Stab or Sew?

You were beginning to think it was only YARNplay around here weren't you? My needlework has tended to go through phases and almost the very first phase was cross stitch which I did a good bit of until I had a daughter. As you might guess, the next (and very intense phase) was smocking. Oh those were the glory years.

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When the smocking phase was over and I tried to return to cross stitch, I found it almost unbearably slow.* Besides by that time I had long found Hardanger embroidery. Ocassionally I return to cross stitch and usually when some design (most often it's Christmas) catches my eye.

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I'm not sure where I first ran across this design. (I suspect it was here where I saw it stitched over-one and finished as a lovely pinkeep.) This is "The Sampler Lady" by Little House Needleworks. I'm not doing the full chart and am not sure how I'll finish it.

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Finish it? Did I hear you snort? Are you skeptical? My only hope lies in that I'm intending this as a Christmas gift, so there is a bit more motivation than for those lovely things intended for me alone that continue to languish in Finishing Purgatory.

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*One reason I tend to stitch slowly is that I'm a stabber, meaning I stab the threaded needle from one side to the other and pull the floss all the way through. I just think my stitches look more uniform that way. I do not use a frame or hoop and curiously this link suggests that the sew method is more common for those that stitch in hand. Might know I'd be contrary.