Yippee! America Land That We Love is finished!!
This is a big project, 189 by 339 stitches! I have not washed or pressed it yet since it is likely that I will find something that needs to be adjusted.
I started on September 18, 2021 and finished on September 4, 2022. It is stitched one over one on 40 count linen called Vintage Cream from Dixie Samplar using DMC. For those that count stitches, this is 31,136 stitches (more or less). Each cross stitch is counted as one, each backstitch is 1/2 stitch and each french knot is one stitch.
There are a handful of changes that I made starting with the border around the top and bottom banners, for those I used 336 for the cross and 823 for the back stitch. The signature blocks were also changed but I forgot to write down what I used.
For the top banner I changed the hearts to stars.
Delaware is the only place that I used two strands for the backstitch. The instructions called for two colors in the needle and I did that, all other backstitch was with one strand.
The color for all signs including “tomato” in New Jersey were changed to the darkest shade in the same color family. I tried it as charted and the words disappeared, then I tried two strands and it looked too bulky and out of place, then I tried the darker colors and am happy the the result.
A kind member of the SAL group told me that her chart had a french knot at the top of the tea kettle for Nevada (it was missing on my chart). Thank you Dee, I like the way it looks! On North Dakota, the deer was charted with 3 legs and I originally stitched it like that but just had to add the missing leg.
We used to own a small John Deer ride on mower and so I had to change the tractor in Oklahoma to green and yellow.
For Utah, I changed the backstitch train wheels to round them out and on Virginia I stopped the fence on the right at the brickwork. The color for the heart in Wisconsin was changed to look a bit more mac-n-cheese but I think it really looks more like butter, I like it.
I think that is it!
Back to building and stitching smaller projects….
Stay safe, wear a mask and get you vaccines!
needlearts ... and beyond 