Sampler SAL - Page 2 - Week 3

Welcome to the next part of the Sampler SAL! I'm so sorry that this is so very, very late! I have not been well and stitching has been a struggle, so it's taken a lot longer than usual to get the embroidery done to show you. It's variegated thread month and this week brings us folded thread, so you can loop start, blended with a solid, and what is often (but not always) called tweeded. There will be a catch-up post as soon as possible to get things back on track.

This is what mine looks like after stitching. The thread of the week is Jodyri Designs Deep Dive, which totally fits in the land, seas, and sky theme of the threads this month.

To the left is the shape that I’ve done two ways. On the left I carefully folded the thread, so the colours align (bottom thread in the picture below) as perfectly as I can make them, and trimmed off any excess if there was one end longer than the other. On the right of that first element I used a thread that wasn't perfectly lined up (top thread in the picture below). I made sure to start the first thread with the loop, the second as if it was a normal variegated thread to make sure the colours lined up, and the third with a loop start. Of course, you can just loop start every time!

It can be a bit fiddly to work out the exact centre of a variegated thread - it takes a bit of fiddling and some time. But as you can see the effort can be worth it. Especially if you are doing larger areas of stitching or just prefer the loop start.

The second section was done using a single strand of variegated thread and a second thread that's a plain DMC. I added DMC 011 which made it lighter, though a darker thread would certainly also look nice.

Finally, this stitching was done by taking two strands of the same section of variegated thread. Then taking one and rotating it so that it's pointing in the opposite direction of the first. Then stitch as normal, without a loop start.

This week yet again shows that the direction of the thread itself when threading the needle makes quite a difference with variegated thread use. Next week you will need the second colour of variegated thread, unless you wish to use a fourth colour.

You can find the pattern here.

That's all for this week! Have fun and don't forget to show us your stitching results in the Facebook group! I'll be back on Friday with this month's NFSAL!