Elizabeth Harborne - Day 5

I only had a small amount of time to work on this sampler today.
Here are some of the detailed shots...



Elizabeth Harborne - Day 5
The Song of my Needle

 Holbein - Double Running Stitch - Blackwork

all names for a simple stitch but a simple stitch that promises lots of fun if you want it to!  If you want it to be reversible, or if you want to create a variation of the pattern on the back, then it requires concentration and is much like a maze on paper... you have to figure out a pathway. The beauty of blackwork is that the possibilities are endless, shading, blending, fading out one pattern and introducing another... it is a lot of fun...

Elizabeth Harborne - Day 5
The Song of my Needle

In this simple band, to make it fully reversible, I had to work the acorns in two different ways depending on the location of the the red thread at the baseline.

And then this is when  I discovered "critters"!  So what do you think they are ? Pigs perhaps, rabbits, cats, dogs?...
I've never noticed these beasts on any other sampler before... I know that I have never stitched such critters ever and am not sure if I really like them... have to figure out the symbolism on this ... any thoughts?

Elizabeth Harborne - Day 5
The Song of my Needle

Further inspection of the chart revealed some other critters at the base... frogs, goats etc

This sampler is also unusual because a portion of it is stitched upside down - the verse and the beasts arranged in spot motifs are upside down so you could hang this sampler either way.  There must be a reason for this too ... perhaps it was intended for a certain purpose... more to read and investigate.

There are things about reproduction samplers that used to 'bother' me when I first started stitching them... and I used to correct them, center things etc... because after all they were 'mistakes' a young girl made when she was learning how to stitch..... luckily, I finally started to appreciate the charm of such 'mishaps'... you'll note that the margins on the side are getting wider with each band. I normally like to give myself a 3 to 4 inch margin on each side but because I made the decision to use what I had in my stash I have a narrower border.  It will be fine though...I've reduced my use of mats ever since I'm running out of wall space!