Drawn Thread: North Country Sampler

An early March finish was this old wip of mine: The Drawn Thread's North Country Sampler.

The Drawn Thread North Country Sampler

Stitched on 35 ct linen using most of the listed silks with the addition of  2 Waterlilies silks. 

1 in the  bottom band with the fish.  I did not want a solid colored water background. 

1 in the lettering.

The  rest of the colors may not be in the same position as charted, sometimes due to chart error or my own misreading of the chart symbols.  This has been in process since 2006 - a date which I dared to  stitch in because I firmly believed this was a small enough project that I could surely maintain enough momentum to finish....Suuuuuuuuurrrrrrrre.

What year is it now? 2015?  Hm.  I am not changing the date because in the course of the future 300 years, 9 years isn't so much, right?   Right.  I knew you would understand.

I know you also understand that I had to fight off the urge to change the date or find some other way to incorporate the actual finishing year.   I am getting better in mastering my OCD tendencies.  That only took decades. 

I will have the same problem with the date when I again work on The Drawn Thread's  Gameboard with all the little houses on it.  I stitched in the date I expected to finish on that one, too.  That date had a couple of 2s in it, no 1s.  Ah, optimism. 

Why is it that we always think we will finish faster than we actually do?  

Only the virtual stitching I do in my head as I look at a pattern, envisioning  the threads, cloth, pattern layout and stitches I might use,  works up faster than my fingers.  Every time!

Meanwhile I have taken out an old Just Nan wip which I hope I can feature as a finish for you next time.

LaDDa: Watchful Eye

On the way home from an appointment, I visited Yankee Cross Stitch up in North Hampton, NH.  I wanted to walk among the models, see finished projects.  Get inspired.

In a back corner cubby was a LaDDa design.  An old one.   One I had in my stash...the model looked nothing like the chart cover.  The chart cover was dark & murky.  It made me wonder why I bought it...not much wondering: I must have loved the bones of the design.

Yankee's rendition was brighter, clearer, happier.  That was the version I went home to create (with a few changes both intentional and unintentional - the unintentional being the miscounts that I can kept to avoid redoing).

I can never get the cloth color right in my photos: the cloth is yellower than pictured.  I used a mystery stash cloth of 36 count.  I used the chart listed GAST except that I ramped up the red.  I also used beads for the isolated stitches in the border and the few around the heart.

The chart original was done on BOAF Meadowlark which is a great fabric  which I have in my stash but it was not the look I was seeking in this piece.

There you have it.  My first start of the year and finished within a month.

Bent Creek Reindeer Sampler

This came kitted in a small vinyl pouch.  I remember picking it up at a Cross Stitch Festival in the late 1990s.  I miss those festivals.

Anyway, I probably started it soon after.  It was during one of my Over 1 phases.  It did not hold my attention or patience long enough to finish it at that time...but finally TA DA!

Bent Creek: Reindeer Sampler

The cloth color is a greeny-brownish Khaki colored 28 ct. not the grayish neutral pictured here.  It came with a little cardinal button which I didn't use here due to scale but I no doubt I will use it on something else.

I should have put something beside this for scale because it is tiny: something like 1 3/4 inches by 2 3/4.

It is done!  Time to move on to something else.

2015 Goals: not unlike 2013...2014 was a lost year

2013...15 Goals

More Wip killing!
1.  12/12: 12 wip finishes in 12 months (or more)
Doing good thus far.  I believe I have 2.  One was a decade old Bent Creek: Reindeer Sampler (over 1) finished in January? or Dec 2014 (close enough).
The other was a new start in January: LaDDa's Watchful Eye.  Finished in February.  
 
2.  Keep new starts to a minimum: finish any new starts within the same year (except for any SALs)
The LaDDa: started in Jan, finished in Feb.
I started the Heartstrings: Sparrow sampler in Dec...so I cheated.  The SAL for this one just started but I never finish with the pack and of course, this one is very big.
 
