Sampler WIP: Band 10 Grapes

I've been in a cross-stitching mood this past week, and tore through band 10 on my ongoing sampler-in-progress.  Son says he really likes this one, and hubby concurs.

Grapes and leaves cross stitch band/border

It looks busy but stitches up rather quickly.  The colors are a smidge off in the pic as I had to play with the levels to get it to show up properly.  It is also the first band past the halfway fold on the cloth!  Here's all ten bands.

Sampler bands 1-10

I've picked out a floral band for #11, in (of course) shades of pink.

Band Sampler cross-stitch

Yesterday and so far this morning I've been in a crochet and cross-stitch mood.  Since I still can't post pics of the crochet (they are gifts and recipients are allegedly subscribed here) I thought I'd post a cross-stitch pic for Gloria.  She's said in chat that my cross-stitches look "proper" - that is, all the crosses go the same direction.  I've even had a lady say the same locally, as she held it in her hands.  I'll say again - for the record - my crosses are not "proper" because to do so would use more floss than the haphazard method I do.

Elizabethan band sampler WIP - improper stitches proof

Along with showing my multi-directional stitching ... this also serves as an update on the band sampler.  Since I now have my own copy of the book and no longer need to worry about potential library fines, I haven't been working on it as diligently.  Plus, this band is a bit more intricate than most of the others!  I'm almost past the halfway fold on this band though, and repetition helps speed things up.

At some point, I should post a pic that includes the lefthand side of this sampler ... where all the mistakes are.  Not today though.

Band sampler WIP band 7

While I was working on band 7, hubby came in and saw me putting the "finishing touch" on it, and remarked how much he thought said finishing touch added to the design and made it "Wow".  So I grabbed the digicam to snap a pic to share, and am glad I did:

Adding blackwork style detail to band 7

The book mentions backstitching the dark green curlie-cues on, but other sources say a double-running stitch, also called a Holbein stitch, would be used because so many also did blackwork embroidery (which is supposed to look the same front and back).

Hubby's praise for this floral band makes me think I should use this one to stitch up a hatband for my grey linen sunhat ... although I do have another I am also considering, I need to stitch it out to check the scale first.  I don't want it too wide.

Speaking of the sunhat, I wore it yesterday to the library to return/renew/check out more books.  One of the books I returned was titled Hats Made Easy! and when I handed it to one of the ladies behind the desk, she asked if I had made my hat.  I told her yes, but from a Vogue pattern .... the book is actually a good one but mostly focused on drafting your own hat patterns.  Given my stash of hat patterns, this one - while good - is not useful for me at this point.

I'll wait and make a separate post for my lace-making efforts ... and I started band 9 last night on the sampler. It's a little past lunch time, and I feel productive already today ... here's hoping the energy level stays up!

Band sampler WIP

I finished up band 6 this afternoon, and even got a bit of sunlight to snap a pic of it!  This is actually a lot of fun doing all these different border designs, although I am having a bit of trouble starting the bands out because of color contrast, or rather lack thereof.  Some of these borders are shown on colored cloth, which makes them hard to see on white.  So the lefthand side of the sampler has different colors than the right ... I am only showing the right side for now.

band sampler, first 6 rows

Bands 3,4, and 5 use a thicker thread, similar to the more expensive cotton perle 5 I also have, which is matched to colored aida cloth.  I'm happy the white-on-white band 3 showed up in the pic ... it's hard to see even in person!  Those 3 borders are described as whitework, but after the difficulty seeing it in white I switched to colors.

Before I finished up the last few acorns in band 6, I snapped a pic because I wasn't sure the dark green and black for the acorn caps would show up:

color acorn cap detail - black and dark green

My son said he actually likes the colored acorn design (band 6) even more than the whitework style monocolor acorns (band 4) ... just not enough to have me stitch a band onto his new black backpack.

Now, to pick another border design for band 7!

