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I suppose some wenches are expecting another progress report on the Historical Headache. I had set Loara aside for a while, but picked her up again when the Senior Wench became ill. I have finished a hair over half of the Historical Headache and have still got half to go. This is measuring by the fabric that's covered with stitching compared to the fabric that's still blank.
I took her out of the slate frame because I couldn't carry her around while she was framed up. Taking Loara out of the frame has sped up my progress, but also increased the amount of handling the ground fabric receives. I can tell I will have to wash the finished piece. If I'd left her in the slate, she wouldn't be nearly as dirty. She wouldn't be anywhere close to halfway done, either. I'd rather wash a finished piece than have something that sits unfinished but clean.
Band 14 was a killer. I had colorized the chart and I carried that printed out page to Germany and back because I made slow progress. I simply wasn't stitching much. When I did, I didn't sit and stitch for long. There ended up being such a time lag between working on my computer and working with needle and thread that I forgot some of the details on the chart and had to work them out for myself all over again. When I got down to the running stitches used in that band, I'd made some decisions while charting it that didn't translate at all well to stitching. I peered at the photograph from the kit under magnification and did the running stitches the same way that Mistress Harvey had.
I'm now working on Band 17. Mistress Harvey directs stitchers to count down 159 threads or 53 half cross stitches from the bottom of Band 16 and then start working at the LEFT side of the sampler. Don't do this. I frogged my stitching at least four times because of counting and placement errors. If I had started at the RIGHT side of the sampler, I would not have had to count way out into unstitched ground. The problem is you can't tell if you did it right until you get back close to band 16 and can see if it lines up. If I had started a mere three threads away from band 16, I would not have had to frog. Because I doubt Loara had nifty charts to work from, I think she must have started on the left side when working the original. I don't know why Mistress Harvey directs that awful counting bit. What was she thinking? Pay close attention when working the spot motif flowers in this band. Mistress Harvey counts out most, but not all of the stitches. There are a few in the middle of leaves that are easy to skip as there is no number attached to them. Putting them in is ruining the reversability of the sampler, but it can't be helped. These motifs are also not symmetrical, they have different loopety-doos at each corner.
The color changes continue to please me. I am far enough along to know that I have purchased plenty of substitute thread and will not run out unless I do something incredibly stupid and have to frog massive areas. Even then, I still might be fine. I got lots of thread. While I went from a tan to a pink, the pink is not overwhelming the other colors because it is a pale pink. I didn't substantially change the other colors. I selected a different chestnut and blue, but not very different.
Since I'm making progress again on Loara I'm interested in other English samplers of the same time period. Remember, Loara was an Englishwoman at the time, just a colonist. After looking through my reference books and museum catalogs, I went back to a website that sells charts of historical samplers. They sell the chart for the Bostocke and several that are from the same time period as Loara. Some even have the same patterns that Loara used! One sampler that has at least two patterns that are in Loara is dated 1633. I'd love to get back to England and the V&A museum. You'd have to pry me out with a crowbar at closing time.
As far as I know, the Island Wench and the Local Wench have set Loara aside for now and are working on other projects. They may also have discovered how annoying it can be to carry around a large project. I have noticed that in gatherings of stitchers, as soon as I whip out Loara to work on, I get R*E*S*P*E*C*T. I could open my mouth and spout off the most ridiculous embroidery lies and everyone would nod and take mental notes, believing that I know what I'm talking about just because I'm working on this Historical Large Thing. It's a little scary.
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