April showers bring May flowers...?

We are having very heavy rain at the moment... no sun forecast till week's end... This will not be good for the water levels on the Saint John River. I did not take pictures several weekends ago as I promised...the levels had gone down and it looked like the danger of bad flooding was possibly past.... But maybe we're not out of the woods yet, so to speak... If this rain continues and with the warm temps predicted for the weekend, the snow that still remains in the northern part of the province may be causing problems before we're safe from flooding. As I said before, I'm glad I'm high on a hill... But this rain sure will bring on the green grass.. my hubby can hardly wait to start mowing..he loves his mower....

Here are two more Stitch Samplers. These are both Featherstitch, which is my favourite stitch. My favourite "variation" is just to do a freeform design with Featherstitch as you will see on my Victorian stocking and on the cards. It's such a fun stitch to "dress up" with beads, French knots or a variety of variations, combinations and permutations!! On this first Sampler, from the top, you see a single row of plain Featherstitch, then a row of Double Featherstitch, followed by a row of Triple Feathersitch. The next row is what I call a "freeform" design. The fifth row has an extra "arm" or "branch" on each stitch - I call it "Branched Featherstitch". (I don't know if it has an "official name" or not...). The next row is called Maidenhair Stitch- a Featherstitch variation. The next row, which I have done in two different sizes, is Single Featherstitch - the arms all lie to one side, and it looks quite similar to Blanket stitch. The final row is Closed Featherstitch.

This second sampler, I have rotated to the right so you see the rows in a vertical format. From the right side, going left (yes I know, this seems backwards...), the first row - in a variegated thread - is referred to as Straight Single Upright Featherstitch. The next row (to left) shows two rows, worked back to back. When this is done, you get a stitch called "Feather Filling" . The third row is Feather Filling (3 rows back to back) with an added cross-stitch in another color to fill in between the rows. You could also use a seed bead, a French knot or other stitches. The next row is a Knotted Featherstitch (done in a Perle 5), you will likely have to click on the photo to get a closer view. The next row is a combination of two stitches- it is called Feather and Chain, and is a combo of those two stitches. You could substitute other stitches for the Chain stitch. Next is another type of knotted Featherstitch, known as Thorn Stitch. This is knotted on one side - it could be knotted on both... The final row is Straight Double Featherstitch.

This sampler was done as a result of an online class with Sharon Boggon. Sharon is a wonderful Aussie teacher who does online classes at www.joggles.com This one was called "Develop a Personal Library of Stitches." I'm sure it will be repeated again, probably later in the year. She has other classes on offer right now, beginning in June. You can see them here. Sharon's classes are wonderful and well worth taking...

In closing, I heard the loudest happiest-sounding robin tonight while walking/canvassing - he was chirping away- it sure sounded good to me!

Piece,

Linda

"Spring would not be spring without bird songs" ~ Francis M. Chapman