Yes, I love old samplers more than cutsie cross- stitch, although a friend just had a baby and I think she deserves something cute. More on that later, much later.
After that wild and crazy Tom Foolery, I wanted something with more order and symmetry. But, I’m not a big fan of quotes, so while watching Floss-tube someone was working on this, I found the pattern and ordered it. I then learned from Jacob at Modern Folk Embroidery that this is probably from Freisland, the area in Holland he is from.
I want to try 40 count linen, so here we go.
I also want to try silk thread, this is not a huge project, so a good one to use silk on. There is a local needlepoint shop Needle Hearts, I went there. Unlike another shop that will remain unnamed – they are very happy to support people who cross-stitch. Unfortunately they don’t sell the fabric, which is very different from needlepoint canvas – but they do sell a lot of thread. One of the women pulled out all the DMC colors and directed me to the appropriate silks so I could choose my threads. Silk isn’t cheap! I won’t be using the full skiens, so will have some leftover for other projects.
Thread and fabric – ready!
The pattern I bought is a paper pattern, yes, I can use these, but I do prefer using a pdf chart. I love the program PatternKeeper, but you have to start with a PDF that they find compatible. Needless to say while searching online I was introduced to a new program Markup R-XP. Like pattern keeper
, you can try it for a month and buy it for less than $10. After a few days I purchased it.
Someone is going to complain that I put up part of the chart. If someone can recreate the whole pattern from this, more power to them. Btw, designers get upset that when they put out the image of the finished design – someone will go and chart it. So they lose money, but so many take old sampler and rechart them. I understand that designers want to make money, and they should, but I feel that copywriter issues have gone way to far. Today if you go into a shop and film (for Floss-tube or knitting),you either have to be on silent mode or blank out the sound, because maybe in the background musak is playing, and you will be taken down from You Tube for not paying the license to play the music. GRRRR.
Couldn’t wait to get started! I love the 40 count linen, I only need to use one strand of thread, and I absolutely LOVE silk, it’s like buttah!
Making quick progress.
I have learned that before the 1840s, European alphabets didn’t have the letter J, in this case, no Q or X either. Although this one has both the U and V. I wonder if those letters were omitted simply because Ceesie ran out of room. Also, she neglected the 8, but put in 11, 12 to fill space. You have to love a young girl who is working up a beautiful sampler and makes some very personal choices.
Yes, my one thread project is growing. Turns out I follow the designer on IG so I linked her to my progress – she is so happy to see this, since she charted it in 2012. It’s always fun to see someone years latter pick up the project. I am completing the border because I may be off on some counts and I want to built up the bottom of this chart, if I need to make adjustments somewhere in the middle, that will be easier and less noticeable than cutting off the bottom of the pattern.
Leah