Wednesday, January 03, 2007

American Sampler

My New Year's Day start turned out to be American Sampler by Sandy Orton. I have been wanting to stitch this sampler since the first time I saw it. I almost can't believe I've finally begun! I struggle so much with decisions about what linen to use, what count, what color, cottons or silks, etc. This is why I nearly always simply follow exactly what was used for the model. Way back when, the one decision I did come to was that I really wanted to stitch it with silk. I could see that this was going to be an intensive project, and I felt it warranted the extra cost of silk. That decision made, it was easiest to just stick with the AVS conversion that was supplied. I have been collecting the silk for it for literally years. See, I knew I wasn't going to be starting it for a long while and I didn't want to sink money into it all at once just to shelve it. (How sensible of me LOL...) Now that I've begun, I discovered I left one color off of my check list. I also discovered that I need more of some of the colors than I have now. I remember now that I had found a place, that you could buy silk by the yard/meter. I had taken advantage of a sale and sent them my list. Anything they had full skeins of they sent; if all they had was lengths, then they sent lengths, and anything not in stock I just kept on my list to buy elsewhere. I figured I at least had what I needed to get started, so it was much to my chagrin when I found I was completely missing one of the colors needed for the flower I'm working on. One of the reasons I like this sampler is that it employs other stitches besides cross stitch. The border is done in rice stitch which is done with two colors. It's a cool layered stitch. The bottom layer is done in one color and then the top layer is in another color. There's quite a bit of queen stitches too. I never did decide on what fabric to use. I know someone who stitched it on 40ct and I had toyed with that idea but decided against it because of the large amount of queen stitches. The final fabric choice is one I pulled from my stash, a European linen, natural 35ct Weddigen. It has a very nice hand and is what I would call a dense linen. I got it for a great price and now I wish I had bought more of it. I'm patting myself on the back for using something from my stash. (pat pat pat)

By the way, I have a duplicate of the magazine this was published in. If anyone would like to buy it just send me an email.

7 comments:

Stef said...

I love your start on the American Sampler. I've always admire it, the colors are magnificant. Can't wait to see more of your stitching and progress on it!

Nicki said...

I've never seen this before - it's lovely! Such pretty colours. And it'll be great fun to have all those different stitches.

Wendy said...

That's a gorgeous sampler - I'm looking forwards to watching your progress.

Weddigen linen? That's a new one for me LOL!

Nicole said...

Beautiful start! This is such a pretty sampler! Good luck with your progress!!

Carina said...

What a gorgeous sampler! I love all of those vibrant colors! I'm looking forward to watching your progress on this one!

Laura said...

Ooh. That's beautiful so far, gf!

Anonymous said...

Hello, I just saw that you are stitching this sampler so colourful!!
Is your second magazine with the chart always to sale ??????
If yes, how much could be the price ?
Elisabeth (Behoteguy)

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