Oriental Lady - Beauty

WHEW!  I had actually finished this LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago!  (Like 2009!) and only now have been able to get it uploaded here!
It's my own fault - I forgot to take a picture before giving it to my sister for her birthday (I was so excited because I had actually gotten it DONE in time for her birthday!) and then it took another four years to get a picture from her because SHE kept forgetting! 

In any case, I did this piece four years ago, starting sometime in 2008 (I think it may have even been in 2007!) and finished it April 2009.  I had been out of work for a couple of months and spent a good portion of my time working on this, sometimes for six hours a day watching reruns on TV.

I think this is one of my best pieces of work to date.  It has very little mistakes in it and I love the colors!

It is from the Design Works "A Cross Stitcher's Oriental Odyssey" book of patterns and was done on 14 count Rustico Aida.  The approximate dimensions were 13 1/2 by 16 1/2 inches.  Many of my relatives loved this pattern, but I won't do it again.  Since I spend so little time cross-stitching now and have so many projects in mind, I told them I won't do anything more than once.  I'm over 40 years old now and time is limited!