3.  Get reacquaintedwith my wips: stitch on at least 1 wip by every designer I have already started.   Back in 2013 I learned that this doesn't work because  I have way too many wips.  Now I hope to find a way to keep a current handful worked on a regular basis towards completions.   

The really good news is that by now the drive to work the wips is so much stronger than wanting to start anything...though I have started more these past 6 months than I did in the year prior (3 pieces).  The good news is that I have about a half dozen finishes in the last 6 months.  I know, bad me, I have not blogged about them (yet).

Specific Goals:
1.  Tony Minieri Stars for a New Millenium: stay on track.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA  um, sure, the track is gone.  Maybe I can at least pick this up and finish 1 more square this year.  That would put me on a new track to finish this sometime in 2021.
2.  Pieces of 8: only 5 3 octagons left: finish this.
3.  Blackbird Designs: Xmas Garden: finish this.  Not finished but not a priority. 
4.  SB:Sheep, my NY tradition: start & finish a small sheep piece. I worked NY so I didn't have time for the tradition but I did take out the old BC Reindeer and finished that that week.  1 old wip finished NY week could easily become a new tradition.
5.  Permission to start 1 really good sized piece during 2015 (then try to not start anymore big pieces).  Sparrow started last Dec fits this bill.  Unfortunately there is a huge blackwork piece screaming for a start.

Organization:
1.  Put my stash room back together - the annual organization & clean up.
2.  Round up my NP canvases.  Catalog them.
3.  Organize my frame stash.  At this point I will be happy if I could put together all the wips whose threads have scattered to places unknown.  There is nothing like wanting to settle in with a piece only to discover some necessary component missing.  AAAAARGH.

Eileen Bennett: Miniature Historical Samplers

Among the many things I have been doing this summer has included finishing the following:

Eileen Bennett

Eileen Bennett's Mini Historical Samplers which was a chart which included 4 or 5 small samplers giving a taste of assorted sampler periods.   

There was a time in my project starting life inwhich I hated small pieces.  I would combine smaller pieces into larger ones.   I have since trended towards small pieces - for they are much easier to frame with ready made frames, alas I have so very many starts from older times to finish up.

This old experiment was also a silk test.  It included Hand Dyed Fibers before HDF founded their website shopping.  The silks were as experimental in nature as was my compilation and motif mixing of EB's wonderful patterns.

This project was at least 10 years in the stitching, if not older but it is finished!  One more down, too many more to go.

Bennett & Hillside Samplings

Eileen Bennett: Trinity Sampler

Eileen Bennett's Trinity

Finished! Finally, after all these years.  I  left in the old expected to have finished date of 2002.   

In a hundred years when someone might be wondering what the scraps of thread might mean on this old cloth, 11 years will mean little.

This is a small finish, but it is a finish.  My finish for February.

 Hillside Samplings: Peace on Earth 2000

 An ornament released in 2000, started in 2000, finished in 2013 because I couldn't deal with over 1 on 40 in a full cross.

But this, much tinier finish than Trinity, is also finally finished.  Tiny as it is, it still counts as my March finish.  Hopefully, not my only March finish at least it will keep me 3 for 3 on my 12 finishes for 12 month goal.

Teresa Wentzler & Eileen Bennett

 Teresa Wentzler:  Above the Clouds

 TW made a recent announcement about her old pattern publisher allowing her to make her older patterns available digitally via Patterns OnLine.  In some cases, she is converting her older hand drawn charts into computer generated symbols and updating previously confusing backstitch line charts.  Major happy dancing about that announcement.  It made me go through my TW wips.  It made me want to stitch them!

ABC is what I picked up.  When I put this down - however long ago I do not remember - there was barely one wing mostly done.   I am learning to focus because I stayed with this project for most of January.  

TW Above the Clouds

I have about 1/4 of the pattern left to go: it's all the rocks and the part of the tail.  It was finally the rocks which drove me to another project.  

I can't believe I got that much done on this!  

Of course it might stay this way for years, now.


