birds and branches

okay i have to stop.

i started this series (huh!) just a week ago -- but quickly became obsessed. since then i have been poring over my re-checked library copy of my favorite book, samplers of the pennsylvania germans, studying the almost microscopic stitches i find in those pages. birds and foliage are common motifs in samplers from this region and often they are paired together. i've spent a lot of time squinting my eyes and making little x's on graph paper to come up with the patterns for this series.


there is so much amazing material and inspiration in this book i could just keep going and going and going! but i'm stopping myself (i think? kinda? maybe?) or else i would just keep on creating patterns and new pieces and i would still feel the same as i do now - like i could almost never be finished with this series.
here's the collection as it stands now:


the only piece missing is the big one -- and i need more floss to complete that one, so i'm stuck for the moment -- and, um, yeah, the four other pieces that i really really want to do but am telling myself not to.