So this has been finished for a while -- erm, quite a while -- but my camera has been having some problems, slowly worsening, and so the other day, well into another two sampler projects, I thought, "ack, I'll just take photos with my phone!" So I dug out my light box and took some photos, not completely satisfyingly, as the sampler is just a little too large to reach into the light box comfortably -- but I was getting fed up with the problems -- and then when I sat down at the computer, I remembered why I keep getting messages that my storage is full, that I can't download the photos on my phone because no matter how long my IT guy (David) spends on it, he can't get my iPhone to play nicely with my PC. Apparently the problem is that my phone takes photos in one format, and even though he got it to convert them into ordinary JPGs the last time, it refuses to do more than about a half-dozen now (and those it just throws any-old-where onto my computer -- directories, schmerectories). My IT's assistant (Laura, no mean whiz with an iPhone herself) spent an hour or so on it the other day, and gave up in frustration. She had to air-drop these from my phone to hers, then e-mail them to me. And I'm not even that happy with them! Gaahhh!
Sigh.
Anyway, I was much happier with my new colors for what I will now call the Lady Floral Brittany sampler, as it's very nearly a mash-up of the two, as far as I can tell -- having the chart for the Floral but only a picture of the Lady Brittany. I modified the Floral (the one on the left in the image below) quite a lot, starting with switching out the long signature for a motto and a short signature,
and the alphabet, though I think that was mostly because I disliked the Victorian Pink so much in the numbers line, and the amount of contrast between the Midnight and Brandy in the alphabet. After deciding to revise that, things kind of snowballed. I had to revise the date line, as "2023" literally wouldn't fit (!), so I thought I might as well add in another pair of those Algerian-eye flowers. And I liked the Tudoresque flowers of Lady Brittany (on the right) so much that ... might as well!
Yes, picking out so very much of it was a pain, but it was a pleasure working the new colors, so I came out ahead. The photos aren't quite true-to-life, unfortunately ... but, well, it isn't that I don't want to do them over, but I just can't face it right now (see Issues, above). The Gold Leaf, especially, looks more reserved and stately in real life.
I think I got a bit tired of referring to both the stitch instructions and the chart, and forgot to look at the former for the roses band, as there is supposed to be some rice stitch in there somewhere -- I think in the little green leaves -- but I just blithely did crosses, and there are some other wobbles that I'm just going to gloss over now (innocent smile). That Weeks Dye Works "Collards" has rapidly become my favorite green, possibly one of my favorites of any floss color, and so I'm just going to admire it happily. I do like the way the satin-stitch petals came out! --
(Not sure why there is so much difference in the color of the linen between the photo above and the one below -- same phone camera, same lighting, seconds apart! Go figure! It is a bit in between the two, not a bright white, but not quite "yellow" either.)
But -- this has been one of my sine qua non samplers for some time now, so I'm very happy to have worked it, and really did enjoy the process more than enough to win out over the annoyances!
Lovely piece. The colours look good and I like the motto you chose.
Technical issues, I've had a few...
Posted by: dawninnl | June 27, 2023 at 01:06 AM