Stitching on Friends & Family

I have made enough progress on Friends & Family that you can get some indication of the colors I am using. A reader had asked what my colors were and I replied that I would make this post after I had done a bit of stitching.

The Chart & Background:

Fox & Rabbit offers a free mystery every year with monthly installments. They are free to download during the year but at the end but once the year ends, the entire chart for that year can be purchased for $10. You can find the current mystery, along with the previous years here.

The one I am currently stitching is Friends & Family from 2020.

Sometime in the past, on the Fox & Rabbit – Mystery Sampler SAL group, someone posted a picture of their 2020 Friends & Family piece and they had used a variety of colors and it was gorgeous. Later I saw a post where someone had posted the floss colors used by that person. They were some DMC and some overdyes.

NOTE: The picture isn’t mine and the conversion that was shared isn’t mine so I am not posting copies of those. I took those colors and converted them to Vikki Clayton Silks. The floss I’m using is, for the most part, the same floss as was originally show but in Vikki Clayton’s colors.

Also, the original design did not have borders. The same lady who changed the colors that I saw, added a border. The picture wasn’t easy to enlarge and I am not sure that I have it exactly right but I will share photos as I go along.

About Vikki Clayton Silks:

You probably know that I LOVE Vikki Clayton Silks. The reader who asked about the colors also asked me if there is a difference to silks over regular floss. I’ve been thinking about this for several days and have struggled to come up with an answer. These are my thoughts and you know how much they’re worth. I love the feel of Vikki Clayton Silks. It isn’t snaggy like some of the silks. I suppose if your hands are rough enough, it would snag. When I had stitches in my finger, they did snag so I’m not saying it is 100% non-snag. I love the deep, rich colors of silk. I love the way it seems to reflect light – not necessarily shiny but to me, it just looks like it has life.

I will also tell you that when we’re at our sit and stitch group and everyone is showing what they’ve stitched, I never even notice what’s stitched with DMC and what it stitched with wool. In fact, on this project, the other day I was going to stitch on it during a Zoom meetings and couldn’t find my floss. It had been a while since I worked on it and there were some loose skeins of overdyed floss in the bag so I used one and stitched three of the leaves on the top row – not the top left, but the next three leaves, using the cotton thread. Then I remembered that I was using silks on this project and the bobbin box with the silks was in the “silk cabinet” in the sewing room because I do not keep those in the project bags.

You can see what a good job Vikki Clayton does with matching her floss to the DMC and overdyes. I don’t even know if I will go back and change those leaves. I probably will but if I didn’t tell you they were a different floss, you would never know.

As far as cost, these are the current prices at 123 Stitch for the various flosses. A

• Gentle Art Overdyed – $2.39 (5 yards of 6 strands)
• Classic Color works – $2.57 (5 yards of 6 strands)
• Au Ver a Soie – Soie d’Alger – $5.30 (5 meters – about 5.5 yards of 7 strands)
• Au Ver a Soie – 100/3 – 100/3 – $4.30 (50 meters – about 55 yards single ply on a spool)
• NPI Silk – $4.99 (5 meters – about 5.5 yards of 8 strands)
• DMC – .66 (8.7 yards of 6 strands)
• Vikki Clayton Variegated Floss – $3.00 (5 yards of 6 strands)
• Vikki Clayton Solid Floss – $3.00 (8.7 yards of 6 strands)

There are other silks

As far as costs per yard per strand (I use 1 strand on 40 count linen), based on my calculations (and you know how that goes!):

• NPI – 11.3 cents
• Soie 100.3 – 10 cents
• Vikki Clayton solids – .06 cents
• Vikki Clayton solids – .10 cents

Vikki Clayton’s silks come on a spool. I do not put any of my silks on floss drops. I keep the bobbins in these boxes by Everything Mary that I had been getting on sale at JoAnn for about $1 each but they seem to be out of stock and I can’t find them anywhere else so . . they may or may not still be available.

In this post, I showed other boxes that I have used but these Everything Mary boxes are my favorites.

If you order Vikki’s “packet” (conversion), this list comes with it. I make two copies. I put the original from her inside the box lid and tape it down so I can see what color I need, flip open the box, grab it. I put one copy in a master conversion list file and I put another copy in the project bag. With these two dogs, you never know what may happen to that list!

Vikki Clayton has monthly packets for solids and variegated which you can get on auto ship. I do that. If you go to her webpage and type in “Month” in her search box, it should bring up the monthly packets that are available. This is a great way to get a variety of colors and build your stash.

This is the current one. You can see how easy this would make finding the perfect taupe or gray floss. It’s pretty surprising how having four or five shades of a color will make it so much easier when trying to pull floss.

I store the bobbins that aren’t in a little project box in these bins. I have them for the various colors. When I’m pulling floss, I’ll take the called for, usually DMC, to these boxes and find the exact match. Then I will lay those colors out on the linen I plan to use and may need to change some of the colors to a lighter or darker and may end up changing several (or all) of the colors.

If you go to Vikki’s website and click on Knowledge Base, you will see Vikki’s list of all the DMC colors, along with the corresponding color of Vikki’s silks. There’s another section that will have the conversion for the hand dyed.

Also, Vikki is the nicest lady! If I have a question, I can send her a message on Facebook or send an email and no matter the time of day, I get a response back in minutes.

If I weren’t using Vikki’s silks, I would go with Soie 100/3 or NPI. The 100/3 spool is very convenient and I find it to be just a tad thinner than Vikki’s silks. The NPI is a bit thicker and does give very good coverage.

Here’s how I store the 100/3 spools. These are available on Amazon (affiliate link) but I’ve also found them for a bit less at TJ Maxx.

Here’s the red drawer, which has the most spools to show that you can get quite a few spools in each drawer and each little box has 5 drawers.

My Colors for Friends & Family:

In the photo shown above . . well, it’s probably easier if it’s here too . these are the Vikki Clayton colors I’m using:

• Darker Green – Marsh Grass 3351 (in the “V” on the right motif)
• Lighter Green – Alluvium 3401 (top border, green on outside of the “V”, stem under the blue “flower” in left motif
• Darker Brown – Bird Feathers 4107 (left “V”)
• Lighter Brown – Bird Feathers 4103 (haven’t used it yet)
• Darker Red – Bitter Bloom 4447 (Center of flower in left motif and berries in right motif)
• Lighter Red/Pink – Bitter Bloom 4443 (bottom of flower in left motif)
• Darker Blue – Navy Nights – (doodad on sides of blue flower in left motif)
• Lighter Blue – Nisse Grey 5327 (blue in bottom of flower (is that part of the flower? – below the pink flower in left motif)

Please note: Depending on the color of your fabric, these colors may not work for you. My linen is 40 count Cherubic from Tropical Stitches. She may be out of it but if you want it, you can write her and see if she has it or will be dying it. Cherubic is a very light, almost white, color. I use it often in pieces that I want to be stitched on a fabric that is close to white.

This is probably way more than anyone wanted to know but if you have questions, please leave them in the comments.