I finally got rocked out and looked for something different in my WIP stash.

Eileen Bennett  Trinity Sampler

Another long napping wip was the Trinity.  It was started with an SAL back in 2006.  I know that because I stitched in the date at the top.  I must have had I had high hopes of finishing it.  It is not that big.  But it is with 2 strands of cotton in most places.  The shredding of the floss is getting to me.  It was not as noticeable with the TW piece because I work with shorter lengths due to the blending and confetti and do not frog - who is going to notice 1 misplaced little confetti stitch?

A band sampler is something else.    The lengths are not that much longer with this piece but I have had to do more frogging.  The problem is not the pattern, but the color notations for the pattern. I hate DMC floss.

The pattern symbols differ from the color numbers in the text notes which are also different from the picture of the sampler which is why there was frogging.  It makes me wish I had stuck with the SAL.   
 I have gotten a few more bands finished.  There are not too many to go.  I hope to finish this this month.

I have not decided what to do with the original 2006 date.  Leave it and add 2013?  I am leaning that way.

Shepherd's Bush & Ann Bowers (sort of, mostly)

Shepherd's Bush Home (sheep)

Without the 'Home'.   This was my New Year's Day stitching.

Shepherd's Bush Home

 I did not backstitch in the Home above  the sheep.  My house does not look like that.  I added some minor textured stitching and some beads in place of single flower stitches.  

It's the photo which is crooked, not the stitching.  

Ann Bowers (an adaptation)

Sort of.   The kit I ordered way way back when was for 35 count. I received 40ct but I started it anyway.  I stopped after I got a couple of inches down.  It was just too intense, too tight for my tastes.  I put it away for 10 years (more or less).  10 years napping time for my WIPS seems to be average for me.

I picked it back up when reading about all the other Ann Bowers stitchers starting across the web this year.   I changed the cloth to 35 ct of the same color from the same manufacturer, restarted and really got into it.  Close up pics will follow as I get further along.

Ann Bowers, many changes

The basic template is from The Exemplarery's pattern of Ann Bowers, the motif shapes and general order of the bands.   A couple of the alphabets will be, too (with the scandalous unperiod addition of the historically missing letters J and U.)  

I know the historical reasons for the omissions.   I am not stitching this to the period inwhich it was originally made.  There are and will be other changes: the alphabet used in the verses, the verses themselves.   The verse I added in place of one of the alphabets is from a later period than the original sampler stitcher's life.

I do not stitch reproductions.  I fall in love with enough elements in old patterns to make it worthwhile for me to purchase them then I do what I want with the materials when I stitch them.  Sometimes  I am close to the original patterns.  In this case, not as much, especially on the inner alphabets and spacing of motifs.

In this particular case,  I widened the piece by a couple of stitches inorder to make the corners work more to my tastes.    I shortened the piece by a few stitches in order to make the bottom corners more to my taste.  It does not matter to the fit of the interior elements because I am not using all of the alphabets in the original, nor the verses as they are currently charted.  I would have liked to have used the alphabet used in the original charted verses but I was even more eager to get the verse I used actually stitched before I changed my mind.

 I am still thinking about how to use elements from the original verses but this is where I rest  my progress and move on to something completely different.   

I think a TW wip is up for some work next.    TW has gotten permission to go digital with many of her older patterns!  Time to celebrate by actually stitching on some of those patterns which I have already started.  I have many to choose from.  

I used to be a wanton starting slut.   My ways have changed. I have found a different path!  I still don't finish much but I am focusing on working my already starteds.  Eventually there will be a period of finishings and much rejoicing will be in the land!

  (Well, not the land of vendors as I have not been buying anything near what I used to for quite a while now.)

2013 Goals

Getting ready for the New Year.
 
I have learned to not post specific goals because they act as Anti-Goals: Things Which Never Get Touched Again.  I am hoping that since I list so few that this will be the year I break that curse.

I didn't keep up with Wipocalypse last year but it did get me focused onto WIP thinking and working which I continued for most of the year so it was a success for me even though I did not have monthly stitching. 

