A Sampler for May

There is so much happening in the garden at this time of the year that it tends to become the focus of any spare moment.  When the reservation service of the county library let me know that a book I had requested  was being held for me at our local branch, and when, in the first few pages I read

" A little sampler for the month of May 

work'd when skies are warm and flowers are gay..." 

it just had to be an invitation to take time to pick up needle and thread, right? 

The book was Wessex Stitchery by Gay Eaton.

I  had seen a chapter about Wessex Stitchery  in an embroidery book I found in the library a couple of years ago. Being the inveterate dabbler that I am, I had tried some of the patterns and put a tiny sampler together. It became an inset for a birthday card. I had loved the intricacy of the patterns and found that with patience and intense concentration I had good results. That book went back to the libary, the card  was posted and I moved on to other things. A couple of months ago, I found myself browsing Mary Corbet's site and found a review of  Gay Eaton's book. There were enough shots of the pages to fire up my interest. Once again I just had to have a go. This time  though, I focused on making samples of the illustrated stitches to keep as a guide once the book inevitably goes back to the library. (It seems to be out of print and is not so easy to get hold of.)

 

Excavating our cupboards in the quest of de-cluttering has unearthed the remnants of years of hobbies and pastimes so finding a piece of evenweave linen and a mass of different types of embroidery threads was no problem. I have been trying out the stitches using different thicknesses of threads and  made the decision not to get too hooked on perfection. My eyesight is at the stage where I needed my glasses to read the pattern but found it easier to sew without them. There is a lot of counting of tiny threads at the beginning of each new pattern but as it grows and the counts can be memorised or worked out from the stitches already done, it begins to flow. There was a lot of ripping out and unpicking for some but I never gave up entirely - even though I may have abandoned the pattern for a day or two, I couldn't resist the urge to try  one more time. Some of them where just so pretty they demanded to be learned. 

 These little blue 'forget-me-not' shapes either with or without their centres were very simple and effective.

 And I liked the little diamond pattern worked in just a single strand.

There is nothing very complicated about the stitches themselves but it is the way in which these can be built up, overworking and infilling with multiple colours that would make much more ambitious projects fascinating to do. I wasn't going to try adding text even though that seems to be a necessary component of a sampler and of any Wessex Stitchery project. Lovely writing is is not my forte and calligraphy is an art I prefer to admire than to attempt. I was so pleased with this though, it has given me ideas for incorporating it into other projects.

So until the book has to be returned I will carry on sampling the patterns - maybe even some of the more complex ones. Yet another of the things that the longer day light hours were made for.