September & October TUSAL

 

I've been really bad at keeping up with my blog. I didn't realise so much time had passed since my last post. A lot was going on between work and at home. I even got to travel for work for the first time in 3 years. I've been stitching here and there as you can see from my TUSAL reports for September and October.

I worked on the Contrast Color Wheel, that should be finishing very soon. I hit a wall last week when I ran out of one of the materials in the kit. More is on the way and I'm really looking forward to finishing this piece.

Grace is at a halt right now. It might very well be the reason why I've been avoiding posting on the blog. I've set her aside for now and will get back to her over the Christmas holidays (maybe). For now, I will concentrate on getting back on track by working on phase 5 cords. We had a class the first weekend of November, more on that soon.

I did start a little cross stitch project. Something easy for those days when I don't want to work on a frame. It's Betsy Morgan's Virgin Queen's Stitching Wallet. I kitted it together with a stitching friend. By doing that it allowed us to save money on the threads as it doesn't need a full hank of each color to stitch it. I liked the shape of it and the colors.

As I write this, I'm away from home. I'm spending two weeks in Vermont, working remote. I brought some stitching with me but haven't had the chance to get any of the projects out. I'm hoping to have time tomorrow as I only work in the morning on Fridays. Just sad it won't be my cords as I had to leave that big frame at home.

Color Wheel Nearly There

Last time I posted about the color wheel, I had some frogging to do as I'd used the wrong green. I made quick work of the stitching. I really wanted to start playing with a new set of colors.

Aren't these colors pretty? These are the colors labeled tone.

The tones and another set of shaded colors are used to fill the pools at the center of each shape. I was excited to work on these as it means I was nearing the end of the blackwork and could start with the metal thread embroidery.

I say metal thread embroidery as the outlines are done in silver as opposed to the first color wheel which was outlined in gold.

The empty space in the center is filled with chipped silver over a padded layer. The instructions say to use a padding of three layers, but I found that wasn't enough to really cover the center. So I decided to add a fourth layer.

It looks much better with that last layer. Here it's seen with the first outline of purl pearl, but once the second outline is in all the empty space will be covered.

I just had time to outline the pastel areas before I had to set the piece aside to work on something else.

I had to eyeball the outline in as there was no guidelines given. It's not perfectly geometric but it will have to do. I'm looking forward to adding the rest of the silver threads. It's going to make the entire piece to just pop.

Mr. Frog Came to Visit

This weekend I had a visit from Mr. Frog. I'd been working hard on Grace for the last two weeks and made great progress. I put in the short stitch holding on the kimono and was getting the majority of the foundation done.

I had some doubts but thought I was doing well, until I sent a progress picture to my teacher. See, I put in all the short stitch holding on the green foundation but there were a few areas that didn't look quite right to me. I figured maybe it was because of where I put in my temporary holding stitch.

You'll have to click on the image to get a bigger picture but you can clearly see my short stitch holding. These should sink into the foundation and become invisible. After discussing it, it was decided that I should take it out and see if it was doable without damaging the foundation.

The frogging happened from the back. I was never so grateful of how picky (and anal) I am with my stitching. Because I put in my stitching consistently going from left to right, it was very easy for my to remove all the stitches (including knots).

Since I was there, I decided to also take out the short stitch holding on the upper part of the body. Being a picky person, I knew I'd end up redoing it anyways as I wasn't a 100% satisfied of it either. It took all day but I'm happy to say my foundation is still good and I'll be able to make a second attempt. We had a nice group discussion on how I can do a better job, and here's a few things we decided:

• my temporary holding stitches will be put in 5mm apart (I initially had them at 8mm)
• short stitch holdings will be 1cm in length. I initially had them at 8mm but I think the stitches were too short, making them more angled than they should be
• there will be at most 3 columns of temporary holding stitches on the narrow part of the kimono

At the end of the day, I had enough time to start the temporary holding stitch.

Since Mr. Frog was visiting, I decided to extend his stay for one more day to work on the Contrast Color Wheel. Remember that weird green? It turns out the color was right but it was in the wrong section. After reaching out to Jen Goodwin, we quickly realized I had an extra green.