2013 Goals

More Wip killing!
1.  12/12: 12 wip finishes in 12 months (or more: see how many I can finish & to use that number as a goal to exceed in 2014)
2.  Keep new starts to a minimum: finish any new starts within the same year (except for any SALs)
3.  Get reacquaintedwith my wips: stitch on at least 1 wip by every designer I have already started.

Specific Goals:
1.  Tony Minieri Stars for a New Millenium: stay on track.
2.  Pieces of 8: only 5 octagons left: finish this.
3.  Blackbird Designs: Xmas Garden: finish this.
4.  SB:Sheep, my NY tradition: start & finish a small sheep piece.
5.  Permission to start 1 really good sized piece during 2013 (then try to not start anymore big pieces).

Organization:
1.  Put my stash room back together - the annual organization & clean up.
2.  Round up my NP canvases.  Catalog them.
3.  Organize my frame stash.

Oct Nov Dec Catch up: By The Bay, Periwinkle Promises

I had not realized it has been so long since I last posted.  I can't say that I have been stitching up a storm but I did manage a few small pieces.

By The Bay 

 

I love the By The Bay mural type pieces.  I have seen a lot of wallpaper murals in old New England houses.  I love them!  I have had the 2 largest triptyk BTB pieces kitted for a long time.  I haven't started them because they are huge!

I couldn't resist starting the smaller Fall sal version of a mural.  I even had a small piece of a coffee dyed blue-ish green cloth that evokes the background wall paper color (which looks more gray than blue green in the pic).  Sadly I don't have a big enough piece of it for the bigger pieces - which maybe one of the other reasons, other than size, that I haven't started it: I am not totally happy with the cloth I have.

By The Bay: Fall 2012 SAL

Here is the little Fall sal.  I really appreciate how the finished piece fit so easily into an off the shelf, easy and inexpensive to obtain, frame.  I added some textural stitched, changed the overdye (leaves) to one I had on hand.

Periwinkle Promises

 

Another small piece.  I love the Periwinkle Promises Accents.  I don't love them as pillows, though.  I have assorted little pillows completed - stitching completed, yes.  As pillows, no.  I have the finished pieces waiting in a chest for an idea of what to do with them.

To solve that problem with future unpillowed accents, I started expanding the patterns so that they fit into a 5 by 7 frame.  It usually doesn't take much work to do that.  Just some math and some repetition of bands.

My first attempt at doing this was in 2010.  I stitched on this while marathon viewing the British TV show: Kingdom starring Stephen Fry.

Periwinkle Promises, adapted

This was based on the Snowflower Accent, from Series 2.  The cloth in the kit was not big enough but it was not difficult to find a scrap of cloth in my stash.  The other joy of these is that the kit AVAS silks work well on 32 ct.  I may have added more beads.  I love beads.









The latest attempt was during a marathon streaming of Grey's Anatomy.  The actual stitching took a couple of seasons of that.  I knit during most of the rest.  This is based on Periwinkle Promises Series 1, "August," with some textural stitches added and I notice now: I forgot some layering stitching on the band of 3 thistles which I can add before I frame it.   That band must have been during some of the better episodes.

Periwinkle Promises, adapted

A side comment: Kingdom was the better written of the 2 series.  Too bad it had so few seasons.

Other Odd Bits

Not much to show for the couple of months.  I started an old Danish Handcraft guild kit with 30 ct linen with danish flower thread.  I thought for a moment about changing out cloth and threads then kicked myself for again making complications out of simply relaxing.  I started it using the kitted ingredients and have been the more relaxed because of it.  I hope to have a picture for next time - which will hopefully be in the couple of days off that I have at Christmas - YAY for time off I really need it.   It is a blessing to still have a job but the stresses that come with it are even worse now.  

