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A mix of Mountain Laurel, Coal & Tapestry

 




I started this blog several years ago and I named it Mountain Laurel & Coal to honor my farming ancestors from the hills of Southwestern Pennsylvania and the coal miners from the valleys. Since then I have used it to share family photos and stories. 

Recently, I decided that I would like to share my cross stitch and embroidery, but I didn't want to create another blog for that.  So, I decided to mix the two and switch the name of the blog to Tapestry. After all, our families and our lives are like tapestries... filed with lots of little details, memories, and love.

With that said, if you are here for the stitching you will have to weed through some family stories, and vise versa. 

As far as stitching goes, I have been using a needle and thread for many years and I'm looking forward to writing about this journey, sharing tips, patterns, and inspiration.

The cross stitch sampler pictured here is My Little Sampler by Running with Needles and Scissors. I stitched this as my Blessing Sampler at the beginning of the year when it's customary to start and finish a little sampler in January. The rumor is that if you do this, your needle (and hopefully your life) will be blessed throughout the year.


Here's the final image of my Blessing Sampler. I made a few changes to the original pattern, which involved changing the initials to that of my maternal Grandmother Blanche Shipley and the year of her birth. I like to add personal family initials and dates to my work to make it more meaningful to me.





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  1. Crazy4xstitchApril 18, 2026 at 8:27 AM

    Love this - I also try to personalize my samplers with family names, dates and initials.

    ReplyDelete

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