Since you asked: Hannah Thornbush update

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I had been doing a bit of stitching on the Hannah Thornbush sampler from The Essamplaire. A couple of you asked about my progress.

I haven't made a whole lot of headway here. I did manage to finish band 3, and made a bit of a start on band 4.

Almost all of the stitching on these two bands thus far is a version of marking cross. This version of marking cross results in

X|X|X|X|X

on the front of the stitching (that is, crosses with vertical stitches between them). This can also be done in vertical rows with horizontal stitches between each cross, and my piece has both, depending on which is easier to stitch at any given portion fo the design.

The reverse (back) side of this version of marking cross looks like regular cross stitch.

Thanks for asking about Hannah's progress!

Happy Dance: How Great the Blessing

Ok, now it's done. Here is my version of Catherine Theron's How Great the Blessing.

This is stitched on the 36ct linen supplied by Catherine as part of the kit, using Vikki Clayton's Hand-Dyed Fibers regular silk floss and a tiny bit of Rainbow Gallery's Splendor.

I made minimal changes to the design, primarily in the areas designated for personalization, but I also

• placed the birds and squirrels as I liked
• skipped the crown originally over the house (it just seemed odd!)
• left the queen stitch flowers in the large vase open, with just the outlines

All in all, I really like this piece. I think this one will actually get framed rather than finding a home in my closet. (Does anybody else do this?)

Is it done yet?

Here's where I stand on Catherine Theron's How Great the Blessing sampler. In the past week I've added the verse, and the numbers and personalization (with updated dates!) under the alphabet, along with four birds and another squirrel.

Is it done?

Early on in stitching this project, I deliberately didn't fill in the flowers in the large vase and left off the small berry bushes to the left of the large squirrel and the right of the bunny. Now I'm reconsidering.

The sampler doesn't have many blank spaces at the top, and the larger empty spaces by the bunny and squirrel seem to be screaming for something. Maybe those berry bushes would work after all.

What do you think?

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Erin update: Guess who had a birthday on Friday? Yes, already!

The best part about presents? The wrapping paper, of course!

My first decorated cake. Yes, that's supposed to be Elmo. I think I'll stick to stitching.

Erin's "personal" cake. Both cakes were applesauce cake, and they came out yummy.

The aftermath...

Somebody liked cake, but was clearly ready for bed!

WIP: Martha Willkins (from The Scarlet Letter)

Another reproduction sampler is today's featured WIP.  The Scarlet Letter reproduced the 1699 sampler of Martha Willkins.  Actually, I should say that most of the original sampler was charted.  If you look at the original, you'll see that SL left off the cutwork portion.  Whatever.  I still think it's lovely.

Technique/Materials: 17th-century sampler stitches over 2 on a higher-count linen with silk threads, mostly Soie d'Alger from Au ver a Soie.  I think the fabric is 34ct Oaten Scone from Legacy Linen.

Background:  I'm not really sure when I started this.  I think it was around 4 or 5 years ago.  I recall that it was a toss-up between starting this piece and Margret Gatis, also from the Scarlet Letter.  I decided to start Martha mostly because the entire piece is charted over two threads of linen, whereas Margret has some areas of over-2 and other areas over-3.

Why it's not done: I'm sure it was just a matter that other things caught my eye.  I've picked this up a couple of times over the past two years, according to past blog posts, but I haven't really committed to it.

What's left to do:  Most of it. I'm a little less than 1/4 finished.

WIP: Hannah Thornbush (by The Essamplaire)

Today's featured WIP is the Hannah Thornbush sampler, reproduced by Margriet Hogue of The Essamplaire.

Technique/Materials: Various sampler stitches (double running, marking cross, satin stitch, detached buttonhole, and many more I haven't gotten to yet!) on 45ct linen (over 3) using Soie d'Alger and Soie d'Paris silks.

Background:  I started Hannah in June 2009 as part of an online class from The Essamplaire, after seeing a picture of the original sampler. What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment.

Why it's not done: I managed to stitch the first monthly lesson (the first two bands) in just over a month. After that, lack of sleep (from Erin's adjusting to the cast) proved to be non-conducive to concentrating on stitching over-3 on 45ct!

What's left to do:  Um... did you see the picture of the original?

Floating windows and door

(Note:  I actually started this blog post last Monday, and somehow never actually finished posting it.)

It was great. I was actually starting to post again on a regular basis, multiple times in a week. And that's how long it lasted. One. Week.

