The Piece That Never Ends

Do you have one of these in your WIP pile?  A piece that you started with the best of intentions, but just can't seem to focus on and finish...yet you aren't ready to discard it completely?

For me, it is "Family Treasure III" by Told in a Garden/Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum.   I started it in February of 2015, and have worked on it, bit by bit, ever since.  On 28-ct fabric, it is about 5" wide by 30" long, and you'd think working bands that are only 5 inches wide would be quick work...but no.  Not at all.  Tons of color changes, and space between stitches that means stopping and starting threads...ugh.  Lots of times I'd pull it out, put in one length of thread, and then put it aside again for weeks.  I modified a few bands, added some beads here and there, and kept trying to make it more fun, because I really DO like the look of the finished design.

And today I realized that I've almost reached the bottom portion, with the design I've been looking forward to for...well...years...  SQUEEEEEE!

That bit of stitching at the bottom is the top of the "bower" that arches over the lady at the bottom of the picture (the picture from the pattern is terrible - dark and tiny - blame the 1980s).  If you enlarge the picture, you can see some of my changes in this section - the white beads in the border, the pink beads in the flower bouquets, and the gold beads in the centers of the yellow flowers.  And the Rhodes heart - because I just couldn't stitch the 1980s-style heart there.  In a section farther up I changed hearts to lazy daisies, and in the bit below the lady's skirts I'm planning to do Algerian eyelets.  Hearts in sampler bands aren't my thing, obviously.  But the lady is my favorite bit, and then the lovely scrollwork at the bottom.  Hooray!