If I stitch just 3 flowers a day...

it will be finished in 4 days
 (or so I thought...more on that later)

 Does anyone else do this?

Count motifs, estimate how many you will stitch a day,

and then do the math to determine a finish date?

I do this,
 can't help myself...

 I've been telling myself, for some time, that

I am about done with the stitching of this sampler...

I am about done,

 but,
 when a piece has 20,000+ stitches,
the problem is,

it can look about done
and still have a few thousand stitches to go...

The "over-ones" are all done.
 That is always a sense of accomplishment!
Love the verse on this one...

The verse is a hymn penned by John Fawcett (1740 - 1817)

Elizabeth Clark has been an enjoyable stitch.
I don't get a lot of stitching time in during the holidays,
but,
 I try try try to sneak in a few stitches a day!

The antique sampler shows lots of fading.
You can see the difference in colors of floss,
 from old to new.
The piece is lovely in it's faded state,
however in charting,
 I have stayed true to the original floss colors
 used by Elizabeth.

When I purchase an antique sampler
 it often times is just one motif that speaks to me,
 and says,

"buy me"!
See those big leaves?
Look harder...do you see the big clusters of grapes?

It is those grapes and grapevine motifs
 that stole my heart...

I'll tell you a little story...
During our college living days,
 the dh & I would load up the kids in our little Dodge Omni hatchback
 and take Sunday drives
through the Des Moines river valley
in search of grapevine.
The area is beautiful in the fall
 and the kiddo's didn't seem to mind!

 It was easy to spot grapevine when the tree leaves started turning.
The crimson to almost deep amethyst colored leaves of the grapevine are very visible then.
 We pulled, tugged, and cut grapevine from the trees
and
stashed it into the back of our little Dodge Omni.
Bungee cords were used to hold the trunk shut
 and off we'd head down Lincoln Highway 30 towards Ames...
grapevine hanging from our trunk!
Quite the sight...

The vine then got soaked in the kids' blue plastic swimming pool,
to soften the vine.  (Sorry kids, no swimming today!)
 Once softened,
I would create grapevine wreaths.
The wreaths were then decorated with various little hand stitched bears
 or painted wooden geese
and
sold to local shops.
We are talking early 80's here...
when geese, bears & bunnies
were the decorating craze!

Upon shooting the below photo for today's blog posting,
I noticed another border that I didn't see while charting....ugh

Do you see it?
Look hard, over to the far right, near the frayed edges...

{sigh}

Back to charting,
more stitching,
and more "doin' the math thing".
Scratch any idea that
 this sampler will be done in 4 days...

With thy Needle & Thread,
Brenda