Very Busy Weekend Part 1

A lot was accomplished over the end of last week and the weekend, but for today I will concentrate on Fandango. From the last post I had three things left on my list:

• Needlelace fans for the two small squares on the right (there is a possibility of having to redo one of the left ones because I'm picky)
• (big breath) Bullions ALL around the border and within the piece
• Palestrina knot swirls (there are 16)
• Buttonhole edge to finish off the hem

Thursday I sat down and knocked out those needlelace fans and I finally decided that I won't be that picky and redo the left ones. Because let's face it, unless your a stitcher, you won't notice a difference.

Since that's done, I could now decide how to tackle the Palestrina knots. For the knots there was no template in the class book. We ended up tracing the swirls directly off the original piece that Barbara had brought with her. I redrew those on tracing paper with ink so that it would be easier to trace on my fabric.

However, before I start stitching on Fandango samples had to be made. I reused my doodle cloth to test out how it would come out with and without beads. For instructions on how to do the Palestrina knot with beads check out Mary Corbet's post here.

I ran out of thread before I could finish the left sample, but I could right away say that I didn't like the right one. It just didn't look as nice as the ones on the original Fandango. I also though with the beads in between each knot, it gave a nice even space. In any event Friday night I decided to sleep it over and start fresh the next day.

Saturday morning I got out my light pad again and traced over all the curls on Fandango. There are a total of 16 curls: 8 on each end and 8 around the central square.

I started on one end and managed to get two done before I got bored :P Using beads with this piece makes it look fabulous but it's very tedious. Since I'm stitching with a #8 pearl cotton the needle I have to use a #26 needle which is too big for the beads. This means I have to switch my needle for one with a collapsible eye after every stitch to thread my bead. It didn't bother me before but there are about 12-13 beads on each swirl. So this will be a very long process. I'm going to try and get at least two done a day and hopefully it will be over soon.

I forgot to take a picture of the overall piece. I will try to get one for the TUSAL post which I completely forgot about. In any case, here is what is left over now.

• Needlelace fans for the two small squares on the right (there is a possibility of having to redo one of the left ones because I'm picky)
• Palestrina knot swirls (there are 16 14)
• Buttonhole edge to finish off the hem

I did get more done on the weekend but that will show up in a part 2 post later on this week :)

No more Bullions!

Last week was a very slow week for me. I was back to avoiding working on Fandango as I was all bullioned out. And I didn't feel it was right to work on anything else because really I should have been stitching on Fandango. I can't really blame it on the bullions, I have a really hard time with repetition. Once I've done something I don't really want to repeat it again. In this case I had three flowers left to embroider.

This weekend I was determined to finish them. I'm so close to the finish I can taste it. It took me all day Sunday, but I got them all done. No more bullions!

Now technically, I should still have had some bullions to stitch. On the smaller flowers to be exact. However, due to an unfortunate misread of the pattern there was no space for them :P Instead, I decided to stitch a single bead at the center. I really love how they've come out.

From afar you really can't see a difference between this post and my last one lol but it's there.

• Needlelace fans for the two small squares on the right (there is a possibility of having to redo one of the left ones because I'm picky)
• (big breath) Bullions ALL around the border and within the piece
• Palestrina knot swirls (there are 16)
• Buttonhole edge to finish off the hem

WIPocalypse 2016 – October

This month's theme is: What online stitching communities do you enjoy? I've been on Blogger for 4 years now (Wow! Time passes fast), before that I didn't have much of a presence online as I was more of a lurker than participator. Since then I've become more active on Facebook and Instagram. I don't post on my personal Facebook page but I do help manage Virtual Threads' Facebook page. Click the link to check us out :) I have a HUGE feed of blogs that I go thru every morning and share what I find on there for others to check out so in that way I'm very much involved. However even with that I'm still a lurker :P I'm horribly awkward when leaving comments so don't think I'm not reading your posts. I am, I just don't comment.

Fandango got a lot of love this month. I had planned on concentrating on the four small squares but that didn't go as planned. Instead I ended up finishing the center square and a whole lot of bullion stitches that go all around the piece. There are close up pictures in a previous post here and here. Right now the goal is to finish up all the bullions that go within the piece.

I finished my beaded fob Hana. The next step for this piece is working on a scissor case to go with it. There was a delay in starting that as I didn't have enough of the 3-cut black beads. I finally have those but I think I want to get all those bullions on Fandango done first.


I didn't get those olive green leaves done this month on Fleurs de Sakura. I will try again for next check-in.

No update on Fantasy Lace.

	No Update
Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

I took Bramble and the Rose to my guild stitch meeting and got a tiny bit in there, but not enough to warrant an update pick. I spent most of the evening swapping book titles with the guild librarian. Love books!

	No Update
Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

Still hidden away poor dragons. But, putting stitches into this piece is the last goal I have for this year. So this means that by the last WIPocalypse post there will be some progress on it.

	No Update
Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

I didn't touch Sfilati Fantasia.

