Can you hear the singing?!!

Last night around 8:30pm, I put the final stitches in the largest project to date I have ever stitched.  That is correct, I have finished Dutch Beauty!!!!!!!!!  My first finish for 2013.  One less WIP!!  So many things to be excited about!!!  Exactly 4 weeks from my last post, I completed the final row and added the flowers to the border.  I have stitched so much in the last 4 weeks, that my shoulder was killing me from holding my hoop!  I was so desperate to get this finished and I posted last time I wanted it complete before April 1st, then I made a new personal goal of January 31st.  Well, in the last 4 weeks, there has been alot of adventure so sometimes I didnt get as much stitching in as I wanted.  So clearly that goal came and went.  Not much longer after my goal and stitched in less then a year, here is my Dutch Beauty!!

 

I am sooo thrilled to be done stitching this piece.  It was getting quite tedious near the end, I wasnt enjoying it anymore.  I feel like if I didnt push myself I wouldnt have felt this way--but it had to get done.   I was tired of the threads sitting out for so long, and what a joy it was to put them all away. With each and every page complete, there were less and less I had to stitch, I was pumped up.  You can do this!!   I spent time with each and every motif choosing the colors I wanted to stitch with-- I didnt follow the symbols at all, I referred to them, however most of the time chose a different color.

I spent a long time stitching the swan motif, I wanted to see the family separate from their mother.  I wanted depth for feathers.  I do feel that using the over-dyed silk that each motif popped from the next.  The flowers you can smell and the animals breathing.  Amazing what simple things can do for your project.  I know it was worth the time using this technique instead of following the chart.  Do I want to try that in another project?  Sure, but not for a long time!! LOL.

Using 23 overdyed silk colors and stitched on 45ct Vintage Maritime White from Lakesided Linens.  She measures 25 1/2 inches x 15 1/2 inches.  Thanks again for all the great emails, texts and comments keeping me motivated.  I know that is what helped drive me to complete this fantastic sampler.  I look forward to having her framed this summer and hung in a special place :)
The next question is that tonight, I will have to stitch on something else.  I cant just sit and do nothing!!  I actually might have to break out the WIPs and play for a bit!!!!!