the colonial sampler

Every Monday, I’ll feature what I worked on for the past week (Monday to Sunday) to get the bit-by-bit progress shots on my pieces that I honestly think are fascinating. Sometimes those photos are the only proof to myself that I am making progress and that every single stitch counts. This week I’m adding in a extra day since January started on a Sunday.

I’ll kick things off with the annual New Year’s Day start. This year I chose The River by Modern Folk Embroidery. I received this pattern last year in the Christmas season advent box, “The Nice Box” from the Black Needle Society along with the gorgeous hank of overdyed floss I’m using. The model was stitched in red, but oh the floss I got… it’s called River of Life, and it’s nearly identical to one of my favorite fountain pen inks called River of Fire – a mix of jewel-toned jade greens into blues that just… *swoon*. Seriously. I need ALL of this floss. All the time. Give me a giant cone of it so I can do every Long Dog that exists in it.

Anyway – this is my second Modern Folk Embroidery piece in progress. I love his designing – the Quaker and Dutch motifs he uses, sometimes with just a bit of tweaking to make it obvious they’re not pure reproductions but inspirations. (Hey… his Designer Name is exactly what he does!)

*The River by Modern Folk Embroidery – as of Jan. 1, 2023 – stitched 1 over 2 on 36 ct Sterling linen from Picture This Plus with River of Life cotton (featured) from Forbidden Fiber Co.*

The hardest thing for me was deciding the fabric – did I want to go on dark fabric and let the floss glow, or lighter fabric so I could see it easier? Both effects would be awesome. I decided to go with the lighter fabric, though. I had a perfect color in my stash that was neutral and would let the floss shine – and ultimately, that’s what needs to happen here – the floss color absolutely needs to shine.

I’ve only put a couple hours’ work into this so far. As you can see in the photo – it’s not much. A little bit of the top border for fabric placement, and the beginning of the Alpha. I am going to be doing a modified parking method with my floss on the borders so I don’t screw up my counts. I also want to allow the floss color changes to roll through the piece naturally, so keeping each strand going to the end is ideal. It’ll be practice in color control to keep the pattern moving nicely down the line!

Hyperborea by Owl Forest Embroidery as of Dec. 28, 2022 – stitched on 32 ct Zweigart Monaco with kitted floss.

The next piece I worked on was for week one of “Choose My WIP” over on Semi Sane Stitchers. This game is held four months out of the year (Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct), and has four rounds per month. A couple days before the start of each official stitching week, participants post two or three projects, and all of the other active participants can vote which piece they prefer – the piece with the most votes is the one you must put at least 500 stitches in during the weekly challenge. My winner for week one was Hyperborea by Owl Forest Embroidery.

Hyperborea by Owl Forest Embroidery as of Jan. 6, 2023

I hoped to get the entire Owl done, but I had a bit more difficulty counting that wing than I’d expected. Still – I managed to get about 600 stitches in over three days and called it a success. I do have a miscount on the head – I forgot an entire row of stitches. BUT… it’s not going to affect anything else around it. Easy to adjust for, so I’m leaving the error. Part of the reason I’m a bit hesitant to rip is because this was a fully kitted project – from Russia. So I don’t want to be scraping for the floss at the end if I’m running low. If, at the end of the project, I feel like correcting it and have the supplies… fine. But it honestly isn’t a big deal here.

The final piece I worked on this week is my Week One WIPGO piece, The Colonial Sampler. My starting photo is in that post, so no need to rehash it. This one really doesn’t photograph easily due to the fabric color, so I’m going to leave the photo a bit bigger so you can see the detail better.

The Colonial Sampler by Betsy Stinner – as of Jan. 8, 2023 – stitched on 32 ct natural Belfast Linen 1 over 2 with charted silks

I completed all of the Band #11, which included cross stitches, satin stitches, and Smyrna crosses. I also completed Band #12, which is the tiny row of light yellow Greek Cross directly below it. It was a very satisfying couple of days to know that I made specific progress by finishing full bands!

And that was my first week of the year. Stay tuned for more updates next week!

Kicking off Week One of my WIPGO year is The Colonial Sampler by Betsy Stinner. I adopted this project from the stash of my friend Sandy after she passed in 2017. I know that Sandy attended the class held by Betsy, but I don’t know when it was. The pattern does not have a copyright date printed in it.

Sandy either completed or reused the fabric for the small pillow class teaching piece in the bottom right corner, as that fabric was missing. She never started the full sampler. The entire kit was together. I was happy to take it as a piece to remember her by as I stitch.

It’s a fun sampler with a variety of bands in different stitches – cross stitch, four-sided stitch, back stitches, herringbone, satin stitch, three-sided Italian cross, darning patterns, smyrna crosses, Greek stitch, queen stitches, etc. The flosses are all silks – a mix of Soie d’Alger and Silk ‘N’ Colors. It’s stitched on 32 ct Raw linen from Zweigart and measures 107w x 189h. This is what I’d would consider a medium-sized piece.

*The Colonial Sampler by Betsy Stinner as of Jan. 5, 2023 – stitched on 32 ct raw Zweigart linen with charted silks.*

I began my version on New Year’s Eve 2021 as part of the #nye12x12 stitchalong held via Instagram. It really hasn’t seen any work since January of last year, though. I started on the top band, but massively screwed up my counting – so abandoned the original start down in a corner of the fabric (until I feel like frogging it out), and instead decided to start dead in the middle to ensure I had things counted correctly. I can’t remember what I did wrong on the original – but I clearly was annoyed enough to just jump on the fabric! That’s not a common thing for me to do.

The Finnegan’s Fog silk, which is that blue to grey dye down the sides is a color I just loooooooooove. It stitches so pretty and just has this mysterious look to it. My photograph has a dark line in the center under the green – but that’s just a shadow, not stitches.

My plan for this WIPGO is to fill in that center band (“Band 11”) with the called-for satin and smyrna stitches. It’s not a particularly complicated band, but will be a very pretty starting point to make some nice progress.

More coming later this week!

What I Stitched This Week – Jan. 1-8, 2023

WIPGO 2023 – Week 1 – The Colonial Sampler