English Cottage Sampler

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After I had filled in the trellis and leaves running to the top center of the vignette, the next best step seemed to be to work on the border all the way down the left side. With the border completed, I could get a better feel for the size of the design.

It turns out that the design is huge. I am amazed at how long it took to stitch down to the bottom. Unfortunately, as I was filling in the trellis, I found that I had counted wrong in one place. This little mistake made it necessary to take out all of the stitches that I had put in.

The next time that I work on this piece, I think that I will finish the trellis stitches. With those in place it should be a lot harder to miscount as I replace the outer blue border.

I am dreading the time when I actually have to backstitch all of the vines between the leaves. However, that is something that won’t happen for quite some time.

When I last worked on this piece, I was concerned about the fact that the right side of the trellis wasn’t a mirror image of the left side. I wondered if this was done on purpose or whether it was an error inherent in the hand-drawn chart. Since I was working with the first edition of the chart that was published by Just Cross Stitch, I decided to check out the later, computer printed version published by Leisure Arts.

Getting the Leisure Arts chart turned out to be a good idea. It turns out that this newer chart is vertically symmetrical. Another advantage to using this chart is that it is more readable because it isn’t hand-drawn. Finally, the chart is broken up into sections which makes it so that it won’t tear with repeated folding. So now I am working with the newer chart.

I decided that I wanted to add symmetry to my piece, so I continued working on the border around the cottage vignette. All is beginning to feel right with the world as the final dimensions of the piece are coming into focus.

I decided to work on the border so that the frame around the cottage vignette would be established. Alot of this stitching was of the mindless make-a-line variety. This made the time spent on this piece relaxing and enjoyable.

I have found one problem that I haven’t yet decided how to handle. A quick glance of the chart indicates that the leaf border is symmetric around the vertical axis. Unfortunately, as I started working on the right side, I noticed a couple of places that didn’t match the left side. I chalked these differences up to charting errors and changed the stitches to match side that I had already stitched. Now that I have finished more of the right side, I have noticed some pretty significant differences. I now think that Teresa didn’t want things to be perfectly symmetric so she fudged things here and there. Since I have made some changes already, do I start stitching the left side in mirror image or do I undo the changes that I have made and stitch the design as charted?

I am working from the older, hand-drawn version of the chart. Maybe I will have to get Best of Teresa Wentzler: Sampler Collection and see what the chart looks like in that book.

I found a good place to stop and contemplate this question until the next time that the piece comes around.

I had this leaflet a long time before I actually had the nerve to start working on it. I have found that it is actually easier than it looks and it is stitching up relatively quickly. Backstitching all of the vines in will probably change my mind about that. So far I am happy with how things are looking and I can’t wait to see this come back up on my rotation.