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| A-side overview |
You'll notice that the top half, which will hang over the back-side of the towel bar, has been left unembellished. And while the color is not obvious in the first picture, somehow this b-side close-up almost captured the blue/green/gray-ness that attracted me to this linen ...
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| B-side detail |
I am beyond happy with my decision to use a second layer of harem cloth as the backing, as it protects the house plan stitching while still letting it show through ...
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| B-side overview |
Likewise, the ladder stitch worked very effectively for attaching the harem cloth along the edge of the hemstitching and if you squint you can also see the vertical lines of invisible baste attaching the backing layer to the middle layer of harem cloth ...
Of course, the A-side is the main attraction and I'm very pleased with the way the backstitching (a single strand of DMC floss, with each stitch worked over two or three strands of the linen) captured the lettering and house plan details ...
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| A-side detail Note: horizontal lines of combination stitch run north/south, vertical lines run east/west |
However, you've probably noticed that I didn't iron the cloth, which is my wont. I find pressing linen flattens and distorts the stitches. Besides, I truly believe that linen is most absorbent when air-dried and left unironed ... with the added benefit that said belief enables me to let the iron gather dust. Some old lessons are well worth remembering.
