I Think This Woman was Dyslexic!

I am working on a historical recreation of the Loara Standish Sampler. The kit is from Joanne Harvey, at the Examplarery, and Joanne knows a lot about what Lazy Wenches want. The fabric is high quality and there is plenty of it. I got a doodle cloth that was large and the same fabric as the real piece. There is more than enough thread, by anyone's estimate. The directions are usually clear, they are in great detail, no blurry photocopying and on excellent paper.

The problem is one of human nature. Loara Standish was, no doubt about it, an experienced stitcher. I've seen the finished piece and it is incredebly well done. Itsy-bitsy stitches, complicated designs, Loara wasn't a beginner when she stitched this one. However, she wasn't a nit picky perfectionist, either. For an accurate reproduction, I have to re-create her errors while adding none of my own. Recreate random errors? I have enough to do just to get the darned thing finished (it's huge) and I'm expected to be stitch by stitch perfect? No way! This Lazy Wench likes her sanity! I'll do the best that I can, but if my sampler doesn't match Loara's exactly, the stitching police will not put out an APB.

To help me along in my folly, there are three Lazy Wenches working on this all at the same time. I am not alone in my quest. Hi Jules! Hi Sharon! Each of us has taken a different approact to this Historical Headache. In fact, I'm just using that name because it sounds interesting, I don't find the piece to be a headache at all. Because the style of stitching in Loara's day is so different from the way we stitch now, we think Loara must have been left-handed and dyslexic. As a dyslexic myself, I can translate pretty well.

Sharon is working methodically, practicing each new stitch, taking her time, double checking her work against the charts and concentrating. Her piece will be finished about the same time as our two. I doubt she will have to rip out much at all. I think she is working in a Q-Snap for now.

Jules forged ahead and ran into a snag. The directions from Joanne have one section of a repeated pattern enlarged. It's a section with an error in it. The enlargement helps Lazy Wenches do this little bit with the error 'stitch perfect'; it confuses Wenches because we think it should be repeated. Jules is stitch perfect now, but it cost her some frogging to get that way. Jules has her piece in a scroll frame and uses a stand.

I'm not going to complete the sampler as Joanne charted it. I have changed several of the colors and am using Sampler Threads for three out of ten colors Joanne supplied. I am using my computer to colorize the charts, so I can read them more easily. I also am not going to stitch the verse at the end. I'm not quite sure what I'll put in it's place, but I know for sure that verse will not be there. I'm working in hand, but will move to something like a Q-snap later.

Do you name your bands? Joanne has numbered them but I have found I like to name them, so I can give them some personality as I work. The second band, when partly done, looks like rows of palm trees even though some of them are upside-down. It's the 'Palm Tree Band.' Other rows will probably get other names from other Lazy Wenches. I enjoy finding different names for projects as I do them. The names change if I'm frogging a lot and give me a place to vent frustration. I've completed 'The Snoozer' 'The Dagnabbed Penguinni' and another Lazy Wench I know completed a piece she called 'The Bangled Bitch.' It was a heavily beaded piece.

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