18th Century Sampler

I like to say I'm a very patient person. When I see something I like, but can't get, I'll quietly file it away and wait for its time to come. Although, as you know from this blog, I do sometimes just throw caution to wind and buy before looking, but let's put that aside for now.

A while back, January to be exact, I spotted a post on Chilly Hollow Needlepoint blog that intrigued me. I don't normally like samplers, but I love white work and am in love with pulled and drawn thread right now.

Love white on white!

I quickly looked up the designer SJ Designs and couldn't find the pattern anywhere on her site. So I contacted her through Facebook and she replied that it was an old class she had offered previously. Due to all the interest she received from the blog post, she was thinking of offering it again and asked if I would like to be notified when it came out. I obviously said yes.

And here it is, my first on-line class. I've been patiently waiting for it for a month. So far I've only received the pre-work instructions which needs to be completed for the start of the class on September 15th.

It's worked on 24 count Zweigart Congress cloth, I'm going with ivory white, and needed stretcher bars. I didn't feel like ordering any and waiting for them, so I decided to try out these faux-cadres (or fake frames) from Deserres. They're actually pretty good, but make sure to put a nail or staple them at the corners because they tend to shift and skew. And then you can't properly stretch your canvas on it and start wondering if your canvas was warped :|

I got a partial kit from SJ Designs since I have the ecru perl cotton I'd need, but I also decided to get beads just in case I want to add bling.

What I didn't think about when I decided to buy the frame was how I was going to attach it to my lap/desk stand. I already owned the stabilizer bars to use with stretcher bars and q-snaps, but the frame is waaaaay too thick for it. Luckily I had to buy these C-clamps last year for one of my Creative Festival classes. I was initially going to give them to my dad, but good thing I kept them. All in all everything worked out quite nicely. By the way, I temporarily solved my lighting by buying an LED clamp light from Ikea. It doesn't emit natural light, but it's not expensive and it will do for now.

I've already started on the pre-work (been plugging a way for about a week now) and I have way more than I need to start the class on September 15. But still, I want to get as much of it done as I can to save time later. I'll post a picture soon.