Stitching up a Sampler

Besides reading, and journaling, and a sudoku or two, I worked on this while visiting my Mom in the hosptial. I found it so calming, and I was content having something to do with my hands.
Have you seen the sampler craze in the blogosphere? If you're a blogger, I bet you have! I was initially inspired by Pam Garrison. I adore her anyway (remember, I took the journal class from her at Art Fest in 2007 and showed the cover a few posts back).
Besides Pam, a whole bunch of other bloggers have jumped on the "stitching wagon" of late. I love doing it, it is relaxing and fun, and mostly because it can be so random. No pattern, no following lines, no ripping it out if it isn't perfect like I used to do way back in the day... (Quite the opposite, the imperfections are what make them charming I think).
This sampler is nothing tres' fabu like Pam's are, but I still love it. I had no plans for it in the beginning, but I do now! I'll show you along the way as I get closer.
In your blogging "travels," hop by Teresa McFayden's blog, she has the "bug" too! Aren't hers gorgeous too? The thing I like is that they are all so different, yet we're all doing the same thing! I bet you may want to make one too, after looking at theirs! (Besides that, you'll get hooked on their beautiful blogs)!
Be sure to check out Rebecca Sower's work too, these ladies are true artists, they do a million different types of art (and events) and they will inspire you like you won't believe!
I always start out with a clean surface (the arm of my chair) to set the current element(s) out, but before long, one arm of the chair looks like the pic above.
And here's the other arm of my chair. Elements waiting their turn to be added to said sampler. See anything interesting in this pic? Well, if you look hard, you can see the price of the pretty embroidered hanky (10 cents)! Don't ya love it when that happens? The flower is from a cute vintage hat I found thrifting. The string of pearls, I pulled off of a broken necklace.

There is also a VERY hazardous situation in this picture! See next to the small individual pearls? Um, yeah those are my medications. I put them there so I wouldn't forget to take them. Can you see why this was a B-A-D idea? I'm always talking about "pearls of wisdom" and making pretty bottles full of "pearls of wisdom", but this is taking it a bit far. Although, I do crave wisdom, it will NOT come to me by swallowing them with my meds!! I caught it before it went down with the pills. Maybe sub-consciously I was thinking I could obtain wisdom that way! My husband always points to my head and says "I can't imagine all the stuff going on inside there!" Yeah, he doesn't want to know!