Karoda’s comment and Leaf Sampler Stitched
I finished the stitching on the leaf sampler yesterday, and hope to quilt it today. In the meantime I took some photos. But, to begin with giving credit where credit is due, I got this idea from Jane Sassaman. She brought a 16-leaf sampler (and drat it all, it was so wonderful I couldn’t think of anything else subject wise that would work as well for a class sample, but at least I made two leaf shapes, both my own, and used my own colors and stitches without reference to hers!) to a class, then I later discovered that a few of her leaves are in her book, the Quilted Garden, on page 121.
Karoda mentioned that she could use a class in the decorative stitches….so I sent her this reply:
Then use stabilizer (I used freezer paper, but on some of the more openwork stitches you get paper left underneath), and go to town with all your various threads. For a class sample, I don’t mind the paper but for a “real” piece, I’d probably use a tear-away or a washable (the papery kind, not the see-through, which is kinda grabby when on the bottom of the fabric).
Just fuse up 9 or 16 samples, and try different combinations. 16 may be a bit much / boring, but a nice “nine-patch” will give you an idea how dramatically different stitches and thread can make a leaf (or whatever) look….
Here are some close-ups of a few of the leaves. I don’t necessarily like all the options I did, but I wanted to illustrate how different the leaves can look depending on the stitch and thread color chosen—heck, I only used Superior Threads 40-wt. trilobal polyester (the Highlights, Rainbows, and Hollis Chatelain lines) threads. Imagine if I’d added cotton, matte poly, metallic…etc!