Happiest girl in the whole USA!

     And They Sinned is finished!!  Yippee!  Hip Hip Hooray!!  Celebration!  This was finished on Sunday night but I have been basking in glory and not wanting to do any work or blogging.  Just some stats before the pictures.  You gotta take the bad with the good.  Hee hee.  Total time to stitch it was nine months, three days or 390 hours.  Not bad as I had read somewhere it took someone 500 hours to stitch.  I kept track of my time by tally marks in one of those little mole skin books.  You sure can tell when I got my Ott Lite as my time went from 10-15 hours a week to 15-22 hours a week.  What a difference a nice light can make.  The bottom green section took me more than two months to stitch.  It is 9 1/2 inches wide by just under 48 inches long, stitched on 35 ct linen with one strand of Gentle Arts Sampler Threads.  Okay, enough of the blah blah blah and on to the good stuff.

     I love the big cloud at the top with the sun shining down on Adam and Eve. 

     The verse is my favorite part of the sampler.  I redesigned it by adding colors to it, centering it, and adding the butterflies.  The lion and the lamb are so cute!  I also changed the girls hair color to resemble my own. 

     Thank you to Claudia for asking me if I was going to stitch all 10 rows of grass under the lion.  Heck NO!!  Moving on to bigger pastures.  Literally.

     If I were to stitch this again I would have left out the darker green color of the pasture.  The lighter green would have made it easier to see the motifs. 

      Thank you so much for everyone's support during the making of this project.  From the very beginning I had everyone cheering for me.  Patricia Franklin helped me find the perfect linen via The Internet.  Claudia talked some sense into me several times and Lori Fournier was my rock.  Poor Lori heard me wailing and whining for the last two months about my grass.  If I forgot to mention anyone I'll just say that I've been up for 20 hours and am having a Rick Perry moment!  Till next time ladies, happy stitching and happy blogging.

The Penultimate Post

     This will be the last post with progress pictures of And They Sinned.  The next post will show a completed piece.  Did I just write that?  A finished piece?  Yes, I am patting myself on the back.  I have never stitched anything this large and certainly have never started a piece and finished it without starting another project, and then another, and then another!  Ha ha.  Actually I did start two other pieces but only worked on each one for a day, just to stroke some silk. 

     There is a fruit tree that needs to be stitched in the corner and a few flower motifs.  I'm going to be optimistic and even stitch the date 11-11 before I fill in everything with grass.  The excitement is overwhelming me.  As I'm stitching grass though my mind is always wandering to other projects.  It feels like not thinking of your partner while being intimate.  It feels like cheating...but it's so fun!  Till next time, happy stitching ladies.

You might bubble but I'm gonna eat you!

     Stitching all this grass is making me an angry woman!  Some of you may know that I am married to a Greek God.  He came to the United States when he was 20 years old so he has the sexy accent and everything.  He tells me stories of his hometown periodically and some are true, some are just wives tales.  This one is true.

     There was an old man who went to the market to buy some feta cheese.  Back in the day cheese was kept wrapped in paper.  He bought a block of the best feta he could afford and went home to have his dinner and enjoy his fabulous cheese.  Alas!  When he took a bite of it and began chewing it started to bubble in his mouth.  The person who sold him the cheese at the market accidentally gave him soap!  The old man grew angry because soap was cheap and he had spend a lot of money on this cheesy soap.  Hence, he said to himself, "You might bubble but I'm still gonna eat you!" 

     I love that story and refer to it often when I make a mistake but have to live with it and forge on, much like this grass.  One day it will be over but I read about one woman who stitched all the green in one color horizontally, which would be much quicker than this diagonal stitching is.  Then there is another woman who didn't stitch the green at all and it looks wonderful.  Also my friend Lori stitched hers with one color of green in 1/2 stitches and it looks great as well. 

     Well I'll get off my soapbox (hee hee) and actually post a pic of my progress.  Not too much more to go now!  Till next time ladies, enjoy your blogging and your stitching.

