Taking Up with Frances

Just before Christmas when I first became obsessive with started looking at everyone's stitching blogs, no matter where I looked, one piece kept turning up - Frances Eden.  The more I looked, the more I spotted her.  And on further inspection, I started to notice something else....even though the shape was drastically different, the motifs and overall feel of her put me in mind of And They Sinned.  Well, those of us that have been around for awhile have heard many many rumors about a companion piece for ATS, but unless I've completely missed it, said companion has yet to materialize.    And I knew I had the chart for Miss Frances buried away somewhere.   Hmmmm....the wheels began to turn....

A quick plunge into my stash hoard turned up the chart.  I then whipped out my box of Sampler Threads and pulled those that had been used for ATS.  A ransacking of the linen pile yielded a suitable piece of mystery linen...and yet another BAP was born.  I was thinking I'd start Frances as a New Year's project, but after plundering the hoard and finding all the stuff, I couldn't stop myself.  Work began on Christmas Eve.  

So without further ado, let me introduce my start on Frances Eden, stitched on mystery linen and a color palette that corresponds to ATS:

   
Normally, I'm a right to left, top to bottom sort of gal, but after a fast start, I began to worry that in my excitement and haste, I had misjudged the length I needed and would end up running out of linen before I reached the bottom of the chart.  So I headed in a straight stitch downward, just to see if things were going to work out.  You can see here I think I've made it by a hair, but it remains to be seen if I can actually work the final over one verse at the very bottom.

In the first few motifs. I tried to match the colors the chart indicates to my options from the ATS palette... 

...but began to feel there was no adventure in that! Throwing caution to the wind, I just started choosing colors as I went along. 

My favorite motif so far?  Well, I've always had a weakness for flying naked babies....

So this is where she stands as of this afternoon.  I'm not 100% certain I made the best floss choices for the brickwork on the house, but probably don't dislike them enough to make it worth starting over.  What do you think?

And last off, I'm grateful today to have such a wonderful forum for feeling the sampler love with other stitchers!  Many thanks to all 5 of you (especially to Lois!) who have signed on as followers to this blog.