I purchased Quaker Compass either the year it was released, or the year after, while attending Celebration of Needlework. Karen Kluba had her booth set up at the retreat with all of her gorgeous models, and I fell in love with it.
Quaker Compass by Rosewood Manor (image is a little warped from the cover of my chart, sorry!)
Quaker Compass oddly represented a compass when I started it – a journey I had no idea I was about to partake. I started it over the 4th of July weekend in 2012. A couple weeks later, I learned that I was pregnant with Max. That compass definitely represents more than I thought it would!
I was itching to use Threadworx’ variegated floss on something, and decided that Quaker Compass would be my attempt. I grabbed the large skeins of #1157 and decided I would work the large motifs in the Threadworx, and then start working smaller motifs with a mix of the Threadworx and DMC solid floss colors featured in the variegation.
Quaker Compass by Rosewood Manor as of May 1, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on 36ct Sterling linen by Picture This Plus with Threadworx #1157
Quaker Compass was put on hold for a bit once Max was born because I wanted to get his birth sampler done. Little did I know that the boy variation of To Have a Child was charted in the same colors as Quaker Compass. I’m doubly glad I decided to do this one a bit different. Will it work? No idea. But since purple and green are my favorite colors – I’ll be happy with it even if it’s a hot mess of color.
I have no real timeline for this one, but I think once I get the full outer border done, it’s going to move quite quickly since the other motifs surrounding the central compass are quite small. It’s my quirky, completely untraditional Quaker sampler. I can’t wait to see how it looks finished.
One of my bucket list items is to eventually learn how to do Hardanger embroidery. I’m getting there – I took the plunge in 2021 to cut threads for the first time, but I need to do some practice scrap work to figure out Dove’s Eye stitch and some of the other wrapped bars.
Enter Victoria Sampler charts… which are well known for their use of Hardanger at the bottom of their band samplers…
Jazz Sampler by Victoria Sampler (Thea Dueck)
In 2014, I received a copy of the Jazz Sampler by Victoria Sampler as a door prize at the Stitcher’s Hideaway Winter Escape retreat. It also included the floss pack. I loved the piece, given my love of music, and knew that eventually I’d want to stitch it. Not quite yet, though. At that time Max was only a year old, sleeping was still a luxury, and I was just barely able to stitch my basic stuff – Hardanger was not in the cards!
Fast forward a couple years, and I thought it was time to get it going. I had fabric ready to go, had project bagged it (the “now it’s official” move), and I had it in my “will start in January…” batch. But then it didn’t happen… and didn’t happen… and didn’t happen.
Finally for the #NYE12x12 (New Year’s Eve 12×12 stitch-a-long) in 2021 hosted by Just Keep Stitchin’ on FlossTube, I decided to just get it going. Didn’t matter if I only put a few stitches in. It needed to start. With the basic outline of one house, it was underway before the ball dropped in Times Square.
Jazz Sampler by Victoria Sampler as of May 1, 2023. Stitched per instructions on 28 ct ecru evenweave with charted silks.
I feel like getting this first band of houses done will be the hardest part until I get down to all of that cutwork. I always struggle with the first batch of motifs in any project before I get into a groove on a piece. Jazz Sampler will move quickly into a series of less intense bands. The people are fairly blocky with color – not as many color changes to progress as there are with these houses.
And if I don’t feel comfortable with the Hardanger by the time I get to the bottom? Well… I can always leave it off. 🙂
No timeframe for finishing this one – I imagine it’ll fly pretty quickly once I get into the groove on it. I’m not quite there yet, though.
This week’s WIPGO brings us to a project I took as a class in 2018 at Celebration of Needlework. Jeannette Douglas was there, and it was the first time I can recall seeing her since my fun class in Mystic in 2011. The Celebration class was for her Love to Stitch Box – one in a series of little compartment groupings that she has designed and published over the years.
Love to Stitch Box by Jeannette Douglas
Our class kit came with everything to finish the project – including the box tray. Like my Four Seasons of Mystic years earlier, everything was tidy and well labeled and easy to read. If you ever have a chance to do a class with Jeannette – do so. She is an absolute gem and a wonderfully relaxed, welcoming teacher.
