There's a Certain Satisfaction

 That comes from finishing a project you started 25 years ago.

The pattern is Liz Turner Diehl's Cider House Garden. I started it all the way back in law school, but exams, the theater group, and, uh, socializing kept me from finishing it. I found it again a couple of years ago and, determined to finish it, I began working on it every fall. This spring I did a final push to finish the borders and it's done!

I used the called-for threads, and now I have a bunch of Madeira threads I probably won't use again; I'm a DMC gal. I did switch some colors around (the red and green quits were too Christmasy) and used more specialty stitches than the pattern indicated. Finally, because I was ready to be done, I simplified the border. 

Let's hope it doesn't take me another 25 years to frame it.