This post will be about my long lost sampler. I guess I started cross stitching this one around the year 2000, and I just picked it up last month (=February 2013
). It was lost for several years while I moved from my parents house to my own, and I found it when I unpacked the last several boxes after moving in with my boyfriend turned fiance turned husband. Right now I do have enough time (I lost my job as a social worker because of the financial crises and the spending cuts), and I have a good reason to finish it: my fathers upcoming 60st birthday in May. He said he liked the design when I started it, so I hope he still likes it 13 years later
The sampler includes a garden inspired ABC in Dutch (as I'm from the Netherlands). The original pattern is supposed to be a pillow for a garden seat/ bench, but I want to frame it and place it in my parents living room or dining room with view onto the garden.
As showed in the Margriet Borduren magazine of 1998:
My progress up to early March 2013:
Unfortunately, the colours turned out to be more purple in stead of blue (my favorite colour) and a bit more pale than vibrant like in the magazine, but still I like it
In February 2013 I finished with the Q:
The Q is of 'eik' = oak.
I had already cross stitched the oak leaf, but in February I made the oak barrel. I still need to back stitch them all to get the details right, but I'll leave that to the end so I can do them all at the same time...
In February I also cross stitched the K:
The K is of kruiwagen (=barrow) and of kruiden (=herbs).
March 1, I finished the L:
The L is of laurier (=laurel) and lavendel (=lavender).
I also stitched the M:
The M is of Maarts viooltje (=March' pansies/ violets) and mand (=basket) and it has 14 different colours
.Each letter takes me around 10 hours to stitch while watching tv. My planning is to stitch one letter each week so I have it finished halfway April so I have one month left to let it be framed and giftwrapped
for my fathers birthday (May 23).Right now I've almost finished the letter R, so I'll update this post soon
Look forward to your comments. If you have any questions, please, feel free to ask and I'll be more than happy to respond. Happy stitching everyone!
)
