So it's going to be a boy (which I knew!) and I picked out this birth sampler about two months ago. I ordered the book from Amazon. It's called Splendid Samplers to Cross-Stitch by Chris Rankin. While the designs are lovely, I find the charts difficult to work with. They don't have the bold line at every tenth stitch that I find very useful and they are so small as to be unbelievably hard to read. That said, this design is really lovely it's the one from the cover of the book:
I got started on it last night. I had to count the squares to get the stitch count so I could figure out what size fabric I needed. Then I went through my stash to see what I had. Finally I decided on a piece of Northern Cross Quaker - 30 count - in Antique White. The charts are mostly for DMC or Anchor, but this one happens to be for Anchor only. So, I picked out DMC colors that I felt matched what was called for. It's going to be very bright and colorful.
First of all, I had to copy and enlarge the chart because even with my magnifiers, I could not see the symbols. I will burn the enlargements when I'm done! It's hard to tell, but the stripes that form the boxes around the motifs are done in cross stitches. Well, I'm not doing that! I am doing the stripes in satin stitch instead. The title of the design is Caribbean Sampler, but I think it looks more Peruvian or Ecuadorian.
At any rate, I really like it for a little boy; very colorful and something that will grow with him. In case you were wondering, I'm adding a border with name, birthdate and place around the outer border.
All the leaves are off the trees now; in a couple of weeks they'll harvest the corn. I re-situated all my bird feeders this afternoon so they're far away from anything the squirrels can climb on to get into them and I can see them just as well from inside the house. It's time to snug up and do crafty stuff! Hope you enjoyed!
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First of all, I had to copy and enlarge the chart because even with my magnifiers, I could not see the symbols. I will burn the enlargements when I'm done! It's hard to tell, but the stripes that form the boxes around the motifs are done in cross stitches. Well, I'm not doing that! I am doing the stripes in satin stitch instead. The title of the design is Caribbean Sampler, but I think it looks more Peruvian or Ecuadorian.
All the leaves are off the trees now; in a couple of weeks they'll harvest the corn. I re-situated all my bird feeders this afternoon so they're far away from anything the squirrels can climb on to get into them and I can see them just as well from inside the house. It's time to snug up and do crafty stuff! Hope you enjoyed!
Great start on the sampler, it is going to be very striking
ReplyDeleteA boy! Congratulations (to be!)! Great choice for the birth sampler.
ReplyDeleteveddy interesting Katherine. I also had a squirrel climbng up to a wire clothesline and jumping into the window bird feeder, along with slugs at night. On the front porch I feed a couple of cats, so possums and a skunk also look for food. Two possums were eating my crab apples that I labored stringing, so I brought them back into the house. Joanne
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