Those of you who know me personally know that I never stitch
one project at a time but have several ‘on the go’.
At Sampler Gathering in 2013 Vivien showed us all the
Frances Mary Jones 1862 sampler that she had purchased
and gave each attendee an exclusive chart of it that she had produced.
Prior to the Gathering she had purchased some fabric from me
with the intention of stitching this piece for display at the weekend.
But after working a small portion of the outer border
found that the fabric count was too small for her
to enjoy working it further.
Thus, at the Gathering I provided her with another piece of fabric
and offered to finish stitching the piece
she had begun so that it could be on display
at the next Sampler Gathering -
the first weekend of August 2015.
(I forgot to take a photo of the sampler at the time therefore,
have had to "doctor” a photo so that you can see how much
of the sampler had been done by Vivien when I offered to finish stitching it.
And so - here it is - pictured above at the beginning of January -
sixteen months later - and I hadn't even touched it!
I felt sick at heart as don’t want to renege on my promise.
So much to do - so little time.
Consequently I have put aside my second sample
of our 2015 Mystery Sampler - The Butterfly Sampler
(a sneak preview of some of what I have done of it)
and began working on Frances Mary.
Now - Vivien works her Cross Stitches differently to myself.
That is, the final thread of her cross stitch lies to the left,
whereas the final thread of my cross stitch lies to the right.
There is no right or wrong way to work this stitch. It is ones preference.
The only rule is that when a piece of work is stitched,
all crosses should lie in the same direction.
I thought, “I won’t enjoy stitching this if I have to concentrate
on making sure I work opposite to my usual way of stitching”.
What was I to do?
It would be wrong of me to take out what Vivien had done.
Thus, I made the decision to break the rules!
That is, I would continue working the two rows of red cross stitch border
and the undulating pale green vine as per Vivien’s method
and the leaves and the flowers in the border
and work the remainder of the stitches in the sampler as per my method.
And so this is what I have done.
Have to confess that on several occasions I have had to undo
a portion of the border due to realising I had inadvertently
reverted to my ways of stitching!
The next discovery was the colours.
For the traditionalist, reproduction samplers should be worked
in the colours closest to the original sampler -
but, each time I worked with the bright yellow marigold yellow
and the deep bottle green, I did not find any enjoyment.
Here is a photo of the sampler worked in the original colours -
And so made another decision - to change these two colours -
once again though without undoing all that had been worked.
Thus, the left hand corner of this sampler is as per the original colours
and the remainder of the sampler will be worked in the new colours.
Changes to date are as follows:
flowers on the undulating border vine - red, not bright yellow
leaves on the undulating border vine - softer, toning green
some letters, numerals & bands -
softer toning green rather the bright yellow
softer toning green rather than the deep bottle green
I will probably replace the bright marigold yellow
throughout the whole sampler with either red or the softer toning green
and the deep bottle green with the softer toning green.
All the other colours will remain the same as per the original.
And here is a pic of the sampler to date -
More
pictures in
future blogs as the sampler progresses.
pictures in
future blogs as the sampler progresses.
That’s all for the moment.
