The Kureopatora snake scarf continues. It’s longer, but otherwise
looks the same. I will probably finish it up tonight and post my
how-to thereafter.

In the mean time, here’s another of the embroideries that litter my
house. This one is another doodle – a sampler in the true sense,
done to try out patterns that ended up in my book. It’s done in a
single strand red linen on a linen ground, at about 15 stitches per
inch on linen that’s about 30 threads per inch. The long dark
band at the bottom was done in long-armed cross stitch. The lion,
the knot at upper left, the narrow diagonal band next to it, and the
dark band at the left edge were in more standard regular cross
stitch. THINK was stitched on the count using chain. The
rest of the patterns were worked in double running (aka Spanish Stitch,
Holbein Stitch).

The dense rose corner surrounding the lion is original, the rest
(except for THINK) all have historical precedent, and are all graphed
out in The New Carolingian Modelbook. In general I’m not that
fond of this one. Done as a true sampler as it was, placement of
the motifs was very haphazard. I stitched whatever I felt like
trying out, and if the pattern didn’t fit – I didn’t care (the leggy
grapes are truncated at the bottom edge). I didn’t plan anything,
and the imbalance of the whole thing reflects that.

THINK ended up hanging in my husband’s office for a time. That
company he was working for in ’89 used the heraldic lion as a logo element, which is why
THINK and the lion both ended up on the thing. He’s no longer there and has another,
better embroidery at work now. THINK along with its obsolete logo
has been exiled to the upstairs hallway.