Dither, dither, dither

In between house projects (the outside trim on the porch windows is complete – yay!), weeding, basic household stuff like laundry, and going to work, I have actually gotten some good stitching time in over the last week or so. 

The semi-rotation has been working well so far, but I’m now about to put it to a real test (more on that later).

I’ve finished LHN’s Season’s Greetings, changes and all (insert quick little happy dance here).

Mary Goodwin has become my weekday evening piece … when I have enough energy or brain left to stitch on what I still think of as school nights.  A few more letters have been added since this picture.

I’ve worked on Goat Load and on With My Needle’s Acorn Sampler Bag, but both these projects have had … issues.

I had picked out two pieces of 32 count linen as possibilities for Goat Load, but rejected first one and then the other after doing a handful of stitches on each – that bitty goat at the top simply was not going to show up when viewed from farther away than one's nose.  So I dove into my linen bin but found no small pieces of 32 in a good color.  Held my breath and cut (eeek! cutting into Larger Linen!!) a 4-inch strip from a nice long, 9 inch wide piece, and started stitching.

And wondered why my stitches looked so bad.

Said a few choice words and checked stitches against my ruler and then said a few more not very nice words – the 32 count was not.  It looks like it's 35 (explaining the problem with how my stitches looked), though a quick check with my little ruler is all I've done.  Hauled out the linen bin once again, this time opting for a darker, unbleached linen in 27-count.  The little guy is showing up better on the darker fabric, and my stitches look much more like nice little Xs now.  

And then there’s the Acorn Sampler Sewing Case/bag.  When this pattern first came out, I was very excited about it and ordered the fancy, called-for linen – Lakeside Linen Autumn Gold in 32-count – something my LNS did not carry. 

I was completely dismayed when the linen arrived in my mailbox – it was orangey-tan.  A quite dark orangey-tan.  Looking at the photo with the chart again, I figured what I received was a dyelot oddity and ordered another piece from a different shop.

With the same result. 

At this point I decided that the particular piece of fabric Ellen used must have been from a much lighter dyelot so the first chance I got, I was off to my LNS.  (Oh, to still have that LNS only 20 minutes away!!  What bliss to have been able to see and feel stitching fabric before I bought it!)   Seriously, does this fabric look dark orangey-tan to you??

Using the photo from the chart as a guide, the shop owner and I picked out two or three possibles, did a floss toss, and I came home with fabric that looks like a very light natural with a barely golden tinge – perfect!!

Since Ellen suggests using a varied collection of specialty stitches for the acorn caps, it seemed best to stitch only the vine to start.  Said vine has a rather long repeat and my eyes didn’t track it nearly as well as it seemed - the right side had an error discovered only after I was at the bottom.  Frog, frog…. 

Not sure if it’s the linen I'm using (which seems very tightly woven) or just that it’s on 32, but this is giving me the same feeling as 35/36 count sometimes does – two strands of floss feels like too much but one strand isn’t enough.  Geez, how many times do I need to change fabrics on this project???

I’m stalled at this point and thinking 28-count in a light natural would be better.  On 32, the finished width should be 5 1/2 inches while on 28 count it would be 6 … and I won’t ever complain about a stitching bag being a touch larger!! 

Thoughts?  Opinions??  Please let me know your ideas on this one!

Now to the test of my semi-rotation.  With the long weekend coming after a Friday spent running around like a headless chicken (short version:  one of my two bosses left at the end of November and we had a candidate in for interviews – guess who coordinated and had to make all the on-the-fly changes?), it seemed the perfect time to start Betsy Davis.  Great reward, right?

Betsy’s been in my stash for a long time, and while I originally bought her with DMC, a year or two ago I decided I wanted to stitch her in silks, and Marsha was happy to sell me the right colors and quantities.

After four stitching sessions – two yesterday…

… and two more today, here’s where Betsy stands.

Why is Betsy a test?  After waiting so long to start her (and I think I’ve wanted to stitch her since I first saw her years and years and years ago), it will be hard to work on anything else!

Thanks for letting me ramble on!

>^..^<

And now for ... what?

Lately I’ve been working on LHN’s Seasons Greetings when I have both the time and energy to stitch, which has been far too seldom recently.  And while working, my mind is greatly occupied by the what-to-stitch-next conundrum. 

I’ve rooted through the main stash as well as the readily-to-hand stash (this is a real and very intentional distinction).  Of course I want to stitch it ALL, and fondling perusing all the pretties makes me want to stitch it all RIGHT NOW!!

