A Lady's Trimkeep Finish

I thought you might be tired of only seeing Paradise Lost in these posts but never fear, I have a finish to show you!  Back in January I attended the Sampler Symposium hosted by Attic Needlework.  It was a great time with awesome projects, dear friends and of course lots of shopping!  One of the class pieces was A Lady's Trimkeep designed by Paulette of Plum Street Samplers and here's my finish: 

A couple weeks ago I had a funeral of a friend to attend and I came home wanting to do something different.  I played around with organizing my stash a bit and then got this out and sat down with it.  I started it late so it took me two sittings to stitch it but I love how it turned out!  And, Paulette's finishing instructions were very clear and easy to follow.  I think she said that she would release this chart in the future so keep an eye out for it because it's a quick and fun stitch and it will look so cute in a basket of smalls!   

This past weekend I took another break from Paradise Lost on Sunday to start the pre-stitching for a class that I'll be taking in April through the Sampler Guild of the Rockies.  It is the Briar Rose Etui taught by Jackie du Plessis.  I've had the kit since our February meeting which isn't too long but decided that I really needed to get started on this or I'd be stitching like a mad woman the week before the class.  Being that I tend to work on one project at a time and am nearing a finish of Paradise Lost I was reluctant to start this.  So I decided to make it a Stitch on Sundays piece.  Something that I'll work on every Sunday until it's finished and then I can stitch whatever I want the rest of the time. 

It's a really pretty piece with flowers around the outside but there's a lot of outlining too!  Jackie's instructions had said to start with the vine but I really wanted to get some of the tone on tone stitching done so I knew the outer border would match.  Next Sunday I'll get started on the vine and flowers.  They should go faster since they're a color and are done partially in tent stitch.  The red thread is to mark the top since the vine is not symmetrical all the way around, this way I hopefully won't mess that up!  It was beautiful here on Sunday, almost 70 degrees so I sat outside to do this work as a reward and it was actually much easier to see what I was doing that way too.

I'll be back to working on Paradise Lost next and hope to have a finish to show you soon.  As I near the end of a project I seem to speed up but I also start dreaming of what I want to stitch next!  I have a couple in mind and a few friends seem determined to turn me into a not one at a time stitcher!  LOL!  Until next time, thanks for stopping by!