I started my piece in class with everyone else and had a happy little acorn done. It quickly stalled after Celebration because I was focused on completing Four Seasons of Mystic. My rotation at that time had organized into “try not to have more than one design by any designer going at a time,” due to the glut of Wentzlers I had stacked up in progress. So Love to Stitch would have to wait – Four Seasons was the project in rotation, and I could get back to Love to Stitch once it finished in 2018.
But then 2019, my energy was drawn to finishing two other big projects – Max’s birth sampler (To Have a Child- Rosewood Manor) and Teresa Wentzler’s Floral Bellpull. And then the Steotchalong grabbed my attention to stitch on the Golden Girls mystery. And suddenly it was 2020.
And… well, we know what happened there.
I picked the project up again in 2021, and quickly made work of most of the main Love to Stitch square. I finished everything but the border. I was convinced that I would get it all done that year – so much so that I actually dated the piece. (that was arrogant of me!)
And then it sat again as I plowed through some other pieces.
Love to Stitch by Jeannette Douglas as of May 1, 2023 – stitched 1 thread over 2 on 32 ct Legacy linen from Picture This Plus with charted silks
Between WIPGO and Stitch Maynia, my goal is to get that border done. The stitching on the other pieces for the box will not be as intense. If I can finish up this one, I’ll be very, very happy.
Hoping to have this done by the end of the year or early next year at the latest. And then the finishing will begin… 🙂
I’ve told this story before… but it’s been deleted in the Great Blog Purge… My Teresa Wentzler addiction has existed since about 1990, when I first laid eyes on a stitching chart featuring a dragon posing over a castle. I was 15 and at either the Ben Franklin craft store in West Park Plaza or Hancock Fabrics in Billings, Montana, where I grew up. I’d started stitching four years before and only finished two small bookmarks, but this piece just grabbed me. It was the first stitching piece that I knew I absolutely needed to stitch. And so I bought the chart. In the next couple weeks with allowance money I got the fabric (Aida!!!), all of the floss, bobbins, and bobbin box… and off I went. I didn’t know blended threads were supposed to be intimidating, or that even Wentzlers were supposed to be intimidating. I just loved the pattern. It’s just X’s right? A whole ton of them. Oh – and some weird fractional stitches. And a crapload of backstitching. But no big deal. It’ll be the same idea as those little Dale Burdett bookmarks I did, just on a bigger scale… right?
(this is where 2020s me says… “Oh Measi… you sweet summer child…”)
It took me the better part of 16 years to finish The Castle – with stops and starts for moves to college, accidental packing it in a storage facility for a while, etc. But it was finished. And it finally was framed last year. It’s all about the journey, right? 🙂
Well… that was just the start of the insanity.
The second Wentzler I ever fell in love with was Egyptian Sampler. And that’s this week’s feature for May’s WIPGO picks.
Egyptian Sampler by Teresa Wentzler
One of the other fascinations I’ve had since childhood is ancient Egypt. Mummies, pyramids, the deities (Blessed Bastet and Sekhmet, watch over me…) all of the carvings and painted reliefs… I loved all of it. Even today, if there’s a National Geographic or Smithsonian special on ancient Egypt on the TV? I’ll watch it. The complexity of the society, the technological advances for the age – I find it absolutely amazing.
When the Egyptian Sampler came out in 2001, I purchased the pattern when I first laid eyes on it. I knew I wanted to stitch it. At the time, though, I didn’t know that it was okay to have more than one project going. And of course, I still had The Castle in progress. At that point it was still pretty far from being done. So the chart was put away for “someday.” And it quietly sat.
Fast forward a couple years. I’ve met and moved in with Erich. I decide to do my first ever trip to Plymouth, Massachusetts because I have this strange invention called a car for the first time since I moved to New England. There’s a cross stitch shop in Plymouth called the Sampler Needlework, and I’ve wanted to check it out for years – but had no way of getting there until now.
