Happy Dance

O happy day, but also slightly sad -  opus magnum perfectus!   My masterpiece is complete. This has been a true pleasure to stitch and so although I have done the

and not once either -  twice!!

I am truly sorry in many ways that this journey is over.

Dare I say it, the section that commemorates my closest neighbours, Australia,  is the portion I dislike most -  that trite verse and that cat and the black swan!   Somehow they don't seem to fit with the 'Historic' part of the name but as I have said before each single portion of this amazing sampler blends to form a whole, both in colour and design.   The lines of specialty stitches on this portion took me back to my childhood days of learning stitching with wool on a freshly washed hessian sugar sack!   Oops does that show my age a little?

Anyway from start to finish this has been one of my most lovely and memorable stitching journeys and I worry that I will not find again, another such masterpiece to tempt me and my needle.   22.06.11 would have been more satisfying but was impossible to manage and in a fit of pique I decided to omit the zero in front of the six and so emphasize to myself for evermore that try as I might I couldn't get this finished early enough to have a truly symmetrical start and finish date.   With slight deviations for a few other necessary projects such as The Memory Book, the road to completion took just over six months.   Not once did I lose interest; only once did I complain about one of the stitches (that dreaded faggot stitch!!).  

And finally here is the HDHBEM holding up my lovely and beloved Historic Countries Sampler.

Have a great weekend everyone.   I will be back next week to tell you what my needle has chosen for the next project.