Ann Dale SAL

The Azalea Sampler Guild met last Saturday for our monthly stitching gathering. At the December gathering, we had started talking about the Shakespeare's Peddler release of the BIG Ann Dale Sampler. Next thing we knew a SAL was organized, emails were flying and calls were being made to our favorite online needle shops for supplies. Our goal was to have this be a New Years Day start and I think every member accomplished that.

We thought we'd share photos of our progress with our members who couldn't attend and with our bloggy friends who visit us.

Teresa's Progress

She has two needles going!

Loretta's Progress

Loretta was traveling so she sent us a photo to share.

Kerrie is our SAL mistress!

She is the queen of BAP's & has a fabulous rotation schedule - who else could lead our SAL for us?

She is sending us a monthly newsletter with fabulous tips and a bit of sampler/motif history along with guiding us to the next section to stitch. Thank you Kerrie!

Melody's Progress

She has changed up several of the thread colors. Her linen is gorgeous!

Carol's Progress

Carol is thinking about changing a color or two herself.

It'll be interesting to see what she does.

Carol is one of our most distant members but attends our gatherings very regularly!

Kris's Progress

Kris's needle is flying. Any tips on that over 1 section Kris?

There's no doubt that Kris will meet her goal of finishing AD this year.

Jackie's Progress

This is her first SAL and she's glad it's pressure free!

A together shot...

It's safe to say that we're loving every stitch!

Thank you for visiting our little spot on the web! We're hoping to going back to posting a bit more regularly. We appreciate your visits and comments!

Azalea Sampler Guild - March meeting

Most of the contributors to this blog meet monthly to stitch as the Azalea Sampler Guild. Many in the group have been meeting for a number of years, while some of us are relative newbies to the group, if not to stitching. Regular viewers may notice the new header. At the last meeting (back in March which means I'm really late getting this written) I managed to get pictures of the items everyone was working on and thought it would make a great header, at least for awhile. And so you know what each masterpiece is and who is stitching it I thought I'd give the rundown.

First is Maria working on JCS 1707 from The Scarlett Letter. It's an amazing piece and Maria has been lucky enough to see the original in person at the Sampler Museum in Celle, Germany. It's an amazing piece and I look forward to seeing it finished. Unfortunately that won't be until later in the year since Maria is off to spend the summer at her home in Italy. Our group will miss her while she's gone.

 Next is Loretta's Margery Dean. It's a beautiful piece with some amazing colors. I love the honeysuckle border but I'm not sure I'd want to do as the pattern suggests and fill in the entire background with cream cross stitches. I'll have to remember to ask Loretta if she's going to do that part or just let the linen show through. Either way I think it will look fantastic.

 Next is Jackie working on Jenny Bean Halloween. (At least I think that's which one she's working on, you'd think I'd know but I didn't write it down because I just knew I'd remember!) I have to tell you all that Jackie hasn't been stitching long and she's really learned a lot since her first lesson and is becoming a great stitcher.

 Kerri was taking a break from stitching on a BAP to work on Elizabeth Easton by the Goode Huswife.  You just have to love that large bird at the top! Normally Kerri is working on a large piece and she's got some lovely BAPs that I hope you get to see pictures of soon.

 Jill is working on an OOP 1798 Quaker Sampler by Goode Huswife. There are several different colors of green that she's using and it is very lovely. I am in love with the simple elegance of the Quaker designs and this one is amazing. I'm sad it's OOP.

 Kris' start on 1830 Susan Rambo Sampler from the Spring 2011 Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly is everything that the picture on the front of the magazine promises and more. Kris is using DMC and the colors are amazing. Plus she'd made great progress when we met last month so I'm looking forward to seeing what else she's accomplished when we meet this month.

 Well I'm not sure what Henri was working on here. I wrote down that she was working on Black Willow Farm by Carriage House Samplings, but that's not what this is. So I'm totally lost. Hopefully she'll see this and put a note in what it really is. Totally silly of me.

This is Linda's Ann Rogers 1820 from The Essamplaire. Linda has another beautiful piece in the making here and she's almost finished. I didn't get a good picture of this one, the colors are much better than this picture shows.

I didn't get a picture of Karen's start on AotH or what I was working on, HallowEden. Karen said she didn't have enough done for it to show up and well I was being lazy taking a picture of mine. I'm hoping to do this again when we meet and maybe even getting the post up earlier to give you an idea of what we are doing.