A little finish, and a big WIP

This weekend I finished stitching Pensee Sauvage from Samplers Not Forgotten. What a sweetie! This was a kit, and it will be finished as a pillow, though I think it would be really cute in a frame too. I do like the fabric included for finishing.

I have been working away nearly every night on Bathya from Hands Across the Sea. Here is where I am so far, this is 13 days of work (I didn’t get a fresh pic to show you a solid 2 weeks but you get the idea!):

So far it’s only white. But you can see it is not a quick and easy stitch! This represents about 5% of the total sampler, about half of the first 2 pages. There are 20 pages of charts.

I have had to redo some things here and there. And there are already mistakes in her, but not ones you’d notice. Unless I told you. And I’m not going to! Also you know what? These letters are very wonky. The same letters are stitched differently here and there! Sometimes by changing the direction of the satin stitch, or adding an extra stitch…I think Bathya didn’t have a solid grip on her font. So it’s ok and understandable if I have even a less solid grip on it! Bathya, you and I are going to get through this!

It is also difficult because I am stitching her reversibly. Here is the back:

It is not as perfect as I’d like but it’s ok. Here’s the thing with Bathya. For as large and special a sampler as she is, I am treating her as a learning project. I expect to be a much better stitcher when she is done. I have already learned a lot! My technique and tension is improving! But while I am going to do my very very best I am not going to stress about her not being totally perfect. For me, perfection would be the enemy, even the death, of a finish of this one, so I’m going to do the best I can at my current skill level. The bottom half will be better than the top half! It may look like 2 different stitchers made it! And that will make me very happy because it will show how much I’ve improved. How’s that for a good attitude!?