I really should have listened to my instincts. The lighter green looked nothing like what it should in the image but I figured maybe it was lighting. This meant I needed to remove all the light green as well as the darker green.

The unpicking although not fun was painless as the back of my work was neat. I could remove some areas without disturbing what needed to stay in.

I spent all of Sunday unpicking, with a little bit of time at the end for some stitching.

So after a whole weekend of unpicking, I was quite happy to see the back of Mr. Frog and I hope I won't get another visit for a long while.

Color Wheel Progress and Hickup

Since I posted the image of my ORT with all the colors, I figured I should share an update of my contrast color wheel.

Once the big blocks were completed, the smaller hue areas took next to no time to complete. It took more time to weave in the ends than it did stitching the areas.

I'm looking at the overall piece and I'm finding that blue-green color (the one between the green and dark blue) really jarring. I can't help but feel like I have a mistake... So I reached out to Jen Goodwin and she confirmed that there is a problem. I'm waiting to hear back from her again, but there will definitely be some unpicking in my future. For now, it's all the light green in the top block and lower block (where the red is the dominant color), as well as the weird blue-green blocks.

Blackwork Contrast Color Wheel

It's been a while since my last post. I didn't mean to keep it so long, I guess I lost track of time. I have lots to share with you, but I will start with the color wheel as that seems to be a favorite.

I finally made it all around with the hues. It's very interesting stitching with the different colors. Every color gives off a different feeling. Some feel thicker than others, for example the purple versus the yellow. I enjoyed stitching with those colors more.

Now that the main blocks are in, I can use them as a guide for the remaining color blocks. As I fill more and more areas, I'll be able to go around the color wheel faster.

I'm actually further along than this, having completed filling the orange block with blue and am working on filling the purple block with yellow. Just no picture yet.

I can't wait to complete this round, so I can start stitching with another color family.

February TUSAL

Not quite late but not on time either. This month again, just like the weather outside, my ORT jar was snowed with threads from Poppy Pouch. I promise though, I did work on other things. As proof, here's the bottom of jar.

I completed the purple and have since start the green hue on my contrast color wheel. I'm thinking once I have these large blocks in (2 more colors to go), the stitching may go faster as I'll some existing stitches to use as a reference. Famous last words.

Not sure how much I'll get to work on this piece in the near future as I'm really fired up to finish Poppy Pouch before the end of the class. We have two lessons left!

January TUSAL

First TUSAL of the year and I'm already late. I was hoping to show off a pretty ORT picture this month from all the pastel colors in my Contrast Color wheel but it all got snowed by the threads from Poppy Pouch. So here's a picture of the color wheel itself.

This piece is more work than I expected. I finally completed the orange on the weekend and am now stitching in purple. I felt guilty of not working on my Poppy Pouch homework but I was missing working on counted work. I'll make up for it this weekend, we're having lesson 3 on Saturday.

Blackwork Contrast Color Wheel - New Start

It's the first start of the year! Back in 2020, I stitched this Color Wheel by Jen Goodwin (you can see the posts here).

Since releasing this design, Jen worked on a second color wheel with contrasting colors but with a more complex shape pulling ideas from her studies in Islamic Geometry. It tool a long while for her to get the shape accurate on linen as she's working with straight lines versus the more forgiving curves. But it's finally here!

This design doesn't require any outlines to be transferred before starting. The kit comes with a graph chart showing exactly where each stitch should be placed. Just find the center of your fabric and start.  There are three different blackwork patterns to stitch, one for each family with the tones and shades sharing a pattern that is more layered.

The center starts with the tint color families and I'm just in love with these pastel colors. The blackwork pattern is stitched with a single strand of DMC thread. In the first circle, each color area is so small it only needs about a strand or two of threads to stitch. So I have plenty of threads left to stitch a second wheel.

Once the center is in, I can use it as a jumping point to the next color.

I'm trying to decide how I will work through this piece. The overall shape of the design is a hexagram and I could stitch one complete point at a time, or jump around the entire piece and put in the hues, tones and shades. Right now I'm in the process of stitching with the first hue color, so I still have time to make a decision.

