Belated Work in Progress Weds Post - 24 Oct 2013

Yippee!  The last Work In Progress Wednesdays posting I will ever need to do on this piece!  Yes, it's finished and I am THRILLED to have got through to the end of it.  It took over 18 months, although there were two long periods when I didn't work on it, but even so, it was a long project and it feels great to have it all completed at long last!=)

Above you can see the side trellis areas cut and below shows them all filled in.  I confess to having departed from the pattern here as, although the main trellis stitch wasn't hard to work, the length of the bars required working a sort of half stitch at the top and that led to my having trouble attaching it securely to the top section without pulling the stitches down badly.  I realised later that I could have done that OK by actually putting the threads through one of the fabric holes underneath the satin stitches but, a) it's too late now; and b) who knows if it would actually have worked that way either??=)

Above here is the bottom right hand section and below the bottom left showing the completed beading and the large X shapes that the side trellises would otherwise have been worked in - I managed them fine here.

Here's the gate area all cut out above and, below, you can see the first parts of it complete, although I did take that top left part out and did it again later on.  I was just taking all the shots I could up until we left for London on Monday morning.

Later on that day I finished it off in the Travelodge room and then took it out of the frame and took it to show show Sharon Boggon, who I met in person in London on Tuesday for afternoon tea!  Sir and I had an interesting few hours' chat with Sharon and her hubby, Jerry.  We learnt quite a lot about aspects of life in Australia - something we rarely have chance to find out about here.  One sees plenty of US related things and we have experience of life in continental Europe and the Far East, but Aus was a relatively new subject for us, so it was great to hear more.  I came away feeling that I understood another view of life so much better and had really learned something worthwhile!  Sharon and I also compared notes on our stash and how Brits, Americans and Aussies approach stitching materials and stash collection, whilst our blokes discussed PhDs, academia and joinery.=) Here are Sharon and I together with the finished sampler:

I consider this piece to be a tribute to the effectiveness of the Work in Progress Wednesdays idea!  I've finished three projects over the last year thanks to the weekly update deadline - this one, the Brazilian 'Rolled Roses' piece and the stumpwork rabbit (this last also spurred on by Anna Scott's 'Finished in February' event earlier this year), and have one left to go now - the peacock feather.  After that, I'll have to start something new in order to keep on joining in!

"Where are the finished samplers photos?" I hear you cry!  Well, I haven't taken then yet.  I want to get the piece properly pressed and then stretched around a mounting board ready to take to the framer and will take a good number of shots then.  Can't promise when just yet, but it will be soon, that's for sure.  At the mo, it's a crumpled mess that needs a bit of TLC before being fit to be seen.

On Saturday, I'll be updating you on the cross stitch piece and introducing you to 'Art Every Day Month', which I hope some of you will be inspired to join in.  Until then!=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013