Maria

One of my goals this year is to finish Maria Antoni.  This piece is a Mexican sampler and The Essamplaire is currently running this as an online class.  I am not participating in the class because I actually got this kit at Jeannine's sampler seminar a few years ago.  I went to the seminar not planning on taking any classes - Mexican samplers are not my primary interest and for whatever reason I did not sign up for the class.  I was just going to go and stitch for a few days.  I arrived, and the first night I went to the stitching room.  There were all these ladies with these beautiful silks laid out in front of them - I didn't even know what they were working on, I just knew I had to have it!  Clearly when someone asks what attracts me to a particular sampler, the answer is color!  These photos are a bit washed out - clearly I need to improve my digital photography skills - but you'll get the idea.

 I begged Jeannine and Margriet to let me into the second day of the class - fortunately for me there was an extra kit so they obliged.  After finishing Elizabeth Yeagers I was ready for some real color and Maria seems like just the ticket.  So far it's stitching up fairly quickly.  I'm skipping around as I want to do a lot of the satin stitch last.  The sampler is almost reversible - the cross stitch is a variation that just has vertical lines on the back.  Here's a photo of the back.





I'm trying to make as much progress as I can with Maria because I know that once my large scroll rods arrive and I can put the Richmond sampler on them, that will grab my attention again.