A Catte, as originally stitched by Mary Stuart. This extant piece (RCIN 28224) has long intrigued me, and finally, I have decided that it is time to stitch it!
My materials – a pile of silk thread and 32ct even-weave linen. This is the first project I have ever done using these materials! This is one of the first extant pieces of cross-stitch that we have, and I am thrilled to get started with it!
I was uncertain how to begin this project, so I took what I know of modern cross-stitch and went at it in the same method one would work a pattern modernly – from the center, out. After determining where the center of my fabric was, I began blocking in the brown for the cat’s main color…
I realized I made a HUGE error, in which I grabbed the wrong color for the fill stitches I started. Thus, I spent the afternoon pulling out virtually all of my work and starting again at ground zero! In frustration, I chose to do some outlines to break up the monotony of doing fill stitches.
Back to filling…
Continuing to fill in the pattern, sometimes switching to outline, and sometimes switching to color filling… At this point I have been studying many extant pieces, reviewing the stitching patterns and pondering the methods used, and how they differ from how cross-stitch is done today.
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