I spent all of last week stitching Kloster Blocks on the Heirloom Nativity! My goodness…they are more time consuming that I thought they would be! You really have to pay attention. I’ve had to do a bit of picking out…

I guess I am 3/4 done. I can’t wait to start the eyelets and cutting! I love doing the woven bars so once the pressure of cutting is off the end of this project should be most enjoyable!

My smalls are coming along bit by bit! Here’s the Peacock from Beehive Needleworks, the branches just want a few more leaves:

Here’s the Stitching Bee from Little House. I had to take out the top white border. The pattern of the border is inconsistent! I assumed it was an actual pattern. Twice. Shows me I actually need to look at the chart from time to time and not make assumptions about it! Anyway, it would have been done by now if not for that.

I’ve set aside the other 2 little projects until these are done. No progress on those!

But I had an awfully marvelous weekend last weekend! I attended the I, Bathya workshop with Nicola Parkman of Hands Across the Sea! This workshop was offered by The Attic which I am fortunate enough to have as my LNS.

It was an amazing learning experience! I, Bathya is a reversible band sampler from 1680. In the class we learned to make all the different stitches found in this sampler…reversibly! With no threads or ends showing on the back!

Reversible stitching was important as often both sides of the stitching in that period would show, for example embroidery on cuffs and bed hangings. Here is the sample doodle cloth Nicola brought which is what our workshop project was:

Oh, these are very very interesting and valuable techniques! But most are really not so hard once you know the method. For example the acorn cap is detached buttonhole. I have been intrigued by this stitch forever and learned it is not really that hard to do! And I loved learning new techniques for satin stitch and eyelets to not only make them reversible and hide the starts and stops but just improve their appearance over all. They are so elegant! Here is my doodle cloth:

The double pin stitch start was hardest for me. That is used to start a bicolor running stitch which you can see making that pink and green line above the acorn below. Mine needs more practice. And that was the whole point of the class, to practice making the stitches on a doodle cloth so you can learn how to plan your stitching route, and make mistakes to learn from so you do the sampler well.

This will be a large project, measuring 27″ long. My plan is actually to start with the middle sunflower band because that is my favorite, and so if I don’t finish the whole thing, I will at least have my favorite part done.

Ok, I promise another post really soon for the FFO Gallery. I am SO CLOSE on a handful of FFOs that I will be eager to share! Here’s a sneak peek!

Thank you for checking out the blog and reading this long post!