Blackwork Colorwheel - Finish

Last time I shared pictures of the colorwheel, it was set aside waiting for more purl pearl. Well they finally arrived last week and I quickly set to finishing that last outline.

I took my time posting pictures as technically I still had spangles to add in between the petals. I really liked the piece as is and decided to set it aside for a few days to make sure that feeling stayed. It has, and now I officially call this piece done!

Jen Goodwin's Blackwork Colorwheel

I really enjoyed working on this piece. If you're looking for a taste of blackwork but fear you'll be bored with all that black, this is the piece for you. There are two forms of it: as a flower and as a bands. I preferred the flower as I couldn't resist that bit of gold.

Holiday Stitching

Every year, I take time off between Christmas and New Years. It usually gives me about two full weeks off and I spend a lot of time stitching when I'm not being dragged outside by my family for my own good. This year due to COVID, we had nowhere to go! I like to give myself goals and the two projects I selected were Jen Goodwin's Colorwheel and Hiogi.

I would alternate between the two pieces. In the morning, I would stitch on Hiogi to take advantage of the light. As this piece is big, I concentrated on the fan handle which is stitched in couched gold threads.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

That took way more time than I expected. I was hoping to complete the handle and work on the cherry blossom but that will have to wait for another time. I still have to plunge the threads but that will be done at a later date.

In the evenings, I would spend my time working on the Colorwheel. This piece stitched up very fast and I was hoping for a 2020 finish. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. I ran out of the purl pearl that is couched around the entire piece.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

Here's a close up of the intersecting areas. I wanted a true weave, so the couched purl pearl go over and under. A little something I picked up in my Islamic geometry classes.

Right now this piece is sitting on the side while I wait for more purl pearl to complete it.

Blackwork Color Wheel - New Start

Now that I've completed Dawn to Dusk, I can start a new project. Spoiler alert, I'm way more ahead than I should be. I couldn't help it, this piece is absolutely addictive. The design I decided to start is a "blackwork" Color Wheel embroidery kit by Jen Goodwin Embroidery. I'm using quotation marks because blackwork is traditionally stitched in all black and this one uses lots and lots of colors.

To be honest, I don't think I would have purchased a blackwork kit if it wasn't for all those colors. You'll understand once you see the contents of the kit. I love those pastels!

(click on the post to see the video below)

The fabric comes un-printed, with the design printed on paper to be transferred using tack lines. I find printing paper too thick for this method and prefer using tissue paper. However, I want perfect curves so redrawing by hand is not an option. One of the things I've been learning during COVID is Islamic Geometry, and using a compass to draw them. This particular shape is actually a circle split into seven equal parts. I also learned how to find the center of a circle, thank you Youtube!

As this is a small design, I'm using stretcher bars for this project. You can use a hoop, but I like to avoid hoop marks when I can.

The design is transferred onto the fabric using tack lines as they are temporary. Once the entire piece is stitches, they will be carefully removed.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

Before starting, I moved the threads to a larger ring and inserted a label to identify the color groups. Each set of threads is used at a different level in the flower. It is very important that they stay in the exact same order they came in as otherwise you won't get the same effect.

Blackwork patterns look complicated at first glance, but they can be simplified by breaking them down into layers. The patterns in this design can be broken into two layers: horizontal and vertical. I found that by stitching one layer for colors, makes it easier for me to put in the partial stitches needed where they meet, before doing the next layer.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

I must say I haven't been able to set it aside once I started. The stitching also goes buy so fast once you memorize the pattern. That's also a pitfall. The pattern changes once you reach the third layer and despite the fact that I had studied the diagram, my muscle memory went ahead and replicated the old pattern. Luckily I realized my mistake by the third color change so it wasn't too bad of a fix.

I will be off starting Friday afternoon for my annual two week stitching holiday. I'm so looking forward to it. So far the plan is to work on this piece and Hiogi, but primarily Hiogi as I'd like to get that piece finished next year. I also need to start thinking of what my new years day start will be.