It’s a Start!

I started a new sampler today...a very BIG sampler. And, what better place to start than with an "A!" I cut a piece of linen 36" by 36". That allows for generous margins for framing...also extra in case I didn't figure right about the finished size. This piece will be stitched totally in red. It is a sampler from a large group known as Bristol Samplers. George Müller and his wife had an orphanage in Bristol, England in the 1800s. One of the things that the children (boys included) was to stitch a sampler...this gave them practice with their ABCs but also gave them something to recommend them when they sought a position in a home to work. The girls, expecially, needed this skill to be able to "mark" their mistresses linens. The reproduction sampler that I am stitching was made by two sisters, Mary and Eliza. They stitched their sampler when they were 14-15 and 13-14. I will tell you more about the girls as I stitch along...there is a bit of an interesting twist on this sampler as it is called by two names: The Daniel Sisters 1875 and also The Dirty Bird Sampler. More about the second name as I go along with the stitching...this may not get done in my lifetime. One of the errands that I ran this morning, while Woody was at dialysis, was a stop at Hobby Lobby. According to the instructions included with this sampler, I needed to buy ten skeins of embroidery thread. I will say that it was hard to find ten skeins of any red in the floss section at Hobby Lobby...but I managed. So now I will get a special project bag to keep this special stitching piece in along with the 10 skeins of floss as I don't want to lose it. It is best to buy the thread you will use all at one time so it comes from the same dye lot. I was successful in the errand at Hobby Lobby, but my other errand didn't go as well. I need to get my glasses fixed some more, but once again the folk in the eyeglasses place were not going to be there today...and probably not tomorrow...oh, well, I guess I can go with them slanted a little longer. I thought that they had been adjusted, but I'm thinking that as swelling in my face went down then the glasses were no longer adjusted correctly...or I may have just messed them up again. Anyway, that little task didn't get completed. Woody had a good dialysis treatment today. He got a good report from his monthly labs...most everything was on the positive side...a good thing. Donna and I worked in the library this afternoon. We got on top of things that had slid during both the holidays and the snow days and we also got the next steps done on processing a group of books...they are now ready to be covered either with contact paper or a book jacket. So we left work for next week! We enjoyed catching up with each other! On my way home, I stopped at our pharmacy and picked up a prescription for Woody. I think that we good on both our meds for a while...well, we are still waiting for one of his meds to arrive that gets ordered from the Fresenius pharmacy...a dialysis med to keep his phosphorus level down. When I got home, Woody had news that friends of ours from when we lived in California had called and that they are planning on coming to see us in a couple of months...that was nice news. It has been some time since we have seen them. They have been to Tullahoma a couple of times and we have been to see them in Florida, where they now reside, once. That about sums up our day. I will go finish in the kitchen and then perhaps stitch a "B". To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!