A break from the crowdsource project this week. No new designs came in, so unless I cheat and post more myself, there’s no update. Feeling shy about submitting a design – please don’t be! We’re delighted to see your efforts, whether it’s your first venture into drawing a pattern, or if you’re an old pro.

Instead I share progress on my own sampler. As you can see, I finished the last band, described as “sprouting chimney pots” by Long Time Needlework Pal Kathryn:

And Kathryn is also to blame for the new band. She was gracious enough to lend me Kathleen Epstein’s Old Italian Patterns for Linen Embroidery – a redaction of one of the legendary Lipperheide volumes. This is the only design on the sampler that will not be offered in my upcoming sequel to TNCM because it’s in that book. If you’re familiar with the original you’ll see that I have adapted slightly:

My variation differs in the way that the background’s handled. I won’t be working this one voided like the original. I also tinkered a bit with some of the interior elements, the banding for example right under the central cherub. In the original the darker little vertical elements are filled in with cross stitches. Mine uses plain ladder like elements, which I repeat elsewhere in the piece. Thanks, Kathryn! You remain my chief enabler, even after all these years. 🙂

Now where do spaniels and sunsets come in? For spaniels, that’s easy to see: the odd little critter in the lower right hand corner. He’s got a spaniel-like fluffy tail, foot feathers, and floppy ears. Even the stylized dark area on his middle is reminiscent of the classic saddle-area markings on a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (a breed that was fashionable at in the 1500s-1600s.) As I worked him I could almost hear him barking at the cherub that will stand to his right (you can see the cherub’s hand and lower face at the edge of the stitched area). And if you’re eagle-eyed you’ll see the two mini-mistakes at the left hand edge of the completed work. Hint: I’ll be picking out the left hand lady’s upper arm and the hairline of the central angel-face.

Sunsets? That’s implied. This week’s vast amount of progress is brought to you by an impromptu mini-vacation the Resident Male and I took for part of last week – sans children, the youngest being in summer camp and the oldest being trusty enough to leave on her own. Three blissful days of embroidering while watching the tide roll in and out, basking in Outer Cape sunsets, wiggling toes in hot sand, snarfing up some fine food, and enjoying a production of A Winter’s Tale. I am now armed against the inexorable slide back to fall, school, heavy deadlines, December, and snow.

Finally, for folk who landed here looking for Ensamplario Atlantio. (Word is still spreading about it.) It’s here.

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