A Successful Experiment
Firstly, to those who have been patiently waiting for a year: thank you. I found it very hard to concentrate for long during lockdown. I could manage a Facebook post, but WordPress felt too much effort.
Anyway, I am back for now. (I did finish the Mexican sampler in my previous post, and I hope to write about that in due course.) And then I virtually stopped stitching, as well as not writing the blog. In the last month or so, I have been making small pieces again. (“When all else fails, make a bookmark” is a motto that has stood me in good stead over the years.) After half a dozen or so bookmarks, I tried out this border pattern, loosely based on one in “Mordvalaisten Pukuja ja Kuoseja” by Alex O Heikel, a book from 1899 that is on Internet Archive. I have mentioned it many times before in this blog. I wanted to try the border in a fine thread as tone-on-tone to bring out the texture of the stitches and the play of light.
The main pattern, in double running, was very hard to get right. But after a lot of unpicking and many rude words, I got there.
Then it was on to the filling stitches. Those went rather faster, once I had found a good way of working. And the result was very pleasing to me. I was overwhelmed by the number of “likes” and comments on Facebook. I am keeping this piece as a sample, but I want to work it again at some point. Below, you will see the chart. Each line of the graph paper is one thread of the fabric.
The variegated cream colour of Gütermann Sulky Cotton 12 in colour 4001 worked beautifully on the cream shade of DMC 28 count Needlework Fabric.
Tortoise Loft - the blog 
May 11, 2021 at 8:14 pm
It has been a slightly odd year, difficult to concentrate and difficult to keep track of things in the right order. Let’s hope it’s soon easier all round!
I like the look of the pattern, but my goodness, if it had you muttering rude words, it would have me at screaming point in short order! I’m full of admiration!
May 11, 2021 at 8:27 pm
It’s amazing how much easier it became when I swapped my reading glasses for my magnifiers!
May 14, 2021 at 8:00 pm
Yes, indeed!
June 5, 2021 at 8:18 am
I love this! I will try it some time – maybe not soon as I have so much on the go. And it’s lovely to see you blogging again. I will endeavour to read them more regularly!
July 20, 2021 at 3:16 pm
How did you finish the edge?
July 20, 2021 at 3:52 pm
Oh, that’s just my usual every-other-thread buttonhole/blanket stitch, to stop it fraying. I pull one thread, just outside where I am going to work it, before I start. That makes the stitching easier and the cutting easier afterwards. That fabric is very stiff, almost brittle, so I don’t want a turned edge on it.