Isn’t embroidery floss pretty? Such an array of colors. I had to run to Michael’s yesterday to get some more shades of green for my sampler. I’m glad these colors look right, since the one light that wasn’t working at Michael’s was directly above the embroidery floss. At 35¢ each, I threw in a few more colors. You can’t beat the price. Seriously – what can you buy for 35¢ nowadays?
I stitched quite a bit more last night. The wonderful thing about these samplers is the chance to learn new stitches. Last night, I learned the feather stitch, the bullion knot and the coral knot – all while watching baseball. (Try as I might, I can never get the colors right in these photos. They are much more vivid.)
I’ve also been in a major nesting phase – sorting, organizing and dumping. Does this happen to you in the fall? I feel compelled to get everything in order. I’m also getting the urge to paint some pieces of furniture – one or two dark pieces in the bedroom as well as the kitchen table. And, after several months of inactivity, the dollhouse is calling to me. As the days get shorter and colder, I will once more tackle the renovation of my dollhouse.
Leaves are changing color rather quickly around here. Every day I see big changes. Our sugar maple is always the first to change color and the first to drop its leaves. I wonder just how much color we will have this year. It has rained quite a bit in the last month or so, but the first part of the summer was incredibly dry and that can affect how much fall color there is.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about blogging and why we blog. I so enjoyed reading every comment. It sounds is if it struck a chord with many of you.
I’ve spoken about there being room for all types of bloggers out there. But I have one more thing to say about blogging that has to do with basic good manners. House/cottage, nesting, crafting, creative blogs are, by their nature, more cozy and welcoming than are political blogs, for example. I spoke of those bloggers who get hundreds of comments and never return the favor. I realize that keeping up with hundreds of comments on each post is impossible. We’re all busy and sometimes it takes a while before we can return the visit. But when several comments are made over a long period of time and no effort is made to respond, whether by email or a visit to the commenter’s blog, well, that sticks in my craw. It’s rude and there is no room for that. I know it has happened to all of you. It certainly has happened to me. Those are the blogs I stop visiting.
So here’s my suggestion: If your blog has become so impossibly big that you can no longer take the time to communicate with your readers who are, after all, the reason you have become so popular, then perhaps you should rethink things. Because you might have lost the heart and soul of what made your blog so attractive to begin with.
Okay. That’s all on blogging, at least for a while. I will now descend from my soapbox.
Your sampler is looking beautiful! I’ve stopped working on mine to do some other projects but I really want to get back to it again. This inspires me to pick it up again!
Hi Claudia,
I admire you for creating such beautiful samplers. I’m not sure I would have the patience or, that it would end up looking awful on the back! Your is looking so pretty.
I am so glad you spoke to the issue of bloggers that ignore comments or never acknowledge comments. I thought it was me. I thought I was just expecting too much from the blogs who have thousands of followers. There are a few out there that I like to visit, but I have felt as though they could care less if I commented or not.
I sometimes find it hard to get back to everyone so I at least try to alternate visits from one blog to another on a daily basis. I appreciate comments and I want to always let them know.
Keep trying those new stitches!
hugs
Sissie
Hi Claudia! LOVE your sampler! I recently picked my Blessings Sampler back up and stitched another square, so I hope to post that soon. I’ve been so busy with so many things… Homeschooling being the biggest consumer of my time… I sure am looking forward to the weekend! Maybe I can get another blessing or two stitched then!.. Have a good night! ~tina
Hi Claudia, I really love your sampler!!I could just keep reading everything you write 100 times.Your the best, and everything you say is so true…Kathy
You say things so eloquently, my friend. I agree with you on those last comments. I’ve decided to delete some blogs that are just for advertising. To me that’s not what blogging is about—advertising for money. If they need money, they can find other ways. I don’t visit any that advertise anymore. I have one on my blog that they paid me to advertise but it was innocuous and I have to leave it up for awhile as I agreed, but then I’ll do no more. That’s not what it’s about for me.
xoxo,
Connie
Absolutely right, Claudia, and so nicely said. I have had my feelings hurt, not by comments, but by the few who, despite my faithful readership and comment, never even came over to check out my blog. I don’t so much hold it over the “huge” blogs (I don’t usually bother to comment on those, though, either.). When I see someone has tons of followers, I know that there is very little chance of any kind of personal relationship there, so I only read them if I really love it. But when someone has enough time to post and post and have first-name basis relationships with most commentors, well, I began to feel like I was the geeky kid being waved off the “cool table” in high school. The whole point of getting older is not having to feel that way ever again.
I blog mostly for the camaraderie. I love the people I come across in bloggerland.
