Finally - a Finish :)

Gathering Honey - Finished! 

For those patient readers who've been "watching paint dry" as I finished Gathering Honey, I'm pleased to show you a FINISH!  Yes, Gathering Honey is now done, after several years as a work in progress (and sometimes just a plain UFO (unfinished object) in the bottom of my stitching basket.    I've been tempted to abandon it several times, but I'm glad now that I didn't.  It hasn't been difficult to stitch, just a little challenging (and sometimes tedious!) in following the pattern details with multiple colour changes and lots of backstitching.  And at one point this past week, with almost 200 French Knots to do, I wondered what I'd been thinking of!

  I'll add my initials and the date after I've had it on my project board for a couple of days and can think a little more about where those would be best placed.  And then the fun of choosing a frame - I'll search first through my vintage frames and see if anything might be just right.  Whether or not to add a mat is still an open question - I've seen photos of this piece done both ways and I'm unsure yet.  Any opinions? 

What's next here at the Cottage?  I have Drawn Thread's Cloister Garden on scroll rods, as well as Monasterium's Four Seasons Quaker - my goal is to have Cloister Garden done by the end of May, but we all know about setting goals, don't we? LOL  I have a couple of Sampler Guild projects I'd like to work on as well, so we'll see ......  

Miles to go ....

Perhaps not quite miles of backstitching anymore - I can see some kind of light at the end of the tunnel!   I've been working conscientiously, though I had to take a break from my own stitching to complete two small white-on-white liturgical linens for my church to use at Easter. (I was stitching small crosses using a single strand of DMC's Coton a Broder for a stem stitched outline.)

 In Gathering Honey, I've now completed all of the dark brown backstitching in the central garden motifs (except for the bee skep) and in most of the lower right corner.  Six of the twelve bees are finished, so just the other half-dozen to complete, as well as the brown backstitching in the upper left floral section and the detailing in the two outer frames (and the skep, of course)  The citation for the quote needs to be added, and then I'll do the chain stitches (a few more bees and flowers), and then the French knots.  It may be a push, but stay tuned to see if I can have this all done by St. George's Day.  That WOULD be a reason for celebration :)   And once again, thanks for the boosts from the sidelines! 

The Bees' Knees

Nope, I  haven't been lost in a spring snowstorm yet (that might happen today, we have a storm warning here)  - just moving along one stitch at a time, and realizing that with way more backstitch that I'd anticipated, a finish by Easter was wildly over-optimistic and can't happen unless I hold off on the rest of life, like housework, laundry, baking, eating, and sleeping :)    

The bees'  knees?  Well, I started to realize the attention to detail in some of this pattern when I read the directions calling for a a different colour and thickness of thread in the top of the bees legs in contrast to the bottom (beneath the "knees" LOL).   I do have a couple of versions of the pattern, and it wasn't until I'd completed the first set of upper legs on all of the bees that I noticed that another version didn't call for quite so much detail.  Ah, well, that part's done now and I'll just keep on going!

    I took the photo several days ago, and since then, I've added much more backstitch and completed four of the bees - my camera's having battery issues, so that updated photo will have to wait till the weekend.   At least the snow might give me extra time for stitching ......

And many thanks again for those of you who are cheering me along - stitchers are a great group :)