Ancora Imparo Update

The stitching is done on my Ancora Imparo project!

This really was my Christmas present to myself this year. After 407 hours and all that ivory background fill, I was incredibly ready to finish my lovely monster at 22-to-the-inch.

Ancora Imparo is a quote attributed to Michelangelo, the Italian architect, painter, poet, and sculptor. Roughly translated, it means “I am still learning,” which, in my opinion, is a darn good philosophy, especially from someone as brilliant as Michelangelo.I started sketching my first ideas for this pattern back in 2008. I started with the alphabet pattern which is based on the letters in a William Morris tapestry. I really dove into the detailed design of all the other elements in the summer of 2010, and I finally started stitching in August of 2012 [photo to the right is of my first tiny stitch].

I had to take several breaks from Ancora Imparo to work on some other, smaller and simpler projects, but I knew that I would get her done one of these days!

I started from the center and worked to the edges. Outlining the letters was first, then completing each border (except for their background fill) in turn.

Then came all the background fill. And there was a ton of that. Once again, I started with the letters. Then I worked the fill in the inner red, then the light blue, and then the outer red border. As the fill in the center was light colored ivory, I saved that for the last. I’m going to be really honest and say that ivory fill was probably the most tedious part of the project. But by the time I got to the ivory fill, the light was shining at the end of the tunnel for the entire project.

The last step was the green backstitching that ties all the flowers together. I know that I designed this, and that it looked good on paper, but I had no idea how it would look in the flesh. The result is I couldn’t be happier with that green stitching – it really brings the piece together as a whole.

My Ancora Imparo project is just gorgeous. I am thrilled at the result! Months of design work, many, MANY hours of stitching, and my lovely monster is finally complete. Framing comes next, and then I’ll be very proud to display her!

You can look at all the progress photos on Flickr if you’re curious to see more details on how this lovely monster came to be.