bought this sampler at a local auction years ago.

At the bottom it reads, "Anne Gill  Strabane April 17 aged 7 years." Unfortunately, no date. It is probably from the 1820's or 1830's so it will be 180 or 190 years this week!

Time to go for my afternoon walk with my husband. It is a glorious day outside and I love seeing all the magnolias, azaleas, shadblow and forsythia. They are all blooming at once. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...  Bye for now. --Nancy