Flowers in a Pot

Much to my amazement, I managed to stitch the entire big pot of flowers.

Sharon shared some more information about Mary Ann with me. Mary Ann was about 9 years old when she stitched this sampler. When she was 21, she married--and over the next 17 years, she gave birth to nine children.

Nine children.

 I have a feeling that her stitching was limited to making and mending clothes for her brood. 

Big flowers

 So the scary birds are guarding the crowns, and I've started the huge flowers that live in a huge vase in the center of this third of the sampler.

I really wonder how the red in the original sampler managed to retain such a vivid hue. So many of the other colors have a much softer tone, but this red is right in your face. Then again, there are a couple of orange birds in the middle third that are also quite colorful. One of those mysteries of textile dyes, I suppose.

Big scary bird

 The landscaping crew finished planting grass yesterday, then, due to the heat, did very little else until evening.

One and a half of a pair of big, scary birds landed on the sampler last night. They are actually quite regal looking, and I think they might be there to protect the two crowns that will soon appear between them.

I can tell I'm really on the home stretch with this project. For one thing, I'm starting to list things I want to do when this is handed off to the designer. I'm also thinking that I've been a monogamous stitcher for too long, and it's time to start mixing things up. This, of course, has to do with the twenty or so projects on the current list. Since I want to stick a needle in each and every one of them, I may as well do so and get it out of my system.

Plus, I think it will be more interesting for both myself and my readers. I don't want any of us to get bored.

Critters in the Grass

The landscapers made a valiant effort, but they had to plant grass around a dog and two rabbits who took up residence in the yard.

Fingers are crossed that the front lawn in completed today.

I was reading a description of an involved project on a designer's web page, and she mentioned that it would provide hundreds of hours of stitching pleasure. Hundreds of hours? I said to myself. Heavens, really?

Well, yes, some projects take hundreds of hours, although, in my state of self-delusion, I always underestimate how much time anything will take me to stitch. However, when there are big blocks of color in cross stitch, I will admit that it begins to feel like hundreds of hours. This is the last such area on this sampler, though--I go on to a bunch of smaller motifs for the bottom third of the sampler. And that's the part I'm really looking forward to.

Construction Complete

 The entire construction crew managed to finish the house.

I do wonder a bit about the architect. Here is this very symmetrical Georgian house, with lovely, large, balanced windows--and wee, tiny, short, squatty doors. If they were round, they'd be Hobbit Holes.

Oh, well, time for the landscapers to arrive to plant some a lot of grass in front of the house.

Construction Continues

 The big blue house now has roofs on both the main structure and the wings, it has window frames, it has doors, and one wing is all but complete.

I'd like to see the main structure finished, depending on whether or not the builder shows up--then we'll see if the glaziers can get the windows installed. Since the construction superintendent has not slept well for two nights running and is seriously thinking about going back to bed, it is not certain if anything will happen on the site today.

Big Blue House

 I started building the big blue house yesterday.

Sharon, who is reproducing the sampler for her company, Thy Needle's Worke, says she believes that Mary Ann originally stitched the house in purple. Unfortunately, due to the way the original sampler is mounted, she can't access the back to be sure, so the color on the front is the one we're going with.

Many times, girls stitched what they knew. Does this mean that there was a big purple house in Mary Ann's neighborhood? Or could it have been stone with a purplish cast? This house definitely doesn't have brick and mortar--it's one solid color--so what was used to construct it?

I'm just glad I can build it with needle and thread.