When enough is enough

Looking at the copyright date on this canvas last week, I realized to my horror that I'd been sitting on it for almost five years! The poor thing moved from Texas to the Cape on stretcher bars more than three years ago, and I hadn't touched it since. And what has changed since then? Absolutely nothing!

I'd originally thought, after arriving at the point of stitching you see here, that I'd add some beads to the garland above the door and the little trees on either. That didn't work. So I pulled a length of Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #032 and started over-stitching in the two areas. That didn't work, either.

I'm not a huge fan of beating a canvas into the ground with layers and layers of stitches and embellishments, and I realized that was exactly what I had been doing with this canvas. So I've decided enough is enough--here's the newest entry in the Doorways to the Past series: Holiday Home.

Thanks to my good buddy from college days, who provided the model for this doorway when she purchased a former ship captain's home built in Maine in 1836. Since she's never at the house at Christmas time, I asked her if she minded if I decorated it for the holidays, and she replied, "Go for it!"

The house itself was stitched in DMC cotton floss and perle cotton. All the greenery was stitched in Impressions, using either French knots or what I call "free embroidery." The brick path was worked in a modified Scotch stitch with Sheep's Silk--"Lingonberry" is perfect for bricks!--and the front porch was worked in a gobelin stitch using Needle Necessities overdyed floss.