It’s finished! C’est fini! Esta terminado!

Presenting my version of the Sampler of Stitches by The Drawn Thread! Ta DAH!

I did chose my own colors. The letters are Gloriana Rosewood and Belle Soie Tulip. Then there are 2 greens, 3 purples, 2 golds, 1 taupe, and 1 warm dark brown in addition to the cream soie perlee and 100.3 used on the pulled thread and textured stitches (those were fun to do). My final assessment of the color palette is that it is a bit bold and maybe a more muted or more tonal palette would have been more pleasing. but I definitely prefer my reds/greens/purples/golds to the the blue/mauve/sage called for in the original. I believe I used the called for linen which is a 32 or 36 count cream. It is necessary with this kind of sampler to stick close to the called for count so the specialty stitches work. Ask me how I know that!

You might remember that I started this project in January 2022 for an Instagram SAL. Of the dozen or so stitchers who started, I think I am the 3rd to finish. I had aimed to actually do one part a month last year and finish it in 2022, but I stopped at 7 parts finished, got distracted by other projects and you know how it goes. I mentally named 2023 my “Year of the Finish” and this one was next up on my list, after finishing Joyful World and Jane Plenderleath in May and June. While my project basket(s) is not exactly getting emptied, it sure is good to be putting the final stitches in these bigger projects!

Here is the close up of the last section I finished this morning, PQR. The last stitch I had been putting off was the woven looking stitch under the P. I had tried it last month and failed miserably. It was the first and only stitch in this project which I couldn’t get right away. It is ironically called Quick Stitch. I found it anything but quick as you must count threads for the weaving which is stitched over and around the diagonal base stitches. It was quite frustrating (or maybe I wasn’t doing it correctly).

And here is a close up of my variegated queen stitch quilt. I did stitch this fussily to avoid same colors being together, and I threw in some dark red as well for more variety. I really love the patchwork effect. It was supposed to be stripes of green and yellow diamonds, which also would have been nice, but with all the patterning that happens throughout this whole design, I thought a more random, patchwork look would emphasize the “quilt-i-ness” of this motif. In fact all 3 of the motif in the Q row give a quilt effect which is quite appropriate. Imagine them hanging on a line!

And that is all I have to comment on this. I plan to work on finishing some smalls the rest of this month and see if maybe I have any finishing in me. You know I really haven’t fully finished much at all this year. It just hasn’t been appealing and time has been limited. But finishing stitching is a good thing too, and I’ve accomplished a lot in that respect so it all balances out I guess.

To the curious, these kitties still don’t have names (we’ve had them 2 weeks) but they sure are cute! And they are getting along fine now with plenty of zoomies, pouncing, play fights, and amusing antics. I had forgotten how much fun kittens are!

This might be Ginger or Peaches or Honey or Taffy or Alani or Tiny…

This might be Tiana or Tabby or Zelda or Ashley or Lexi or Cici or Gracie or Sylvie or Piper…