Dunvegan Sampler - Sampler Workes

I take pride in the fact, that once I start a project, that I finish it whatever may come.  Well, that's not entirely true!  I had two samplers, that I had started, and just never finished.  The Dunvegan Sampler was one of the two. 

I had it completely finished, except for the head of the thistle stitched in Queen Stitches.  For someone reason, I totally had a meltdown, when it came to this one part of the sampler.  I looked through stitching books, I went on YouTube and watched videos.  I even went to a stitching group and asked for help.

Oh, I knew the basics of the stitch.  Knew where to come up, and go down, knew where I should tack the stitch and what direction.  I could do this stitch in theory, but putting it in practice was a completely different matter.  Every time, I tried to stitch the thistle, it looked like a tangled, hot mess.

I practiced on the edges of my fabric, the stitches looked good, but put them on top of each other and next to each other and it looked liked chaos!  I ripped them out so many times I felt, I was gonna leave a hole in my linen.  Then I'd be really up a creek without a paddle!

So after the completion of the Needle's Work Sampler, I pulled out my dirty little secret and just was gonna finish my lowly thistle!  Bite the bullet, put my head down, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other! 

Picture prior to the completion!

Close up of the thistle head.    The trick was to use one thread of DMC rather than two!

Picture of completion

So I have another completion for my framing pile!  Yea!