With an extended time sitting in one place and thinking yesterday, I’ve come to design decisions on the direction for the Permission sampler.

  I’ve decided to do another bank of two solid columns of multicolor narrow strip bands above the motto, and finish out the top with either the same pomegranate border used at the bottom edge, or a coordinating one with pine cones, of the same size and visual density – also in the blue. 

Progress is obvious since the last post.  I finished the red voided buds with the grid-background at lower left, and marched the pomegranates across the entire width of the piece.  I also did a quick strip of acorns over the words (aligning with the strips below), and I’ve begun on a yellow and red interlace and quaternary rose strip above that one.  I’ll do a monochrome design above the red/yellow, probably green and relatively narrow. 

As you can see, I am just ripping along.  The large stitches on this one (it’s only 30-count stitched over 2×2), plus the sit-on frame that frees the second hand to pass the needle underneath the work are helping me to set local house records for sampler production.

Am I liking the thread?  Yes and no.  It’s “man made silk” and at least 20 years old before I bought it. Possibly even older.  It’s thin and unruly, and needs extreme waxing to make it behave.  My little beeswax block is being whittled down, slowly but surely on this one.  I do like the sheen of the faux silk – even waxed.  What I like less is the damage of age – brittleness, and a tendency to shred.  Some colors have aged better than others.  For example, the yellow I am using now is very prone to breakage, and must be treated gently, stitching with very short lengths.  By contrast the red and blue are horse-strong, and far less likely to snap or denature.  Perhaps my yellow is “elderly” compared to the other colors.  In any case, I do notice that working with it does take longer and is more fiddly due to the short lengths and stops/restarts after an inopportune Thread Damage Event.

Questions answered:

These are from my inbox, about this project or stitching in general.  Feel free to post questions here or write to me – kbsalazar (at) gmail (dot) com.

1.  Do you decide on your patterns before you begin?

Not really.  I pick them on the fly.  On some pieces I stick to a style or unified theme, but often I just thumb through looking for something that has a pleasing contrast with the designs around it; like layering a geometric next to a floral, or using something with a lot of curves next to something that’s strongly angled.

2.  Do you prepare your cloth?

I do now.  I’ve had some projects that might have been better composed, but because I didn’t clearly mark my margins or centers, I lost track of where I was.  Now I outline my stitching area, plus it’s center and quarter-center marks both horizontally and vertically.  I use a single strand of Plain Old Sewing Thread, in a light color (in this case – pastel blue), basting it in to indicate those lines.  The basting itself is rather haphazard.  For example, I do not bother to make my basting stitches over the same number of threads as an aid to counting later.  Others do.

I also hem my cloth.  I used to use other methods of fray prevention (deliberately raveling out a half inch or so, a line or two of machine stitching, serging, or in a moment of poor judgment – tape), or not bother at all.  However I find that I now prefer the finished edges and mitered corners of a nice, even hand-done finger-folded hem.

3.  Will you be issuing a kit for this or any of your other projects?

Probably not.  Definitely not for a composed kit, complete with thread.  There are too many things I want to stitch myself to sit down and figure out thread consumption, buy fabric and thread in bulk, compose the kits, and do inventory management and fulfillment.  That would suck the fun out of the thing, for sure.  I might consider releasing full, drafted charts for some of the smaller projects like bookcovers for small standard-size notebooks or needle case/biscornu sets, but that also would eat up time I’d rather spend on my own work, or researching and drafting up new designs.  I see myself sticking mostly to reference books of patterns and designs, and leaving employment of those designs to the readers.

4.  Where are the snails?

One of the folk who visit here has noticed that I put snails in almost every sampler I do.  Not every single one, but I do use a variant of this design from my first book on most, especially those for family:

I haven’t gotten to the snails yet, but they are on the list for this project, too.  Possibly next – the green strip I’m thinking of doing just above the current bit.