Mariann Wenn is a Wrap!

Dear friends,

      It has been a very quiet weekend 'round here.  I was off work on Friday and no thanks to a bit of ice and rain, it was a quiet day.  I stayed in and stitched for most of the day.  Pretty much did the same thing yesterday and today.  Oh, I came up from my hibernation now and again.  I'd like to say I came up to do a load of laundry, cook a meal or something else productive but mostly, I'd come upstairs for a fresh glass of iced tea and then head back downstairs.  I was on a mission.   I start a stitch-a-long with Yuko today and I am not a gal that likes to have several, BFM (Big For Me) projects going at once.  So, before putting stitch one on Isabella Johnstone, I was working furiously to finish Marianne.  I finished her late this morning.  Pics are clickable....

Ta-Da:

 

I am really pleased with how she turned out but she wasn't without her challenges.  First, I didn't think that the colors charted looked much like the picture I saw on the Needleprint Blog (you can order the chart via the link).  The colors are what I loved so I had to make some adjustments.  Then, as I was stitching it,  I thought something about it just wasn't looking right.  A glance back at the color pic and I realized that the baskets weren't charted the way they appeared to be stitched on the original sampler.
This is how they were charted:

Solid, filled in baskets that didn't look like baskets so.... more frogging and re-stitching to get it the way I thought it should have been charted in the first place (sorry for the blurry pic).  Looks way better now, don't you think?  Marianne is stitched on 32 count LL, Vintage Exemplar with a mix of CC, WDW and even an odd DMC thrown in here and there.  I ended up using more colors than the chart called for but I like the way it looks and can't wait to get her framed.

I got a wonderful package in the mail this week.  I won a giveaway on Patty's blog and look what she sent me; a beautifully stitched and finished pin cushion to add to my collection and two skeins of CC floss in great colors!   I love the thread color that Patty used on the pin cushion - it's so rich!  Thank you so much, Patty - I am just tickled to death!

Thank you so much for all your comments on my last post!  You're all, as I suspected, enabling romantics!  No wonder I love you all so much!  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go catch up on my blog reading!

Have a wonderful week and thanks so much for stopping by.

Peace!

Terri