I really do plan to get back to posting frequently. Unfortunately, I timed my increase in productivity poorly. It just so happened that my favorite author, Diana Gabaldon, released the seventh main novel (as opposed to shorter sideline novels) in her Outlander series on September 22. My copy of An Echo in the Bone (which I preordered when I was in the hospital in January!) showed up last Monday.  Usually, I do most of my "reading" via audiobook, which has the distinct advantage in allowing me to stitch at the same time.  Echo is not yet available in audio, so it has definitely made a dent in my stitching time.  I'm on page 404 today.  Almost halfway through.  Give me another week and I'll be back to stitching and blogging more. 

The little bit of stitching I have accomplished in the past week has been on my Blessing sampler.  Here we have floating windows and a floating door above a brick walkway:

Despite the minimal time I've devoted to stitching this past week, this is actually working up fairly quickly.  Yes, it's over one thread of the linen, but fortunately it's just tent stitch, not full crosses.

(Update: I finished my book yesterday.  Let the blogging and stitching resume at whatever passes for a "normal" pace now.)

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Erin update:  Erin is doing fairly well out of the cast.  She's pretty wobbly from the waist down.  She has to wear her brace most of the time, so she doesn't have much time each day to rebuild muscle tone.  She's just starting to roll over again.

The brace is okay...

But free time is more fun!

Hannah Thornbush progress

Last week I mentioned that band 2 of Hannah Thornbush was complete.Both band 1 and band 2 had satin stitched areas. The instructions stated that the outlining around these areas should be completed before filling in the areas with satin stitching. This isn't the first repro or historic-style sampler I've seen with these instructions.

Is it just me? I find it incredibly difficult to get nice, even satin stitches if I outline first. I'm always fussing about how the satin stitching butts up to the outline. I don't want to cover or pierce the outline, but neither do I want to leave a gap between the satin stitches and the outline.

So I cheat, if you can call it that. I do the satin stitches first. Yes, you have to count very carefully to do this (especially if the design is over three threads like Hannah is), but it seems to make more sense to me. I can put my satin stitches right into the holes along the outline, without having to worry about piercing the outline threads.

Have any of you taken a really good, close-up look at old samplers? Can you tell how they were stitched? I'd be interested to learn about the order of the stitches. I expect the outlines were done first, simply to eliminate the detailed counting of the satin stitches.

Wonderful class with Catherine Theron

You may recall that I took Catherine Theron's Examplar IV in 2007, and finally finished it this year. A couple of months ago, I posted about Catherine coming to town to teach her How Great the Blessing sampler. That class was this weekend, and while I wasn't able to attend for both full days, I enjoyed and appreciated the time I was able to be there!

Back in 2007, I described Catherine's teaching style:

She handled it wonderfully, going over a stitch or two and giving us lots of time to practice and add it to our sampler.

The same was true of this weekend, but it was even more relaxed, since this sampler was originally designed to be taught in a single day. We decided to make it more approachable to those less experienced in sampler stitches by having a two-day class. I'm very glad we did! It was a fun, relaxing class, with enough challenge for more experienced stitchers, but still do-able by everyone. The picture shows my (minimal) progress.

As the education chair of my EGA chapter, I was responsible for making all of the arrangements for the class. With everything that's gone on this year, I'm very grateful to a few ladies in my chapter for contributing some of their time to make this class a success. Thank you to Sharon and Rosemary for taking extensive notes for our "ghost" students, and a very big thank you to Annlouise and Nancy for hosting and entertaining Catherine and picking up the essentials for lunch. (And a big kiss to DH for taking such good care of Erin while I played this weekend!)

And, of course, thank you to Catherine for a fantastic class!

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Erin update: Erin made it through the recasting without needing to be put under anesthesia. They just used Tylenol since she was only undergoing a little bit of manipulation. Immediately afterward she seemed quite sore, but a bit of codeine helped. She came home Thursday afternoon, and has been her cheerful self since, with minimal soreness. Right now she's sitting on my lap, with her hand halfway down her throat. I think she's hungry! :-) Gotta go!

Band 1 and extra thread

I'm doing a mini happy dance because I've finished the first band of Hannah Thornbush. It doesn't look like much, but it's a victory because I actually remembered to consistently stitch over three threads of linen instead of the usual two. Hopefully having the first band done correctly will help make spacing the remaining bands easier.
The other news is that I received more of the light pink Soie Ovale needed for my Floral Rondel. It's not obvious in the picture, but this spool seems a tiny bit lighter than the previous spool. I may need to overstitch some of the existing satin stitches so this color will blend in rather than having an abrupt transition. I'll try it first to see if the difference is obvious.
We'll see if my hands function well enough for me to finish this piece over the weekend. I have an appointment with a neurologist on June 24th. At that time, I'll have a nerve conduction study done to see exactly where the nerves are being pinched. Then the doctor can determine how to treat the problem.

