Finally finished my calligraphy hoop after months of picking it up and putting it down

I know that hollow feeling when the last stitch goes in. I did a monogram on plain weavers cloth last spring, about four inches tall, and sat there for a good ten minutes after tying off not knowing what to do with myself. imediately starting the next one is the only cure, honestly. The split stitch underlay made a difference for me too, though I actually started using it after my letters came out lumpy from the back. My tension was so uneven that the reverse looked like a bird nest, and a friend at my stitch night told me padding underneath would even everything out. She was right. I also switched to a smaller needle around that time, a size 9 instead of my usual one, and the edges cleaned up without me doing anything differently. On the hoop tension thing, I learned the same lesson the hard way on a cursive piece. I got lazy about re-tightening after moving the hoop and a whole word came out slanted. Now I give the screw a quarter turn every time I rehoop, no exceptions, even though it feels fussy. Couching is such a smart call for a curved border. I tried stitching a thick cord directly once and it fought me the entire length. Never again.

That sadness at the end hits diferent for me because I usally drag projects out on purpose. I'll leave a half inch of border undone for a week just so I can keep coming back to it. Currently doing a sampler of my grandmother's kitchen sayings on tea-dyed cotton, and after each phrase I sit with it for a bit instead of moving on. wierd habit but it stretches the joy out.

On the lettering side, I'll admit satin stitch beat me. My hands shake too much and my letters always came out with that lopsided, toothy edge no matter how tight I kept the fabric. So now I do all my lettering in stem stitch, even fairly large words. It curves nicely, fills in dense if I space the lines close, and mistakes just disappear into the flow of it. Maybe less crisp than your satin work but it forgives me. I also never got on with couching for anything dimensional. I tried it on a vine border once and kept stabbing my fingers through the laid thread when anchoring on top. Switched to working the braid-ish look with heavy thread held by the stitch itself and I stopped swearing at my hoop. The unpicking half a letter part is painfully familiar though. I did the same thing with a lowercase g and just embroidered over the mess instead of starting the whole word again. Nobody's noticed yet, two years on.

Can't let the 'edges cleaned up without me doing anything differently' line slide, because you literally changed two things. The smaller needle alone would explain it, a size 9 leaves a much smaller hole in the weave so the satin stitches sit tighter against each other. I noticed the same thing when I dropped down a needle size on some leaf shapes, suddenly the gaps between rows mostly vanished. So give your needle some credit, it was doing the work, not just the underlay. Curious wheather you tried going back to the old needle after, to see which one actually mattered.

Curious how you transferred the lettering onto the linen, because that's the step that defeats me every time. On off-white fabric I've tried both tracing with a water soluble pen and tacking the design through with long basting stitches, and the basting method wins for anything with curves since the ink tends to blur on nubby weaves. Also, did you work the satin stitches from the middle of each stroke outward or edge to edge? I find center out keeps the direction of the pile consistent across a whole letter, which matters more than people expect once the light hits it at an angle.

That couching trick is going straight into my notes. I did a braided-looking border once by just stitching the twist on top and it puckered the linen so bad I had to cut the whole hem off. Never again. Question on the satin stitch, did you anchor with a tiny stitch at the far edge of each row or just rely on the split stitch outline to hold things? I keep getting one loose end per letter no matter how careful I am with the anchoring, drives me nuts. Anyway, what'd you pick for the next piece?