Have you started our year long project from 2017 “Menagerie of Mystery” – or wanted to?  For those of you not familiar with this project, it is designed to create your own sampler(s) and/or set of ornaments.  The instructions are located in the “Members Only” portion of our website.  There are 24 blocks that explore various types of stitches and techniques.  Each block can be done on almost any type of ground cloth and with almost any type of thread.

Several members have requested a stitch-a-long for this so that they can get started or move it further up their pile of projects.  Hope you will consider joining us too.  We kicked off our year-long SAL in mid-August.  As of now, we have at least 9 members participating in our SAL.  Most have chosen to make a sampler and two have chosen to make ornaments.  Photos will be posted as our SAL progresses.

The question now is, are you interested in joining this stitch-a-long? We will be working two (2) blocks each month.  Hopefully this will give you a fun project to do with supplies from your stash.  If you have any questions or want to join us, please e-mail me at nmkat18@gmail.com.

Here are some photos of Jackie’s supplies/choices:

Here is the basted outline for my spot sampler using our Layout #3.

We will be exploring two blocks each month around mid-month.  I will be posting photos for those blocks near the end of the month.

Happy Stitching and hope you will join us!

Karen Anthony

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Welcome to the discussion of our SAL.  The first blocks we are exploring are Block 1 – Box & Square Stitches, Block 2 – Rhodes Stitches, Block 3 – Tied & Leaf Stitches and Block 4 – Crossed Stitches.

Here is the cube I stitched for Block 1 using the following types of stitches:  Smyrna Cross stitches, my modification of Reversed Scotch Stitch, my modification of Reversed Mosaic Stitch, Reversed Scotch Heart and several Waffle/Norwich stitches:

Here is Rosemary’s spot sampler with Block 1 and 2 completed.  For Block 1, she used Point Russe #1 stitch and for Block 2, she used the Rhodes Heart, Plaited Rhodes, and Two-Color Octagonal Rhodes stitches.

Rosemary used Block 1 stitches in a few more of her blocks.  Here she used Gobelin Framed Scotch (top left) and Moorish (both in photo on the left).  She also used a Norwich and Diagonal Mosaic (both in photo on the right).  The photo on the right also shows one of Rosemary’s stitches for Block 4, the Bullet (right below the Norwich). 

Lastly she used Diagonal Scotch (in the center of the photo).  It is pictured here with one of her Block 4 stitches, Smyrna Cross (left side) and one of her Block 3 stitches, Crossed Tied-Down Scotch (right side).  Please note that Rosemary did all of these stitches on the diagonal.

Rosemary enjoyed using several stitches for Blocks 3  & 4.  For Block 3, she also used Diamond Leaf (photo on left) and the Interlocking Wheat stitch (photo on right).      

For Block 4, she used Herringbone two-trip (photo on left) and Hourglass Cross (photo on right).

For Block 4, she also used the Diamond Leviathan (between the Diamond Leaf and Bargello) and the Bullet (to the left of the Bargello and diagonally left from the Diamond Leviathan), as pictured here.  Please note that again Rosemary did these stitches on the diagonal.

Here is Mary’s spot sampler with Blocks 1 and 3.  For Block 3, she used twice with Tied Windmill (top left in light yellow) and Mini Leaf (to the right of it).  For Block 1, she also used twice with Triangular Scotch (just below the Mini Leaf in orange) and Southerland (bottom right in multiple colors)

Here’s Mary’s spot sampler with Blocks 2 and 4 completed.  For Block 2, she used Rhodes Heart, Half Rhodes, Triangle Rhodes, and Rectangular Rhodes.

For Block 4, she used the Sprat’s Head stitch (photo on left), Diagonal Chinese Cross Stitch & Vertical Trame with Cross Stitch Blackwork Tiedowns (both in photo on right).

