Mystery updates and a wedding piece remembered

The mystery sampler is officially ready for the first surprise window! I really like the outermost border. It looks like a scalloped stitch, but it's only a row of simple elongated crosses (2x4 threads) with two diagonal stitches over one in a v on one side of the border where the crosses meet. (Does that make sense? I'll draw a diagram if it doesn't!)

Anyway, I was going to move on to Jim Wurth's Hearts and Flowers, but Easter dinner with the family yesterday reminded me that I've got to finish Wedding Row by Bent Creek! My cousin is getting married in the middle of May, and I've got to get this in for framing. Oops! Here's what it looked like before I started working on it today:

Since then, I've finished "s" and "u". (The entire phrase is "Of my love be sure".) As I've said previously, I usually like to work on large pieces or those that can teach me something. Because of this, I don't do a lot of "cutesy" or "country" designs. However, I wanted to stitch something for the wedding, and didn't want to put a ton of effort into it, since I don't know how appreciative they'll be. I think they'll like it and it will be appreciated, but I don't want to risk it with a large/complex piece that will take a lot of time. (I'm sure most of my fellow stitchers will understand!) And I just really liked this piece!

I'm stitching this on 28 ct Cashel linen. I believe the color is "Country Mocha". According to my LNS owner, this is a fairly recent addition to Zweigart's color line, and is painted for a mottled look. See, I did learn something from this piece! I learned about a new fabric! (It's not up on Zweigart's web site yet, though.)

As for the threads, the design calls for Weeks Dye Works (WDW) and Sampler Threads from The Gentle Art (GAST). Knowing I could probably find a brown, 2 reds, blue, and ecru that would work somewhere in my stash, I didn't buy any new threads for this! I didn't want to worry about laying multiple strands of floss, so I was looking for a thread slightly thicker than most flosses. I found it in my collection of Fibers to Dye For silks from Amy Mitten (purchased from Traditional Stitches a few years ago). I'm using Poison Berry and Madame Rose for the reds, Miss Marple Maple for the brown, Mrs. Peacock for the blue, and Point Blank for the ecru. Gotta love Amy's sense of humor! And no, I'm not missing the irony of using these for a wedding piece, but they're gorgeous colors. I'm not going to tell the happy couple the names of the threads, for heaven's sake! :-)