Winter Sampler Anyone?

I've stitched chart where you did two levels of stitching - sort of a background with something over it that was quite contrasting.

IIRC, bottom "level" was very dark two strands of floss and a full stitch and the upper "level" was light and a single strand. It showed more than I expected.

Cheryl

Dont any old timers jump on me for this. Have you thought of numbering the axes of the chart, and then you could refer to the specific things you are talking about by quoting (x,y) for each stitch in question? I know it's an old hobby horse of mine. Jim.

Yes, I can do that. It's a good suggestion. I'll post it later.

I haven't stitched this, but I took a look on the TIAG website. I know from stitching other samplers, that sometimes the design element (in this case the snowflake) is a thread off so as to actually center the finished element.(I've found this when stitching 'The Drawn Thread' samplers and others.) Find the center of the actual snowflake and even if it doesn't start on a full two thread square (if I'm making myself clear) stitch it that way. It will actually look better than if you aligned the edge with the alphabet above. Remember, too, that original samplers often had their elements fairly randomly placed, so that they quite often do not line up exactly.

MargW

That last sentence is oh so true about old samplers.

Many were stitched by reluctant girls who perhaps didn't even care for stitching. The end product was more that she would have learned all the basic stitches, along the lines of the copy writing books every child followed in order to make their writing attractive.

I have one my great-grandmother did and she surely disliked stitching lol Anywhere she could she looped the thread at the back rather than end the thread and start again. The colours are atrocious and the work careless.

I feel quite proud that she was not your usual compliant little girl of those days. She went on to what seems to have been a happy life, marrying a widower with a couple of children and having six of her own. My grandmother, who was a fiercely independent woman told me she was a firebrand :)

So Vic, Marg's advice looks good, use that and don't be hidebound into exactness. I believe you said you are doing it for your mother, change a colour or do something radical with it so she knows it was you who stitched it lololol

Perfect explanation, but I am having trouble with the counting. I stitched it and it does not look right. The other snowflakes were relatively easy, but this mid-stitch is throwing me off. I'm very happy you gave me the reason it's done.