Here’s Charlotte’s cube ornament for Block 1 in progress.   Her top block is Diagonal Stitch with Mosaic, the middle block is Window Pane Scotch (Charlotte says “what a fun stitch!”) and the bottom block is Cushion Stitch.

Check back for more photos from our members of their Blocks 1-4.

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Welcome back to our SAL discussion.  The next blocks being explored are Block 5 – Blackwork, Block 6 – Pulled Thread, Block 7 – Diagonal & Slanted Stitches and Block 8 – Bargello.

Here is Rosemary’s spot sampler with Blocks 5 and 8 completed.  She used each of these blocks twice in her sampler.  Here is her first Blackwork block and first Bargello block.

Here are her other Blackwork and Bargello blocks.

Here is Mary’s spot sampler with Blocks 5 and 8 completed.  She used each of these blocks twice in her sampler.  Here are her first Blackwork block and both Bargello blocks.

Here is her other Blackwork block.

Here is Rosemary’s spot sampler with Blocks 6 & 7 completed.  For Block 6, Rosemary used the Ringed Back Stitch (photo on left) and the Four-sided Stitch (photo on the right).   

For Block 7, here is one of her Diagonal & Slanted Stitches block using a pattern from Ann Strite-Kurz (photo on the left) and the Kalem stitch (photo on the right, pictured with the Gobelin Framed Scotch from Block 1).

Rosemary used Block 7 in two other places with the Broken Byzantine stitch (left) and Milanese Pinwheel (right), as pictured here.

Here is Mary’s spot sampler with Block 7 completed (she did not include block 6 in her sampler).  She used Block 7 twice in her sampler with Milanese (photo on left) and Irregular Byzantine (photo on right)

Check back for more photos from our members for these blocks.

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Welcome back to our SAL discussion.  The next blocks being explored are Block 9 – Couching, Block 10 – Redwork, Block 11 – Drawn Thread and Block 12 – Whitework.

Here is Rosemary’s spot sampler with Block 9 completed.  She used this block three times in her sampler with a Couching Block using a pattern from Ann Strite-Kurz (photo on left), Colcha stitch (photo on the right) and the New England Laid Stitch (photo below).

Here is Mary’s spot sampler with Block 9 completed.  She used this block twice in her sampler using the Straight Trellis stitch for both of her blocks, as pictured below.

Check back for more photos from our members for these blocks.

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Welcome back to our SAL discussion.  The next blocks being explored are Block 13 – Eye & Star Stitches, Block 14 – Hilton Stitches, Block 15 – Feathered & Linked Stitches and Block 16 – Looped & Chained Stitches.

Here is Rosemary’s spot sampler with Blocks 13, 14 and 15 completed. She used Block 13 stitches several times throughout her sampler.  Pictured here, on the diagonal to the right of the Bargello block are Oval Eyelet on the Diagonal, Algerian Eye and Starfish (each stitched in green).

Here is Mary’s spot sampler with Blocks 13, 14, 15 and 16 completed.  She used Block 13 stitches three times in her sampler, with the Eight Pointed Star (photo on left), Oval Eyelet on the Diagonal and Triangular Ray (both in photo on right – they are to the right and below the Sprat’s Head).

Here’s Rosemary’s sampler with her other Block 13 stitch – Outlined Eyelet, one of her Block 14 stitches – a Jessica, and one of her Block 15 stitches – Fly Stitch (the green stitches to the right of the Bargello block).

Here is Rosemary’s other Block 14 stitch – Plaited Rays, pictured here.

Mary used Block 14 stitches twice in her sampler, using Arrow Amadeus (photo on left) and Superimposed Waffle (photo on right).

Here is Rosemary’s other Block 15 stitch – the Fern Stitch.

Mary used Block 15 stitches twice in her sampler, using Scallop (photo on the left) and Arrowhead Fly (photo on the right).

Mary also used Block 16 in her sampler, using Looped Turkey Work, as pictured here.

Check back for more photos from our members for these blocks.

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