Neat Country Stuff - Homespun Elegance

Design: Neat Country Stuff (plus a bit of inspiration from the Sheep Button Sampler)

Designer: Homespun Elegance

Threads: DMC as charted

Embellishments: vintage button and snap from stash

Fabric: 28 count natural linen

This project, because of the colours used, got subtitled 'The Sludge Monster', although my darling Ma used another word beginning with 'S' to describe the colours! I love my Ma,  but she is a bit of a one woman crusade for 'keeping your feet on the ground'...

I started this last year, and really tried to finish it, but there was always something more exciting going on. So, when my Stitch n Bitch group went away for the weekend in August, I packed this with the firm intention of getting it complete! And it worked - my motivation came back, and I only had the last square to do when we returned.I've left the start date on it though, I couldn't face the idea of frogging and restitching!

I love that this sampler contains two of my favourite motifs - beehives and sheep - as well as bunnies and blackbirds, of which I'm also rather fond!

The last square was always going to be more work. I really disliked the charted sheep in the original - I thought it looked more like a pig, so wanted to replace it with something else. The designer had produced a Sheep Sampler, but that sheep was too big for the space... so, out came the graph paper and pencils, and I shrank a sheep, kept the bird from the original, and now I know I genuinely have a unique sampler!

The button used is a vintage one from my tin - it may have come from my gran, but I think it's more likely from a charity shop or car boot sale. The big black snap I used (in place of the four small buttons the chart called for) on the other hand did come from my gran's stash, which I was given when she died. I rather like the idea of having something of hers in a piece that I've worked, as she did treasure the stitching I made for her.

The finished piece is framed now- I found a suitable frame in a charity shop, and my friendly framers stretched the piece and cut a mount to fit at a very reasonable rate. I'll try and remember to take a photo of that one day...