I think we can keep this - can you please, move it to SAL then, Rose? Thank you.

Happy to oblige!!!!!

Ok, so I bought squared paper and graph paper today.

I'm organizing the full thing on the graph paper in the order I want to stitch them and I'm just about to design my band...but...I want to do a band with a little four word sentance. I think it's just perfect for the cross stitch forum band sampler.

Obviously we have the width of the sampler set, but are we having a set depth that we're allowed to stitch for our band? (e.g. does it have to be within, say, 10 or 15 stitches, or whatever?)

I desperately want to join in with this but I'm not sure exactly what we're doing. Are we:

1) all designing a band, posting it on here and stitching all the bands ourselves?
2) all desiging a band, stitching it on a piece of fabric and sending it to a co-ordinator to be joined to the other pieces?
3) all designing a band and stitching it onto one piece of fabric which will be doing the rounds of everyone in the group (like a round robin)?

Probably a daft question and I've probably missed the answer somewhere along the thread...

We're all stitching our own sampler, like a SAL

I got out my sampler book and had a look at Band samplers as they were origionally (the most recent sampler in here is 33. They're all meuseum pieces). And I came across this lovely little saying.
Conversation speak with ease
Shun Barberous words
As rocks in trees
Elzabeth Brain
1785

And I thought, that's beautiful! And it really works with the forum. So this is what I came up with:


The big stars are those eyelets. Start in the center of thee stitch and go out to the point, back to the centre and out to the next point...You know the ones?
The little stars are double cross stitches? I have no idea of stitching names. You do a cross stitch X then you go over the top with a cross on it's side + so the crosses are bigger than normal crosses.

Please tell me someone knows what I'm talking about and can translate my gibberish for me?

Phew! Ta for that Angel. I thought that was the case, but I wanted to check.

You're most welcome! Always best to check.

Oh that's nice Angel

thank you, I'm glad you like it

I went with words too - I thought I'd hark back to the first exchange in which I took part - the stitching friends exchange! It was my introduction to such things and so I will always have a soft spot in my heart for it (hence the addition of the little hearts).



PS This is the first time I've ever produced a design on a computer programme! I shall be playing around with this kind of thing some more and plan to design a bookmark on it...

3 bands already, best get stitching. I think I'm using white aida with mauves and greens

Wite aida with pinks and reds for me, but I'm not stitching until we've got some more bands.

I think I'll be starting soon too. Have to decide on the fabric and floss though. I think I'll most likely be stithing on 18-count aida, but I might change my mind at the last moment and choose and evenweave.

Wow, beautiful, ladies!

As for the width of the bands.... those samplers I have seen usually used different widths - it was especially nice to create a rhythm with wider and narrower lines. SOmetimes there was just on single line of some speciality stitches to divide to bands, sometimes there was a really wide one in the middle, and often, at the bottom, they do a kind of V-shaped one.

So I think width can be left open, and everyone can put theirs in the order they prefer. What do you think?