Pastoral Progress

I've have been flitting from craft project to craft project lately. Last week, my friend, Marilyn, came over to sit and stitch. I got inspired to do a big push on my latest project.

Things have been progressing well on The Pastorale sampler. Some people do every stitch in one colour before moving on to another one. Others work in one area before moving to another. I jump all over the place. As soon as I get bored with one section or stitch or colour, I do something in another area. My favourite thing is doing the letters so I alternate between doing a couple of letters with a couple of other elements.

When I'm watching something interesting on TV (especially something with English subtitles), I'll do big areas that don't require following the pattern much, like the house. I got most of the barn red colour done last night

then started filling in some of the 'large double cross eyelet' elements. It's a nice variation from plain cross-stitching and makes me want to do more complex stitching - as long as I have good directions.

I'm saving the sheep 'til last

to make sure I have everything around it in the right place. It isn't difficult to get off by a stitch so I'm checking and re-checking to make sure I've got everything right. I'm not sure I'll do the initials and date at the bottom as indicated in the pattern. It will depend on what frame I find for this piece.