Long Dog Samplers: Life's little surprises

Every once in a while, and quite unbidden, something rather

nice happens. It's not something that occurs daily or

even on a weekly basis because, if it were, then it would

become mundane and lose it's charm.

St Hippolyte's marriage in all it's glory

It's never something you could predict, certainly doesn't have to

be grandiose and the range of possibilities is vast and

limitless. How exciting is that?

St Hipp converted to a wedding sampler

Just recently I was the recipient of a goodly dollop of the

aforementioned serendipidy in the shape and form of an

email (with attachments - oh goody!) from a

gentleman called Dan in Illinois.

32# evenweave linen and ghost front door - spooky!

I skipped hastily through the usual lavish praise of my outstanding

creations which is, I must admit, no more that I deserve, in order

to get to the heart of the matter. Dan had send me photos

of his magnificent "ouvrages" as we called them in France,

and some of his crosstitching too. Please don't snigger Jan,

there was nothing smutty intended (she said with an

innocent little "Who me?" smile).

Vicki Clayton silks from HDF

Dan has a lot of style and is not afraid to go where his

inclinations lead him. Not a word Jan, you've already been

warned once. He's taken trusty, staid old St Hipp and given it

a good kick in the pants for which his pennance has to be

three Hail Mary's and his reward a place in cross stitch heaven.

He's gone beyond minor personalisation and entered the

realms of big time reconstruction work.

Scaffolding at all four corners!

Estimated to have taken over 900 hours to complete

Good on you Dan, more power to your needle.

You can reposition this girl's motifs any time you like.

This actually took so long to complete that the names of
the couple's three children have also been added.

I wonder how many other gentleman stitchers (apart from Dan

and my darling little Kevin) there are out there beavering away in

their sheds whilst listening to their vinyl collections and

knocking back the odd glass or three of fine Burgundy.

Give me a shout if you can bear to put your stitching down

for five minutes. I'd love to hear from you.

Long Dog Samplers