Finished!

Hope you all had a nice Easter and are still safe from the storms.   I tried using the push mower today for the really high grass areas and the little wheels were buried in mud.  I think all the work from last year on landscaping and shrubs will need to be redone.  We'll never be dried out enough to put in a garden, and may not be able to cut the grass for weeks. 

Fanny is finished!  Took a while - I made more pomanders, a day of stuffing cabbage, making cwikla (beet horseradish relish), kielbasa, and mom's rice pudding, but today I sat outside and stitched. 

I changed the colors of the bottom motifs and I like the way it looks.  Now the big question for me....do I want it framed?  My preference on displaying stitched items may be a little weird, but I prefer seeing the texture of the pieces which is some times lost behind glass.   Margaret's blog header has several gorgeous samplers just folded together and you see the character and weave of the linen, the thread, and that appeals to me.  I am drawn to Shaker and simplistic primitive decorating so having a sampler lying on a desk or in a basket, even hanging with frayed edges, is OK with me.  Perfectly pressed?  Or slightly wrinkled?  Like me, wrinkled.  Well, not THAT much, but some.  Some of you are probably cringing right now that a treasured work of time and talent would be lying around, free to collect dust or be handled by a guest.  Now, something like Deb's Ann Medd is a different story.  Something of that size needs framed and it looks magnificent.  They all do!  Being perfectly mounted behind glass doesn't detract at all from the beauty of the piece.  And all of mine from 25 years ago are framed behind glass.  Today, I may prefer hemmed edges showing, mounted to a backboard, rather than stretched under the frame's edge.  I really like the way Fanny looks hanging on her own on my cupboard door though.  I guess if you have one or two, it's OK to have them on display without the formality of framing, but with a collection, framing is a must.  Did I just have a hot flash?  Am I contradicting myself?  No.  I prefer to see Margaret's pieces "free", but I have to be reasonable about how many can be displayed in such a manner.  For now I will scrunch Fanny a bit, even up the fringe, and hang it with nicer pins.  My favorite (now closed) shop's models were almost exclusively samplers, very few framed, all on linens.  They were attached to valances, draped over small side tables and basket handles, pinned to walls.  Unrealistic for a family home with pets!  But I loved being able to hold them and closely examine the stitching.

*Chocolate break*

Yes, I went to the sale.  But I only bought a few 2 oz., perfect for a treat, which will go in the freezer.  Yeah, right. 

*Back to stitching*

I can't remember why, but I visited The Scarlet Letter's site.  Not a good idea.  Why do I want to keep purchasing charts I will probably never stitch?   I know that most stitchers do the same, but at least they have SOME desire to stitch them at some point.  I'm not in that groove baby and haven't been for years so it doesn't make sense.   Several have been drawing me back for another view.  One is Mary Jones.  The colors on that green linen are stunning and I still have a yard of that beautiful green with the teal tinge, but it's 25 count.  The others are Sarah Brown and Maria Theresa Wilkinson.  There are so many others on her site that are magnificent, and I spend a lot of time perusing, in addition to the catalog photos.  So what's my next project?  Not sure.  One more pear to go and I'm trying to plan a few projects for giveaways in June leading up to my 60th.  Maybe paint a Santa box?

No, not this complicated and big.  

 Maybe a gourd.  But that's another hobby I haven't kept up with and stitchers want stitchy stuff.

SIXTY.  A new decade.  Where has the time gone?  Well, a lot of it has gone to searching for Stacy.  Nope.  Not yet.