Frances Cheyney - continued

Finished this band with the mother, child and cat in time to celebrate my mother's Birthday. It was an intense amount of stitching with lots of finer points to be figured out. I didn't stick to the instructions or the pictures provided and changed some elements, added others and at present I am not planning on using the colored silk to stitch the facial features ..seems a bit odd to introduce color in an otherwise all white sampler. I had contacted the museum and Margriet in hopes of getting a better picture of the original sampler but have not received such information yet. After I finish stitching the last band I will revisit some of the 'liberties' I did take and decide. This sampler is a lot of fun to stitch and I am intrigued by the various ways thread and needle have to be manipulated to give various effects with very simple stitches.

My design interpretation instead of the scary severed head  on the original sampler 

Close up 

Close up of my needle lace design

POST SCRIPT dated February 24,2016 :

Thank you all so much for your most enthusiastic support - needlework brings a special joy into my life each day and I am glad if this small sample of my stitching brought you some joy too. 

There are a few questions that keep cropping up so I thought I would address them here:

1.  I am using the materials provided in the kit from Essamplaire (40ct. Linen and Linen threads of two weights)

2. I posted the following as a reply on another Facebook group but since this question seems to crop up often I decided to post it here  also.

This sampler  uses various whitework techniques like Drawn thread, Pulled thread and Needlelace techniques.  In this area for example I am removing the foundation fabric (linen), leaving a few threads behind which are then wrapped or woven. This grid then allows me then to put in a scaffold of sorts with thread and then using either detached buttonhole stitch, picots, needleweaving etc make a design.  There are also some other stitches like dove's eye, spiderwebs etc (hardanger techniques).  

The result of using basically a buttonhole stitch is similar to crochet - you create a new 'fabric' from thread like in knitting or crochet (which I also love) but this is all created with a tapestry needle and thread.  Hope this helps understand the process a bit more.

Thanks for all your compliments but it may look complicated and the kit may be marked as "for very advanced stitchers" but it is actually quite easy...it challenges your patience though;) I do hope you try your hand at some of the whitework techniques and suggest trying a simple band or project first if you have never done this or hardanger.

3.  I have been asked to give an opinion on this sampler /chart etc. many times now. I will address this after I finish the last remaining band of this sampler.  I am working on the last band now so I hope you understand and can hang in!

Still continuing on with Frances ...

Decided to work out some of the areas in one of the last two bands left.  I am teaching Japanese embroidery this weekend so will switch to other things after that....the really interesting parts and the reason this sampler intrigued me are left to do ... Lots to figure out which is really fun!

Close up on Frances Cheyney