Finishing the Whitework Sampler

While I was quarantining at home and gradually feeling a smidge better, I decided I had just enough strength to recline delicately on my chaise and do a little feeble embroidering on my whitework sampler. And by doing a little bit at a time over three days, I finished it! But we'll come to the finished piece in a moment. For now, I'll describe and show you the remaining four squares that I stitched.

In the first two squares, I finally did some drawn thread work. I was really excited to do this type of whitework, but my RSN Whitework book said to do it last, so I waited till the end. 

Now that I've done it, I'm not convinced it needs to be done last; I think there's some flexibility there. The book also said to remove the piece from the frame or relax the tension before doing drawn thread work (which is at least partly why they recommend doing it last). I did neither of these and it worked just fine. In fact, I think it would be much harder to withdraw threads if there was little or no tension on the fabric. The tension helped me grab the threads and tug them out, and I didn't find that the fabric had any strong desire to fall apart just because it was tensioned and I was pulling threads out. Now, full disclosure, this fabric was by no means drum tight. I was using cheap stretcher bars, which never get anything drum tight. So maybe you wouldn't want to try this on a fully taut piece of fabric on a slate frame.

But anyway, there are two methods of beginning drawn thread work. First, you can withdraw the threads and then weave them into the fabric at the ends of where you've withdrawn them. Or second, you can do some kind of satin stitch or buttonhole stitch at the ends of where you will withdraw the threads and then withdraw them and snip them next to that end stitching. I tried it both ways:


On the first row, I tried withdrawing the threads and weaving them back into the fabric at the ends. This was tricky as the thread kept breaking, and the end result doesn't look super neat to me. On the second row, I tried buttonhole stitch at either end and snipped the threads. On the third one, I did satin stitch at the ends and snipped the threads. I don't love any of them to be honest. 

I think the buttonhole or satin stitch look a little better, but I don't like how the snipped threads stick out a little. I think the ideal solution might be to do satin stitch on the ends and then weave the drawn threads under the satin stitch on the reverse side of the fabric. That way, it would look neat and tidy without stubby threads poking out. I'll give this a try on my next drawn thread project and let you know how it goes.

Anyway, once the threads were withdrawn, it was time to start doing some designs:



The first row on the left is half hem stitch. I just followed the guidelines in my RSN Whitework book (instructions are also available on Mary Corbet's site) but only did hem stitch on one side, which gave me the little triangles on the other side. The second row was full hem stitch (done on both sides), with three threads in each of the little ladder-like bars. The third row was full hem stitch with two threads in each bar. And the fourth row on the right is diagonal hem stitch. I really enjoyed stitching these, and I like how they turned out. So I decided to keep going with my drawn thread work.

In my next square, I got a little fancier and more intricate:


I did overcasting on the first row, which ended up looking very similar to hem stitch with two threads per bar. The second row was double twist without doing hem stitch beforehand (which looks cool but might not be as strong without the hem stitch). And the third row is double twist after doing hem stitch on both sides. The fourth and final row is knotted border with hem stitch done on both sides first. They're all kind of neat, but I think I prefer regular hem stitch with three threads per bar or diagonal hem stitch.

I wove all the threads on this second square to see if it could be done more neatly with practice (it can't — at least not by me) and then ended up trying to cover the untidy ends with French knots to see if it would look better. It doesn't. But hey, it's a sampler. The point is to learn what works and what doesn't. :)

Once I had finished these drawn thread squares, I was basically done with my RSN book, but I still had two squares to go. So I decided to try a little Hardanger, which I've always liked the look of. Using a variety of websites, tutorials, and videos I found via a simple google search, I created this series of little kloster blocks in the first square and then began withdrawing threads:


I accidentally snipped a couple I shouldn't have. But when I started doing the woven bars, I found that the thread covered up my accidental snips fairly well:


I used no. 8 perle thread for everything because that's what I had on hand. It worked fine for the satin stitch kloster blocks and woven bars, but it was too big for the square filets (the filled squares). Those should look like delicate lines, but it's just kind of a knot of thread because it's so thick. I learned from my mistake, though (more about that below).

On my next Hardanger square, I tried something a little different:


These kloster blocks have triangle edges on one side, and the whole design forms a square instead of a diamond. 

I got better at snipping the threads on this one but still accidentally snipped one I shouldn't have. Again, though, it didn't matter too much, because wrapping the bars covered the little imperfections. I went with wrapped bars instead of woven bars for this design:


As you can see, this is pretty simple. You just wrap the working thread around the remaining threads, working in a diagonal direction over the square and then secure them under the satin stitch on the wrong side at the end of each row. 

This time, when I wanted to add decorative details, I used a single strand of embroidery floss instead of the no. 8 perle. I chose to do dove's eyes in the center of some of the squares, and they turned out much better with the thinner thread:


They look much more delicate and lacy this time, which is just what I wanted. Anyway, that was the final square in my whitework sampler. And here's the completed work:


The top row is a variety of pulled thread techniques; row 2 is eyelets, counted satin stitch, surface embroidery, and cutwork; row 3 is two drawn thread squares and two Hardanger squares; and the bottom row is also a variety of pulled thread techniques. 

Although this sampler is riddled with mistakes, I'm reasonably pleased with it because I learned so much from it. I now have a ton of new embroidery techniques in my repertoire, which I can't wait to start including in other projects. And I've learned what works, what doesn't, and what I prefer. This sampler should be a great resource for me to look back on for years to come when I need ideas or reminders of techniques. And that's exactly what a good sampler should do! So I consider this one a success. Perfection be damned! :)

Speaking of imperfection, this is what the fabric looked like when I pulled all those tacks out of the stretcher bars:


So I just wet it down, gave it a good stretch, and let it air dry, and that seemed to fix the problem. But it always terrifies me when I see it like this. It just looks so destroyed. Fortunately, in embroidery projects, few things are permanent. Worse comes to worst, you can always trim the edges off. I tend to leave a good two- to three-inch border just in case I need to do this for any reason.

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