This sampler really IS a sampler in the true sense of the word. It’s a place where I play – I don’t worry too much if my stitching is perfect, though I work to improve it. I don’t worry if the colors end up “going,” even failures have something to tell me, and the fact that they are stitched there for posterity reminds me of why not to do things that way again! This isn’t going to end up on a wall, it’s not going to end up in a gallery (at least not in my lifetime), but hopefully I’ll learn something good in the meantime, and later people can learn something from my fun and games. It *does* go to classes I teach with me.
The first motif on this piece of fabric is an Art Nouveau border from one of the Dover books. I worked it in Vineyard Silks Merino thread. I really like the threads from this company. The merino is soft and nice to work with, and the Vineyard Silk Classics are amazing (more on them later). The merino was designed for needlepoint – I think on 14 count canvas, so it is pretty thick to be working on motifs this small. I might use it again for a larger design that needed to be filled quickly. It’s got a nice hand, and a nice sheen when completed.
And I like my color choices here- the alternating pink/turquoise gives a little variety while still keeping a unified theme. This is a border pattern that I could see stitching around the hem of a skirt for spring or summer… but in a different thread, or in a bigger size. We’ll see if I actually DO something like that with it!
As I recall, the motifs are about 2 1/2 inches tall (I’ve re-framed the work, so I can’t go measure it. I’ll try to remember to do it and edit this when I unlace it to move to a new motif!).
It’s important to play with your stitching, as that’s when you find good combinations of stitch, colour, or thread. And if you play on a sampler, it is always ready to hand when you want to study it again!
Exactly. I have more samplers going at one time than I often know what to do with! I find myself wishing recently that I had played with what happens to color when cross stitched over one versus over two on a sampler before I started my bellydancer cross stitch series… but that’s now water under the bridge! 🙂
Lovely interpretation of the design 🙂 I can see it done very small in goldwork, with perhaps couching in the body of the ‘petals’, (I see pretty much everything in goldwork *grin*)