On June 18th, I lost one of the best friends I've ever had. Marc Davis of Needlemania Designs passed away peacefully in his stitching chair with his two beloved dogs on his lap. He is survived by his partner of over 30 years, George.

A person once said that Marc and I were "thick as thieves". To which Marc and I replied, DAMN STRAIGHT!!!! There was a time when I was so down, down on needlework in general and started withdrawing from a number of groups, even The Sampler Life which Marc founded.

When he saw that I had left the group he sent me an email saying, I don't care how many groups you leave, just don't leave me-my life. :-) That's the kind of person the stitching community has lost.

I have just returned from a long overdue visit to see my mother in the states. I gave Marc a call Friday, my evening, before my departure on Sunday. We talked about a number of things including the health of George and new designs he was getting ready to model stitch.

At the end of our conversation we told each other "I Love You", which is our usual sign off. I'm SOOO glad I got to tell him that I loved him one more time before his passing.

I'm leaving Sunday morning for a long overdue trip to the states. I haven't been back to America for a visit since October 2005 when my oldest son got married. My mother is not in the best of health, so this trip is long overdue. She lives just outside Las Vegas, and both of my sons will be meeting me there.

So, I thought I would post a second WIP sneak peak of the current model I'm working on. The sampler is still unnamed at the moment. But, the "working" title is My Needlework.

Another bonus with this trip is getting to have lunch with Kathy Fliosi, owner of European Cross Stitch and my distributor. We first met on the Drawn Thread Cruise about 5 years or so ago. This time she will also bring her darling daughter, Emma.

Well, once I finished the White Work sampler, it was time to get back to "work". I hadn't done in model stitching in a good while and the designs won't stitch themselves.

I've spent the past week getting stitching job together for my model stitchers. One is a new freebie reproduction which Beth has now. Then there are 3 others to be sent out next week to Dori. These are for next year.

However, I wasn't left off the hook. LOL I started a big band sampler that I hope to release at Nashville next year. Below is a sneak peak from one of the bands.

I'm hoping this will be a challenging piece for stitchers looking for a challenge. The section that you see contains 9 different stitches. There are additional specialty stitches in the rest of the sampler. I'll post another sneak peak in a couple of weeks.

One of my earlier designs "Samplar101" was stitched by Laura Kline as a birthday gift for her best friend. Laura was so kind to send me a pic of the finished sampler.

She did a wonderful and lovely job on the stitching and used all of the suggested supplies to stitch the sampler.

I hope to have "Microsoft Guy" aka oldest son, add it to the Stitcher's Gallery on the Sampler Cove site this weekend.

Thanks again Laura for sharing your finish with me and I hope your friend enjoys the sampler.

I have been collecting antique samplers for about 7 years. My genre of choice is marking samplers. I'm drawn to their simplicity and the fact that they are usually the first attempt by a young girl learning her needlework skills just makes them even more charming in my eyes.

My collection currently has 27 samplers in it.

I've decided to reproduce my collection of samplers over time and offer them as freebies on the Sampler Cove site. The samplers are being stitched in silk from Hand Dyed Fibers.

In the entry below this one you will see the second cut worke section done and a close up of it. In this one you'll find the last cut worke section and pics of the entire finished sampler.

Here is the last section of cut worke.

The entire sampler. I want to thank those of you who left comments on the blog and those who wrote me in private. Your kind words are greatly appreciated. And a shout out to the talented ladies over of the Hand Dyed Fibers board for their support while stitching this piece.

Khop Khun Maak Kha
(thank you very much)

Man, I'm getting so close I could SCREAM!!! This band was work, I mean major work. Some of the Kloster bars only go over two threads so making sure the cut linen threads didn't pull out was a big challenge.

The last band of cut worke has Kloster blocks that go over two threads. I'm giving very serious thought to redoing them and making them go over three threads of linen.