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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Frances the First or Frances the Second?

Hi Everyone!  Just as I suspected, my sudden impulse to start a new Quaker piece has subsided if not passed completely and common sense has returned.  Don't know how long that will last, but for now I'm trying to stitch the straight and narrow path to at least one finish.  And that leads me to progress on Frances Eden (which I've started referring to as Frances the Second), and the completion of that humongous block in the road, the brick house.



I had my doubts about this house as soon as I started it, but now that it's done I do kinda like the end result.  At first, it didn't seem like there was enough contrast in shade and tone between the two brick colors, resulting in a mottling I was afraid might look more like some odd skin condition than brickwork on a mansion. But in the end, the urge to move along no matter what was the driving force, so I just kept slogging away with the same.  The other little motifs around it were like dessert!   I got such a kick out of stitching the little blue and yellow snake that I decided to give him a forked tongue.

 With that hurdle out of the way last night, it leaves me with another quandary....

I mentioned in my last post that the threads and charts for my other Frances - Frances Burwell - had gone missing in action.  I started my first Frances many years ago and she was the light of my life right up until I had enough of those eye-crossing satin stitch pansies to put me off the whole thing completely. Off to the UFO box for her!  So poor Frances the First lingered there for many years, exiled and unloved.



Then over the past holidays, I got out my UFO box and unrolled her.  She dazzled me again with her intricate stitches.



I was delighted with her golden carnations...



and the soft sheen of her satin stitch pansies thrilled my heart again!


But while Frances' stitching was in hand, I couldn't find her chart or threads anywhere, no matter where I looked.  Now, am I the only one who does dumb stuff like this?!  No doubt at the time it happened, I was thinking that putting the actual stitching in one storage box and the threads and charts in another one would ensure that at least one would survive if the other was killed in some horrible accident.  God only knows what was going on in my head, but somehow that's what happened.  It seems like that's always the case...no matter what I'm searching for in my stash, I can't find it at the time I want it!

Now fast forward to last week, when I was in the midst of my Quaker mania.  I decided to excavate through the stash for my  Ackworth School charts and while I never actually got that far, I did manage to stumble across the missing supplies for Frances Burwell after all this long time.

So my quandary is "Which Frances shall I take up with now?  Should I keep on with Frances Eden now that funky brick house is over and done with?  Or should I pay Frances Burwell the attention and respect she's been denied for so long?"

And just this morning, I think there must have been an answer blooming out side my patio door.  I love these Spanish petunias.  They grow like grass in the flower beds and landscaping around Key West and I love them for their slightly unruly and tropical character.




Notice a similarity?

3 comments:

Catherine said...

Both are lovely samplers! There is something that is standing out to me with Frances Burwell, perhaps because her colors remind me of spring!

Bertie said...

They are both fabulous so the deciscion is yours :)) The band sampler flower is stunning!

Samplings from Spring Creek said...

Both Frances I and Francis II are beautiful--your satin stitching is awesome. You will have two beautiful samplers to admire!