O.k., I’ve finished the upper right hand corner, shown here in a traditional String pre-dawn fuzzy photo:
And here is all that’s left to go:
Just the upper left. You can see I’m finishing out the leaf strip that runs across the entire top. Then I’ll find several smaller strip patterns for the area beneath it. I’ll use two relatively narrow dark strips to set off the space, similar to what I did on the right, then fill in with lighter ones. But they will be different from the set on the right. I used five total there. I might use six on the left. It will depend on what strikes my fancy when I get there. After that the only thing that will remain will be signing the piece in the small blank area immediately beneath the mega-dark strip on the left hand center edge.
I get notes from folk marveling on my rapid progress. But it hasn’t been all that speedy. The first note I posted about this project was on 2 January of this year. I had already been stitching on the piece since around the second week of last December, but hadn’t written about it because I was in the middle of posting my tutorial on graphing line unit patterns using GIMP (November-December 2010). Here’s the first snap of the thing, so you can see the progress since:
To be fair, just the small area I completed yesterday is larger than many contemporary commercial samplers, but even so, a project in a simple technique that takes more than year to finish even when working with daily diligence, isn’t exactly being worked at light speed. Or is being stitched by someone with a day job…
In other news, there are major seasonal celebrations afoot. First is a happy birthday to Long Time Needlework Pal Kathryn Goodwyn -she of “Too many centuries, too little time.” Long may she research and stitch! And I tease readers here again about her forthcoming Flowers of the Needle series, which I’ve had the opportunity to see in preview. It’s worth every bit of slavering, panting anticipation.
Plus it’s Cookie Season again in String Central’s kitchens. That means the obligate ten varieties, plus Panforte again this year. I delight in having an apprentice baker now, and no longer having to staff the entire manufactory myself.
String-Or-Nothing 
What about with a night job? *grin*
I don’t care that you don’t think you are stitching quickly, to me it is still impressive how much you can get done in a short amount of time. Have you started contemplating what you will do next? I know that as I am nearing (kinda) the end of my current project I am already starting planning on my next one.
Bake it all yourself? What was I, chopped liver?