Switching Gears

While waiting to hear back from Jen Goodwin on the Contrast Color Wheel, I needed another counted project to work on when I didn't want to do something complicated. I decided to pull out the whitwork sampler. 

It took a while for me to complete the fifth band. It's more complex than the previous four and I only pulled it out every once in a while. Usually for evening stitching with the guild.

I took the opportunity to take a picture of the overall piece. My fabric is all wrinkly as it's been on q-snaps for months. I think this is my favorite motif to date.

I'm still writing the posts for how I finished the Poppy Pouch. It will be in three posts, I have two completed and I'm procrastinating on the third one as I still need to take pretty pictures of the finished product. I need my sister to take the pictures for me but so far the timing hasn't been right. I'm hoping I'll have them by next weekend.

October TUSAL

  

This month's TUSAL report features lots and lots of white from the English whitework sampler. Not very visible in this picture but there are also some thin strands of gold from the Armillary Sphere. I'll post my update on that piece very soon, but in the meantime here's my sampler. You can't really see the first band, but there are four of them stitched so far.

FYI, the aida is not for me. My sister wanted to do some cross stitching and purchased a kit from one of those Chinese website. It came with some horrible 11ct aida and I convinced her to switch it for a higher count fabric. I helper her set up and needed to trim the edges to make sure they were all straight.

English Whitework Sampler - New Start

 The last two months were hard, especially after work as I never seemed to want to do anything. It took me a while to realize that I didn't have a single counted project on the go. It's all surface embroidery. So I went hunting in my stash photo album. I take pictures of all the stash I buy as it makes blogging about them later easier.

I completely forgot I picked up and kitted the English Whitework Sampler when I visited Traditional Stitches in Calgary back in 2019. I bought a lot of stash that year during my work trips. Anyways, this design is by Darlene O'Steen, the author of the book The Proper Stitch. An excellent book by the way if you like samplers. I don't own a copy as I'm not really into samplers, but I've had my eye on this whitework piece since it came out in 2011.

Some technical information as I will be asked, I'm stitching mine on 40 ct Newcastle Linen with #12 perle cotton and #80 special dentelle tatting thread in B5200.

I popped the pattern sheets in protective sleeves and into a binder to keep everything tidy, and then measured and cut my fabric. However, before I get to stitching, I wanted to put in some guidelines as I won't be stitching from the center out. I wanted to start from the top left, so I first put in the vertical and horizontal center lines (going over and under 4 threads). I also put in lines to define the sides and the top of the sampler.

Each row is surrounded by dividing band of four-sided stitches. I've been stitching them as I go and filling in the areas. 

The third row is all done in satin stitch. You'll notice I skipped the second row. As this is a sampler, it has the typical row of alphabet. I already know my ABCs and have no interest in stitching them. Instead I will fill that space with a quote, which I will do later as I'm still trying to figure out spacing and whether I want to stitch it over 1 or 2 threads.

As you get closer and closer to the end of the sampler, the rows start getting more and more complex. In the third row, there is a bit of cutwork to do.

Regardless, I won't be doing any cutting until I've completed the entire piece. Which means once I'm done I will be revisiting parts of the sampler to really finish it.

WIPocalypse 2017 – January

This month's theme is: Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year! So here we go:

My name is Dima. I'm a Software Engineer by day and stitcher by night. This is my sixth year blogging and I've been stitching for 7. I started with cross stitch, but have been trying to add in other types of embroidery (hardanger, pulled/drawn thread, punto antico...). You'll notice that most of the embroidery I'm drawn to is whitework, although I love color. I'm still hoping to learn crewel as I have a lot of kits in my stash but looks like it will be replaced by goldwork this year. Better luck next year :P

I also crochet, mostly amigurumis that I give as gifts, and I am learning how to knit (still very bad at it). Last year I added Kumihimo and this year my new addiction is beads. I hope to use lots and lots of them.

I've already posted my goals here. but I will re-iterate them below. I picked easy goals again this year as I will be very busy again this year come spring which means I will be very busy in the coming year finishing projects.

I had finished my goal last year on Bramble and the Rose and I got a head start on this year's goal as well. I always take out this project the last week before the New Year. The goal for this year is to again finish at least one page.

Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

I worked on Tracery Dragons last year which was great. The goal this year is to finish all the stonework.

Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

I haven't touched Fantasy Lace since the summer. This year I'm hoping at least to have the hemstitch border done. Most likely to happen in the summer as it's a great project to take outside :)

	No Update
Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

Officially being added to the roster this year is Katherine Drummond's Romantic Rosebud which was a Creative Festival class in 2015. The goal is to finish it this year.

The second WIP being added that is also to be completed this year is Annie Penin's Fleurs de Sakura.

More projects will likely come and go during the year, but these are my offical WIPocalypse goals for 2017.

Eyelets Begone!

I was under the weather all of last week. I always catch a cold at least once in winter and once in summer. For some reason, I though I dodged the bullet this year as summer was almost over and I didn't catch a cold. But no such luck! Anyways, I have a rule: If I'm sick, I don't stitch. Especially not something as sensitive as cutting fabric.

