Halfway There!

I am thrilled to show you the progress on the EMS 2012 Antique Sampler freebie - it is halfway completed.  

I got a really nice surprise on May 31st, when I popped over the the EMS web-site and realized that the June assignment had been posted one day early!  Woohoo!!!  Friday was devoted to more green confetti stitching than I am thrilled enough about to describe in detail... say no more.  :-)

It was worth it in the end.

As you can see,  I decided to carry out some smaller changes to the original; I changed out the mushroom motif for a bunny and the small flower sprig for my initial (not sure whether I will switch colors later on, but at least I like the placement after re-locating it a couple of times).

I have been a fan of Biedermeier style samplers for several years, so back when I was still (very actively ;-)) building up my stitch library collection, I invested in a couple of the books by Rafaella Serena.  These books are not real cheap, but totally worth it.  She has published three books (I believe) shock full of old Biedermeier plates, both from her own collection and others.  Quite a few of the motifs are charted in the back of the book.  Even if you never get around to stitch any of the designs, let me tell you, these collections are true historical eye-candy and they could serve as very nice coffee table books.

Since I wasn't thrilled about the mushrooms, I decided to flip through the animal themed volume to see if I could find a small motif to use for a substitution.

 

This is the wild-life inspired bell-pull where I finally spotted a perfectly sized bunny.

After that came the tricky part - substituting the motifs and to do that, I used the master chart.  I scanned the bunny, used Photo Shop to mirror her, and enlarged her to the right grid-size (the last step was by far the most frustrating one.  A 100% "real life" view on the monitor does not necessarily show up the same size after printing - blargh!).  

A bit of tape, filling in the grid-lines with a pen and voila!

While flipping through Rafaella's book I found one plate that was especially intriguing!  

Do you spot it?

The peacock and the sparrow motifs in the EMS sampler have been taken from this particular antique Biedermeier plate (the pic is clickable for a better view)!  Ellen changed out the colors in a truly fabulous way.  I really wish that I was as skilled with colors as so many of you out there are!

I picked from all the browns that had already been used throughout the design, free-handed the greenery (nowhere near fabulous, but it works) and that was it - easy-peasy!  The close-up below shows the newest additions; the bunny, the grave stone, and the beautiful little rose and violet bouquet.  The colors in the bouquet are quite a bit more intense than the rest of the colors, so it will be interesting the see if it will be balanced out further down the road.... 

Here is a close-up of the tiny bunny wiggling its nose good night!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and all the comments you leave when visiting!  It is so much fun to hear from you and I really appreciate the extra time you take to leave a greeting!

Take care and, as always, Happy Stitching,