The People Choose

Designer of the Year! This month’s theme from Jo or Serendipitous Stitching asks us if we’ve chosen a specific designer to focus on for the year. I was so excited when I realized that I had a really good project for this People’s Choice theme, as well as a certain Instagram SAL I just learned about, even if it did mean adding a BAP to my Year of Samplers. It is a project I have long wanted to stitch by a designer who was not yet represented in my line up: The Drawn Thread. And the project? The Sampler of Stitches!

I collected all 9 parts a long time ago. I didn’t start it because at the time, I was scared of the size (on 30 count it is (only) 12×14- I know! How ridiculous!) Since then I have accomplished many larger projects with the attitude, how do you eat the metaphorical elephant? One bite at a time! And this sampler is so many small blocks it will be an easy stitch. I just need to do 2 letters a month! I can do that! In fact I probably won’t be able to stop!

My other hang up was I didn’t love the colors. The dusty blue-mauve-olive just never spoke to me as much as I love the design. I felt a bit the same way about the Treasure Box I did last year. But I wasn’t confident to change the colors. Now I’m ready. I know I will enjoy it a lot more with my own colors.

I am inspired by this scarf, as well as the color palette of Autumn Quakers. I am always drawn to rich colors so I think my changes will suit.

My letters will be red and dark red instead of blue, all the mauve will be violet. I’ll throw in some tans and gold for accents and 2 shades of green. I’ll do it on a not-white linen, 32 ct cream Graziano. It’s a beautiful linen. I was hesitant to cut into it because I had a fat half but it should be out to good use right?

Here’s my start. I’m really pleased with the red. The purple seems bright but it will be mellowed by more red and green as I work. The cream is not a lot different than the called for but I was afraid in an overdyed linen the look of all the specialty stitches (there are 144 in this project!) would get lost.

After my last post as well as my November post, you’d really think that I’m the last girl on earth who needs more stitching projects to attempt in 2022. But I am so excited about this one and will be over the moon to work on it!

If you want to follow (or join) this SAL tag is #sos2022sal on Instagram but you can bet I’ll be posting my progress regularly over here too! Wish me luck!

14 thoughts on “The People Choose

  1. Thanks for taking part in The People’s Choice this month. This is a wondeful project, I am sure you can complete it if you stick to two letters per month!
    I love your colour scheme too. I like a nice rich red and berry colours.

    1. Thank YOU! I am so excited to have such a good excuse to work on this one. I am loving it. I admire your methodical way of working on projects through the year and am trying to adopt that approach a bit this year! But you seem a lot more organized than me!!

  2. Back in April 2019, the theme for this SAL was Speciality Stitches. I wondered if there was an A-Z sampler of different stitches as I couldn’t find one. Well three years later, and thanks to you, I know there is!
    Knowing how much you love speciality stitches I’m very excited for you, and will enjoy watching this piece grow, although I have a sneaking suspicion it will be faster than two letters per month!

    1. That’s so funny! If you are interested I know of a couple other Alphabet Stitch samplers with the stitches done in alphabetical order. One is Erica Michael’s Sampler Book. I can’t find the other one but I think it is from Jeannette Douglas. You are completely right, I will not be able to stop at 2 letters a month. Unless I exert a huge amount of will power!

    1. It SURE WAS! I had a hundred silks dumped out all over the bed, my bedroom does not have great light, as I tried to decide. It took several days. It’s like trying to decide which kitten is the most beautiful. Ultimately you can’t have 50 silks for a project and still have it look cohesive. And I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know a lot about color theory but I should learn! That would be a good skill! My problem is I always end up selecting a rainbow and I feel like it would be better sometimes to limit a bit more. But I like all the colors!

  3. Outstanding color choices. Would you be willing to share more details about the threads you’ve selected? I love Cynthia’s designs since I’m a big fan of specialty stitches (I love the old Periwinkle Promises designs for that reason too!) but agree that sometimes her colors seem just a bit dull for me. I guess since the joy is at least as much in the stitching process as in viewing the finished piece, I want to have colors that I love to see. (Sounds like the whole Marie Kondo thing about sparking joy…) I’m looking forward to seeing your progress here since I am not on FB or Instagram. Thanks for sharing and good luck!

    1. Hi Ruth, I hope you saw my recent post with the colors listed. I think it’s been really good for me to get comfortable switching colors. The palettes that were popular when a lot of these designs were created were the popular furnishing colors of the decade. I think that’s why you see so much “dusty” blue, pink, mauve, peach, and forest green in The Drawn Thread, and even in Just Nan and many others. The designs are so wonderful but in many of them the colors seem dated to me. They were so stylish probably at the time and fit in great with people’s decor. But I don’t have ANY of those colors in my house now! And I guess they are just not my favorites either. I’ve always been a jewel tones girl! And I agree, it is important to love stitching with the colors and looking at it after. I love the DT Treasure Box I made last year…but I just did not love stitching with the charted colors (a lot of green, dusty blue, olive, taupe, a little purple…) and wished I had bothered to convert them. So I bit the bullet on this project. At any rate I love stitching with the colors I picked, and we’ll see if I like the finished project!

      1. Thanks so much – just saw the newer post with your colors and the photos of your progress. You are a girl after my own heart. I’ve gone from never daring to change anything on a piece, to editing colors, motifs, words…. Anything is fair game now! If I’m going to put that much time, effort, and $$$ these days (because silks are luscious to stitch with) then I want to be sure it’s something I love every aspect of. Thanks again – looking forward to seeing your progress.

        1. Yes that’s me too. I used to be a completely by the book stitcher but over time realized you can do whatever you want. So many modifications I see on social media become what inspire me to get a chart which I would not consider if I didn’t see its possibilities! I don’t change everything I stitch, but I feel the free to do so and that is what’s important!

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