Tired of landscaping...............

Finally – time to share some progress on my Pride & Prejudice sampler! You can see on my right sidebar in my WIP photos where I was last time I posted an update on this – I had just finished stitching the house at Netherfield Park, the home of the famous Mr. Bingley. Well I have been busy over the last month doing lots of ‘landscaping’. It sure takes a lot of time even though I had made notes on what I wanted to do. I have added a formal garden from a Prairie Schooler chart, a fence from another Prairie Schooler chart, a lovely fountain from one of the cottage series by Elizabeth Designs, some grapevines inspired by a Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers pattern (had to chart my own as theirs wouldn’t fit), and finally Mr. Bingley his very self from an old Sudberry chart. So here is the finished vignette and a photo of the estate used in the 1995 movie. I hope he’s happy with what I’ve done with his estate. I have the hardest time getting the color right on my photos - it's so frustrating! I need a class on digital photography!


Here's a close up look at Mr Bingley at the entrance to Netherfield and his photo from the movie.

I’ve also added some grass here and there around the Bennett sisters’ home and a front walkway you can see below. The trouble with not working from a set pattern is you keep finding more things to add – a bird here, some flowers there, more grass here, etc. I'm still tweaking little things here and there. I am getting worried about fitting in all the rest of the things I had planned for this sampler but will just see how it goes. I’ve sized some of the objects on graph paper and been playing around with the layout but unless you really sit and chart the whole thing out (way too much work!) you aren’t totally sure what is going to work.

Here’s a photo of the whole sampler so far – I think I am close to halfway done! It measures about 19" wide by 16" tall.

The next portion I’m going to be working on the lower right corner where I’m placing Lizzy & Darcy as a couple. Last year I bought a cute pattern on eBay from a lady who has created several charts inspired by Jane Austen themes and I’ll be using Lizzy & Darcy from that chart. I believe this designer only sells her charts on eBay but if you like Jane Austen themes you may want to check them out. http://stores.ebay.com/West-Wind-Cross-Stitch-Designs

Also if are a fan of the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice I recommend this book on the making of the movie. It's not very expensive - got mine on Amazon - and it has a lot of great photos and details about the locations they used for the filming, the costumes, etc. This is my favorite photo of the modern-day actresses taking a break while filming - so unlike the ladies of the era! Note that one of them is doing needlepoint - yeah!