Yay! Stitch Explorer Challenge has started

I was excited this morning waiting for Sharon's Stitch Explorer Challenge to be posted on her website. The first months embroidery style is Chicken Scratch.

When I was reading the post I realised that when I was in my early 20's I made my mother a blue and white checked tablecloth with Chicken Scratch embroidery on it (I didn't know the name for it then).

I'm not sure at how adventuous my exploring will be. My first thoughts were that I didn't really like the continuous pattern of this style but when looking at continuous patterns in the natural world (such as the photo above) there can be great beauty and style in this. So I'll give it a go and see what eventuates.

As I'm not that experienced with alot of embroidery stitches I'm using this challenge just to become familiar with the stitches and styles themselves, so if I don't come up with anything too wonderful, it will still be a great learning experience for me.

I'm thinking that I will be doing swatches that I will make up into Mini Quilts. Then I'll put them together to make a cloth book.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who has done embroidery samplers before to find out the size they did them and how they organised them? Also what material do you prefer to use?