Try, try again

As y'all recall, I abandoned the first version of the latest cross stitch design after noticing too many counting errors, and mentioned I would redo it with different colors.  I didn't goo too different on the colors - instead of black and red I used dark grey and pink ... and managed to stitch it out without any (*permanent*) errors this time!

cross stitch counted right this time

Everything lined up this time ... although I will confess I had to pull some out and redo.  However this is an improvement to not noticing the counting errors until it was too late to fix.

So now I am up to four completed squares, although the first one is smaller than the other three.  My idea was originally to do up a small wall hanging with four designs mounted on some cotton muslin ... but that was before Hancock put even more of the small kits on the clearance table for only $1 each.  Now I am wondering if I should do up nine total ... although next I want to start a small band sampler for borders of different heights.

It's been a cross stitch week for me, not only because I felt so determined to do this design correctly, but because I have sounded like a bowl of Rice Crispies ("Snap-Crackle-Pop") pretty much all week.  I do have a sewing project ready to cut after trimming the pattern and picking out the mockup fabric ... I just haven't felt up to cutting it out yet.  So, once again, I am saying: "Hopefully tomorrow!"

Now for the close-up of the latest cross stitch for those interested:

Cross stitch - it reminds me of wrought iron

Cross stitch ain't always easy

... and I take back what I said in chat about counted cross stitch being more forgiving than freestyle/surface embroidery now.  Even threatening to take my socks off to count (since all my fingers are busy with cloth, needle, and floss) didn't help on this project.  I managed to pick a design even more intricate than the thistle flowers on my English rose design ... and while I messed up one corner design I figured I could just get the other three right.  Oopsie!

Here's the pic of the piece I am abandoning due to multiple mistakes (marked by red "X"s)

multiple counting errors in cross stitch

So I have a new square of Aida cloth hooped up to start this one all over.  I am going to use different colors, as I discovered I don't have as much black floss as I thought in all these clearance cross stitch kits.  Hopefully I get this new version counted correctly, because I really do like the design and want an example/sample of it.

Since I call my mistakes "learning opportunities" what have I learned other than counted cross stitch isn't always easy?

1. I need to stick to easier designs when on my good pain meds.
2. Dark color charts are difficult to read ... I may need to get one of those magnetic boards with a line bar magnet to keep track of where I am on it.
3. On difficult or dark (or both) charts I should probably count three times instead of two.  Then again, even that doesn't help when I accidentally skip a line.
4. Definitely let the floss untwist more ... those twist-tangle knots are extremely irritating.

On the bright side, I received my own copy of The Embroidery Stitch Bible.  I like it enough to buy one, and returned the library's copy yesterday while renewing the Elizabethan Cross Stitch design book I am working out of.  I checked out another embroidery reference book to peruse, Embroidery Techniques & Patterns by Marie-Noelle Bayard.  So far I've only skimmed the table of contents, so no opinion on the actual book yet.  If any of y'all have it or have read it, I'd be interested in your opinions of it.

Now to choose a color I have a lot of on hand this time ...

Still cross-stitching instead of sewing

Since hubby got off work early, we combined errands ... and now I'm wiped out again.  I could have sworn the temp hit triple digits while we were out, but the weather page is saying only the heat index did.  So instead of pulling out a sewing machine, I finished up my current cross stitch:

Strawberries motif cross stitch

This one is page 94 in Elizabethan Cross Stitch by Hammet, and the other night while surfing around I stumbled on the original it is based on ... the pattern apparently was first published in 1598 in the Jane Bostocke Sampler and was a blackwork design.  Nice webpage on it here, with the blackwork pattern plus a modern stitching of it.

I made a counting error in the top left leaf, but that is mostly covered up by the second green which does not have enough contrast (second oopsie).  So I left two of the leaves "open" ... and as luck has it, those two were done right.

On the same page as this strawberry motif is a very similar design with acorns and oak leaves.  I'm tempted to do that one up also.

I have declared tomorrow a sewing day, because as I was out and about bareheaded today I realized just how badly I need another sunhat with my hair cut short.  Hubby is also wanting a lay-about-the-house day where we don't hassle with errands ... so I may finally break out a machine.

