WIP: Picnic Hampered! (by Kathy Fenchel)

Today's featured WIP is Picnic Hampered!, designed by Kathy Fenchel.

Technique/Materials:  This piece uses traditional needlepoint stitches combined with surface embroidery and stumpwork techniques. It is stitched on Congress cloth, primarily with cotton threads.

Background:  Kathy Fenchel taught this project at our regional EGA seminar in May 2007. I am stitching it primarily as designed, although I added some felt padding to the random surface embroidery used for the tree. I really like the creative use of a plastic washer, covered with buttonhole stitch, for the tire swing.

Why it's not done:  After a little over a month, during which I was also working on another piece from the same seminar, this was set aside so I could concentrate on a correspondence course that needed to be finished. This project is the only canvaswork WIP in the collection that is no longer on its stretcher bars, since those were needed for another project at some point! 

What's left to do: The picnic blanket and the tree both need to be finished, and the tire swing attached. I'll need to add the "visitors" (bees and ants), the fence and sunflower in the background, and finish off with a sprinkling of grass.

WIP: Summer Dream (by Luan Callery)

Today's featured WIP is no stranger to long-time readers. It is Luan Callery's Summer Dream.

Technique/Materials:  Stumpwork and surface work on linen twill, primarily using wool and cotton threads.

Background:  I took this EGA correspondence course with a group from my local EGA chapter. According to last year's blog posts, I started this in early November 2008 with the plan that it would be turned in for evaluation in January. As a result, this saw a lot of activity that month.

Why it's not done:  This was set aside in early December 2008 when I won the opportunity basket containing Celebration Santa and realized that there was no way I'd be finishing Summer Dream by January anyway. Besides being on bedrest (and later, in the hospital), I outgrew this project, on its large stretcher bars, as my lap disappeared with advancing pregnancy. The project bag found its way into storage, and there it has remained, until today.

What's left to do: I'm changing the colors of the main flower and the butterfly from pinks to oranges and yellows. In addition, I still need to stitch the smaller flowers - and the ladybug!

WIP: Rose's Pyramid (by Marsha Papay-Gomola)

Today's featured WIP is Rose's Pyramid, designed by Marsha Papay-Gomola.

Technique/Materials: Stumpwork on silk dupioni, using a variety of threads, including DMC and Anchor flosses, Silk 'N Colors from the Thread Gatherer, and Gentle Art Sampler Threads.

Background: I started Rose's Pyramid in November 2004 (or was it 2003?) during a class with Marsha hosted by my local EGA chapter. This class was my first attempt at stumpwork, and, to be honest, I was a bit intimidated, being a counted-thread girl at heart. Then I reminded myself: It's just string! Once I relaxed a bit, I found my stitching coming much easier.

Marsha was a great teacher. The majority of the two-day class was spent learning the stumpwork techniques, with an hour or so reserved for the finishing instructions. I don't remember exactly how to put it together, but the written instructions seem to be fairly complete, especially with the addition of my notes.

Why it's not done:  I'm not really sure. It may have been my master's degree program, or a bit of frustration with the amount of stitching needed to do long-and-short stitch with one strand of floss, or a flare-up of a pinched nerve. Or a combination of all of these!

What's left to do:  I think the sides of the pyramid with the wisteria and the fuchsia are done, but I still have to finish the sides with the grapes and the lilacs. For the center block, I still need to stitch tendrils and the ladybug and attach beads. I have 5 detached petals and 2 detached leaves to stitch, and then need to attach all of the detached elements to the center block, also.

Of course, then I need to assemble the pyramid!

Summer Dream progress

I've been on vacation this past week, and I've enjoyed spending a bit more time stitching. I've also been working on stitch study posts, starting to sell off a bit of excess stash on eBay (see the link on the right sidebar), and shopping for nursery furniture and other baby items.

Most of my stitching time has been devoted to Summer Dream, the EGA GCC by Luan Callery. As I mentioned previously, I'm changing some of the colors. The original piece has a pink lily and a pink butterfly and pink stripes on the bee. It's just not working for me. I've decided to change the butterfly to a monarch, since I always enjoy seeing these beauties flitting through my yard. Of course, the butterfly shape traced onto my fabric is not a monarch. I haven't quite figured out if I'm just going to change the colors to the oranges of the monarch, or try to draw a monarch outline over the shape on the fabric.