Dealing with those stresses when my brain can't handle cross stitching,  I knit on my own design of a couch snuggly which is the third one I've worked on since I've started knitting them last year.  The other 2 are used by family members to wrap themselves in or under, while watching TV or reading;  as this one and the others to follow it will be.  Aside from a basic border and some dividing bands, each one is different: size, patterns, color...errors: different errors on each of them.

Other than that, I just looked through portions of my pattern collection.  That was as relaxing as stitching.

Brightneedle and a Spangler

Just a couple of things.  

Brightneedle Designs: Ezmeralda's House

 

I was pushing myself to finish Ezmeralda's House as I did much more than I originally planned but my interest in continuing with it dropped off.  I pretty much wasted a week of (non) stitching trying to push myself to finish, pushing myself to only work on Ez until done. 

Brightneedle Designs Ezmeralda's House

 It didn't work.  I spent a week not stitching because I just didn't want to work on it for more than 1 needle full of thread.  I would have gotten more done on something else had I only given up and moved to something else.  

Maybe I will finish Ez the next time I pick it up, whenever that may be.

HAED Storykeep: Spangler's Autumn

 

In the meantime, taking advantage of my sudden love of working on canvas which I really used to hate, I started a test Heaven and Earth Designs' pattern on congress cloth.

 I originally took out my Spangler Train of Dreams, a pattern I love as I love all of Spangler's little dragons.  I didn't get much progress, made a major mistake whose situation I worsened by trying to pick it out.  It was the too loosely woven 22 count hardanger which was causing that most recent problem.  That was also one of reasons for so little progress over so many years.   I cut apart the Train cloth.  So much for that for now.

I still loved the pattern.  I loved all the HAED's I have but there is no way they were going to be done on the cloth I thought I was going to use.  I needed something stiffer.  With encouragement from posters at the Heaven and Earth Designs Message Board at Yuku, I decided to try out a smaller HAED on a canvas.  In this case a 24 ct congress cloth I dug out of my deep stash.

HAED Spangler Storykeep Autumn

The progress doesn't look like much but it was a lot more progress in a few days time than my Train of Dreams on hardanger ever had over more time.  I still have to fine tune some stitching techniques on it but I am so loving the continental stitch, 2 ply on 24ct.

Congress cloth comes in a small selection of colors, some of them dark so I won't be limited to stark white.  It also comes in a 55 inch wide selvage so I won't be limited to small projects.  I can order congress cloth just like I did cloth. 

My short attention span may be ready to wander again now that I know the 'test' worked.  I am looking across the room to a Martina Weber stacked against the bookcase.  It has been too long since I have had a really deep immersion stitching session.

Another really old piece had a wake up!

Brightneedle: Ezmeralda's House

Another project started so long ago, probably not too long after the pattern came out.  Working from the top down, I got most of the bedroom done before I put it away.

This past week I finished the bedroom and started on everything below it.

When I first thought about this project I did not want to do this over 1 but I still wanted it to be small scale stitching and since it was Halloween I was leaning towards something funky: thus the tiny uneven cloth 44/48.  It has a beautiful dense hand to it.  I hope I have some more buried in the stash somewhere.

Joane Wallwin

More work on Wallwin.  Making my way across the second band.  

That third band area with the snake is going to be nasty.  The colors are alternating on all motifs there including that diagonal. There is no neat way to make the trip.  The colors will sometimes not alternate.  Also the thickness of the snakes waxes and wanes

Fortunately I am not a purist about sampler reproduction because I would not have made it past the first band where I miscounted, making the sampler wider than charted then adapted everything below.  The snake band colors will alternate as they end up alternating and I am not going to compare that with what is charted other than to marvel if I just happened to match. 


That's it until next week.  I don't know what projects will be inprogress then.  I am still poking through older wips.  I would like to finish all of Part 1 of Wallwin before I put her away.  I had planned on only doing the kitchen on Ez's House but I'm having enough fun to continue to the porch and her foyer so we'll see.

Filet Chilean Sunset

I forgot to post the adapted Filet color test.  This is the HDF Chilean Sunset finished. 