Oops, one more pic of the strawberries, a little larger for Gloria:

Elizabethan era strawberries motif

Still no sewing

I'm beginning to think I need to hide out in the Witness Protection Program just to get some quality time with my sewing machine.  Before I get rolling on my vent about this, I should note that I have been going great guns on the latest cross stitch project in the evenings and a bit in the morning while chugging down coffee, so there IS a needle moving this week ... just not any of the ones loaded into any of my machines.

So Monday I hinted at some "life" happening ... an appliance I ordered online was scheduled to be delivered in the afternoon so I couldn't leave the house until that was taken care of.  About an hour after getting the call to schedule a delivery window, my son came home and announced my car now had a flat tire.  *Sigh*  Once the portable dishwasher was inside and out of its box, hubby came home to change the tire, and we discovered a jagged hole in the sidewall of the flat.  This was of course after many tire places were closed.

So I spent Tuesday afternoon getting new tires on the front of my car.  While waiting, I got my hair cut short.  I still don't have a pic of it yet - hopefully tomorrow.

Wednesday afternoon and early evening involved braving Crashville traffic to pick my friend up from the airport ... with his flight scheduled to land during the rush hours.  I've never understood why it's called "rush hour" when even the interstate traffic is often at a complete stop!  I took my cross stitch with me in case his flight was delayed (it wasn't though).

As for today, we just spent another six hours trying to locate a car for my friend after the sudden demise of his last car right before his vacation.  This is on top of five hours of car hunting before he left on his trip.  I never thought I'd see the day when it is a challenge to find an ugly-but-running small beater car for daily driving - especially in this army post and college town where there are arguably as many used car lots as there are bars!  It may have been quicker to locate hens' teeth ... but we finally accomplished the mission, just in time to get soaked in one of our infamous summer squall thunderstorms.

Tomorrow I only have two errands planned, with a third as "maybe" ... so hope springs eternal that I will FINALLY get to sew together the sunhat pieces.  I really do want to get it sewn up, as right now my only sunhat is a screamingly obvious "Florida tourist!" one that I had to buy down in St Augustine, Florida once I realized just sunscreen wasn't keeping me from sunburning.

Cross your fingers and knock (or touch) on wood that I can finally power up one of my sewing machines.

Elizabethan rose cross stitch done

Not what I planned to post up as finished, but here it is:

Elizabethan rose cross stitch design

Obviously I made no progress on the sunhat idea.  A whole lot of life got in the way today, along with my back still acting up.  I can always hope for tomorrow to sew ...

Just for the observant (and history geeks!  LOL) this isn't quite a Tudor rose.  The Tudor rose has a white inner rose with the red outer rose.  On top of that, I just couldn't do red thistles like the book showed ... to my USA-born and raised eyes, thistle flowers should be a light purple/lavender color.  The first thistle flower was a challenge, but they did get easier and faster to do.

In-progress cross stitch Elizabethan rose design

So yesterday I was playing with my new iron, some linen, and pattern tissue.  I took a break after lunch to run an errand to WalMart, intentionally going the one that is located two blocks from Hancock's Fabrics, with the goal of scoring all the rest of the $1 clearance cross stitch kits like the one I had already stitched up.  After completing the dreaded WM run, I headed into Hancock's, and was delighted to see a local unadvertised sale flyer as I walked in ... not many things make me happier than to see a better sale on the stuff I am going in to peruse!

While leaning over to inspect items on the bottom hang rack (barely a foot off the floor) I moved wrong and my back started hurting.  Oops.  I didn't even spend 20 minutes inside Hancock ... which was pointed out to me at the register.  Returning home, I hit the pain meds and waited for them to kick in ... and waited ...

