Happy Early Valentine's Day

I finished up the Valentine's Day Sampler the other night. The cool thing about designing your own sampler is that you can just up and decide when it's done and... stop stitching.
As you can see, it's just a simple band sampler using various specialty stitches. There are no cross stitches in this one.

Sorry about the blurry photo. I used DMC floss, Kreinik #4 braid, Waterlilies silk, and Mill Hill glass beads.

I'm not in love with this little sampler. I don't particularly like the fabric. It's linen that I bought back in 2001 (according to my notes on this sampler.) It's too "rustic" for this project with it's white warp and pink weft threads. I think a smoother, more evenly colored fabric in a slightly darker color would work better.

I also remembered while stitching this, that I don't really like working with metallic braid. I'm not in love with the way it looks, either. I really need to visit my LNS to see what kind of new fibers are out there. I imagine that many new things have become available since 2001!

I will probably mount this on foam core board, back it with a cute cotton fabric and put some cording around the edges. Then I can display it on a little easel for Valentine's Day and then put it away.

So now I'm excited because I can start a new project! I'm trying to decide between a "big" band sampler by my favorite designer, Thea Dueck, or a small sampler by Sweetheart Tree, or a medium sampler (an oldie but a goodie) by Just Nan. I got an unexpected snow day today (the snow was completely expected, staying home was not!) so I plan to make a decision and get busy today.