Awesome job on your sampler. Back when I was stitching, I couldn’t get over the bargain, either — sure wish I could say that about yarn! Keep stitching. :)
I so agree about blogging! I feel guilty if I don’t visit those that visit me BUT I also feel guilty if I don’t visit those I follow. I have not done a good job lately and I feel bad but life has gotten in my way and I am needed outside my blog world. I ALSO feel guilty I have not POSTED all week. But as I was sick this week it couldn’t be helped! Love your sampler!!
Hugs, lisa
Don’t you just love pretty embroidery threads…and the price is right. I have tons of embroidery thread collected over time and really do use it for lots of projects. Have you tried it for needlepoint? I’m doing needlepoint Christmas Stockings with embroidery floss instead of wool. Love the smoothness it creates. Love your sampler, and I’ve been in my sewing/craft room sorting through threads and WIP projects…I’ll look forward to your return to the doll house. Again….well said on the blogging issue….Sue
Hi Claudia,
I love your embroidery/sampler and do start to feel like I want to nest more once the fall has settled in. I just want some cooler, crisp weather here but hear it’s going to be close to 100 this weekend.
I’m going to go read your last post. I’m thinking it will be good for me today. Lost a few more followers on my last post (well… you know). I can always count on you to speak from the heart, my friend. And speaking of that, thank you for your thoughtful words on my dear Gigi. Claudia, you comforted me with your very kind words and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Love to you, Tracie
hi claudia,
gorgeous shot of the tree/sky.
i think we could talk about blogging forever! i have so many issues. i have thought of turning off the comment thingy just to make sure that i was blogging for myself and not to get a pat on the back. but thought that would come off as rude/elitist. i have thought of taking my follower thingy off too as a way to try and stay pure. none are good ideas. so i just keep doing the same thing and for today that works and that’s all i got anyway, today.
~janet
Love the colours in that thread, and your sampler is looking really lovely. Actually it reminds me of my mum’s embroidery – she did try to teach me to embroider but mine always look such a MESS on the back! (Mind you I was only a child but still…)
That bunch of coloured thread reminds me of a story about my mum that I’d like to share with you. My mum was adopted by an older couple (in their mid 40s which was really old in 1913!), not to create or complete a family (they had their own grown children who had left home) but to be their skivvy/nurse in their old age. (Which she dutifully did to her detriment but that’s another story.) When she was about 10 yrs old the sewing teacher asked the girls to take some coloured thread to do embroidery in sewing class, and some fabric to make a bag to hold it. The only thread my ‘grandmother’ would give my mum was a skein of black (in spite of her having a full stock of threads as she was a keen embroiderer herself) and the only fabric was a cotton bag that had previously held flour. Now don’t image this was because they were poor, that’s not the case, but the woman was mean in spirit. The inspiration in this story comes from the school teacher. Instead of making my mum feel bad about the flour bag and black thread (the others of course had a rainbow of colours and fine fabrics) she turned the flour bag insideout so you couldn’t see the branding anymore, and commented on the wonderful softness of the cotton. The real gem tho is the way that she handled the black thread. She told the girls the classic story about the king who offered a huge sum to anyone who could create a black tulip, and how that tulip was so incredibly wonderful, and then drew a tulip outline on the flourbag so my mum could create her own rare and valuable black tulip. If the world was full of people like that teacher what a wonderful place it would be. So next time you pick up your black thread, think of the rare and valuable black tulip and the pride in my mum’s young heart as she embroidered her very own on her ‘flour bag’. I hope it makes you smile :)
I’d forgotten about that great doll house! I can’t wait till you get to decorating that. Wow, two houses to decorate! I hear ya, sister!
Brenda
Hi Claudia, I don’t get around as much as I used to, my fibro and depression get the better of me some days:( But I so agree with what you said. I only follow a couple of the HUGE blogs but most of which I follow are more presonal to me. I dont understand the advertising and blogging connection..well heck that would be like, like work! Ohhh Noooo!
Have a great week
hugs
Barb
The sampler is very pretty, as is the picture of just the embroidery thread. Feel free to get on your soapbox anytime. Those are important things and I’m glad someone is saying them.
Claudia, your embroidered stitch sampler is coming along beautifully! I love all the shades of green you are using!
I hear what you are saying about bloggers who don’t ever return comments. You know that old Eeyore saying… “We can’t all and some of us don’t.” Well, I think that fits blogging to a t.
