Jim Shore Countryside

This project was stitched from a portion of Jim Shore's "Countryside" afghan design.  The original design has 35 rectangles (7 wide by 5 tall) but I stitched 20 rectangles.  (4 wide by 5 tall)   The original design is stitched 9 stitches to the inch on an 18 count afghan fabric but I stitched it 22 stitches to the inch on 22 count hardanger.  The rectangles of the original design are spaced according to the weave of the afghan fabric but I spaced my rectangles as if there were 6 stitches between them.   The original design was stitched with DMC embroidery floss and Mill Hill beads but I just used single strands of embroidery floss.  When I began in June 2010 my intention was to alternate stitching one rectangle and one Christmas ornament.

June 2010



June 25 2010



July 2 2010



July 9 2010



July 14 2010

**

July 19 2010



July 23 2010



This is how far I had stitched by August 18 2010, when I had to put it away and start stitching Christmas ornaments!



I picked up this project again at the end of January 2011 when I was staying with my sister while she was recovering from surgery.  This is how far I had stitched by Feb 18 2011.



My sister died before I put another stitch in this project.  I rolled it up and put it away for awhile.

I picked up again after Christmas 2014. And this is how much I had stitched by Feb 11 2015.



Then I just hade to decide what I want to stitch in the last rectangle.  I knew that I didn't want to stitch the doughnut shaped shrubbery from the original design. I considered just continuing the fence and surround it with grass, or just stitching grass and a few short trees...

I settled on fencing, grass, a sign and some shrubs.

On Feb. 18 2015 as I put the last stitches in this project I realized that it was exactly four years since I had unintentionally abandoned it.