As I mentioned in my previous cross stitch post, hand embroidery is something I can do when my back is acting up.  Since my meds didn't kick in enough to return to linen and pattern tissue, here is an in-progress pic of what I accomplished yesterday evening:

Elizabethan rose cross stitch design in progress

What you see is page 93 of the Elizabethan Cross Stitch book I checked out from my local library.  Since there is a limit to how many times I can renew it, and we are planning large nonsewing projects for the house instead of hobby purchases, I am going to attempt to work all the designs in this book that I like and keep them on hand as samplers ... the historic purpose of samplers.  I'll probably transform these small ones into a wall hanging, incorporating the decorative purpose of samplers into it ... but my goal is to have the patterns on hand to work from after the book of patterns is returned (and someone else grabs it up).  Meanwhile, to relatives and close friends reading this: This book is on my wishlist for the holiday and birthday season!

Along with pretty motifs, there are also border patterns that I will make into a traditional band sampler, and be able to use on future garb projects.  There's even some lovely Elizabethan blackwork patterns, which was used for fancy smocks and shirts.  Those are definitely "must-have" for when I get to a really fancy outfit like a court gown!  I haven't even begun to intentionally brainstorm on garb uses for these designs yet ... just trying to get ones I really like onto Aida cloth for future reference right now.

The good news is today my back is feeling good again, so it's back to playing with linen and patterns ... I'll post something on that project later on as I don't want to interrupt the mojo too much for this afternoon.  I'd like to achieve some progress, as it's been a while since I've posted a completed sewing project!

Cross stitch and hand embroidery

Maggie has been waiting (im)patiently for this post for the past couple days, because she is still floored by the idea of me doing hand embroidery when I just don't like hand-sewing in general.  But earlier this week (or was it the end of last week?) I hit my local library in search of fitting books, since I do need visual help with that, and stumbled on more textile craft books than you can shake a stick at.  That combined with a massive clearance sale on needle arts supplies at Hancock have nudged me back into this idea ... and let's just admit that my embroidery machine is the high-tech way of mimicking hand embroidery.  Ok, ok ... the pic:

Cross stitch - Tudor period design

That is my little piece of "Can I still do this after all these years?" cross stitch and page 88 of Elizabethan Cross Stitch by Barbara Hammet ... which is a truly inspiring book for a Ren Faire geek like me!  All the designed are sourced to extent originals, including a large sampler.  Given its price tag, check your local library first.

I used to do counted cross stitch, after graduating from plastic canvas needlepoint and what is apparently called "surface embroidery" as a kid.  The last time I can remember doing cross stitch was either my freshman or sophomore year in high school, when I drew a design onto graph paper to make my own.  I chose something small ... mostly because the kit I picked up off the clearance table for $1 had a 3x3 inch aida cloth and a little hoop/frame.  If I had bought the hoop by itself, it would have cost me $3 ... instead I got cloth, floss, hoop, and even a needle in one cute little kid's pack.  Have I ever mentioned just how much I love a good clearance sale?

Now for another local library find: The Embroidery Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden.  This one does not appear to contain any patterns or designs - just all the different stitches.  A whole lot of them ... more than I knew about, that is for sure!  Even better: the version my library has is hardback spiral-bound, so it will lay flat open to easily refer to while both hands are holding cloth and needle.  It has both how-to diagrams as well as pictures of what the finished work should look like, great for visually-oriented folks.

Now, for the truly important question: How many times can I renew these books before my local library says I must turn them back in?  LOL

Last note on the whole "I can't believe she's hand embroidering" bit ... when my back acts up, I cannot even sit in front of my sewing machine (much less cut anything out!) so if I want to get any progress on those days, it's hand-work in my ergonomic computer chair or nothing.  Of course, the big trick is how to keep my embroidery floss away from my nosy cats.

For those of y'all who want some immediate gratification, I have an awesome link: Needlework Tips & Techniques.  It doesn't have as many stitches as the little "stitch bible" but it does have quite a bit, including some free patterns to download and print for those of y'all who can keep a printer working.

(Amazon link note: Yes, I am an affiliate and have been for about a decade now.  I get 1-2% commission on Amazon purchases made through my links ... given the price tags on several of the books on my wishlist, I could use all the help I can get!)