This is an amazing color.  It seriously changes color depending on the light and distance viewed. 

The picture is what it looks like from a few feet away.   From across the room it looks like a medium rose red.   Closer up it is more of a sunset firey orange - red.  I am not usually a fan of anything orange but this is an amazing color.

Stars for a Millenium

The Wagon (a Yuku board) is hosting a 2 year SAL on this counted canvas piece.  It is intense but it also moves pretty fast.  

One of the reasons it is moving along fast is that I make myself finish stitch steps in 1 stitching session.  I do that because I do not know if I am interpreting the instructions correctly so I strive for consistency. 

That diagonal blue woven step required so many clippings and redoings!  I also had to add additional thread plies because too much canvas was showing through.  It may be a little too thickly muddled now, but at least the canvas is covered.  

If I were starting this again I would start it on a darker canvas.  

Intense but fast, so far.  I don't want to burn myself out on it so still being in the mood for canvas I hope to pick up either Pieces of 8 for the final 4 blocks or taking on Lahaina again.  We shall see which one wins the mood.

Joane Wallwin

After 10 years of inactivity with very little, a week of work produces a couple of bands. 

I would love to finish Part 1 of the pattern before I put this back to sleep...for less than 10 years, I hope.

I forgot what count my Oyster cloth was: it is 36/40, very tightly woven.  I need to use a slightly sharp needle to get between the threads.  I try not to split the stitching threads while doing so but I don't always succeed.  The DMC can't tolerate much of that: it is shredding horribly even with short 15 - 18 inch strands.

It finally feels like Autumn.

The Summer weather continued up until a front blew through overnight.  Today was the first day that feels like Autumn to me: overnight is chilly, morning air is crisp, midday is warm, some trees are starting to show color.

With that comes a change of mood which affects my stitching focus.   I took out some pieces which have not seen progress for a year or more.  One will go back to sleep as it just did not hit 'the spot.'

HDF 'Woodland Path' Filet

 

I finished the small HDF thread test on the woodland pathlike color.  

The greens are more green in real life.




Wiehenburg: Quaker Welcome

Still in the mood to stitch with HDF, a mystery unlabeled spool,  I hauled out my WIP of this very long Quaker Welcome sampler.  I finished a motif, started another then put it down.   

I will be putting this away until another time.

 

 HDF Chilean Sunset Filet

Then I started another HDF color test: Chilean Sunset.  

The colors were much better than I expected.  

This is using another filet lace pattern.

 JCS Ornament Sampler

I am often inspired and influenced by stitching on other blogs and on assorted stitching message boards. 

 All the talk about the 2012 Just Cross Stitch Christmas issue made me take out my JCS Christmas Ornament sampler.  

 I  have neither need nor desire for too many small stitched things.  I have no display cases and my book shelves are already overfull so I do not stitch things unless I can make them fit in a frame.

A long while ago I started this a piece of cloth a Montreal stitcher generously sent me.  The New Castle line of linens were just coming out.    She sent me a fat quarter of sand New Castle which I had not known existed.  I immediately started a sampler with ornaments from the 1997 JCS Christmas Ornament magazine.  

Since then I have included ornaments from other years.  I put them in as I can get them to fit.  My optimistic intent was to fill up this cloth then start another and another.   

Since this one has been about 8 or more years in the making to this point, you can appreciate how optimistic that thought is.  I have changed some colors, added beads, textural stitches as the whim hits.  The sand color does not show up in the above picture.

I am still waiting for my 2012 issue to get to my mailbox.

SANQ Joane Wallwin

SANQ article Part 1

Another reawakened interest from a topic on a message board.   I dove into my stash, grateful that at least some of it is still organized.  Out came the piece which confirmed that I am in for a change of focus on my stitching.

original Wallwin

 I hauled out Joane Wallwin which has not seen any work for at least 5 years or longer.  The uncertainty of not having all the threads called for is no longer going to hold me back.  The strangeness of working over 3 threads on tightly woven Oyster cloth is also not an issue anymore.  I don't know why these changed feelings happen but I am very glad for them.

