GimletBlog

Finally it can be told:  the band sampler was a birthday gift for my niece, who turned eight this week and is preparing to be baptized.  JoAnn’s Fabrics & Crafts did a super job on the framing: a lovely antique-looking frame with roses to match the flowers on the sampler; they also added extra spacers to protect the silk ribbon embroidery; and the pink matboard backing shows off the Hardanger band beautifully.

To see the completed sampler, click on the smaller image.  Earlier posts about the sampler in progress can be found in the “sinister craftiness” category.   I began stitching the sampler in June, completed all but the date in July, then added the date and had it framed at the end of August.  It was a lot of fun to learn all the new stitches, and the sampler was a great confidence builder for future projects.

The poem on the sampler is the first verse from “Shine On” by Joseph Ballantyne, a song in our church’s children’s hymnal:

My light is but a little one,
My light of faith and prayer;
But lo! it glows like God’s great sun,
For it was lighted there.

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The band sampler (Heirloom Birth Sampler chart by Victoria Sampler) is finished, and in a little more than one month! The date is still blank; that won’t be set for another month or two, but everything else is done.

Here are some before and after photos of the Hardanger band. Just in case I completely messed up cutting the linen I wanted to document that at one time the sampler looked pretty. But that part of the process went well, so instead it’s interesting to see the difference that the drawn and pulled stitches make to the design.

As a Hardanger newbie, I wanted all the help I could get. Hardanger Basics and Beyond by Janice Love was the book I relied on most of all to make sure I stitched my kloster blocks (groups of satin stitches) in the proper order, cut the threads just right, and weave or wrap the remaining linen threads. The book is full of diagrams and clearly-written, detailed instructions. Best of all, there are plenty of left-handed directions! As the title suggests, basic Hardanger elements (kloster blocks, wrapped and woven bars, dove’s eyes, square filets, etc.) and motifs (tulip/ship and star) are introduced and explained. Projects are small: sachet-type pillows and bags.

I also highly recommend Victoria Sampler’s Beyond Cross Stitch series of small learning samplers — the samplers are grouped into six levels of ten projects each and each sampler teaches one or two new stitches. The diagrams and directions are excellent. Extra hints are included for each level of stitches (ribbon embroidery, pulled thread, Hardanger) and those are very helpful, too. (As I do most of my stitching after the Things have been put to bed, the advice to avoid cutting when tired was timely). Both the VS kits and Janice Love’s book were confidence builders for learning this type of embroidery. I found that the stitches weren’t particularly complicated; following the directions slowly and carefully yielded the best results.

Look for photos of the entire sampler in the fall once the date’s in place and the sampler has been framed.

Aside: the finished sampler will be mounted over a colored mat board so the Hardanger embroidery will match the ribbons and lettering. To take these pictures, I recalled the advice of my favorite Jane Austen hero (and his equally admirable sister) that muslin (or in this case, silk) always turns to some account or other … thus my ball gown becomes a fine backdrop to show off embroidery projects.

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A biscornu is a tiny eight-sided embroidered pillow. It can be used as a pincushion, a key or scissor fob, or filled with potpourri for a sachet, to name a few possibilities. The name derives from a French adjective which literally means “several horns” and refers to an odd or bizarre, irregularly shaped object. Sometimes they’re called tuffets, too. I had seen a few of these little gizmos and wasn’t sure I could make one, but they’re not difficult after all! I began stitching the pieces late one afternoon, finished most of the stitching that evening, and assembled the biscornu the following day.

To try it out, I used a quick, simple pattern and materials already on hand. One of my favorite eBay sellers often includes extra fabric with my purchases, so I chose a small piece of her khaki colored Quaker cloth (28 count). The biscornu instructions on the Own Two Hands blog includes a list of links to patterns; I based mine on the “Popular Red Biscornu” pattern, but instead of red I used alternating bands of cream and lilac. While stitching the design, I decided to add cream-colored beads to the ends and points, and chose a pair of honeybee buttons to decorate the center. So much for keeping it simple. This is a good time to point out that biscornu-making can be addictive like embroidery crack. The design possibilities are endless, and they can be embellished with beads, buttons, charms, ribbons, hand dyed fabrics — anything goes.

There are several great how-to sites (I already mentioned Own Two Hands; also check out Violarium and Biscornu Basics) which show off lovely examples to pique interest, then walk the biscornu-curious through the creation steps. Here are a few lessons learned:

• The pattern I chose used only one color. Was that good enough for me? Oh, no. The light colors I chose give this biscornu a lovely antique look, but it would have been a lot easier to stitch with a dark color … like red … especially on the khaki-colored fabric. These stitches were hard to see and I had to unpick the design several times because I kept miscounting the evenweave. Not a big issue, but if I were making one for the first time again, it would be much easier if there were greater contrast between the floss and fabric.
• The how-to sites suggested attaching some backing to the evenweave. Good idea, because the evenweave frays like crazy. But I chose to back mine with felt, which was so thick that it made it difficult to stitch the two pieces together. The corners are not as square as I’d like them to be, either. Next time I’ll use much thinner backing.
• I used #12 perle cotton to stitch the connecting backseam, which may have been overkill and was almost impossible to see against the khaki fabric (see do-over #1). But between the felt and the perle cotton, it’s sturdy!
• Not precisely a do-over, but the rest of Team Gimlet claim the buttons aren’t honeybees, but houseflies. Even I have to admit these buttons are a little bit ambiguous (but I still say they’re bees). Perhaps I should name this the Pestilence Biscornu?

Even with these missteps, I’m pleased with how my first attempt turned out. Speaking of first attempts, here’s another peek at that band sampler I’ve been working on. It’s proceeding more quickly than I thought it would; ten out of the fifteen bands are finished. At this rate there shouldn’t be any trouble completing the sampler on time, but the Hardanger embroidery at the end promises to be a challenge.

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In addition to Owl and the Pussycat, my other long-term stitching project this summer is a band sampler. It’s intended to be a gift, so I’ll leave out certain identifying details about it, but I’m using Victoria Sampler’s Heirloom Birth Sampler chart with just a few changes to the text to suit the occasion.

As per the directions, I chose to stitch the sampler on 32 count Belfast linen, platinum color. Everything about this project is new to me, from stitching on evenweave fabric (after a few false starts on a practice piece I’m getting the hang of it) to the embroidery threads (I’m loving the various silk flosses), ribbons, and beads, and nearly all the stitches are new, too. The sampler doesn’t need to be completed until the fall, so I’m going to take it very slowly, one or two bands at a time, learning the stitches as I go.

This week I finished the first three bands. The top band is a gorgeous garland of ribbon embroidery and beading, which may look more difficult to make than it was. The ribbon had to be handled carefully to keep the loops full, but the stitches themselves were easy to learn (and the ribbon loops are a great hiding place for any stitching sins). The garland is followed up by a band of pulled three-sided stitches, then double-sized cross stitches.

So far so good, but there’s a lot more left to do, and I’m especially nervous about cutting the fabric for the hemstitched band a few rows down. If it doesn’t work out, I can always give the intended recipient a gift card instead, and nobody will be the wiser.

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