Oooh, look what I got!

Now before you get after me, keep in mind I have been a good girl for almost a whole year! I've been working my way through reproducing the big samplers in my collection. I also have a number of smaller samplers that I'm releasing here and there...but I went to madelena.com this week...and I saw...

THIS:

And I bought it. Well, I'm buying it. In installments. (First one is out of the way). Isn't it gorgeous? It's was stitched by Ann Dale in 1827. (You can click on the picture to make it bigger for ogling purposes.) Please notice the swans with EGGS on the lawn, ALL of the wonderful baskets and flowers, the almost circular tree in the bottom center, and...well, just the awesome-sauce-ness of the colors.

It is BIG! The original is 25 1/4" by 19 1/4" on FIFTY COUNT LINEN. That means the stitch count is approximately 630 by 480. Wait. In case you were just speed reading over that last part: SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTY STITCHES BY FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY STITCHES. Wow! Ann, way to go, girl!

Here's what the verses say:

1 PASS a few swiftly fleeting years,

And all that now in bodies live,

Shall quit, like me, the vale of tears

Their righteous sentence to receive. (yikes!)

2. But all, before they hence remove,

May mansions for themselves prepare (yea!)

In that eternal house above!

And, O my God, shall I be there.

(The "yikes" and the "yea" were my additions.)

Now, since this sampler is a tad on the large side (ya think?), I have already talked to Pat at Lakeside Linens and we both agreed that I should probably stitch the reproduction on "regular" linen (meaning, un-dyed...less-expensive.) I mean, this sampler is going to be 31 1/2 by 24 on 40 count. A (crazy) person could squeeze it onto a half...IF that crazy person was using 40 count. Basically, a very large piece of fabric is needed (bedspread, anyone?) And I want to keep the cost down.

Now, if you like hand-dyed linen, you can order hand-dyed linen in a full-yard cut. You will have a big chunk left over, but special cuts are out of the question -- there would be too much waste. There is, of course, the option of using 45 count linen as well...are you man-enough? (Ann stitched hers even smaller, thank you very much!)

I talked to Kathy my model stitcher this morning and had her look at it. She said, "Oh, I don't know about that over-one verse (her eyes, like mine, are getting old.) And I said: "I want to stitch this one!"

What do you think? Am I crazy? Isn't it wonderful? Should they lock me away in a padded room? Am I a glutton for punishment? What's for dinner?