The Black & White quilt, fabric buckets, and cross stitch

Even though I am still a bit tired, I tried last evening to get a few small things done. I stitched around the star in the black and white quilt. I plan on doing echo free motion stitching to get to the center of the star.

I need to make two fabric buckets for Easter candy so I dug around and found these two combinations. I know they are not very Easter like in color, but they go with their bedrooms. As long as the Easter bunny was giving me candy I wouldn't care if it came in a cardboard box! LOL!!

I also have been working on this sampler. I found this when cruising the internet and was struck by how unique it was. I mean, a antique sample with a zebra on it; how cool is that? It is just weird enough I wanted to stitch it.  I could not find a chart so I decided to take the pictures I could find and just use those as my guide. I guess you could call this improv counted cross stitch! Here is the original sampler

Here is the sampler someone made

And here is what I have stitched so far. I am not fretting over perfection. After all the person who originally made this didn't have a chart, so I am taking a cue from her and making it my own. I wanted hand dyed black floss and I am using a hand dyed variegated for the "white". I wanted it to look old so I chose the off-white variegated thread and 28 count natural linen.

I have some ideas for some other samplers I want to make of my own design. I can't wait to get started on them! I guess I will need to make myself some more of those vinyl project bags!