Flying Geese

Based on the quilting block of the same name, I designed and stitched Flying Geese in 2005 for entry in the Royal Highland Show 2006.

The class description in the schedule was "Sampler - Birds", and from within the convolutions of my brain came this. "Sampler"; Websters Dictionary defines a sampler as "a practical example of needlework patterns". Tick. "Birds", well Geese are birds. Tick

The background is a Beaty Stitch variation, the triangles are Jacquard, Hungarian, Byzantine and Oriental stitch. The right hand side is the reverse of the left. Apart from being (I thought) an interesting and attractive design, it is also an example of how to get a different effect by reversing a stitch, and an exercise in compensation (and we all love working out those compensating stitches).
Flying Geese was worked in Soie d'Alger on 18 count canvas. It measures 5" by 5" and took fifty hours to design and stitch.

I thought I had pretty much hit the schedule description with this. The judges didn't agree. It came last. The winner was a colourful and beautifully worked cross-stitch picture of hens and a rooster.

Despite my disappointment, I got a great deal of enjoyment out of designing and stitching Flying Geese and my mother, who was an avid quilter, enjoyed having it on her wall and showing it off to her friends.

Glenda

Glenda, a teacher. was about to retire and her colleagues wanted to create a special present for her. How they decided on a sampler I don't know, but my SiL volunteered that she knew someone who designed samplers.

When I was asked if I would design a "sampler" for Glenda I immediately thought of the Wizard of Oz - well you would, wouldn't you?

I was quickly disabused of that notion.

Questions were asked. What do you want on it? What size? Answer, "Don't know." That's a good start, I thought. "What does she like? What are her hobbies and interests?"

Elucidation. Hill walking, cats, the theatre, books, music, her garden and her church."

"You want me to include all of that?"

"Yes. And places she's lived. Can you do that?"

Well it was a brief of sorts. I discovered that the story started in Boreham Wood and ended in Rutherglen, which gave me a framework for the idea of a road zig-zagging up Britain, with motifs to either side.
Was I expected to stitch this? "No, so the instructions have to be clear enough for people who don't have much or any experience." It seemed that her colleagues were all going to do part of it.

Into design mode, I decided that the whole thing had to be done in cross-stitch and running stitch. I trawled my library for appropriate motifs (thank you Jo Verso) which I could amend to fit and decided that the border should be boot-soles to remind Glenda that she might be retiring, but that they journey goes on. I had to provide the master diagram, in colour, but I also provided stitch diagrams for the cross-stitch and running stitch on the assumption of a total lack of knowledge of the stitchers. It's incredible how much detail you have to go into. I take my hat off to all you professional designers and teachers. 

They sent me this picture of the finished sampler, and yes, the road is yellow brick.

Fawny of Eight

Bedroom Games was a bit of a marathon, but I didn't work exclusively on that. I stitched a number of other projects during the same period.

There was a time when I only ever worked on one project. "You can't be a real embroiderer until you're working on a number of projects at once," I was told. (No names, no pack-drill!)
So this may have been about when I became a 'real embroiderer'! It certainly helped me get past the 'godai'* of Bedroom Games.

I needed something smaller as a change from the quilt, and I knew that I really needed to increase my repertoire of stitches. I didn't want to do a traditional band or block sampler, so I came up with this.

I decided to call it "Fawny of Eight", a play on the heraldic "Gyronny of Eight" as it was all done using the same hank of Appleton's Crewel wool and it contained eight different stitches, not including the border.

Working round from the top right corner they are:
(Obviously) Basket-weave, Woven Stitch, Twill Variation, Horizontal Brick, Scotch Stitch, Florentine, Byzantine and Upright Brick. I have since learned that some of these stitches have different names in different places, and some of the names can be applied to another stitch - that's life!
Whatever the names you may know these stitches by, it was an excellent exercise in learning new stitches and working out how to compensate them.

I stitched this between March and July 2002. I think of it as a 'stash' piece because nothing new was purchased. The canvas was already in the house, and the Appleton's was left over from the chair I posted about in October 2018.

* 'godai': The point you hit on any large piece of work, no matter how much you love the design. Extrapolated from the phrase "God I hate this". It hits me at least once in every project, but the trick is never to let it overwhelm you because you know that if you push yourself past that stage and complete the project you (or someone else) is going to love it.

Do I qualify now?

I have always claimed that I only work on one project at a time. Apparently that's JUST NOT RIGHT!
Apparently you can't claim to be a real embroiderer unless you have multiple projects on the go.

I just had a count up in my head. Currently I am working on:
The Passionate Pineapple (Whitework)
Have You Not Seen My Lady (Full sized bed quilt in 1" squares) now at the quilting stage.
Untitled (Possibly for ANG Seminar 2019 or 20) (Needlepoint on congress cloth) at the design stage.
Chapter House (Needlepoint) at the design stage
I also have a pile of knitted teddy bears to sew up and stuff
And there's a bit of a quilted bench runner somewhere.

DO I QUALIFY NOW?

Totally unrelated, on Tuesday we went to an exhibition of Scottish samplers from the Leslie B Durst collection and the National Museums of Scotland; https://www.nms.ac.uk/
Lots of samplers and an interesting video presentation. Worth a visit if you live close enough.