Mary Ellen Turner by Fox & Rabbit

A friend and I are going to stitch Mary Ellen Turner together. We had tentatively set February 15 as our start date but I think another chart may have moved into that position. The model was stitched on Fox & Rabbit’s White Clay, which I have but I wanted to use something different. The chart, as of now, calls for Belle Soie silk and that’s the only floss they list. I asked Victoria Clayton to do a conversion for me and she did so that’s the floss I’m going to use.

The floss arrived and I was using it to try to match up the perfect fabric.

I ended up deciding on XJu’s Ash Rose 40 count linen. There were several colors that I felt certain weren’t going to show up but they also wouldn’t have shown up well on the called for fabric, so I did a bit of stitching on a corner with a couple of the flosses.

The top group is using two threads and the one below it is using one thread of the same color. That’s Vikki Clayton’s conversion of DMC 2. Below that is a cream color and then the bottom one is a variegated floss. Depending on where the floss is used, those colors may work. Example: If the white floss is stitched with another color around it, that’s fine. If it’s just sitting out in the open with nothing around it, I may change it.

The fabric was 1/2 yard. What I usually do is plug the stitch count into a stitch count calculator and determine the size fabric I need, pull a thread on the big piece of linen, cut it and serge it. I think . . but haven’t measured to confirm, that all linen is one size before it’s dyed and processed, then it shrinks up a bit after the dying process. The calculator may say I need a piece of fabric that’s 16″ x 18″ based on “before processing” size but when I cut it that size, I end up with lots of extra fabric and wasting linen is sad.

So . . I decided I would stitch the top border – just the “frame” of the border. That would tell me how wide the stitched design is. I could then compare it to what the stitch count calculator was telling me and get a better idea about the exact size I need. I stitched the top border and am so in love with this design and with Vikki Clayton’s silks so I kept going and did the left border. You know where I’m going . . I did the bottom border, then the top border, then a bit of the fill in just to see how the colors were working together. I got to the purple artichoke looking flowers. Discipline! Where’s my discipline? I had to stop. I did . . I stopped. I put it all away and will not touch it again til my friend says it’s time to start stitching on it.

You can’t really see it but the linen is a bit pink. You can see the gray splotches. It is so pretty! I’m apparently not very good at counting correctly but every now and then, the border matches up perfectly the first try and I’m so excited when that happens. Last night, it happened. May it please happen with all my future borders!

Those lavender flowers and that green variegated floss. I love this piece!

OK . . it’s put away. I will not touch it til my friend tells me it’s time to start on it again.