Elizabeth Harborne - Day 27.... or a Study of Texture

Just a quick note.... lately I have been concentrating on studying textures.  I had stopped working on some of the bullions a while ago because I was not happy with my tension and the consistency of my stitches and I did not want to squish the stitches as I rolled up the sampler on the horizontal bars.  I spent just a few minutes yesterday before I put the sampler away to revisit this issue.
I decided to work the bullions in two ways - one way was to work it on a drum tight surface and the other was to work it in hand.  In many ways I marvel at my friends who work everything in hand with a minimum of 'things' while I cannot really enjoy my stitching without 'stuff' - frame/stand, drum tight fabric and magnifier with color corrected light etc.... sitting down and  just "stitching anywhere" is not something I do anymore because I am so particular nowadays.
Anyway, I decided it was time to try to experiment and study texture  and to see if there was a difference of working the stitches on the frame or in hand.  Interestingly, once I got into a rhythm, working the stitches in hand was rather enjoyable and I also felt that the stitches themselves were 'plumper' and more raised.  I am not sure if you can see the difference in the pictures below but I am glad I tried it ... I will finish the remaining bits in the various bands and then probably go back and do all the bullions again "in hand".

So, here is a picture where the right side flower and the base of the motif on top had been done on the frame while the left side was done in hand :




Elizabeth Harborne - Day 27 Bullions
The Song of my Needle  

 Here is a close-up of two areas worked in hand

Elizabeth Harborne - Day 27 Bullions
The Song of my Needle  

 Perhaps this angle shows the difference a bit (?)

Elizabeth Harborne - Day 27 Bullions
The Song of my Needle  

 For now, it is back to finishing up the areas on some of the bands ... I am not sure what I had been trying to accomplish on the small flower in the picture below but the blue and white petals are coming out - I will just stitch it with the white double running stitches as charted....   also, please do not just stitch from my pictures if you are trying to reproduce this sampler - Marsha's instructions are different and I have allowed myself some 'creative' license throughout when the stitching got too boring or my mind was 'figuring' out something I then used in my other pieces.  For example, in the picture above the small blue and white motifs on the left are not charted that way...  the white part was filled in with blue satin stitches and the base petals (which I stitched in blue) were left blank... I obviously just felt like changing things up at the time I was stitching this band... it is fun to do sometimes but this is not a "true" reproduction sampler for that reason... Anne Holewell, Mary Hollingsworth, Loara Standish and Katherine Carter are/will be stitched that way. 

The main reason for stitching this sampler was to learn how to "blog" and being carried away by the desire to post on Nicola's group /SL blog!  This has been a "fun" sampler to stitch and even though it is rated "Advanced" there is nothing terribly daunting about it... it can be tackled one band at a time by  anyone.....so I will be "finishing up" the bands starting with this one below:


 

Elizabeth Harborne - Day 27 Bullions
The Song of my Needle