There are … I suppose I could whittle it down to four.  There are four things I want to start.  Two are samplers Wonderful Husband gifted me with, one is a full-coverage piece (also a gift from WH), and the last is another sewing case.

Oh, better make that FIVE.  I have succeeded in acquiring the chart for Goat Load from Plum Street Samplers and want to stitch it over one as a Christmas ornament since goats are the subject of a longstanding joke between Wonderful Husband and myself. 

But how do I decide??!!

What’s that?  You can’t give out advice without seeing what I’m talking about?  Okay.

Sampler #1, aka Mary Goodburn

Not tiny, but all cross stitch and should stitch up relatively quickly.  And Mary looks like a fun stitch with lots of bright colors.

Sampler #2, aka Betsy Davis

Can’t work on this one in the winter since my hands get so dry I’d shred the silks, but it IS springtime now.  In my personal classification system, Betsy falls under the Large and Complicated heading.  She is supposed to finish up at 13 by 15, and even though she’s on 25 count (which will likely feel like I’m working on burlap since I normally prefer higher count fabrics), she will undoubtedly take quite a while to stitch.  No new stitches to learn, but there are lots of Queen stitches (which I like, but they're time consuming) plus sections that are freehand embroidery (why does that worry me so?).  Not sure I want to do another Large and Complicated yet, but I’ve loved this sampler going on twenty-five years now….

Full coverage – Cluny Unicorn detail

When I start this, it will be with the knowledge that I will NOT be monogamous with this piece, even though I’m essentially a one-at-a-time stitcher.  I’ve never done a full-coverage piece before and know I will need breaks.  Perhaps a great many breaks.

Ellen Chester’s (With My Needle) Acorn Sampler Sewing Case

Um, yes.  Apparently I *need* to have a sewing case in process.  While this piece has been kitted for several years and has been in my easily-accessed, do-these-really-soon project bag for well over a year, now that I’ve finally finish-finished a sewing case, this one’s voice has gotten considerably louder.  Perhaps it’s all those squirrels….

Goat Load

This should be a reasonably quick stitch, even over one.  But this small project will require Thought prior to beginning.  Many of the called-for colors are Classic Colorworks (Crescent Colours), and since my stash contains very few of those threads, substitutions will be necessary.

Oh wait.  Forgot about this one.  If you blow up the picture, you can see that I wrote “completed 13 July ‘92” on the pattern.  I really did stitch this guy.  I know where I worked on him most often (on the bench by the caboose in downtown Vienna , Virginia, where we used to live, stitching and keeping one eye on the kids as they clambered all over old railroad car), and I specifically remember doing his beard and adding the stars once the regular stitching was done, but as I was undecided about how to finish the back, I never cut him out.  Instead, I put him in a Safe Place.  He’s in such a safe place that I’ve looked in every reasonable place and a number of unreasonable places with no sight of the guy. 

Actually, I feel pretty lucky that I found the pattern and picture and for several years they were in hiding also!  I do have some tan perforated paper in the stash, so I’d just need to match DMC colors to the picture – you can see that the colors have names only in the thread list.  I have several other early kits in this series, but haven’t been able to bring myself to do any of the others until this first one is complete.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by and listening to me ramble.

>^..^<

TUSAL March 2019

CLICK HERE to go to Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog to read all about the Totally Useless SAL and discover why I’m posting pictures of thread snippets, otherwise known as orts.    

How can it be TUSAL day already?  I was thinking there was another week to go and nearly missed it!  The Silly Stitching Calendar says that I’ve had 15 stitching days since the last TUSAL check in, and I have two piles of orts to show off.

I’ve finished Catherine Theron’s 1840 Town House Sampler, but have plenty to say about it and think it deserves its own post - hopefully in a day or two.  The larger batch of orts belongs to that sampler.

The tiny bunch of orts (I don’t think qualifies as a pile, really) is from Season’s Greetings, a Little House Needleworks ornament that’s been sitting neglected for maybe a year.  The other night I finished the frame and had worked one section of the branch, delighted with how quickly it was going ... and then realized it was in the wrong place (hello, frog).  This should finish up quickly, but I really want to figure out what larger piece to work on next before it's done.

Happy stitching everyone – thanks for stopping by!

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Oh look, an FFO! (yes, really!)

Thanks to Rachel at Ten Hour Stitcher, I’m hoping to Fully Finish several things I’ve had stitched for … a while.  So far, so good – today is the first link up/posting day and I have something to share – woohoo!

