Sunday Mystery Sampler Update: First Day

First, thank you for all the kind comments about my pears! I have to confess, that color choice was a happy accident. The thread is Caron Wildflowers and the color is Antique Brass. I had intended to use it for the crowns, but when it arrived I decided it wasn't golden enough. When I saw how much green and peach it had in it, I swapped it for the color I had originally intended for the pears. Such are the trials of trying to choose colors online!

Now, my initial thoughts on this sampler. When I first saw it over at Plum Street Samplers, I thought, "Wow, what a generous freebie!" It's not really the style I usually stitch, but I thought it was neat and that maybe I might stitch it some day. I thought I might stitch each block individually and finish them as ornaments, since I normally stitch smalls, and tend to avoid large pieces that need professional framing. So it was a "maybe some day". But the more I thought about it, the more I was intrigued by the idea of stitching it with lots and lots of color. That led me to conclude that if I chose an elaborate color scheme, it would have much more impact stitched as one large sampler instead of individual blocks. And one thing led to another and I ended up jumping into the deep end of the pool and tackling this project, even though I've got so many other things I should be working on.

Here is my color palette. I probably won't use all of these colors, but I wanted enough variety to allow me to make choices... the right red, the right green, the right brown. All of the threads are Caron Wildflowers. I love the colors, the texture, and the fact that I can stitch with one strand. It's so much faster (no railroading necessary)! I'm stitching on the 28 ct. natural linen shown in the pictures. The shot on the right is more true to the color of the linen. 

And here's the First Day:

My color choices:
border: DMC 938
crown: Spice
partridge: Dark Suede
tree: Sable
pears: Antique Brass
rogue pear: Marigold
couple: Mahogany
words: Cinnabar

This is a mystery sampler not only in the sense that I don't know what the next block will look like until it's released, but I don't even know what the block I'm stitching will look like until it's finished! I'm choosing colors as I go, and so far it's been fun to see it develop, and somewhat surprising to find that a color I thought would work, doesn't... and one that I hadn't considered, is perfect. 

I'm hard at work on the Second Day. Stay tuned to find out how it will look... we'll find out together! Happy Stitching!