Thursday, June 23, 2011

Now I DON'T know my ABC's!

This is the progress made in the last week on And They Sinned.  I stitched the right side of the grass under Adam and Eve, everything to the right of the fruit basket, the right half of the coral flower border, and more ABC's.  The alphabet is moving along quickly, even though each of the upper case letters have to be stitched individually so the thread will not show on the back between the letters.  The letters N and M are in reverse order, the J is missing, and the V and U are in reverse order as well.  Theo, my 16-year-old, was watching me stitch yesterday and said, "Mom, do you know that you got the alphabet wrong on that?"  Thank goodness he's not 6 and getting confused.

Most sampler stitchers know that alphabets change with the period of the piece and the style.  For example, the letters Q, X, Y, and Z are missing from some Dutch alphabets.  The Greek alphabet has no Y.  They use the G and pronounce it guttural.  There is no K in the Spanish dictionary.  I really don't think this sampler has a period to it.  I mean it seems pretty modern to me but one of my Facebook friends told me this sampler was meant to look like it was stitched by a young girl.  That is why the spacing is off on some of the letters and the flowers in the hill are not perfectly symmetrical. 

This will be the last week I will be able to take a picture of the whole sampler, unless I have someone hold it up.  It's growing quickly.  In about four inches I will be half way finished.  Total stitching time is 142 hours in 14 weeks.   Only one hundred and fifty more hours to go!!  Till next Thursday, happy, happy, stitching ladies. 

2 comments:

  1. I am amazed at the size of this piece - and that you have been able to stick with it. I don't do a lot of smalls, but this is huge, even to me! Thanks for sharing, though, because I don't mind telling you that I am quite impressed! (and it looks great, too)

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  2. Keep going, keep going! It's long but it's skinny skinny and there's a lot of space between all the motifs. Pretty soon it'll be on your wall. I know what you mean about having to take photos of it in stages. Unless you get half a room away you have to do it that way. You're right, it was designed "in the style of" a girl's sampler.
    And a question --- you keep track of your hours stitched?? Wow!

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