Wedding Sampler

To go with the wedding tortoises I decided that I should also make something sensible and classy and stylish. This is where I tend to come unstuck though, as bags made out of loud fabric, slightly mad soft toys and ideas that grow and evolve to become more elaborate (to the point where I find myself embroidering a potato sack) is all normal. To try and do something minimalist is hard. I worry that there is not enough on it, that it will look bare or that I have made no effort. Thankfully those that know me know that minimal is the hardest thing for me to do and my husband was determined to keep me true to my aim.

I wanted to put together a sampler. I decided to use blackwork as it is a method of stitching that I love and it can be very stylish. I decided to move away from tradition in that I wanted to add in colour. I was eager to stick to the tartan colours and keep it with the theme. Blackwork lends itself really well to Celtic knots and that seemed perfect for a Scottish wedding. I also played a lot with the idea of blackwork thistles. The problem with this idea was that it took a lot of space to get anything that resembled a thistle. This was throwing the balance off and if I carried on with a thistle border the lettering would need to be about 10cm high. This was moving swiftly away from my ideas of "minimalist" and into the realm of "epic eyesore". So I took a step back and decided that I needed three colours of thread, writing, boarder and something for the middle. I loved the idea of a Celtic knot heart for the centre. I found a lovely design on pinterest and it seemed perfect. It was designed in cross stitch but I just used the outline in backstitch to give it a blackwork feel.

The border was a simple knotted chain which I have seen a lot and used a few times before. The lettering took my husband and I some time with graph paper and getting some inspiration from online alphabets. I chose to do the lettering in the dark green as I felt that too much black would be overpowering. The green was a good match with the tartan and I felt it helped keep to the theme. I used a pale green to mount it just to add another dimension. I also think trying to match card and thread is almost impossible so using a contrast is far better than being a couple of shades out.

I managed to keep it simple but I feel that it was stylish in the end and acted as a good contrast to the tortoise!

Wedding sampler