What have you been doing for 18 days? Grass.

     It seems like I'm never going to get this project done.  Here's the latest on And They Sinned.  Thank you Evan for helping me out, oh and Nikko too.

     Judging by my stitch speed (which is snail-like) and how much is left, I think I have about one more month to go.  The boy and the tree were fun to stitch and the pond was as well.  Here's a close up of the bottom.

     My dear friend Lori changed the colors of her geese and I liked it so much I decided to do the same.  The big swan is stitched with Pebble and I dug into my stash to find a peachy/pink color for the little guy on the left.  He's stitched with Apricot Blush although he looks more white in the picture.  The plan is to move up and stitch more motifs and then stitch grass, grass, and more grass. 
     My left hand is getting tingly while stitching this.  It's really getting heavy.  I'm not going to know how to act when I actually get to stitch something normal.  Thank you, my dear followers for your encouraging words and support you've given me during this project.  Until next time, happy stitching ladies!

I haven't done this much grass since.....

     Apparently 12 days is the magic number because the right side of the grass took another 12 days.  I have three more sections the same size to do so 24 x 3 = 72.  This sampler will be done in 72 days which is December 1st.  That is my goal. 

     My aunt passed away this past week and it was sad news because she was only 56 years old.  She had a hard, undeserving life, losing her husband to brain cancer when he was in his early 40's, leaving her to raise their son alone.  She then developed crippling rheumatoid arthritis and a couple years ago she had to be placed in a nursing home because of it.  Through all of this she remained bubbly and optimistic.  She will be missed.  My dad and step-mom came for the funeral all the way from Texas so it was nice to see them, the silver lining of a dark cloud.  No stitching was done while they were here so I have some catching up to do.

     My family thinks I am crazy when I say, "I'm going to go do some grass."  My husband said, "So am I" and got the lawn mower out.  He thought I was going to help him but when I disappeared into the house he just chuckled.  Till next time happy stitching!

     

     

Watching grass grow....

     This took 12 days to stitch.  There's sooo much grass!  A part of me regrets stitching the grass as I've seen others who haven't and their samplers are beautiful.  I just felt like after my conversation with Vilma, I had to stitch it as she intended it.  She told me on the phone that the grass is supposed to be a pasture.  Anyway, enough babbling, here she is.

     The right side should take a week more to stitch.  This would be 40 rows stitched and there are 160 total which means the finish line is 10 weeks away.  No, I'm not excited at all!  Ha ha.  Maybe I will kick it into high gear and get her done in six.  The grass stitching is mindless and I don't really have to pay attention too much to what I am doing.

     The list is long for what will be started after this is finished.  Ann Grant is at the top, for sure.  My dear Facebook friend Adana gifted me the Frances Eden sampler which I have been hunting for for nearly a year so that is going to be started as long as I can figure out a silk conversion.  WIPs are calling my name too.  There is Red Snowman, Quaker Diamonds, and another sampler that I don't recall the name of that isn't as fun to stitch as I thought it would be. 

     Check back in a few weeks my fabulous followers and until then, happy stitching.

This feels like a finish...but it's not!

I've been busy stitching what appears to be The Garden of Eden.  Here it is.

I changed the color of the lion to a lighter shade so his mane would stand out more.  There are supposed to be 10 rows of grass under him but I think five is enough.  (Thank you Claudia for the idea.)  Here is the whole sampler so far, pardon the wrinkles.  Gosh, I hope they iron out later!

The big green bottom is next and will take me at least two months to do.  I fell off the wagon last weekend and badly wanted to stitch something else so I kitted up Mother's Honor Due by Blackbird Designs.  I'm not stitching the verse, just the floral.  Here she is.

After stitching on it for two days I missed ATS and picked it back up again.  Sometimes we just need to see different colors and feel different fibers.  My silk petting is over and I am happy.  It sort of felt like I was cheating on Adam and Eve and I felt very sinful.  It was fun!  Till next time, happy stitching ladies!