To Love Thee and Thee So Deeply D.E.S.I.G.N.

Is it wrong of me to love two of thee so deeply?  How can it be wrong when all I see is simple beauty every time I gaze upon thee and thee?  My love for thee and thee grows ever larger daily, so much so that it is impossible for any choice to be made on the wondrous variety both of thee share with the world!  My tendency to hoard is almost crushing!

Make no mistake, TW is and always will be my girl....my main designer squeeze if you will....and I do have a few other loves (there's Ashley, Magical and Jim...yes, there's a dude in there)....but when it comes to obsessive "gotta have everything ever created" by a designer...I have found two...oh so wonderful creators of my newest, latest and probably rest of my life obsession....THE SAMPLER.

You could safely say that TW started the joy of Sampler in my mind, TW has her own way which is perfectly beautiful and which makes her my first love.  Then there are the other Sampler designers who are pretty awesome and I enjoy drooling over their designs as well, but two have come to be my daily ogle, daily NEED to look at. 

I would love to share their names, but if I do, I feel my secret love of Samplers will be revealed and my two new crushes will be exposed and the world will use them just for their patterns....oh wait, yes PLEASE DO!  Almost forgot that is the point of their being in business.

Alright, fine...I will share...but begrudgingly as I truly do love both of these designers so dearly....

Julia Lines of Long Dog Samplers and Karen Kluba of Rosewood Manor.

I have stitched a complimentary pattern by Karen which was provided by the Sampler Life Group on FB.  Made my first needle book out of it.

I have not stitched anything by Julia yet, but I do read her blogs daily and have a giggle. The other reasons I have not stitched anything by Julia yet is because 1 - no complimentary pattern and 2 - How am I supposed to decide which pattern to get because they are all so incredibly beautiful??  Seriously!!  Kind of makes me angry sometimes when I go through and think "hmmm, I should get one today" and then starts the scrolling and looking and OOO and AAHH and after an hour or five I realize there is no choice made!  Then I think "Well, if I were to get ALL of them then I wouldn't have to worry about making a choice anymore, would I?" and THEN I think "If I had all of them, which would I stitch first?"  Definitely another roadblock.  Sighhhh.  Sorry Julia, as much as I love thee, the buying must wait until I have had entirely too much wine and am in a spending mood.

Now I have that same issue with Karen.  She is a more traditional Sampler designer and I really love that and want ALL of her patterns.

Yes I will buy patterns from both, yes I will stitch patterns by both....but not until I FINALLY make my decision on WHICH patterns to stitch!

Right after I wrote the above statements I did find one pattern by Karen that SHOULD be my first.

I love the words and it is such a sweet little sampler!  Always Remember.  Karen gives a lovely little story behind this sampler as well.

Which leaves me now with the decision on which one by Julia?  She had a blog post once with a picture of a pile of finished samplers that she hasn't even put up for sale yet...she's a tease!

Fortunately, what you don't see on either wonderful designers websites, you can find at 123 Stitch.  

Ever wonder why the pictures on the websites are a little blurry?  Because there ARE people out there who will blow up the picture to steal it and not buy the pattern...NAUGHTY!

Fortunately that hasn't stopped me from drooling and trying to decide on one pattern per designer!

One pattern down, one to go, and even if you aren't a fan of samplers....looking isn't going to hurt you and reading what the designers say about each piece is a wonderful journey all by itself!

Until next time...keep on stitchin'!