Doing It Well

Do It Well
Silver Creek Samplers
28 count light sand linen
DMC

My husband's birthday is coming up and I wanted to stitch something for him, but nothing was presenting itself until I stumbled upon this design. The verse reads:

Be the labor big or small
Do it well or not at all
When the task is once begun
Do not stop until it's done

The philosophy fits my husband to a T. Now me, I have a million projects in various states of completion, but he's a sequential kind of guy. Start it, finish it, move on to the next thing. It might take him awhile to notice that the grass is up to the rooftop, but once he does, he's on it, and he doesn't stop until the grass is cut to an inch of its life, and then he starts on the next part of the yard, and the next (we are lucky we live behind a stand of trees, though, since this diligence only happens now and then!)

I didn't stitch it exactly as charted - I left out a few extraneous stitches that seemed unnecessary and I didn't fill in the background behind the year, as I wanted a simpler look. The border was tricky - it didn't always repeat the same number of stitches, but I managed to avoid too many visits from the frogs. I liked stitching this so much I've ordered another chart by this designer, found here. My son is growing a dandelion in a pot, so guess what he is getting for his birthday? I'm hoping the chart arrives before we head to the Jersey shore for vacation next week. Right now I'm stitching LHN's Singing the Blues, but it's going more quickly than the vacation will. Oh is it nice to stitch with silk!