Sunday, March 11, 2018

To frog or not to frog


Turning corners with Montenegrin stitch is … complicated?  Confusing?  Uses a heck of a lot of thread?  Yes, yes, and yes.  Also not a good place to begin stitching a motif.

Have been working on a flower in the wide Montenegrin band, and the farther along I got with it, the less happy I was with how the first part of it looked – my corners were messy!


So I kept going, trying to figure out how to make those turns look better, and pulling the thread a bit seemed to help and I was able to make the corners more square.  Okay, so I’ll go back and redo that first bit.   Cut the thread in the middle and … uh oh.  I just discovered something else about Montenegrin stitch:  while removing stitches going backwards – truly reverse stitching – is doable, going *forward* is terrible!  I simply could not unstitch in that direction and felt lucky I was able to tease out about a half inch of thread tail to bury after clipping out all those first turns.

And then I stitched that bit again.

And it still looks messy.  (rats!!)


Need to make up my mind whether or not to frog and restitch that section again.  One thing though, I got LOTS of practice turning corners - there are OVER 40 right-angle turns in this flower!  (um … looks like I missed a connecting stitch – will go back and check the chart, but I’ll put it in even if it’s not charted because the asymmetry will bug me if I dont!)


Hope your weekend’s going well.  Thanks for stopping by to visit!


>^..^<

10 comments:

  1. Oh, this looks SO complicated, Deb! Hang in there--I have no doubt you'll get these stitches looking perfect :)

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  2. This is a challenging stitch/piece but I think you are doing wonderfully!

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  3. Sorry you aren't pleased with what you consider to be messy. It doesn't look that way to me because the complexity of it is what my brain focuses on. Good golly! I thought this stitch was only a band or two but it is WAY more than that.

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  4. I don't know that stitch, but it looks good to me. :)
    Marilyn

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  5. If it can't be seen from the back of a galloping horse . . . or when you're not right on top of it with a magnifier . . . I'd say leave it alone . . .

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  6. I think you are tackling a complicated project perfectly Deb. You are doing a fabulous job in my book. RJ@stitchingfriendsforever

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  7. I am totally unfamiliar with that stitch but it looks fine to me!!!

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  8. Wow! Montenegrin scares me. This confirms it. lol! Good luck, whatever you end up doing. Hope it works out for you!

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  9. I love the way you are rising to the challenge of this design - you are my hero.

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