Another Sarah

Things are moving along on Frances B!  I'll have another update on her in a few days, maybe when her big blue house is in order.  But in the meantime, I came across some pics of another work in progress, Sarah Tuel, and thought I'd trot her out for show.

Here's where things stand with this Sarah....

This Sarah is another one of the Examplarery kits I scored during my e-Bay stitching kit period.  I was thoroughly charmed by her wide floral border and the mockingbird top center. 

But now that her charm has worn a bit thin, it's been nearly a year since I've given her any face time at all.  Still though, there's every hope she'll see a finish.......someday.  Why is it always a matter of soooo many projects, soooo little time and perheps even less long term endurance?   As is my typical MO, I've left her over half finished.  Too much done to abandon her. too much still undone to have much ambition!  So I'm hoping this post will help me feel the love for her again.

Part of the reason why this Sarah has fallen out of favor is because of all the over one stitching required if I want to stay true to the original.  Other than the bottom panel of the floral border, everything else that remains to be done inside is worked over one.  Talk about a major stitching buzz-kill.....

However, I did some improvising on the berry band, which was also supposed to be over one.  It occured to me that I ought to be able to do a decent job with it simply by following the general design, but working over two threads and compensating when necessary.  Here's a close up of the results.  Not an exact replica of the original, but not all that different, either.

So my plan is to do the same with what remains and hope for a final finsh that isn't too far off the mark.  Lesson learned:  read the instructions carefully - with an eye for the words "worked over one thread" - before diving in!

Here's hoping your Memorial Day is full of fun, family and food.

Frances B's Turning Point

I know it's been a while since I've done an official stitching update, but that doesn't mean I haven't been hard at it! It just means the stitching I have been so diligently working on has been, well....hard.  Yes, that means hard at work on Frances Burwell, she of the endless outlined satin stitch pansies and nerve-fraying double running stitch thingamajigs.  But at last, I've reached a turning point!  Here's the last stop on the crazy train final flowering vine band in her growing expanse:

I feel like I've slayed the beast!  So please pardon me while I gloat....here's another pic of that same row, with the middle insanity pansy band stacked over it. 

Now, time for some honest answers here.  I think I got overexcited while ironing her for these pictures and made the dark red on the top right yellow flower bleed.  Can you tell?  It's not bad, but to my eye, that linen looks a little pinker than it should around the dark red threads.

Just to make it an even threesome of photos, here's how she looks from the top to the point I'm at now:

So from here on out, I'm hoping Frances will be agreeable and let me have my long deserved finish with her sometime soon.  There's still a lot of stitching to do - a few more blackwork bands, a whole gaggle of funky birds in bright colors and a big old brick house - but nothing I can't power through.  I've reached the turning point and am moving into more a comfortable friendship with her!

Here's Looking at You

I've spent a lot of time this past year thinking about my grandmother.  At least from my vantage point of time, the events, circumstances and people in both our lives seen to overlap and reflect each other, at least a bit, right now.  If nothing more than as a way to gather some strength from her remembered and imagined fortitude, I want to share something of her this Mother's Day.

We were both born in the same small Illinois railroad town. I know she spent summer evenings hearing the rattling and whistles of the Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe Zephyr roll though her open windows.  Her parents came from Sweden; my dad came from the east side of the train tracks. 

We both had little sisters....

...and exasperating brothers...

...who played football.

Grandma graduated 8th grade.  But on her own as a widow, she sent her 2 daughters on to graduate college with honors.  My dad did the same for me and I did it for my own daughter.  To this day, both happy and heartbreaking experiences at the same school are a part of my family legacy as much as they are of my own education. 

Did this gaze into the camera give her any idea of what the next years would bring?  The harsh years of the 1930's, the anguish of a son missing in action somewhere in Europe, widowhood with young children?  I wish I had a hat that would say as much about me as these do.  Look here, bring it on.  I can face it  - whatever it is - with style

So the details and the ups and downs of life for her and for me are a puzzle right now.  But I think of her on Mother's Day and hope I do have the good grace I know was hers.   Thank you Grandma, time will tell.