This is the frame that is 9″ x 20.5″.
After I finished the last blog post, I looked at my list of charts on the XStitch Plus app. There were a couple I had thought might work but they weren’t a great fit. I was looking for something that had equal amounts of space on the sides, and the top and bottom.
I came across Land of the Free by Willow Hill Samplings. Please click on the link and look at the chart. It’s much prettier there than in my screenshot below.
I think it will be perfect for this frame but, once it’s finished, if it isn’t perfect, I’ll order a different frame and find something else to do with this one..
You can see the stitched area will be 16-1/2″ x 5″ which leaves 2″ extra on each side. I would prefer no more than 1″ on each side but I think that can easily be solved.
If I add 40 spaces to the width and 40 stitches to the height, it will be 18-1/2″x 7″ which will leave 1″ on each side. Also, the linen starts out being 40″ but most of the time, after the dying process, it’s more like 42 stitches per inch. I’ll check all that out before making a final decision.
I will make notes and be sure I’ve planned it all out but for the width, I’ll leave more spaces between the buildings, the flag poles, the people. It won’t take much. Five stitches is about 1/4 of an inch so to gain two inches of stitching, I will need 40 stitches (or spaces).
For the added height, I can make the trees a bit taller. On the curved vines, I can make them taller. I can stitch five or six more rows of grass without it being off balance. I can leave a few extra spaces between the top and bottom of the words. I’m thinking I might even enlarge that bottom border and underneath the words, stitch the initials of my family who have served in the military. The letters are 9 spaces tall so if I did that, then added 6 stitches between the two rows, and add 4 extra spaces above and below the straight stitching above and below the words, that’s 23 stitches/spaces. If I had 5 more rows of grass, that’s 28 so all I need to increase the trees would be 12 stitches. If I don’t want to increase the tree height, I can add birds above the trees. They’re 8 stitches high so that would give me 36 extra stitches plus I need to leave a few spaces above the trees before adding more birds. I think that’s what I’ll do.
Oh, I am ready to start this one now!
I ordered silk floss from Victoria Clayton so, for sure I can’t start this til the floss arrives.
To a fault, I always underestimate how much work is involved in a piece but this one looks fairly easy – large blocks of colors with nothing that appears to be too intricate.
What are your thoughts?