When a blogger doesn’t return comments, ever, I think you need to sit down and honestly ask yourself if you visit that blog because you hoped to have a relationship with the person behind all the pictures and words. Admit to yourself that it isn’t happening and move on. Or, if you really just like to look at the pretty pictures anyway, as if it were a magazine you bought off the newstand, then stay.
I wonder if I have ever hurt someone’s feelings by missing a return comment on their comments. I sure hope not. I certainly don’t do it on purpose. I admit that some days I have more time and other days I have less, and I just hope it all evens out over a weeks time. It’s really complicated that there are the blogs I follow, which may or may not be the same as blogs that follow me, and the people who comment are not necessarily followers, just people dropping by. So if I try to reach everyone by responding to all the comments on my posts, and commenting on all the new posts that appear on my dashboard, I might still miss some, unless I also comment on all the blogs in my favorite list… And what If I have somehow missed adding someone to my dashboard list? Yes, sometimes it’s enough to drive a person crazy.
Anyway, I guess I am just trying to say, blog because you love it, and savor all the good moments and friendships. And let everything else roll off your back, because we can’t change other people. We can only change ourselves.
Hugs to you.
Hi Claudia,
I’m lovin’ your sampler, since I have pretty much every color there is in embroidery floss, I can tell exactly how bright your piece is. I’m also lovin’ that tree and the changes of color.
Here’s hoping that you are in good spirits, and that your mother is doing well.
Love ya’
Meri
I’ve enjoyed seeing the progress on your sampler. That is something I’d like to learn, although I’d have to give in and buy some reading glasses (I am 43 but I’ve been holding out). I have a dollhouse too and every year I dream of getting it all fixed up and decorated for Christmas and moving it downstairs for all to see, but usually I don’t thing of it son enough. Maybe this year I can ‘Deck the Halls’ of my dollhouse too.
Great ideas!
Your sampler is so inspiring!! I love how it gives opportunity to learn new stitches– I really should order one of those.
I was just shopping for embroidery thread yesterday too!! I looove choosing colors. I love that embroidery is such an inexpensive hobby. Love. It.
Hugs,
Jill
I am tickled to hear of someone else who’s nesting instinks hit em in the Fall. I always thought I was the strange one. No Spring cleaning marathons for me. I Love your embroidery the colors are beautiful.
I blog because it feels good I read other blogs because I feel good living vicariously (sp?) through others the beautiful places they live in, the wonderful things they find. I guess thats a little selfish on my part …but honestly I don’t expect anything in return …
thank you
cyn
Claudia,
I agree with Sissie (above). I try to keep things in perspective but some days it is easier than others. I now have to make a decision as to whether I want the deadlines of the events I participate in. I like the way you do it. Sometimes you participate but a lot of times it is just your thoughts for the day. I try to always read your blog because it is real.
Carol
Hi Claudia…I am loving that sampler and have never heard of them? Where did you get it? I have tried many of those stitches but have to keep practicing them because I can’t seem to get them all down. You have mastered it! What a gorgeous piece and the colors are wonderful. You certainly got people thinking with your last post on blogging. What I discovered in the past, is that my blogs on my sidebar are set up in alphabetical order and I can’t change that unless I get rid of some?? As I am going down through my list to visit and comment, the clock is ticking and time runs out on me! The blogs that are towards the middle to end of the alphabet get ignored!! So….now I either jump around or start at the end of the alphabet, or only comment when I have the time to. Many times I am the lurker…reading blogs but not enough time to comment. I don’t like leaving quick jolted comments if I can help it…do you?
You know, I visit blogs I love – and then all of a sudden they become very popular (a thousand+ follwers & over 100 comments per post), and most of those I stop visiting because I feel lost in the crowd. But occasionally, the true spirit of the blogger still shines through, and although they can no longer visit me, I still enjoy visiting them. My 2 cents for whatever it’s worth.
Love your embroidery – seeing it makes me want to start something new.
Happy weekend, Claudia!
HI CLAUDIA,
YOUR SAMPLER IS COMING ALONG NICELY, MY HANDS ARE NOT WHAT THEY USE TO BE, AND I LOVE TO EMBROIDER, I REMEMBER AS A CHILD MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME THE STITCHES, AND AS I GOT OLDER I PICKED UP A LOT MYSELF. YOUR STITCHES ARE LOVELY. I ALSO NOTICED THE TREES TURNING COLORS, I WONDER WHAT KIND OF A WINTER WE ARE GOING TO HAVE? TAKE CARE, AND HAVE A GREAT DAY.
