Halloween Sampler I

The original Halloween Sampler from Cottage Garden Samplings — a full A-to-Z Halloween alphabet packed into one square, every letter standing in for a seasonal word: Abracadabra · Broom · Creepy · Dracula · Eerie · Frankenstein · Goblins · Halloween · Imitate · Jinx · Knocking · Loot · Magic · Newt · October · Pumpkin · Quake · Raven · Spells · Twilight · Unusual · Voodoo · Witch · X-ray · Yells · Zombie. Each row also gets a few tiny stitched motifs scattered through the lettering — a candy corn, a black cat, a witch’s boot, a cauldron with a stitched flame.

The chart is calling it Halloween Sampler, but Cottage Garden has since put out Halloween Sampler II, so I file this one as I in the gallery to keep them straight.

Stitched on 40ct Picture This Plus Murky Newcastle linen — the chart calls for 32ct Copper Penny, but the Murky colorway is a smoky-gray-into-storm-cloud mottle that suits the alphabet’s spooky feel better than a copper would. Going up to 40ct also shrinks the finished size enough to fit the frame I had in mind. Stitched in The Gentle Art Sampler Threads throughout, in the chart’s recommended palette (Raven, Soot, Blackboard, Fragrant Cloves, Orange Marmalade, Autumn Leaves, Picket Fence).

Finished into a heavy textured frame from ArtInspirate — sculpted with ghosts, bats, skulls, jack-o’-lanterns, spiders, and gravestones along all four sides, finished in an oil-rubbed bronze that lets the cross-stitch sit like a portrait inside a haunted-house picture frame.

Finished June 5, 2021.