My fabric has arrived now for the three Gingerbread Village buildings that I am going to make – all from Victoria Sampler. The Victoria sampler website has suggested fabric layouts for each of the chart packs, so I printed those out, worked out how much I’d need altogether, and ordered the 28 count Cashel linen from Sew and So. I chose to have ‘Cognac’ shade, as the ‘Antique Almond’ shade suggested in the chart booklets is no longer available from Zweigart. I did wonder if ‘Cognac’ might be too dark a shade, but when it arrived I was really pleased with it. Maybe in Canada their ‘real’ gingerbread (the edible type) is made paler than the English type, but I would expect gingerbread to be quite dark in colour, so the fabric I have chosen is ideal for an *English* gingerbread village! I have checked the shades of thread supplied in the Accessory Packs with the fabric I’m going to use, and nothing looks like it won’t work with the new fabric, so hopefully it will all go together well.
The suggested fabric layouts said to tack the outline of each side or roof piece of each building on one piece of fabric in a long strip, and then attach the large piece of fabric in one go to a roller frame, then do all the stitching, before cutting the pieces apart at the end. I prefer to tack each small panel individually to a piece of cotton fabric, cut away the cotton from the back to reveal the linen, and then mount the cotton in a hoop, as I feel this gives me better access to do the stitching when I rest the hoop on my floor frame. So, I spent about an hour cutting up all my fabrics (Cognac, black for the church roof, and a deep blue for the Candy Cane Cottage roof), labelling them, then bagging them up.
I have made thread sorters for each of the packs, by making slits spaced 3/4 of an inch apart horizontally on a strip of card, and labelling above each pair of slits – the relevant threads can then be stored on the card, and not get mixed up.
All I’ve got to do now is decide which one I’ll make first.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Janet Granger's Blog 
There’s a lot of work there Janet but it’s all going to look beautiful when it’s finished. I’d quite like to have a go at ‘The Stitching House’ myself in the future but it’s very daunting because I’ve never done any 3D work before……..think I’ll have to pluck up courage to try that one.
Happy Stitching!
Sue
x
The Victoria Sampler booklets have very detailed instructions for how to assemble each item, with lots of photos to help, too. Also, if you get stuck you can email them, and they’ll give you more information. As 3D projects go, the Stitching House is quite simple, really, honest!
Boy, oh boy, do I LOVE the way you have meticulously put together your ‘kits’, it makes me so happy that there are other people out there just like me 🙂 The organisation of things like this is so very enjoyable, and just adds to the value that these projects bring. Looking forward to following your progress, as I continue to work my way through your blog.