This year I decided to take an embroidery kit on holiday instead of a book, it’s much lighter to pack and it’s nice to have a bit of quiet time, even on holiday!

I chose one I bought last year at the Knitting and Stitching show, it’s designed by Jane Greenoff and I bought it as a bit of a trial; I’ve not done any counted thread embroidery before and I’ve admired the mini strawberry sampler book for a couple of years, it’s gorgeous, but for once I was sensible and decided to try one of the simpler kits first. Heather Hemstitch and Hardanger is a lovely band sampler, all in my favourite heathery colours. There’s a nice mix of stitches, cross-stitch, drawn thread, embroidery stitches and hardanger. To give you an idea of size it’s designed to be either made into a needlecase or framed as a picture.

What ever the instructions say I still can’t bring myself to measure down and start at the top, so I started in the middle with the cross-stitch flower, well within my comfort zone!! I then stitched upwards towards the drawn-thread. When I first read the instructions I wasn’t sure about it, but they are the sort of instructions that make complete sense once you actually start following them. Having said that, they do presume a certain level of knowledge about embroidery stitches so I couldn’t recommend the kit for a complete beginner, for example there are no instructions about couching or buttonhole bars and only a drawing of hemstitch which is where I hesitated as I wasn’t sure if stitches had to be done in a certain order, I just did it like backstitch. That was the one time I really missed internet on holiday!!

The hardanger heart was interesting to do, the outer squares are stitched first, then threads are cut and pulled out to leave a grid, these are then stitched using needle weaving. The heart was embroidered in a lovely variegated perle thread, with a thinner version for the needle weaving.

The diagrams of the hemstitch and somerset stitch didn’t print that clearly on my copy, so I’m glad to be home with google before I start the somerset stitch band!

I’m about 2/3rds of the way through the sampler now and I’m really pleased with it, I like doing band samplers as there’s just enough to get the hang of a new stitch without getting bored!! I still haven’t decided if I’m just going to do the band or if I’m going to hem it too, it’s going to be framed whatever.

I’m linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy’s Quilts.