Over two and over one

[Julie Lacer]

I would like to start a new project. I would like a picture that mixes over two with over one. Can anyone tell me where to find such a thing? I don't know where to find it because I don't know anything about cross stitch. All I have is a project that has been lying around for 10 years.
Every now and then I put in a few weeks of effort on it and then I forget about it for another couple of years. However, it seems to me that I am actually close to finishing it, so I need a new project. I am not creative nor practical, so I would like a project where the designer has provided all the artistry and skill and very specific directions about thread colors and canvas size. Since I am not practical or crafty it doesn't do me any good to make something useful that I could sew on a shirt or a towel--this will never happen, I will never find something appropriate to do with the thing--so I would like something that is a picture. And which will take a long time to do so I don't have to start new projects all the time. Probably not a sampler since I usually don't like them; they always look like exercises to me instead of pictures.
I tried to analyze what it was that made me like my current project so much. I have only ever done 3 cross-stitch designs:
1) a cute little castle with a cloud(?) background, from a kit. Small but charming.
2) A Miribilia design of a lady in a garden with lots of flowers and vases. Sort of Italian looking. This was on linen, which was piles more fun than the canvas that came with the castle kit. It felt like cloth, it was such a pleasure to feel in my hand, I loved how fine it was. I thought the bare canvas looked much better when the canvas was finer than the cross stitch boxes. It is true that the castle design was solid so there wasn't any bare canvas, but while I was stitching it I saw bare canvas and it was just much more fun to make over 2 boxes on fine thread than over 1 on coarse thread.
3) The project that has been lying around for 10 years: Teresa Wentzler's Millennium. This is two angels bracketing a fantasy night sky with planets. The top and the bottom have ivy entwined with leaves and words. I don't know what sort of canvas I have. It is 32-count, with very even threads, and feels like cloth except for a slight unpleasant plastic-y feel. The design is 176w x 194h in 2 over 2 boxes.
I conclude that what I like about the design is that it is fine and has a lot of variety in it. It isn't jumpy, though. Whenever you do something you get to do it for a good long amount of time before moving on to something else.
Colors. The angels are pale, so you start off the project with pale. Not just one color, which would be boring, but all sorts of shades of pale. You do this for weeks and weeks, really getting into the concept of 'pale', and then suddenly get to the night sky. How wonderful the rich dark blues are after all that time with beige. Then, after a long time with dark blue, when you have finally gotten sick of it, you get to the other angel and are back to pale.
Bare/Solid. I think I like solid designs. The Miribilia design had a little too much bare canvas for me. However, a design with just a little bare canvas is even better than a completely solid one. With this Millennium design it was nice, after all those rows and rows of solid boxes to get to the ivy entwining around bare canvas.
Backstitch. I really liked outlining stuff in backstitch. I noticed that when I finished up a section, for example an angel wing, that the result looked sort of muddled. When I put in the backstitch, the feathers all suddenly became distinct and the section sprang to life. It was fun to break up all the endless cross-stitch boxes with the occasional flurry of backstitching.
Over 2 and over 1. This was my absolutely favorite part. Most of the design is done in 2 over 2 boxes, but flesh (faces and hands) and planets--including the big planet Earth that is the center of the design--are in 1 over 1. I like fine things; whenever I do crafty things I always wish it was finer. It turns out that 32-count is actually fine enough to suit me. Unfortunately it figuratively makes my eyes bleed so I can't do too much of it. I really liked alternating 32-count with 16-count in the same picture. Since it had 32-count I felt like it was fine enough to suit me, but since it was mostly 16-count I was able to get a nice big picture without going blind or anything.
So, having decided what I wanted, I tried to find it. I went back to the cross stitch store where I had gotten the Millennium design, but the clerk there said that the cross stitch was organized just by subject matter and she couldn't say anything about the level of difficulty of designs or what sorts of techniques they used. I went to the internet. I googled "cross stitch", which was clearly hopeless. I tried "cross stitch two over two and one over one" "cross stitch mixed stitches" "cross stitch complicated" "cross stitch varied" but I couldn't find anything remotely like what I was looking for. I tried "Teresa Wentzler" and that worked great--I got a website of her designs--but it didn't lead me anywhere else since the links on her web page didn't seem helpful. Finally I thought, well, maybe the people at a cross stitch forum would be really nice and offer me some advice, even thoguh I am an ignorant stranger.
So, is there some magic word or phrase that I could type into the search engine that would lead me to the sort of designs I want? Is there a web page that has a list of other, appropriate, web pages?
If you can't help me and if the Teresa Wentzler web site turns out to be alive (it could be, I saw references to '2009') then I will get another one of her designs. I find them to be beautiful and exciting. One problem, though, is that she often mentions in her descriptions that a design has 'over 1' in it but she just talks about flesh (hands and faces). The flesh over 1 in the Millenium design was ok, but a bit boring. It was the planets--particularly the magnificent Earth--that were really exciting. So if anyone knows of a Wentzler design where the over 1 is not confined to flesh, I would be really interested to hear about it.
I gave this really long description of what I like instead of just specifiying "over 2 and over 1 mixed" in case somebody can think of some other sort of varied design that I might like even though it doesn't have over 1 stuff in it. Maybe something with more stitches than just backstitch and cross stitch.
Julie Baltimore, MD

[Midge]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
The reason designers use the over one on hands, faces and buildings is to get extra detail into the pattern. There are lots of speciality stitches used in patterns - try papillon creations for a pattern - TW has some samplers that have more complicated bits but in most of the designs I've seen the style you are after is only on people or a wee bit on a carousel horse (probably on them all, there are approx
I'm sure someone else will pop by with a better answer than me.

[freelady]

Have you looked at the Heaven and Earth designs? They are big and complicated, you choose your fabric size and how you want to stitch them. There are a lot of references to them throughout the forum.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I think Sue Page did a whole series of Ladies in one of the stitching mags -- in historical and ethnic costume -- they were over 2, but used petit point for the faces and arms? It also used beads, satin stitch, tassles, and lots of other things. I'll try and find something about them.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Just to give an idea, you can see six of them here

[Lessa54]

Hi Julia,

TBH, the best designer I've come across who includes lots of speciality stitches, mixed over 2 and over 1, a variety of backstitch and in fact anything you can think of to chuck at a project is Teresa Wentzler. I'm hoping to start before the end of this year her 12 days of Christmas chart, which can be stitched as one picture or 12 separate ones. This is designed to be stitched on linen or evenweave (you choose the fabric) and has an over two border with the actual pictures being over one (if you think of the 12 days, that's lots that's not just faces). It doesn't have much speciality stitches - french knots are the main one, but it does use several colours of backstitch and beads.

I'd look at TW's site in more detail and check out the other patterns there - most of her ones do use various stitches and they are a mix of solidly stitched and partially stitched designs.