RIZZI
Claudia- your sampler is gorgeous! I’ve been thinking about embroidery lately as it is something I could do and not make much of a mess as I’m trying to get my mojo back. Norma’s story about her Mom brought tears to my eyes. What a wonderful teacher! Does the sampler come with instructions for the stitches or did you look them up in a book or online? I love seeing your progress on your embroidery -hope you have a wonderful day ♥
Hi Claudia,
I am not sure how I ended up here but I am happy I did. I read your earlier post about blogging and agree wholeheartedly. There are blogs that I have loved for years that I no longer visit because they have become so commercial, kind of like your favorite charming boutique turning into a Walmart.
Your cottage is lovely, I look forward to visiting again soon.
Dear Claudia, so nice to know you also have embroidering skills, how lovely to do it when time is getting colder!!!
Now, I have lots of work at my garden…
hugs,
maria cecilia
Well, I guess, I’ll add my two cents also, because I struggled with the idea of opening my comments originally. My blog was never intended to be a blog in the traditional manner. It was simply started as a way to continue a newsletter that I used to write and mail to my close personal friends once a month, as a way to keep in touch, as I was struggling at the time with that, as my mom was dying, and we were caring for her at home. The blog then was discovered by others, and it became very popular. Over the five years it has become less so. I know that something that I’ve struggled with, as been keeping up with comments, because there have been days when I’ve had two family members in the hospital on one day. Still, I tried, but it seemed that there was no making everyone happy. I think, that one thing that all the folks complaining about their visits not be reciprocated or whatever, need to think about the fact, that the blog post itself is communication. That was the original intent of a blog. The host begins the conversation, and then it continues. I do think that communication, is what a blog is supposed to be about, but simply saying over and over again, the same few words about something someone as bought, or whatever, isn’t communication over time. It all becomes so tit for tat, rather than sincere, so often. Then, there are the folks who use your blog, to call attention to their own. I actually used to have people offer to send me things, just so I would blog about them, to call attention to their site. It’s all so much more complicated I think, than simply good manners.
Claudia your sampler is going to be so beautiful when you are done. Actually, it already is! You know what I love most about embroidery floss? That it is still packaged the same way that it has been for the last several years. I have some that is over 30+ years now and looks the same as what I buy now.
This blog conversation has been so interesting to read. It has been going on at a few blogs lately, and did about three months ago on sveral blogs then. I really thought what the last commenter said was interesting too. hmmm, I need to go back and reread Mrs. Staggs message and mull that over again.
It is finally starting to color up a little here in my part of Idaho. I always get so excited to see how much color we will get. Last year we had an early hard frost and everything just turned brown and ugly for the most part. I hope we don’t have that again.
hugs to you from here…
claudia, you are so funny….i am so guilty of not really remembering that readers are what make a blog, so thanks for the reminder.
i’m so tired by the time i post, i can hardly visit that many blogs after i am finished!! one thing for sure….i am lucky if i get 6 comments and that is okay by me!! i’d be stressed out if i had hundreds!!
love the stitching. very true that 35cents doesn’t go that far these days. you found a great way to spend it!!!
enjoy the leaves falling. it’s still hot here!!
lol
sue
Claudia, I caught up after weeks of really not reading many blogs. Nothing specific, I guess, just always a pleasure to stop by and see comforting things. We are being transferred from Vermont to California and did sell our home quickly. This is our 7th move and emotionally it is tough. I do look forward to leaving behind the wet cold northeast that you love so much, I know. Lots of reading, lots of things that ring true.
Lovely sampler, Claudia! It’s been ages since I did embroidery but it is so therapeutic and the colors are inspiring.
Regarding blogging, I have to agree with Mrs. Stagg in that the blogger is ORIGINATING the communication with their post and the comment is the acknowledgement of that communication. What they are giving to their readers is the POST, not the return comment. Often a lot goes into creating a blog post so that the readers/viewers can enjoy something. Comments are appreciated but the stress of thinking someone will be miffed or stopped reading your blog if you honestly can’t return visit just makes it not worth it. Some blogs I leave the occasional comment on and never receive anything back but I enjoy the content so wouldn’t stop visiting for that.
I know that a number of bloggers think you do NOT have to return visit or comment and think it’s silly to have to do so, so there is that school of thought, too.
In the end, I guess it’s individual preference but if I worried about comment ping pong or stat keeping so much more than the content of my blog and how I would like people to feel after visiting, I would shut it down tomorrow without regrets. xo – g
love your soap box and your sampler! a couple of names popped right into my head about your comment on the bigger blogs. i don’t get that although i type this i hope that i haven’t repeatedly neglected anyone.
also think it’s cool that there is still something very worthwhile at just 35 cents.
happy weekend!
xo
elyse