Sampler one, report 2

Well, here I go. Who else would drag out 42-count linen. It is murder, even with the jeweller's headpiece.

This is the Guilloche Stitch, halfway through the French Knots.

I decided on a chain stitch around the outside, and nothing on the inside. The bars for the Guilloche and the Chain stitch are in a Kacoonda medium silk, the weaving in a Minamuura perle cotton.

Because the thread count was so high, these were too fiddly and fussy, so I am telling myself I like the "hand-not-machine" look.

After that, I worked the Feather Stitch combination, with a row of Portuguese stem stitch either side. One is a tad closer than I would like, but okay. The two threads don't really show off the knots all that well.

Then I decided I would fix the wagon of that dratted linen. So I got out some waste canvas, and did some posts for the Guilloche on it, with Colourstreams Ophir, which is a quite thick silk.

That's where I am at, at the moment. I love the Feather Stitch combination, and find Guilloche is quite similar to Chicken Scratch.

But I am hot-footing it off to my fabrics box for something with a lower count than 42!

(And, if you are wondering what I am rabiting about, this is the first week of lessons in Sharon b's wonderful Personal Library of Stitches class).

And Thank You to all who have said "Welcome Back". It is good to be back, although life is still busy, so there will be days when I am not here. But there are good things going on - one of which I hope to share with you soon.