I managed to get one corner on Fandango done last Wednesday, just before things started going really bad. Once I started getting congested I was KO'd for the rest of the week.

I spent a lot of it sitting outside soaking in the sun, and hopefully some vitamin D to beat my cold. However, I'm not one to sit around and do nothing either. For some reason, an old WIP sprang to mind. It was both boring AND safe :)

Yup, I took out Fantasy Lace and knocked out all the remaining eyelets =D No more eyelets! Which means I met my goal on this project for this year. I actually had half of the border left to do and was able to knock out the longer side in 5 hours and the smaller side on Sunday. I think with my state of mind, it was easy for me to zone out while stitching them, as I was already half asleep anyways. Here's a picture in case you forgot how big the piece is.

By Sunday I was feeling much better, enough that I felt safe starting the hem stitch border on one of the smaller sides.

I didn't get much done. The instructions were confusing (or my brain was still addled) and took me a while to start.

Monday morning, finds me much better with a slight cough that will take a while to go away, but I can now safely go back to working on Fandango.

WIPocalypse 2016 – February

This month's theme is: If you have any of your pieces on display in your home which attracts the most plaudits? (via Hazel) I don't really have any pieces on display in my house. In my room you'll find various little amigurumis that I've crocheted or little stitched projects from the Creative Festival that have been "finished". I do have one framed piece that is hanging in my room. It's actually the only thing hanging on a wall in the entire house lol

I do have one more piece that is framed, but it's never been hung as my mom and I can't agree on a wall and I don't want to overcrowd my room walls. Maybe when I get sick of looking at Stargazer, I'll switch her out for the Peacock. But for now I'm happy with how things stand.

I'm still making excellent progress on Bramble and the Rose. I stitched on it for a few weekends.

Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

Nothing new on Tracery Dragons.

	No Update
Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

More eyelet stitching on Fantasy Lace. I managed to finish one more side at my guild stitching meeting. It's a small one, but its counts ;)

Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

In the last WIPocalypse post I had started Azure Tit and Blueberries.  I have since finished all the cross stitch and back stitch on the piece and finished cross stitching the next bird in the series Mountain Bluebird and Blackcurrant.

Ajisai Designs - Azure Tit and Blueberries

Ajisai Designs - Mountain Bluebird and Blackcurrant

WIPocalypse 2015 – November

This month's topic: Which designer has inspired you to stitch the greatest number of designs and why do you think that is? I think at this point the designer I've stitched the most of is Kathryn Drummond aka Gingerbread Girl. I try to take her classes whenever I can and have quite a few of her patterns to stitch (although Teresa Wentzler has her beat, I have more of TW's patterns than any other designer). The reason for that is I love cut work and counted thread combine that with luscious colors and you have me hooked :)

Onto the updates, nothing on Bramble and the Rose. I'm thinking I'll take it out a week before New Years to stitch on it like I did last year.

	No Update
Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

Tree of Hope is back on the frame as of yesterday. I did put in a few stitches but not enough for an update. I realized that I've missed doing cross stitch.

	No Update
Mirabilia - Tree of Hope

I still haven't touched Tracery Dragons.

	No Update
Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

I did stitch on Fantasy Lace. I worked on it in between sessions on my sampler for a change of pace.

Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

18th Century Sampler is FINISHED! I'm really happy that the piece is finally done. With this piece finally completed I can finally put in a dent into my other WIPs.

SJ Designs - 18th Century Sampler

18th Century Sampler - Finished!

In my last post I was trying to decide how I wanted to stitch the outer border. Thank you for all of your comments, it really helped me make a decision :)

The outer border is done in a wide Herringbone stitch. I settled on using the green thread for the border and wanted to add beads to anchor the Herringbone stitches.

I tried the beads on one edge and kept looking at it, but in the end I decided to take them out. You couldn't really see them from afar and just this little bit took hours to put in. Once the decision was made to go without, the border was quickly finished.

I'm quite happy with that decision :) but you never know if I'll change my mind. I'm going to wait till the class ends before framing it. Just in case something comes up and I need to make changes.

 I made a quick video for my Instagram account of the finished piece.

So my 18th Century Sampler is all done, but it's not too late to join in the fun. The class is still ongoing on Facebook and won't end till February. You can find all the details here.

18th Century Sampler - Satin Stitch Borders, Blocks #12, 17

The end is very near for this project. Yesterday I was able to complete the last two blocks in the sampler.

I quite like the look of block 12. There's not so much pulling. It's more like opening up the centers with an awl and maintaining an even tension. Much more relaxing.

Block #12

It goes back to pulling for block 17, but this time I did it with a little less enthusiasm. Which means my square didn't come out as skewed as block 1. Which reminds me, I still have to fix that. I received excellent recommendations on the class's Facebook page. I'll put up a post once I've tried it out.

Block #17

And full view of my version of SJ Designs 18th Century Sampler. All that's left are three horizontal borders and the outer border that surrounds the piece. I actually bought beads with my kit but still haven't used them. I'll have to figure out where to put in the bling or if it even needs it.