Hannah Thornbush begins

Though the instructions for the first two bands for Hannah Thornbush were posted last Monday, I didn't actually put the first stitches in until Thursday.

Part of the delay was due to a dilemma about mounting this on my scroll rods. The rods don't have the old twill tape on them - just velcro, which means I needed to put the corresponding velcro hooks on my fabric. I'm going to need to cut off the first (and last) half-inch when I'm done to get rid of the adhesive from the velcro tape. I usually take this into account when I have my fabric cut, and allow for a 4" margin at top and bottom. This is one of the pitfalls of a kit. I can't predetermine the fabric margin.

Ok, so what do the instructions say? The first line says to start stitching 2-1/4" from the top of the fabric. If I used the velcro, I'd have less than a 2" margin at top and bottom!

I didn't like this scenario. So, I decided to make extensions on to my ground fabric. I found a piece of Aida cloth that I knew I wouldn't use for anything else. After tacking it to my linen with a line herringbone stitch in a sturdy linen thread, I had an extra 6" margin at the top and bottom. I put the velcro on the Aida, and when I'm done I'll just cut out the tacking stitches, so my linen will still have its full margin. This photo shows the join, as well as my start on band 1.

Some comments were posted to the class list about the difficulty of framing with such a small margin. The teacher/designer (Margriet Hogue of The Essamplaire) wrote back that she'll be providing instructions for hemstitching the border of the sampler. The hemstitched sampler can then be mounted for framing, and a large fabric border won't be needed. I'll decide when I get there if that's what I want to do.

Last week I promised a picture of the kit contents. The colors are lovely. The silks are all either loose Soie d'Alger or Soie de Paris spools. I've never used Soie de Paris before. It's a bit thinner and has much more shine than most other stranded silks. It almost feels like rayon, but it seems to handle a bit better.

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Erin update: Our 4-month pediatrics appointment was last week. She's up to 12.5 pounds, and 22.5" long. Relative to other (non-preemie) 4 month olds, she's in the 15th percentile for height, 30th for weight, and 50th (i.e. average) for head circumference. She's catching up! Just two months ago, she was at 5th, 10th, and 25th percentile for those same metrics.

Her hip procedure is scheduled for July 2, first thing in the morning. We're praying for a first-time fix!

Our most recent pictures are from her christening this past Sunday. You finally get to see what I look like!

A glutton for punishment

Ok, so I haven't quite finished my last online class (Floral Rondel), and I have heaven knows how many projects started and many, many more in my stash, never mind a 4-month old to raise, but I've done it again.

I signed up for another online class. And this one isn't a small piece. It's huge. Really huge. And complicated. It's the Hannah Thornbush sampler from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, reproduced by The Essamplaire.

The materials arrived a few days ago and I've just printed the first lesson. I'll post a picture of all of the yummy silks in the next few days. I can't wait to start!

When will I ever learn?

Catherine Theron class

Please forgive the shameless promotion!

My local EGA chapter is bringing Catherine Theron to town (Rochester, NY) this summer, and there are spaces still open in the class. Please leave a comment on this post with your email address (which I'll delete after replying to you) if you're interested in attending the class or would like more information.

*** UPDATE: "Ghost" students (those who can't be there but would like to do the project) are welcome. We already have a few signed up, but we still have class spaces available! ***

Here's the class information:

During the last region seminar, several of us had the very great pleasure of taking a class from Catherine Theron. We enjoyed the class so much that we’ve invited Catherine here to teach her “How Great the Blessing...” Sampler. Please join us Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19 to explore the wide range of stitches in this lovely sampler!

Here’s how Catherine describes the sampler:

“This glorious sampler is 8¼” X 11¾” (on 36-ct cream linen) or 9¼” X 12¾” (on 32-ct cream linen) and has barely a spot NOT covered by stitching! Queen stitch flowers in vibrant shades of red form the border on this piece. Little (and not so little!) squirrels, birds, and a rabbit run riot on a landscape that includes a giant vase of flowers, rampling strawberry vines, and a sedate house perched over it all. A verse section, alphabet, and a row of pines with a bee skep finish off the sampler. Stitches used include Queen, Upright Cross, Petit Point, Smyrna Cross, Four-Sided, Oblong Cross, Stem Stitch, Chain Stitch, Long Arm Cross, Double Straight Cross, Slanted Satin Stitch, Satin Cushion, and a Leaf Pattern.

