Never Ending Band Sampler Stitch-Along

Hello to both my Crazy Quilt friends and my Cross Stitch friends!  For months now, I've been trying to think of something that would bring together stitchers from both venues of the needlework world.

As many of you know, I design counted cross stitch and I have a passion for crazy quilting.  I use waste canvas to stitch the seams on my crazy quilt blocks using my own charted border designs.

For details, visit my Magcloud site: http://www.magcloud.com/user/kitty-and-me
or my Etsy shop:  http://www.kittyandme.etsy.com/

Okay, to make a long story short, I finally remembered the beautiful sampler of stitch examples that Sharon Boggon made:

You can find the story about Sharon's Band Sampler here.  (Photos posted with Sharon's permission.)

So here goes, I decided to offer a Never Ending Sampler Stitch-Along!  For my crazy quilt friends, these borders can be used with waste canvas to stitch your seams.  Or if you're good at free-handing your seam treatments, just follow the patterns.

For my cross stitch friends, you can stitch this like any other sampler.  We'll be starting at the top and working our way down.

I called this Never Ending because I plan to offer several bands or borders each week and it will go on indefinitely.

We will be working in panels just like Sharon did.  Each panel will be approx. 6 inches wide X 18 inches long.  That's the stitched area on 14 count Aida or 28 count Evenweave over 2 fabric threads.  You'll want your fabric panels to be 12 inches wide x 30 inches long.

When your panels are complete, you can frame them individually, store them in a book or sew them all together like Sharon did with hers.  You can use your Never Ending sampler as reference for cross stitch borders, stitch examples or color combination ideas.

Because the width is only 6 inches wide, the borders will stitch up quickly making this a perfect "take along" project to work on while waiting in your car for your kids or in a waiting room.

Now for the fun part!  There's no rules!!  There's no charge!!  There's no time frame!!!  You can work at your own pace.  You can use whatever threads or colors you want to use.  You can skip any part that you don't like.  You can put it down for awhile and then come back to it.  This is a gift from me to you.  It's for the joy of stitching and sharing your examples with others.

If you enjoy Facebook, I have set up a Facebook Group called Never Ending Sampler Stitch-Along.
You can find it here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/549782361886900/

For right now, I have it set as a Closed Group.  To join, you'll just have to click the "JOIN" button and wait for me to okay it.  I did it this way because I don't want any spammers jumping in.  This is for both crazy quilters and cross stitchers.  It's a place for everyone to share photos of their work and talk about the project, the designs, the borders and so on.  I still have a few things to set up there but you should be able to click the link and join right away.

So there you have it!  A fun project that has no rules!  It's really a mystery because even I have no clue what each panel will look like.  I just thought this would be really fun for everyone including me!

The charts will be in black/white.  On occasion, I may add something with specific colors.  I use DMC threads and will include those DMC thread colors for you.

If you have questions you can always leave a comment here, or email me or leave a message for me over at Facebook.

So those are the details!  We'll be starting at the end of the week so get your fabric and some pretty threads ready and lets start a new "Never Ending Sampler" journey!!!