Ruby Wedding Sampler

This is (finally) the sampler I made for my in-laws' Ruby Wedding anniversary this month. Taking tips from my samper quilt I severely restricted my palatte, using three shades of green, five shades of red/pink, mostly dark ruby reds, and two shades of gold. It was amazing how different combinations of the colours changed the appearance of both colour, eg, rose pink changed from quite wishy washey pastel to strong rose depending on the colour put with it.

I originally sewed the thing on double the stitch count, ie, two over two threads on the 28 count Linda fabric rather than one over one, but thought it looked clumsy and although doing it one over one needed to be done only in good light I was much happier with the result.

The pattern is taken from a disc I had but I altered the central panel to include the names, dates and a blackwork rose for love. Blackwork is a confusing term, it would originally have been done in black but it's the name of the technique not the thread, and of course I didn't have black in my palatte. I put the word Ruby in and used Kreinik braid to sew it, a nightmare to sew with but it looks good! There are also ruby red beads in the design.

Apologies for the photograph, I realised when trying to photograph the sampler that I should have done so before I got it framed. It was framed by a local man who did a lovely job with the thin red border and gold really bringing out the shades within the sampler, was very quick and cheap.