My model is worked using Au Ver a Soie Soie d’Alger (silk floss) in vibrant shades of red, green, gold, blue, cream, and brown. Each stitcher will be sent a “threads needed” supply list with silk, DMC and Anchor conversions. Each stitcher will also be sent fabric for pre-basting.

Kit cost includes fabric (either 36-count or 32-count cream linen), needles, practice fabric, instructions, photograph, and charts. Threads ARE NOT included in the kit fee and are up to the individual stitcher.

Extra magnification and/or lighting may be useful. Scroll bars or stretcher frame with thumb tacks or a small hoop is recommended.”

The fine print:
What: “How Great the Blessing...” Sampler class with Catherine Theron
When: Saturday & Sunday, July 18-19, 9AM – 4PM
Where: Gypsum Mills community center in Victor
Bring: Your threads, basted fabric (on a frame if desired), regular stitching tools, plus a dish to pass for lunch on Saturday
Cost: $100 for EGA members, $110 for non-members, which includes the kit (NOT threads), teaching fee, and Catherine’s travel and boarding costs

A deposit of $50 is due by June 1, with the remainder to be paid by July 1.

Happy Dance: Examplar IV

After the trellis motif took so long, I never imagined I'd be completely done with Catherine Theron's Examplar IV by this time!

The strawberry motif worked up fairly quickly. The leaves are all done in detached buttonhole with return. The stem uses long arm cross, diagonal cross, and colonial knots, and the strawberry itself is in tent stitch over 1 with occasional cross stitches for the seeds.

The caterpillar (who seems to be heading for that strawberry!) is also done in tent stitch, and the crown in the lower right corner is in rice stitch.

After these, all that remained were the corner motifs in double-running and diagonal queen stitches, and the personalization.

Catherine had the great idea of personalizing her sampler with both start and end dates. I wanted to do the same, but also wanted to add a bit more detail. After a bit of thought, I ended up with "2007 Mid-Eastern Region EGA" to commemorate the seminar at which I took the class. The "SMH" in "SMH 2009" stands for Strong Memorial Hospital, not that I'll readily forget where and when this piece was finished!

As of tomorrow, I'll once again be working on Joan Thomasson's Celebration Santa, which DH brought in today!

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Pregnancy ticker: 34 weeks, 1 day.
Less than 1 week to go!

Examplar IV progress

This motif is one of the simplest on the entire sampler, but it is so elegant! I can see using it when I need a little something on other pieces. The flower petals are just long laid stitches, the leaves are made up of tied stitches (like very shallow fly stitches), and the center is yet another spiral trellis.

Over the past two days, I've also been working on the strawberry motif in the upper right corner. This motif should be finished tomorrow.

The sampler is getting there! Thank you to Catherine Theron for a design that's doing a great job in distracting me as the days seem to be getting longer here in the hospital!
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Pregnancy ticker: 33 weeks, 5 days.
The doctors tried to confuse me this morning when they made some mention of inducing me on Friday. I pointed out that I'm sure they meant next week. It was pretty funny to see three doctors all spinning around to look at the calendar (with my ticker written on each day) and do a double-take. Oh, yes. Next week! :-)

More flowers on Examplar IV

After lots of over-one stitching, the flower trellis in the lower right corner of Catherine Theron's Examplar IV. This motif took a lot more effort than it appears at first glance. The green bars are outlined and filled with chain stitch. All of the flowers are tent stitch over 1, with backstitch over 1, and the yellow flower centers are tiny spiral trellis with one strand of floss.

This has kept me busy over the course of the weekend! Here's the entire piece so far.The next few motifs should work up a bit more quickly.

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Pregnancy ticker: 33 weeks, 3 days.
Sorry. I know some of you worry when I don't post for a while. Everything's fine. It's just that I've been taking it really easy over the last few days, and didn't want to drag out the laptop. My blood pressure seems to go up considerably when I'm up and about, so I waited 'til DH was here this evening to get the laptop out.

On the other hand, today was the first time the doctors seemed to think that making it to January 30th (35 weeks) was a likely possibility! We're continuing to hang in there!