When I went to the shop, they had bolts of linen. (it comes on bolts?!?) One of the linens was a gorgeous antiqued/aged style that looked like some old scroll that had come out of a tomb. I knew immediately it was perfect for Egyptian Sampler. This was before I knew what a floss toss was – I knew it just had to be the one. The shop owner helped measure and cut the fabric for me.
On that trip I also purchased my copy of I Love New England, BTW. It was a very fruitful trip for big projects!
And now the pattern and the fabric were collected together in a poly envelope. Where it continued to sit – because I still hadn’t learned it was okay to have multiple projects going.
Finally, in 2005, I started it. I got through the center large cartouche motifs. And then it stalled due to the backstitching, and then having Max… and the rest of the stuff that stalled so much of my stitching for years.
BUT… it’s now moving pretty well within my rotations. I’m beginning to work a lot more of the framing to help me feel like a ton more is done – and that’s getting my energy up to moving forward on it. Like so many projects, the interest waxes and wanes. It’s waxing right now.
Egyptian Sampler as of May 1, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on 28 ct linen (non-Zweigart) with charted DMC threads.
My goal for this year is to finish the top half of the border and get the backstitching done on that center motif and the scarab above it. I have a lot of work to do – but it is a doable goal. I’ll probably have this as my focus in October to really make progress on it!
Like any of my Wentzlers, these are journey pieces. I have no timeframe to get them done, but will enjoy the stitch and enjoy the finish. Once this gets done, it will be absolutely stunning on the wall – whenever that happens to be.
One of the biggest reasons I love the boxes from The Black Needle Society is their new-to-me stash suppliers. I love receiving patterns, floss, fabric, and all the fun doo-dads from sources I’d never heard of. Even in the wild world of the internet, these new discoveries are thrilling. I feel like it has helped expand my stitching world considerably.
One of the new designer introductions to me came via the “Nice” box for the holidays in 2021 – a fully kitted project called Winter Welcome by an oddly named designer called Park Hopper Bart.
Winter Welcome by Park Hopper Bart. Photo from front of pattern.
Winter Welcome was kitted with the called for standard DMC floss and two colors of DMC Etoile (black and white), along with an absolutely beautiful piece of linen called Winter Berry from Fortnight Fabrics that I wish I had more of just to have. It doesn’t photograph well, but it’s the most delicate color that I can only describe as close to periwinkle. My piece of fabric is impossible to get to hue on screen.
It’s a very cute little piece – simple, straight forward, but with just enough whimsy to make it catch my eye for the holidays. This is my style for December. I’m not really into the Santas or anything bold and in your face. Obviously the religious-themed patterns are not my thing either. I like the small, quiet, delicate patterns for the holidays. I’m drawn to the rarely found quiet – that “all is calm, all is bright” concept. This little piece captures a glistening of that.
Now… that said… that Etoile thread? It’s most definitely not going with the calm atmosphere. I rarely need a floss threader to load a needle – but this stuff? Yeesh. It does not want to behave. Even with the threader. It snags, it bunches, it will not stitch evenly… so this fairly simple pattern is taking way longer than I’d like. The final glittery snow effect is honestly lovely and worth it. Just slow. At least this time I can ignore how much I don’t care for stitching in white because it always makes my stitches look wonky. Here? The floss is just adding to the wonky and I’m going with it.
I started to get into a bit of a rhythm with the curling vines by using more of a sewing technique to work the thread, so I’m hoping I can push forward a bit faster moving forward. The key is, I think, to allow this thread to create the bumpy texture. Don’t try to flatten and railroad it like regular DMC floss. It just won’t behave that way. This is a mindset floss that just needs to be embraced for the cranky nature it holds, and it will provide the pretty. (much like my cranky calico cat, Leia). Actually… I have the perfect description of this floss. It’s persnickety (or pernickety for those of you who speak English English).
Winter Welcome by Park Hopper Bart as of April 1, 2023. Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32ct Winter Berry linen by Fortnight Fabrics with charted threads.
I already know that I’m probably going to finish it in the trendy in-hoop style, wrapping the hoop with some glittery ribbon appropriate for the holidays. This one will absolutely be finished this year. 🙂
