Vintage UFO finished

This is how close to summer we are today. Birch leaves are "mouse's ears", the size of my pinkie fingernail.

The strangest thing happened. I finished my summer embroidery before the summer even came here. This was an old UFO from my dear Great Auntie Saima, passed down to me by my mother several years ago. It was half done, and some blue perlé thread was wrapped in it. I don't remember whether mother gave me the missing floss from her own stash, maybe I bought the variegated yellow, red and blue when I got the bag with Saima's handicraft things. Anyway, the bar codes show that the floss is newer than the original kit.

Earlier this spring I took the tablecloth kit from the bag and started working on it in the evenings, when I felt like it. Here is where I started:

The stitching was fast and easy, all six strands of the floss were used for the flowers and leaves.

I needed to buy some orange floss for the dots and green for the border pattern.

       

I thought I will sign this for both of us. My mother was almost certain that the kit is from 1920's or 1930's, because she knows her aunt Saima did not embroider things like this in the 1940's or later. So I wrote: SAIMA started around the 1930's, Ulla stitched the other half in 2010.

    

And here is our summer tablecloth, washed (the blue pattern print did not yet come out) and ironed:

All I need now is the summer, a garden table, a patio for it, and sunshine. The tablecloth is waiting! I'm waiting for summer.