BAND SAMPLER stitch along

#THIS IS AN EMAIL SWAP

My dear Georgettes,
this swap theme has been mulled over and discussed, put aside, and now renewed... goodness it has been in the pipeline for a long time as our original members might well remember. Thus finally we shall tackle the promised BAND SAMPLER to encourage bravery in the stitching field of embroidery. It is NOT hard, it merely takes repetitive practice, a few lines on a scrap of cloth, and once learned never forgotten, like riding a bike.

THIS IS A PROGRESSIVE SWAP and is intended for your personal benefit, to refer back to whenever you need a stitch to decorate a gift for a loved one, for your neighbour or friend, or a decorated swap with your own special addition of personal attention, thus enriching your partners journal, what a delightful concept.

As two of our members have inquired for further measurements, and thread thickness of DMC I will amend the information below.

I have chosen to use the tutorials of a very clear thinking young woman, who goes by the name of Anne of Pumora on her website, to demonstrate the stitches online for you. I originally was trying to work out how to get you the stitches to learn, how to illustrate them and execute them, but did not have the tech savvy to do this. I came across this straightforward site, and voila finally you are able to have all the background advice and visually see it, aswell as follow her tutorials for what we shall make - a BAND SAMPLER.

Learning the basic stitches is KEY to discovering all the other stitches that are smothering the internet at present. But we have to start at the beginning. Of course many of you already know most of them but it does us good to make an effort to record them all in one place on the same piece of cloth. Like the samplers of the girls and women in our era and before, this memory cloth will hold magic for generations to come.

What you will need:

You will need a rectangle 6 inches wide by 45 inches
I’m envisioning turning the fabric so that we are working horizontally from one selvage edge to the other. Then our length becomes the sewn edges on the sides which is why the length of fabric needed is only 6 inches. (thank you Nickalli)

• A full width of your chosen fabric selvedge to selvedge ( 45inch or 128cm or if keen a wider 60inch/140cm wide selvedge to selvedge) of linen, or even weave cotton-linen blend type you will need it to be a very long as we are to cover a lot of stitches, but only need it a six inches band width. (just for clarity - Your piece does not have to be evenweave for experienced stitchers, but it certainly helps the newbies. By the way - even weave meaning same number of threads... across and down - warp and weft - May I suggest finishing off the raw long edges with bias tape or binding of some sort, or zigzag down the length of each raw edge, or simply use pinking shears to stop the raw long edges from unraveling.
  This will avoid frustration on many levels. and make your BAND sampler look neat from the beginning.

• A good needle with a semi sharp point are Crewel needles the lower the number the larger the eye, so I would use a 9 or 10, but you may feel more comfortable with a 7 or 8: Crewel needles have been used for centuries for working with wool thread on linen fabric. ., or if you prefer a blunt point, a Tapestry 22 or 24 is good to work decorative stitches

• THREADS - any you have on hand, DMC is a common brand, you can use either embroidery/coton a broder which is called "floss" in America, for some reason?
  So dependent upon your skill with the needle and embroidery cotton, you will be best to use what you feel comfortable with, for example, my mother who is 91, uses three or four strands in her needle and she gets good coverage, I personally prefer only 2 strands as I like delicate results, but if eyesight etc is a major concern then please all 6 if necessary, use what feels comfortable for you.
  Or opt for the DMC PERLE thread which is a twisted thicker thread that lays beautifully on the surface, holds its place on the fabric. Hardanger uses these threads. It comes in sizes 3, 5, 8, and 12. The latter being super fine. Perle thread is excellent on AIDA cloth or Swiss embroidery linen. I would recommend a Perle 8 thread or even a perle 5 even though the latter is still quite thick, but much finer than the perle 3. . The colours are amazing and have a slight glorious sheen.

Anne of Pumora.com has a debrief of all the fabrics and threads on her home page. Plus a page called 7 hand embroidery stitches. This is the page we will be following on our band sampler for now. The first 5 of 14 BASIC stitches are what we shall produce on our sampler to begin with, we shall elaborate on the stitches after we have learnt all 14 that she has on offer. Option - you might want to record the stitch names in a small additional home book to add to your journal, as each stitch is learnt write its name and how you found working it. Or// If you have an indelible pen, you can write the name of each stitch above or beneath or beside as you feel the need. It is very handy to have a name to refer back to, rather than only a stitch. But that is up to you.

• Starting with RUNNING STITCH our first stitch - stitch a single row of running stitch across the short width. Creating a single line in a BAND width ... leaving a border of up to 1/2 an inch either side for each row completed, only do the simpler RUNNING stitch for now. Do THREE lines of running stitch one under the other leaving about four or five fabric threads between rows. or 1/4 inch gap between. though feel free to work in staggered running stitched lines for your own amusement. Next swap we will play with these lines in more detail.

• BACK STITCH is our second stitch, work one or two rows.

• CHAIN STITCH is our third stitch, work one or two rows.

• STEM STITCH is our fourth stitch. work one or two rows

• FRENCH KNOT is our fifth stitch Remember to keep the stitched knots in a single row across the six inch width not like how she presents them in a cluster. Work TWO rows place them staggered, like PUMORA did in the running stitch sample in the beginning. as we will use these two rows for further embellishment next swap.

This will provide you with 5 basic stitches to master or re-acquaint yourselves with, for our "LONG" lasting adventure in the world of embroidery and our own unique encyclopedia of stitches.

This is an EMAIL swap, and is marked a TYPE 3 as you will be doing what the Georgians described as WORK. Thus why our previous made utility bags are called WORK BAGS, to hold the work you have stitched within. You will have ONE (1) partner. We will send a photograph or several of your progress in the stitches, tell your partner what you liked or didn't and add a few lines from the thoughts of your Character on what you think she/he would say.

AS soon as you sign up, you can start on your BAND SAMPLER preparation, and then begin your stitches. There is only a short sign up so you can get those stitches down pat, and send off, leaving you room before the fete officially arrives.

We hope you will join in this creative exploration in stitchery and may it be a lasting keepsake for years to come. As always, do contact one of us, if in need of further advice.
Anna, Nickalli and Jane.