New House Sampler - only 2 years late!

Some friends of ours bought a house in 2009 and invited us over to see it. It's a fantastic old house, a certified "historic house" that has finally found its final resting place (read on for more). Anyway, the friends that we were visiting [names withheld, since they may not want people figuring out exactly where they live] are also artists and they have a marvelous studio space that is... like my dream studio. I want to just sit there and stare at stuff all day. I should ask if I can buy a ticket to do that... hmm... After spending an evening there and talking shop, Ryan and I were both ultra inspired to get home and "art" (we use 'art' as a verb). We'd been talking about the movie The 7 Faces of Dr Lao and how much everyone loved it, which inspired Ryan to create a colored pencil piece of Dr Lao. I was inspired by their new house and wanted to make them a "welcome home" craft piece.

Their "new" old house (built in 1890) is in a historic home district of Anaheim, which is delightfully close to Disneyland. They have an unfettered view of the fireworks show (every night at 9:30!) so I knew I wanted to include the fireworks into this somewhat traditional sampler. There's always a Mickey shaped firework during the show, so I added that, too. I was originally thinking that I'd use a very traditional sampler approach, chock full of icons of their life but the "little" piece that I'd decided to make was already getting too large. But I did include their kitty and their blossoming orange tree.

I finished it somewhat quickly - thanks to the great folks in the Phat Quarter who all sent me scraps of sparkle thread (so I didn't have to buy skeins of metallic threads that I probably would never use again) - and I intended to send it right away. Um, yeah. I delivered it a year and a half later. Oops!

I was particularly proud of my half-stitches, so I took a picture. Of course, you can't see them in the finished piece, but I know they're under there, looking good!


I was on the fence about the outlining of the windows and doors. It worked, but looked kind of "loose" so in the end, I tore it all out and stitched one square at a time. It doesn't have the same straight-line look, but I like it better.

The original house, built in 1890. It has been moved several times in its life, as the city keeps expanding.


Below is a photo of the house being moved in the middle of the night to it's new (and hopefully final) location.

And here's what it looks like today. It's such an adorable home and I love the trim details (which were too detailed to capture in a cross stitch). Also, I think that I heard that this was originally the rear of the house, which now faces the street. The "back" of the house has the kitchen, which I believe used to be the entry point. But I kind of like it this way!