Though far from the oldest item in the unfinished ornament pile, I’ve wanted this little guy for my tree since 2003 when I stitched him up for an ornament exchange.  The chart was a freebie though I’m not sure if it can still be found – it has a 2001 copyright by K. Elaine Kramer Designs in case anyone is wants to go looking.  I finally got around to stitching one for myself in 2016, starting August 5 and finishing the 28^th  (this was a “take a quick break from Jane Turner” piece). 

As with the “original,” this is stitched on 30 or 32 count blue something, one over one.  Both times I wanted to make his tail sparkly but couldn’t manage either time because not one fiber I tried matched the image in my head. 

Here’s my very own Peace Dove, who will grace my Christmas tree come December.

And if anyone’s curious as to how the first one looked, they were very similar – here’s the give away one.

Happy stitching AND finishing!


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TUSAL September 2017

Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog will give you a thorough explanation of the Totally  Useless Stitch A-Long.  CLICK HERE  for all the details.

It feels like I got a lot accomplished this lunar month even though my Silly Stitching Calendar says I’ve had only 15 stitching days since the last new moon.  I’m thinking that’s because I was able to finish filling in all those (so very tedious) leaves on Jane’s Lady Band and then went on to do a bit of the fun stuff.

So good at planning – that’s me.  Since it’s the most complicated part of the sampler, I had read the instructions for this band and looked at photos and the chart and thought and read and looked and thought some more.  I came up with what I thought was a good plan – to do the filling stitches in three sections, left to right, keeping everything neat and reducing the chance of mangling some bit I’d already stitched.  Sounds good, right?  Yeah, well, I finished filling in the leaves on the left side tree and tossed my plan out the window.

Tree trunks are filled in with trellis using a blended needle.  I do not recommend using a blended needle to do trellis – makes it about three times as hard to figure out where to put the next stitch.  Started working on the two spiral trellis-filled flowers last night – spent a half hour trying to stitch them as called for in the instructions and ended up frogging the whole bit as it looked like garbage.  Restarted on the second ring of the flower – must decide whether to do the outer petals in satin or something else … fans of bullion stitches perhaps?  Suggestions, anyone?  But am hoping to next outline the lady’s dress.  Maybe.  (Oh dear, another plan!  But maybe I can stick to this one.)

Not too much progress on LHN’s Season’s Greetings ornament though I did work on it once or twice. (EDIT:  oops - had wrong picture - this is right)

  

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FFO ... I think

Never got back to my Santa ornament last weekend, but was able to spend some time with him today.  At this point I think he’s finished but haven’t fully made up my mind.  And I dug through my JCS ornament issues to satisfy my curiosity - Santa Star by Lavender Wings was in the 2002 issue, so he was part of the Chartswappers 2003 ornament SAL.  Then I remembered the little notebook where I used to write down all my starts and finishes - started 11/28/03, stitching completed 12/28/03.  He's stitched on a quite stiff 27 count natural linen, over one.

Here's the magazine picture.  You can see I made some changes.

Not sure if he's really finished because I got all excited about putting him together and didn't wait till I'd found all my trims (now not only are they found, but sorted and gathered together into their very own box!).  Had vague thoughts of putting cording around the edge, but might have used this trim with its ribbon of shiny flat gold woven into the green loops if I'd seen it earlier.  Harley's trying to help me decide what to do.

Not positive about the bow, either, but it's just attached with a straight pin thanks to the foamcore.  So what do you think - does he need that other trim or not?

>^..^<

Working at finishing

I've had this piece stitched for ... I honestly don't know how long as I didn't photograph it once the stitching was complete, but I'm guessing it was from somewhere between 2002 and 2006 since I'm pretty sure it was stitched as part of a Christmas ornament SAL with the now-defunct Yahoo Group Chartswappers.  Of course sharing with you has made me curious, so I'll have to dig back through the JCS ornament issues to find out what year!

For some reason, my heart got set on making this an oval ornament.  Maybe because of the arc made by the juggled stars?  Anyway, had cut posterboard ovals ages ago and put them with the stitched piece but was leery of starting for fear of smooshing everything when gathering the fabric around the form - this is a rather stiff unbleached linen.

Then yesterday I remembered the scraps of foamcore left over from framing Noah.  Yes, the how-to-do-it has been right there all along, waiting for me to figure it out.

Maybe I can finish it today - will certainly be inside all day as it is pouring!  Now if I can just find my box of trims....

How's your holiday weekend - what are you doing for fun?

