I think I might have shared this chart with you? The designer is Prairie Schooler and it is part of a series of monthly designs--this is February, which I wanted to stitch as it is my birth month.
And here's what my sampler looks like so far. I love working on this linen--it's called Lambswool and it is my favorite--nice and stiff to begin with, so it is easy to work on--particularly as I work in hand and don't use any sort of embroidery hoop. But the more you work on it the softer it gets.
What do you think of Mr Groundhog close up? I think he's sort of sweet even though a bit pudgy. I know I'm getting ahead of things here, but if I didn't start now I would never finish before February comes along. That's actually a tree behind him devoid of its branches--I need to backstitch those in yet. I'm not sure how I feel about his face--it's hard to see his eyes and nose/mouth, but I did use the color called for.
I've not shared my Band Sampler with you in a while, and while I've not made a ton of progress, I do have more rows stitched.
I'm sort of alphabetted out, but this is the last group of letters for a while--maybe even for the rest of the sampler. Things get more exciting once I get past this section. I was on a roll, but I've been paying more attention to my "February" sampler of late. I keep thinking that if I stitched on lone letter every day I would finish in no time.
But I still have my work cut out for me. I don't think I've ever showed you just how long this band sampler is! The actual size of the sampler (not counting edges) will be 7" wide and 24" long. I hate to think of the cost of the wood to frame this, but that's a long way off I'm afraid. I've never finished anything quite so large, but I am enjoying working on it.
And I still have high hopes I might be able to stitch something for Christmas still. The clock is ticking, so it will have to be something small. I'll be digging out my trusty fabric and floss bins I think. Whenever I do these needlework posts I get itchy fingers and want to pull out a project to work on!