WIPocalypse Pieces of Eight

I had a change of projects for the WIPocalypse.  I have been bitten by the canvas bug thanks to conversational threads at The Wagon (a Yuku Board).  The enthusiasm of assorted canvas project discussions swept me up and carried me off the nether regions of my stash storage in search of canvas pieces I haven't touched for YEARs and had little intention of more progress.  I just hadn't gotten around to tossing them out yet.


It's a good thing I didn't.  I resurrected the oldest piece thanks to Marilyn, a Wagon poster who finished this piece and posted pictures.

Here is my starting point for the WIPocalypse.  This was where I abandoned it almost as soon as I started it in 2000. 


This is an embryonic Gayle Bicknell's Pieces of Eight published in a series of issues of Needlepoint Now, 1999 - 2000 with the listed threads on 18 ct. Sandstone mono canvas.


I did not have a thread stash beyond embroidery floss weights so I used the charted colors & threads.  They are not my colors, but it wouldn't hurt to have an eyeball alka-seltzer on the wall with my other pieces to wake up the visual senses.  If you have a stash of assorted size and textured threads: go for it.  This piece was designed using leftover threads from the designer's stash.   I will have a couple of sacks of weird threads leftover from this so I will be looking for more UseTheScraps Needlepoint charts.

This is where I left off 3 days later.  I clipped out the original start.  It was easier to clip out to restart then to try to figure out where the stitch sequence left off.  I wasted an hour trying.  LOL  

As Marilyn warned in her posts, there are several issues with the directions as printed.  Some stitch instructions are not adequately explained, or even properly sequenced but armed with Jo Ippolito Christensen's The Needlepoint Book and an openness to let it fly, to make something else work that will be close enough and fun enough, I jumped in.   I have made some changes in color placements and modified some stitches to better suit me.  The project just bit me in the right place and hasn't let go.  I could not put this piece down.  I referred to it as my stitching crack on the forum.  

The next octagon is another heavy thread in few holes modified Amadeus beast...actually the next 2 Octagons are like that...so my interest is flagging a little right now.  I suspect I will be returning to some cross stitching for a little while but I really don't want to put this away.  Maybe I will just work those modified smyrna borders for a bit.   Then I will enlarge the heck out of the small diagrams,  pour a big glass of wine then jump in.