Putting a lid on it

I spent the day today putting together the lid on my Elizabethan Etui.

It would be better if I had left well enough alone, but I just had to keep fiddling with it until I had bent the Skirtex and frayed some of the linen. Consequently, it's become a wee bit fragile and I doubt it will be traveling anywhere, even for show-and-tell at guild meetings. I have a feeling it's going to find a spot in the curio cabinet and stay there.

Betsy had various and sundry birds and beasts around the frieze on the lid, but I'm not so much into critters, so I substituted the guild name and the place where we meet on the front and back, respectively, and the years that I worked on it on each short side.

The lesson on finishing I learned today--and have learned in the past and keep ignoring--is that if it looks fine, leave it alone!

Maybe I should stitch a sampler with that on it and hang it by my chair where I can see it everyday.