>^..^<

TUSAL August 2017

Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog will give you a thorough explanation of the Totally  Useless Stitch A-Long.  CLICK HERE for all the details.

My Silly Stitching Calendar says I’ve had only 14 stitching days since the last new moon – that’s because nearly every night last week, the book won out over the stitching bag.   

For some reason, I couldn’t keep from starting Little House Needleworks ornament Season’s Greetings.  I’ve switched out a couple of colors on it, the biggest difference being I’m stitching the frame in bright gold rather than off white.  

What it was designed to look like:

On Jane Turner, I’ve begun filling in the oodles of leaves on the Lady Band and have done the first color on all but one on the left side tree.  So far, they're going quickly (probably shouldn't have said that), but expect progress will slow as I add in the second color.  See the top of the tree trunk with the diagonal green and yellow stripes?  That took far too long to do.

Hope you're all having a lovely week! 

>^..^<

TUSAL – September 2016

If you’re asking what TUSAL means, you can find the explanation HERE.

A goodly pile of orts but very little stitching accomplished this month – I had a whole knot of frogs come to live in my stitching bag. (Seriously, knot is one of the correct collective nouns for frogs – how appropriate! For the curious, the others I was able to find are “army” and “colony” which both seem rather dull.)

Finished the peace dove (which I grumbled about in my previous post), no thanks to all those pesky frogs.

Poor, neglected Jane Turner – got back to her before the first of the month but only for a few minutes, not even enough to generate a single ort. Tonight, hopefully…


>^..^<

Small finish

Well, the stitching’s finished at any rate. Somewhere there's a slender piece of white cording to make the hanger. I know I put it somewhere "safe" so I'd be able to find it easily. Ha! Seems no surer way to guarantee you'll never see something again than to put it someplace safe.

The frustrating little peace dove is done and as with the first one, he has no sparkles in his tail (sigh). I think one of the shiny threads might have worked if I’d been able to convince myself to use half crosses, but then I’d feel like he wasn’t finished.

Here is Mr. Dove, in all his UNsparkly glory.

But at  least now I've gotten back to Jane!


>^..^<

Maybe I’m just too picky

The peace dove (earlier post - HERE) has such a pretty, swirly tail – it just begs for sparkle, some type of shiny thread. The first time I stitched the ornament for an exchange a dozen years ago, I tried several things (no real idea what at this point) but gave in to concerns about finishing in time and finally stitched the tail in DMC’s then very new bright white color, B5200.

Look really close and you might be able to tell the difference.

So now that I’m stitching it again to keep, of course I’ll be able to find just the right thing to add that sparkle I envisioned when I first saw the graph.

Riiiiight.

Pulled out all the shiny, fancy fibers I could think of and started test stitching in the top margin. Tried – and rejected – white shiny Rainbow Gallery, some DMC sparkly something, a narrow white Balger braid, a sparkly white Balger cord, high luster silver Balger under white DMC, white Rajmahal silk… Didn’t try the white Marlitt, but only because I couldn’t find it.

Thought I’d come up with an answer - a half cross of pearl Balger blending filament over a completed cross stitch in white DMC looked good when I tried it out, but after stitching several tail tendrils, the stitches looked clumpy and the sparkle was inconsistent.

Everything that looked good against the fabric was too thick or too wiry to stitch over one.

Once again, the dove’s wings and body are stitched in plain old DMC white, and the tail’s in B5200. Here’s a progress shot. See the needle? Stitches to the right are plain white; to the left is the bright white.

Nah, I can’t tell the difference either. Sigh. (Ugh, you can also see that my stitches looked much nicer the first time around. Guess it’s time to get a stronger pair of cheaters.)


>^..^<

TUSAL - August 2016

I usually “flunk out” of SALs, but this one’s manageable! Explanation is here.

I keep plastic 35mm film canisters (omg, film? what's that?) in my stitching bags as ort receptacles. My orts through August 2:

Jane Turner’s orts are separate so I can have thread snippets from the entire sampler all together – I’m keeping them in a pretty little jar (yes, I am silly).

Jane is complete through Band 6 (yay!):

“Other” is currently a Christmas ornie. Stitched this back in 2003 for an exchange and have been meaning to make one for myself ever since.

Unfortunately, when I picked it up again the other day, I realized that my wonderful stitching light is an absolute necessity for stitching over one, even on 28 count – had to frog the entirety of what I’d done a few days earlier (sigh). Here’s the completed one from that old exchange:

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