Monday, April 13, 2009

Mandy's Band Sampler

I have finished stitching on another sampler. This one is for Mandy and is part of the Counted thread Round Robin that I am participating in for the Stitching Sisters on-line group that I belong to.
Here is the sampler when it first arrived back in January. Before it arrived, I had thought that I would do some blackwork on it. But when it actually arrived in the flesh, I felt that a blackwork pattern would not quite work at the stage that the sampler was in. So I had to put my thinking cap on & let the sampler talk to me for a little while. The first thing it said to me was colour. There were lots of colours happening already and I needed to work something that would bring all the colours together. So I went through my stash of threads and picked out those that I thought would work in some way, shape or form. I then let my needle go where it felt like going.

In the end I worked eleven smaller rows of stitching, which in the end formed into two bands, one wide & one narrow. The rows were worked as follows:-
1. A row of four sided stitch in yellow ( a colour I only occasionally work in )

2. A row of four sided stitch in green, leaving four threads between the previous row & this one.

3. Removing the four threads left between the rows of four sided stitch & wrapping the remaining threads in an orange hand dyed Perle 12.

4. A row of alternating half eyelets in another green, with the gaps filled in with a third green.

5. A row of alternating half eyelets in the same green as before, with no gaps filled in.

6. A mirror immage of row 5.

7. A mirror immage of row 4.

8. A repeat of row 2.

9. A repeat of row 1.

10. A repeat of row 3.

11. A simple row of a blackwork pattern which I alternately flipped vertically. This row was worked in a deep pink to match work previously done in the sampler.

I think the colours that I have chosen have worked and I hope that Mandy loves what I have done. I know I certainly enjoyed working this sampler & could have continued working on it to the end. Unfortunately this is not how a RR works, but I am now enthused to start a sampler of my own, to work on how I want & how my mood takes me.
Below is a close-up of part of my band. It is amazing what close-up pics show, and no, it is not a mistake, just a loose thread that needs snipping (whew!). For some reason Blogger is playing nasty games & turning things sideways.

6 comments:

NormaH said...

Jenny, the colors and stitching perfectly compliment the previous stitching. A really great piece of stitching.

laura_rose said...

Simply gorgeous!!

Christine said...

Jenny, I really like what you've done. I need to get a move on with the 2 I currently have but hopefully one day I'll get to stitch on this one too.
Hooroo,
Christine.

Mandy said...

Jenny, this looks wonderful! I really love the eyelets they give such a nice contrast.

Joan Elizabeth said...

Hi Jenny, especially for you I'm posting some of my needlework on Burnbrae Journal tomorrow.

Joan Elizabeth said...

Hi Jenny, especially for you I'm posting some of my needlework on Burnbrae Journal tomorrow.