I haven't done much blogging during the past week. Why??
Well, I have to lay the blame directly on the latest issue of
Cross Stitch & Needlework - March issue. I picked it up
while at the grocery store a week ago and flipped through
it quickly, not really expecting to see anything that would
appeal to me. Then I hit the pages featuring a "historic
redwork Sampler" and let out a long "ooooooohhhh!!!".

It's an alphabet in upper and lower casing, plus numbers,
and a few motifs and things. It was love at first sight. I
abandoned my CCN garden series and started right in on
this design and haven't been able to put it down since. I
am having a blast with this piece.

I'm using DMC 150, which is not the colour of red used to
stitch the model in the magazine. They used DMC 321,
but that didn't appeal to me as much. I'm stitching it on
32 count Jobelan lambswool, which looks amazing with
the red thread. Don't go by the picture I've posted
because the fabric looks horrid in it. I've started in the
upper left corner of the design and am working on the
large case alphabet, using my spring hoop.

The alphabets, and motifs and stuff were taken from
a sampler stitched sometime around 1856 by Catherine
Archer, who lived in an orphanage in Bristol, England.
There is an entire article in the magazine about the
orphanage, it's founder, and the original sampler. I
think it's meant to teach novices how to stitch a sampler
so it's not a difficult design to stitch.

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This has been a busy long weekend for us, which didn't
allow me much time to stitch. Thursday night and
Friday morning DH was singing in the main choir at
his church for Easter. I attended the Thursday
evening Maundy Thursday service, which was a
solemn and moving experience.

On Friday afternoon DH and I joined other members
of his Kahilah choir to drive to a church in Caledon East
which was hosting a concert featuring a choir from the
Philippines. Six young men and six young women, plus
their director and their pianist. They were so amazing.
They've been here in Canada for six months already,
traveling around southern Ontario and singing, and
they've extended their stay for another three months
to accommodate all the requests for them to appear.
They sang for just over an hour, finishing their set with
the Hallelujah chorus, which was fantastic.

After the concert our gang returned to Georgetown
and the home of one of our choir members for a
potluck dinner and a hotly contested game of Trivial
Pursuit, guys against the gals. The gals won by a
narrow margin.

And I'm going to end this posting for now because it's
getting late and DH is coming up to bed. Don't want to
keep him awake with my typing. Will try and leave the
stitching alone long enough to post again later this week.
Cheers all!