My Summertime Story  Page 4

My completed Sampler

July 30, 2023

Notice my additions: Susan B., her glasses and all, are in place, and I finished the sampler by adding sunflowers, roses and other yellow and white flowers. This was one of the more challenging  pieces for me, and also one of my favorite in a long time.  I had to work hard for it and I enjoyed every stitch.

Now that I have posted the finished sampler, I will backtrack and tell you about the challenges. My Susan B. was the single most difficult 3" x 3 1/2 bit of stitching I have ever tried, yet Jan proofed the sampler for me and said it was an easy stitch.

August 1, 2023

This morning I have added a photo of Susan B. in progress.  As she was quite simply the most difficult 3" x 3.5" I have ever stitched, I thought I would revisit my decisions and what made her so difficult.  To get her face and hair stitched, it took me approximately 60+ hours of trials and revisions.

My first problem: simply

too few a number of meshes:

from tip of her nose to hair

line, the count is 23 meshes,

or a hair under (no pun

intended) 1". So in the space

of less than 1", I had

to make her nose, her eye

and her glasses.

August 2, 2023

Here is a closeup of my finished Susan B. Anthony.

Even after stitching her face, one problem remained: Susan B. Anthony almost always wore black and real black would

be too strong on my sampler.

A bit of luck here, I was able to dilute the 'black' enough that it read as black but not a solid

black presentation. I used a charcoal gray instead of black and mixed in a liberal amount of gray highlights.

I wasn't sure until I completed the flowers. Here you see that the yellow ended up strong enough to detract a bit more from the black.

A big help with stitching Susan B. came from an unusual souce: a Barbi Doll. Meet Susan B. Barbi Doll.

Further help from Susan B. Barbie Doll: This photo of the back of Susan B. Barbie Doll taught me how Susan B.'s hair style worked.

Favorite Photo of ECS and Susan B.

Why do I like this photo so much? In part because of the composition. In most photos the women are side by side, ie both seated, or both standing, their faces at the same level.

When I was deciding on the positions of the women for my sampler  part of the reason I opted for one 3/4's face and one almost in profile was to keep the sampler from looking too mechanical.

When I found the two barely-started samplers pictured above, I had no idea about the adventure ahead.

A number of you have asked, will I ever sell the kit for the sampler; the answer is yes, next year in June/July as part of my promised Patriotica Sale.

To my mind my ECS and Susan B. Sampler is the most patriotic of the projects I have stitched. Because of these two women and the many othes who supported women's suffage, I can be a fully-participating American citizen and what is more patriotic than that.

Future: I will keep the sampler and enjoy it for a while longer, then, I am happy to say, it has a forever home: it is promised to a small collections library.