Some progress, some problems.

I still love this project. Good thing, given the trouble I'm having. Stitching on the 40 count linen one I mounted the fabric on scroll rods was too difficult. And frogging on 40 count--even harder!  After almost throwing in the towel and starting the entire project over again on 28 count evenweave I decided to take the fabric off of the scroll rods and try a hoop again. Much better!  I managed to get a few of the little strawberries stitched in about the time I was spending to stitch a single berry. 

It is a good thing I took the fabric off the rods--look what I found:

Seems I never finished the inside border! Now to figur out what floss I used...

And here's what the top of the project looks like:

With the fabric off of the rods I can turn this into a carry-with project, so I'm not going to work on anything else until I have this one finished!

Back to work!

I needed a break from football today, so I pulled out the charts for my Family Sampler and started working on the personalization.  I'm really looking forward to getting back to the stitching on this one as soon as I finish LHN's 12 Days of Christmas sampler!

And yep, that's a cat peeking out at you from the "B".  I've had a lot of cats in my life, and I loved (and miss!) them all.  So you'll see lots of cats added to my sampler....

coming soon....

I've neglected this sampler for the past 3 years--well, that's about to change!  Beginning in January 2014 this is going to be my focus project!  So stay tuned....

Oh, I've been working...

Just because I haven't had a new progress photo to post doesn't mean my Family Sampler is being neglected...far from it! I've started working on the personalization part so I'm busy graphing. In fact, I've already redesigned the large single letter "B" to incorporate a design element (inspired by the flower and chicken I've seen other stitchers use) in anticipation of getting to that part of the sampler before long!

So what's the design I'm incorporating? You'll just have to wait and see!

How time flies!

It's been a month since I've updated this blog--but then, there hasn't been that much to show. Most of the past month was spent picking out the inner brown border that had been stitched in the wrong color and then re-stitching it with the correct color. Picking out stitches on 40 count fabric is no fun! But the end result is worth it--I'm much happier with the look of the piece with the lighter color.

Here's a photo of where I am today:

Sunday Stitching

I took my Family Sampler with me to my father-in-law's house on Sunday to work on while we were watching the Saints-Falcons game. Before we left I started picking out some of the border that was stitched in the wrong color, and while I was at his house I started stitching the same border, this time using the correct color. I'm much happier with the new color, so I'm glad that I didn't decide just to continue using the wrong color!

Here's a photo showing the two colors. The wrong color is on your left, the correct color is on your right.

This is getting to be a trend...

I landed a big research project, so it's cut into my stitching time. And tomorrow I have a continuing education class after work...so much for stitching every day!