Sometime during the Fall of 2014, a fellow stitcher on the 123Stitch Message Board posted a project she was stitching for a relative. It was the Queenstown Blue Crab. When I saw the piece, I knew it was something I wanted to stitch for my youngest son. Both of my boys had spent lots of time fishing and crabbing on the Chesapeake Bay when they were young.
Queenstown Blue Crab by Queenstown Sampler Designs
I asked her if she was interested in selling her chart and she offered to give it to me. I accepted.
The designer recommended Wichelt Belfast linen 32 ct. Platinum for the fabric with DMC cotton floss. Since I have difficulty seeing 32ct and since the design had only full crosses, I decided to use 16ct Aida. I ordered a piece of 16ct Mercedes Aida from Picture This Plus. I thought it would be the perfect color for stitching this chart. And 16ct over 1 would give me the same finished size as 32ct over 2.
Stitch count: 130 high X 160 wide
Design area: 8.2″ high X 10″ wide
I did not write down exactly when I started stitching this project but the first mention of it was November 2014. I worked on it for a while and then my husband’s health issues caused me to put it aside. I picked it up again in July of 2017 determined that I should finish this one. I also moved the project from qsnaps to my larger scroll frame so I could see more or the gridding at one time.
Progress on Queenstown Blue Crab
While all of the stitches are full crosses, there are many color changes.
Progress on Queenstown Blue Crab 7/21
Queenstown Blue Crab Progress 7/28
Queenstown Blue Crab Finished!
Now to decide how to frame it.
UPDATE – December 27, 2017
I have finally gotten around to framing this one for my son.
Queenstown Blue Crab
You are making great progress on the crab, Pat. I also wanted to say I really liked your Samplers finish in your last post. Thank you for sharing the VMSS threads that you used.