I’m managing to keep up to date with my stitch wheel, the SAL sampler by Kathy Reavy. I’ve just realised that last time I posted about this SAL was the middle of March! At that point I’d just finished the third ring…

Since then we’ve been adding three stitches each week. Rather than spacing them around the outer ring like Cathy does, I’ve just worked methodically round the ring, partly because it makes it easier to photograph!

The first stitch is the one that’s meant to be two peapods, it’s made with stem stitch and outline stitch, as far as I can see outline and stem stitch are the same, it just depends which way the stitch lies!

The big scroll shape is couching and the Y shaped branch is a raised stem band which is a bit like doing stem stitch on a framework of thread.As well as couching, Cathy demonstrated trailing, this was used to stitch the stem on the purple flower which is just peeping out. With trailing it is stitched like couching, but over two threads and with the couching stitches right next to each other to make like a raised stem.

The purple flowers are lazy daisy stitch, with the squiggle in chain stitch. The next one was new to me, it’s heavy chain stitch, which is almost like a double chain stitch, it does make a nice raised line.

The next stitch is feather stitch, mine looked a bit boring so I added some French knots. After that came blanket stitch in the form of wheels. Double up and down blanket stitch took a bit of concentration! In the photo below you can also see that we have added flowers to the basket on the ring below. These are made with oyster stitch. I think this one is going to take a bit more practise, I didn’t find it easy to work out exactly where the stitch would end up.

Today Cathy released another three stitches, the first was knotted pearl stitch, I rather liked this one, I can imagine it being quite effective.Herringbone I’ve stitched lots of times, I often use it to stitch hems up. I might add some French knots to this one too as it does look a bit empty. The final stitch is double herringbone. There is a simpler version where the second colour is stitched over the top of the first one in the same way. With this version the two colours weave together so you have to create the stitch slightly differently, I rather like this one.

There’s only five spaces left, so by the end of the month it should be complete. These stitches are all demonstrated by Cathy on her youTube channel for both left handed and right handed stitchers if you fancy having a go.