Just finished Mary-sans

You might remember Tchierisu-san's Mary Wigham from when we last saw her at the Paris Opera. Tchierisu-san says she struggled over the color choices. After deciding not to use black, she replaced it with purple, but then the whole polychrome palette became difficult to balance. She worked the outside half-medallions first (remember her joking she will cut a hole in the middle and make a poncho out of it?), but as she worked towads the middle, she was stuck, and as she looked at the creative palettes of others, she was worried hers was not as good. For the last 2 months she has agonized over not having a sense of color. Her husband complimented her by saying it was a "nice palette of pastels", which comforted her very little, until a stitcher friend reminded her that, once framed, the only person who would look at it every day is her husband and if he says he likes it, it must be good!

She has stitched Jacqueline's initials, mine (Saho), and Misa-san's (who recently found out she is expecting, after 6 years of marriage and fertility treatment). Tchierisu-san thanks Jacqueline, the host of this SAL, the Head Girl, her many stitcher friends, and her family. She says she stitched all the thankfulness of her happy stitching soul into this sampler, and the image of each loved one went into each color choice. She is happy to have been part of this worldwide SAL, and hopes to have contributed to Mary's dowry to conserve it for generations to come.

The "squirrel" has a special meaning for her. The latter half of her handle "tchierisu" - "risu" means squirrel. It comes from her husband who calls her "my squirrel". The squirrel on the sampler she stitched with Pomme de Pin overdyed thread - (a horizontally striped squirrel!).

The image of Maplehouse-san's Mary Wigham is small but so is the original. This Mary Wigham was worked OVER ONE on 25ct DMC linen using DMC, Anchor and Olympus threads. The finished sampler size is: 30 x 29cm

By Saho Nogi