The Egyptian Sampler - Teresa Wentzler cross stitch Ta Dah moment

Teresa Wentzler describes her Egyptian Sampler released in March 2001, as an unusual and eye-catching sampler featuring recognisable motifs from ancient Egyptian art and history.  I would say it has all that and more.  Some people will spend a life time researching ancient Egyptian symbology and never get to grips with the full extent of its complicated history.  

The main elements of Egyptian Sampler are symbols of major gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt. The scarab beetle represents Kephri, the god of the morning sun: the representation of "life born anew" after the long night. The gold lines radiating from the scarab denote Ra, the sun god, worshipped throughout ancient Egyptian civilization. The eyes of Ra, symbolic of healing or making whole, are shown beneath lily and papyrus panels. The falcons, shown with wings outstretched in a protective stance, are the bird-shape of the god Horus. Horus, also shown with a falcon head, is known as the falcon god, god of the sky, and protector of the kings and their power. Osirus, shown in mummy wrappings, is the lord of the underworld, god of death, ressurection and fertility. Isis, the goddess of healing, is the sister and wife of Osirus, and the mother of Horus.

The other elements of the design include heirogylphs, sacred writing of the Egyptians. Shown in the central panel are selected representations of the names of Horus, Osirus and Isis. The Pharoah and Queen are shown in traditional headdresses featuring the cobra goddess Wadjyt, symbolic of the Lower Kingdom and the king's power to "lash out" at Egypt's enemies, and the vulture goddess, Nekhbet, symbolic of the Upper Kingdom. Shown together, they signify the unification of Egypt. The bottom central panel is another depiction of the vulture goddess, shown with the disc of the sun god Ra, and the shepherds' crook and flail, which represent the pharoah's power as protector and disciplinarian respectively.

As recommended I stitched the sampler on 28ct evenweave but not on the antique white as suggested. I've already got a couple of Egyptian cross stitched  pieces and wanted to get an evenweave that would blend in with them once on the wall.  I have recently discovered Willow Fabrics based down in Devon.  They have a good range of colours and counts of evenweave and linen and, I think their prices are reasonable too starting at around £8 for a fat quarter up to around £30 for a full meter. 

The colour I have used is called Flax and it seems to show off the working colours beautifully.  For those who have stitched TW designs before will know she is renowned for her use of blended colours which usually makes for a large shopping list. Some stitchers' will take a year to buy all the relevant skeins of thread colours and make the most of using this as an opportunity of a new project start on the 1st January. Some of her projects can be quite large. this sampler is one of her smaller projects with a stitch  count of 198H x 160W with a finished size of 14.25" x 11.5". It contains 59 colours with addition of krenik and Mill Hill beads. 

There are a number of speciality stitches some of which I had not come across before, so it just goes to prove you can teach an old dog new tricks. TW classes this as a moderately difficult piece due to it containing a lot of fractional stitches and some beading. It also calls for petite stitching on the Pharaoh and Queen's faces, so instead of stitching two threads over two threads of the evenweave you use one thread over one thread.  The speciality stitches include: couching, lazy daisy, diamond eyelet, diagonal satin stitch, woven (plaited) cross stitch, Montenegrin cross stitch. 

This piece should have been completed by the 14th April for the bearded ones 50th birthday but I didn't quite meet my target, then the sun came out and I have been busy working on the garden and busy in the day job so I've had to fit stitching in as and when time allowed.  It is at last completed just a little behind schedule, OK quite a few weeks behind schedule, and I am really pleased with it. It has taken many hours, far too many to count, but I can tell you that there are some 30,000 stitches + speciality stitches and 235 minute beads that take great pleasure in pinging this way and that until you find the best way to get them on your needle.  It is off to the framers and himself will be accompanying me to help pick out a frame to show it off at it's best.  Will show you again once its back from the framers to see what you think.

                                                                         Mx