I've drawn up a pattern for the little pulled thread sampler I've been working on in the background and the pattern is now available in the Etsy shop. You can see more about it by clicking here.
The idea for the embroidery originally grew from trying out a piece of pulled thread embroidery without the benefit of an embroidery frame. You can read more about that in this blog post here. Although it was a novel experience and quite successful, I am more familiar with embroidering in a frame and since completing the sampler, I have reverted to using one.
Originally, I wanted to see how different or difficult it was to work various stitches while holding the embroidery in my hand and I chose several popular pulled thread stitches for my test sampler. I also love doing a variety of different embroidery stitches. Any excuse to add another stitch! I can see why through the years samplers of all types have had an endless appeal to embroiderers.
It's simply fun to use lots of different stitches and watch how each one turns out as you stitch it - without the distraction of a design. The stitches speak for themselves.
Once the stitching was done and it seemed like a nice little project to do, I started drawing up a pattern. But, there were quite a few delays. Besides Christmas and having family to stay, one was that the software I use suddenly had a glitch. That took quite a while to iron out. Another was that photos of the finished pincushion proved a challenge. The first few with my trusty point-and-shoot camera were disappointing, so Rod took some with his phone.
They were much better than my first two attempts but the rich inky background turned out to be rather overwhelming. In the end, we had a bright day and I found a bright spot on the patio to take the photos. I settled on the white background I started out with and used those photos for the pattern.
The pattern has instructions and stitch diagrams for a collection of pulled thread stitches, worked in bands across the linen. There's also a pretty row of daisies in-between and the embroidery is finished off as a pincushion. It's a digital pattern and easy to download from the link that Etsy sends with your receipt.
