A Stitching Finish

 I completed the Ole Florida Sampler. True to being a sampler there are some imperfections, but I like it a lot. I will admit that the sampler pattern was one that I did not just get to sit down and just follow. I had to make color changes quite a bit and I also found the pattern hard to read. I think that had to do with the symbols or at least for me. Here it is all finished. 

I lightened the photos a bit so I think the coloring looks a wee bit off on the blog. The original pattern was a tribute to a Florida grandmother and therefore had her name, location and date. I still need to iron it good, but times is very limited so I am just going to run with it. 

Now for a few closeups and details about what I did. 

I changed the live oak a good bit and really liked how it turned out. 

The bears are probably my favorite piece of the sampler. 

I personalized it with the original name of our little town of Fort Walton Beach. It started out as a Civil War camp back in 1861 with no action. It didn't appear on any maps of Florida until 1911. In 1932, the name was changed to Fort Walton and in 1953, it became Fort Walton Beach.

I liked the little house. In fact, about 30 years ago, right outside the circle there was a similar house in the woods. The little area now has 3 homes on it, but for a very long time the little patch of woods with that house was a destination for all dogs on their neighborhood walks to do their business. It was not a happy day for the neighborhood pups when the lot was cleared and new homes built there.

The home also reminds me of a picture of my grandparents early home. I also added some curtains that weren't charted as a nod to my grandmother's curtains in the picture of their home.

I did changed the dirt to a more sandy color. It was charted as a red clay look which you need to go further north to see that.

When I first looked at the coloring of the cows I wasn't too sure about them, but upon a little more research I decided they were pretty spot on for the Florida Cracker cows. I looked a few pictures and stayed with the colors. One might not know that Florida is a big producer of cows.

The Florida Cracker or Florida Scrub is an American breed of cattle. It originated in Spanish Florida and later in the American state of Florida,^[5][6][7] and is named for the Florida cracker culture in which it was kept.

I put our individual bayou since both of my kids have lived all of their growing up years on Don's Bayou. You won't see that name on anything other than a local map of Choctawhatchee Bay. Bayous are names given to all the nooks and crannies along the bay.

I have stitched on this pretty much exclusively since New Year's Day. In this stage of life that I find myself in, I have to tell you I have loved that. I like having something else I can go to if I get frustrated or mess up and need a break, but staying with the one stitch has been very comforting to me. I never knew people had lots of stitches going at the same time until I got back into stitching upon retirement from teaching. I had taken a break when kids got to the teenage years as life was so very busy. I think I may continue this approach. 

While I have 8 or 9 project bags containing things I very much desire to stitch I am thinking I will pull out the shells I had started and complete them next.

I hope to get the sampler all pressed and to the framer's next week.

*****

This week has been way busier than even my normally busy weeks. Yesterday, I was feeling all the tension of it and not feeling like my mindset was where it needed to be for Holy Week, so I decided to stay away from all social media for the remainder of the week and keep all the time suckers in their place. I felt better yesterday when I decided on that.  

Tomorrow I will have all 3 boys because when you send little ones to wonderful church daycares and preschools they are off for Good Friday as they should be! I have a family reunion on Saturday and wasn't all that thrilled with the date, but I am going and will enjoy seeing family. Then Sunday serving so little ones can see the glory of Jesus and spending time with family.

Thankful for the Savior who leads my life,

Sandy