Flower Sampler Book – April update

April 27, 2013 by Carole 7 Comments

Finally I have an update on this. I’ve had a few issues and have spent almost three weeks on it instead of the one that it was supposed to have. The week three project in my rota has been completely missed out but I’m hoping to still squeeze in the latest part of the Papillon SAL and catch up on Song of the Weather.

I was really excited to be starting on the Sampler Book but hit a snag almost immediately. The charts are lovely and clear but the colour key was missing as were the symbols on the chart itself. With so many different pinks/purples/plums I didn’t want to guess the colours so I contacted Jane Greenoff at the Cross Stitch Guild. She sent out the correct charts straight away but missed out the first four parts so I still couldn’t make a start. Jane sent out the rest of the charts for me and while I was waiting I did manage to get the four-sided stitch done on the cover and the first page.
A huge thanks to Jane for getting the charts to me so quickly.

When I did make a start I almost finished the cross stitch but realised that one of the leaves was one stitch too high, making everything I’d done after it also one stitch too high. Sigh. It took ages to frog as I’d been doing the backstitch as I went along too. Obviously checking my count three times isn’t enough to stop me getting it wrong.

Eventually I finished all of the front/back cover and this is what it looks like.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed stitching this. Even with the delays and mistakes, it was still a joy to work on. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out and I’m unreasonably pleased with my French knots. I think I’ve finally got the hang of doing them consistently.

The knots in the yellow flowers are done in a gorgeous variegated silk but the others are done in the Madeira which is used for almost everything else. I haven’t used Madeira before but I rather like it. It does seem to tangle a bit more than DMC but it’s a bit more silky. I’m so pleased with my knots now that I can do them that I’m going to show off some more, the ones that are attached to the wee bug.

The creamy squares going down the centre are rows of Four-sided stitch. I hadn’t come across this stitch before but once you get into a rhythm it’s very easy. It’ll be used to attach the pages inside once they’re all finished. The edge is finished off with a rolled hem. This was also new to me but the instructions were very good so I didn’t have any problems. It did take me ages to do the hemstitch to fasten it down. So many teeny tiny stitches.

And finally, there are the mitred corners. I am chuffed to bits with how these turned out. I was a bit dubious about my ability to get them neat but they came out fine.

I’ve struggled to put it away to be honest. What I’d like to do is just dive straight into the next section but I don’t want to get behind with the Papillon SAL and I don’t want to get any further behind with Song of the Weather. Also, I do want to get Around the World finished off next month. Then I can go back to my lovely Flower Book.

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