SANQ Spring 2002 cover

The pattern as printed in SANQ over several issues, charted by Page Dorsey, Sampler Workes, is charted for Au Ver a Soie  silks: Soie de Paris and 100/3.  

The Soie de Paris's numbers are the same codes used for regular AVAS silks which I can match for color.  

The 100/3 silks are an issue.  I have no clue if these numbers are equivalent to any other line of thread or yarn.   I had some of them in my stash but not all.  

Designer's Model stitched Part 1

The designer used a 40/50 count uneven Oyster cloth.

I don't know how she tamed some of those threads!  

The tight twist of the 100/3 makes it too stiff to sit over 3 on my oyster cloth.  It arches up too high for my tastes. 

10 years of my progress

 I used DMC cotton floss instead, eyeballed to the 100/3 color or just chosen to correspond to my interpretation of the color name in the required  color family values.  In one case, the first band's "light salmon." I changed to a deeper one.  The original light color was not showing up on the cloth.  The DMC is still a little too thick for crisp blackwork lines but I do not have anything thinner.

 Blackbird Designs Christmas Garden

I loved it when I saw it.  I do not love it now.  Mostly enjoyed it but now not so much.  I still hope to finish it by the end of the year.

 I finally got a picture which is a truer representation of the cloth color.

 Tony Minieri's Stars for a New Millenium

New SAL, a 2 year project with The Wagon (a yuku board)  starting in October.  It scares yet excites me.  I have the pattern, the threads, the canvas and bars.  I just need to arrange them and wait for the start.   No picture yet: tune in next month.

Chances of finishing this year's chief WIPS:

 

Bicknell/Needlepoint Now: Pieces of Eight: Most likely.


Blackbird Designs Christmas Garden: Most likely but I will have to set aside days that I make myself work on this.



Perin Lahaina Breezes: Not likely.  I have to change the thread in the outer most border.  Satin stitching the 5 or 6 strands of DMC is just fuzzing up too much even with short strands.


Martina Egyptian Mandala: No way.


Lizzie Kate Winter Alphabet: Probably not.


Martina Japanese Panels: One more panel hopefully, but I would rather have more progress on Egypt.

More Summer Updates

Pieces of Eight

 I did not get work done on Pieces of Eight since my last post because I could not put down the Filet Bluework but I did take an updated picture of progress made in June.   

When I post the finish I hope to include notes about what colors I feel the magazine got wrong when ccompared to the photos and my own work.  Not all the colors listed in the directions need to be bought.  Based on my study of the photo of the original piece, it had  fewer colors with better distribution.  

I finally started making more of my own choices as I progressed.   I wished I'd made them sooner to better balance the colors.  I love it anyway.

Chatelaine: Egyptian Mandala

I am finally starting to feel like I am getting somewhere.  It is funny to me, that while I longed to be done with the inner block sections there was something reassuring about filling them in.  I have to pay more attention to the chart now.  

New territory to be stitched.  I am on to other shapes, other motifs. 

Filet Lace Bluework 

This piece did not take long as I could not stand to put it down.   The colors are still a little off but a little closer than the older picture.

I enjoyed working on this piece so much I dove into my stash of HDF spools then found another small pattern to start.

Filet Leafy Scrollwork 

A semi mystery thread.  It is HDF.  It is labeled.  It is a Single Stranded Regular silk.  The mystery is how I got it because I never ordered SSR a la cart.  I suspect it came in a bag of mystery spools from an old carrot option in the shopping menu.

I absolutely love the SSR.  I wonder if the new SSR is like this onld one.   The coverage on 36 ct is better than 1 ply from the 6 stranded. 

I also love this color.  It reminds me of leaves starting to change for fall or a forest path.   The color numbers listed on the mini  spool are: 5135/5271/3255/3221 which I think is a combination  of Kodiak Bear 5135/Jackalope 5271/Luteus Green 3255/Willow Withies 3221