The Patchwork Sampler - Part 3

It's been a while, mostly because my health has not been too brilliant lately and I've not had much energy left to do fun things like write blogs, I have however managed to do some more stitching and today I'll show you the progress of my Patchwork Sampler.



First of all is the little bit of Celtic style braid, I have no idea where I got this pattern from, I copied it from a previous sampler I'd done 15 years ago while pregnant with oldest. I did the braid using some threads from the DMC 2013 New Colours Thread pack, which as far as I know has only been available as a pack in the USA, the colours themselves have not been released individually (I find this quite annoying but well... thank goodness for internet shops and international shipping!). The colours I used are:  3898, 3891, 3994. The fabric is some evenweave I have leftover from something.

Next is a flower border made using a pattern from Borduurblad from part 6 of the Spring free pattern series "Lordena's Surprise" which at the time of writing was still free, you have to sign up to the site to get it and when you order they will put your personal information as a watermark on the pattern to stop people from sharing it online.

I used DMC variegated threads 101 and 108. The butterfly I made using DMC 444 - I did that on the fly as it were, making it up as I stitched. Stitched on 18ct antique white Aida.

Then there is my mini sampler in a sampler using bits from several sources. I started with the seagull on the pole which is part of the free summer pattern by the Snowflower diaries (If you have never seen her work go look! She is doing this amazing monthly pattern series that I still need to find time to make!). The little 3 stitch high chain border is row 5 from the 2014 Randje per Week, which is no longer available for free but they are doing a new one this year with just alphabets!

The crab is from the summer edition of CrossStitcher - from the seaside stitching special that was included in it - I may have skipped the backstitching as I didn't want it to be as detailed as in the pattern. The seagulls at the top are also from this special.

At the very bottom is a little starfish made with spiders web stitch (as I remember it's called)  and I did a bunch of feather stitching to the side to make seaweed, with colonial knots as a little extra on it.
 I used: DMC B5200, 830, 930, 3811, 3826, 382. The fabric is some 18ct Aida I had dyed using Dylon paints while testing if it worked before painting the background for the pirate ship last year.

Last of all is this band that is also made on 18ct Aida. It's 2 rows of straight sided feather stitch that are going in opposite directions. I had planned to do woven straight sided feather stitch but I liked the way this looks so much I decided to leave it as is. I used a single ply of Caron's Watercolour thread - colour 289.

So you can see... I've not been very talkative - but I have been very busy!