No Update

Thanksgiving Long Weekend

I'm back at work after a long weekend. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving at home, so for me it's just a longer weekend with more time to stitch :)

And since I had such a huge amount of stitching time, I decided to tackle the gazillion bullions that are in Fandango. But before that, a practice one is required just to make sure all systems are a go.

I started Friday night, stitched all day Saturday...

And well into Sunday, but I got them done :) I kept track of my time, it took me about 6 hours to do one long side and 3 hours to do one short side. I had bullions with 7 and 13 wraps. In total there were 50 bullions with 13 wraps and 184 bullions with 7 wraps.

Since I was going so well on the border, I figured I'll start the bullions within the piece as well. However I wanted to experiment a little first. I decided I wanted to add beads in the piece to balance it a little with what I had put in the center. The best way to figure out what combinations will suite is to use a doodle clothe. In the satin stitch "flowers", there were two different 3-bullion groups. The first one looks like a leaf and the second like a little bud.

After trying out different combinations, I decided to stick to the original for the leaf. For the buds, I decided to replace one bullion stitch with a bead. This is finished off with a single bead at the center of the "flower". Below you can seen what my version looks like in comparison to the original.

Now that I've decided what I want for this, I just have three more of them to do ;) I will say that I don't hate bullions as much as I thought I did, but they do get tedious after the 50th one :P 

I considered that bullion border one of my bigger hurdles on this piece but now that that's over I can definitely say I will meet my deadline. I just have to keep my attention centered on it ;)

• Needlelace fans for the two small squares on the right (there is a possibility of having to redo one of the left ones because I'm picky)
• (big breath) Bullions ALL around the border and within the piece
• Palestrina knot swirls (there are 16)
• Buttonhole edge to finish off the hem

Fandango Center: Done!

Finally sat myself in front of Netflix and finished those fans :)

In my last post on Fandango, I had mentioned that in Punto Antico woven bars come in pairs because of the fans pulling and creating a curve. You can see that in the picture below. I actually quite like the effect, it's a little change from all the straight lines of the square.

In each corner of the square there are more needle-laced fans. For these four, I had to watch my tension so I wouldn't distort the satin stitches. If you want to learn how to make a fan, Gingerbread Girl Designs has a wonderful video on Youtube on how to stitch a variation of this fan.

It's been a while since I showed an image of the overall piece so here it is (sorry for the bad lighting).

Here is what is left to do:

• Needlelace fans for the two small squares on the right (there is a possibility of having to redo one of the left ones because I'm picky)
• (big breath) Bullions ALL around the border and within the piece
• Palestrina knot swirls (there are 16)
• Buttonhole edge to finish off the hem

I think I can do it before end of year :) What do you think? And to make sure it happens, I'm going to start working on those bullions this Thanksgiving long weekend.

October TUSAL

Can't believe it's already October and there are only two TUSAL reports left for this year. This means that I have 3 months left to finish up Fandango. Most of the threads this months were from Fandango and there will be a lot more of that as I'll have to concentrate on it. The green thread were from a mill hill bead kit I got from the Lakeshore guild. It's one of the two pieces I have to stitch as a contribution for a handcraft fair they will be selling at to raise funds. No picture of the finished piece as I completely forgot to take one.

I didn't end up stitching the needlelace yesterday :( I just wasn't in the mood for it. I won't have time tonight either as I have my guild stitching meeting. I'm bringing it with me but I'm not sure I'll want to stitch on it in the lighting we have in the room. Just in case I brought a backup project with me :)

Enough Procrastinating!

I had a VERY slow week last week and I can't blame it on a reading marathon because I didn't do much of that either. I think I spent most of it on Netflix contemplating working on my WIPs :P

So Thursday night, I said enough! A soon as I get home from work Friday I would sit down and work on Fandango. And that's what I did :)

I was originally going to work on the needlelace fans for the smaller squares, but my thread kept getting caught on the fabric threads of the center square. So I decided that finishing up the edges of that square should be a priority.

Once all the edges are satin stitched, I could start cutting the fabric thread and neaten the back.

I was a little hesitant with the scissors. I needed to cut really close to the edge at the back, but not too close that I accidentally cut the satin stitches. It's really tough to distinguish between all that white with my OTT lamp. It would have been much easier in daylight.

I was able to devote the entire day Sunday to work on Fandango, so I decided to keep going on the center square. The next step was lots and lots of woven bars. In Punto Antico, you usually have a pair of woven bars next to each other versus the one in Hardanger. The reason for this is that the next step involves needlelace fans which will pull on them. Having two bars would mean that only one of them will be distorted.

Since starting this project I've been toying with the idea of replacing the picots with beads. I've tried picots in the past and they just don't look that great to me. For something so tiny, it's fussy and flops around never sitting straight.

After trying it on the first row, I liked the look of it and kept going. I'm not sure what type of beads these are, I found them at a bead shop in Saint-Sauveur. But the color matches the green of the sofas in our living room which is where Fandango will be once it's finished.

Next step is the needlelace fans. Crossing my fingers I will be in the mood for it tonight ;)