Examplar IV again

As I mentioned in my last post Examplar IV is now the piece keeping me busy during my days here at the hospital. At left is what it looked like when DH brought it in to me.

The good news is that this piece has lots of detail in it to keep me from getting bored. The bad news is that this means it moves pretty slowly, so there's not much to blog about! In the last few days, I've finished the spiral trellis stitch in the pink flowers next to the butterfly, and I've made some decent progress on the diagonal trellis area on the bottom right. The centers of these flowers are spiral trellis, too!********************************
Pregnancy ticker: 32 weeks, 6 days.
As of this morning's ultrasound, BJ is up to 4 pounds, 4 ounces! We're still hanging in there!

Slow sampler progress

I'm making very slow progress on Examplar IV. The bits of over-one tent stitch, which I'm doing in basketweave, take forever! This is compounded by the fact that I'm using two strands of floss and I'm compulsive about laying any stitches that use multiple strands. (I've tried telling myself that nobody will notice if these tiny stitches aren't laid, but within a dozen stitches I'm reaching for the laying tool because I can tell the difference!)

The red-to-pink blooms in the yellow area are done in spiral trellis stitch. To show this stitch, I'll try to take good pictures of the next flower in progress. I may have to redo the first one because I think I decreased the stitch too quickly as I worked toward the center. It's supposed to have a bit of a three-dimensional effect, but mine doesn't stand out much at all. I think I was over-compensating because my doodle cloth from class ended up with something that looked like a beehive on it because I didn't decrease quickly enough!

A twining vine

There was almost no progress on Examplar IV on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Wednesday was our ANG meeting, and I led another session of stitching on Gay Ann's Mystery in a Corner. On Thursday, I was late getting to the LNS stitch night, and then spent quite a lot of time with the owner trying to figure out how Winds of Color should be framed. With so many vivid colors in the piece, finding a mat and frame that would complement it was very difficult. It was also hard to figure out how something would look with a round cut mat in a square frame, especially since all of the sample mats were the standard right-angle cut. I'm glad we persevered, though, because I think it will be stunning. I'll be sure to share pictures when I get it back.

On Friday night, I worked on the next motif on Examplar IV. Here's where I left it at the end of the day.

I was able to spend several hours stitching yesterday, and made fairly good progress on this. It may not look like much, but the base of each of the flowers is done in trellis stitch, which takes a lot of time and concentration (for me, at least) to come out evenly.

Once again I'm finding that things actually get done when you spend time working on them! :-)

Surely knot!

Sorry for the cheesy title on this post, but I couldn't resist. :-)

I've just finished the bundle of knots below the butterfly on Examplar IV. You can see the very bottom of the butterfly at the top of the picture. The gap between these is for personalization. I haven't figured out what I'm putting there yet.

One of my pet peeves about stitching reproduction and historical-style samplers is the way the instructions usually say to outline first and then fill in the outlines. That was the case with these knots. I often hate outlining first, because then I'm fighting with the outline stitches as I try to fill them in. I think the purpose is to reduce problems with counting stitches, although it may also be more historically accurate. (Does anybody know?)

For the butterfly, I outlined it first, so I didn't have to count all of the tent stitches. I did struggle a bit with the outline around padded satin in the butterfly's body, and ended up stitching the outline on the body again after I finished. With the knots though, I did the knots first, then the outlines. I didn't have a problem counting the stitches in the knots. That's my rule of thumb: If I think I can count it correctly, I'll save the outlining until later.

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On another note, I finally posted my colors for Gay Ann's Mystery in a Corner. They are in this post.

Examplar IV sees the light of day

As much as I love canvas work, working on the Quaker biscornu reminded me I also love working on linen. Because of this, Examplar IV found it's way back onto my lap stand. Before I put it down last, I had finished the strawberry border and started the butterfly. Yesterday, I was able to finish the butterfly.

I made one major change from Catherine Theron's original. I flipped the butterfly right-side up. Catherine explained that her original had the butterfly upside-down because historically the thought was that the butterfly in my orientation would look like it was flying out of the frame. All animals, bugs, etc. on such a sampler would be positioned so they were flying in to the sampler so that the viewer's eye would stay within the frame. I thought that as a sampler designed today it really didn't matter, and that the upside-down butterfly looked like it belonged in some entomologist's specimen collection. I wanted my butterfly to represent one that was alive, thank you.

I've now proceeded to the knots below the butterfly. I've stitched a bit more since I took the picture, and I might be able to finish the knots today during our EGA picnic, if it's not way too hot to stitch!