In the meantime, I've purchased wool for the lily in shades of yellow to orange, and I've stitched the bee with yellow stripes (what a thought!). Here is Mr. Bee. The stripes are cleverly made up of bullion knots, made just a tiny bit longer than the width of the body so they stand up a bit from the fabric. Oh - and his wings will come later! :-)


I've also been working on the larger leaves at the bottom of the piece. Instead of the Paternayan wools called for in the instructions, I'm using the leftover Medici wools from Fantasy Remembered, the companion piece. Medici is bit thinner than the Paternayan, but the colors are a pretty close match. The difference in thickness meant that I needed to do a few more rows of outline stitch to fill in the leaves, but I think it's working out well.

Starting Summer Dream

Though I've had the fabric mounted on the frame for over a week, I finally put the first stitches in Luan Callery's Summer Dream on Thursday. Instead of using all of the threads called for in the instructions, I'm trying to use the remainder of some of the colors left over from the companion piece, Fantasy Remembered. It looks like the designer simply converted the same Medici wool colors (now discontinued) to Appleton wools anyway, so why spend the money? I just hope I don't run out of some of the greens!

While I'm still not completely in my comfort zone doing non-counted work, it is getting easier, and I love the fact that there seems to be a lot of progress in a short period of time. As you can see, the stem is done (in packed outline stitch), as well as many of the smaller leaves (in satin stitch and closed fly stitch).Unfortunately, I received an email yesterday with instructions for some additional pre-stitching work for the My Way class, so Summer Dream will need to be set aside for a day or two.

Blog catch-up, and other news

While I haven't been blogging much lately, I have been stitching, and, unfortunately for my pile of WIPs, planning to start new things.

First, an update on the Tudor Purse: I was making good progress on this, when it became apparent that the "scooping" motion of the Ceylon stitch was starting to aggravate the carpal tunnel in my right wrist. So, while this piece isn't very big, I've put it down for a bit. I'll have to work on it only a bit at a time.



When I put the purse down, I decided I hadn't done much sampler/linen work lately, and that was calling to me. Of course, instead of picking up Catherine Theron's Examplar IV, which is much further along, I dug out Martha Wilkins from The Scarlet Letter. I last worked on this piece back in December, and it was still in the same state as in the photo in this post. As you can see, this week I finished another band of lettering and almost the entire next band. At this rate, I might be done in the next 10 years! :-P

On Wednesday, I attended our local ANG meeting. I didn't really feel like working on notebook stitch samples with the rest of the group, so I started the outreach project that was announced last month. We're stitching heart-shaped ornaments with a centerpiece of a cancer ribbon. I can't remember the details, but we're donating these for some cause or another. (And I know MIL is cringing as she reads this since she's the outreach chair!) Anyway, I'm doing a purple ribbon for pancreatic cancer, in memory of my two grandparents whom I lost to this fast-acting disease.

I wanted the center ribbon to stand out, so I did it in detached buttonhole with a heavy thread, in this case Shepherd's Wool from the Thread Gatherer. Apparently this thread is no longer being made, since it's not listed on TG's website. I received this skein in a grab bag a few months ago, and thought it was perfect for this! The background is a couched stitch, specifically Aristeia couching (diagrammed in SuZy's Lite Stitches, one of the books I picked up at seminar), with a Brazilian embroidery rayon thread as the couched thread, and 4 strands of floss as the couching thread. I thought this would work up faster than trying to fill the entire background with stitching, and so far it has. I've only worked on this at the meeting Wednesday night and at our Thursday night LNS stitch-in. I hope to finish it this weekend.

I have a few upcoming projects, too. Tomorrow, I'm attending a class for a Bargello needlecase. Since our EGA chapter is hosting the region meeting today (though I'm not going), we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to have one of the visiting ladies stay for an extra night and teach this lovely project. One of the chapter members had taken the class from her in the past, and it's lovely. Today I need to rummage in my stash to find fabric and threads for it.

Carolyn Mitchell is visiting our LNS for a 2-1/2 day class in the middle of November, and I've signed up for this class, too. She's teaching a canvas piece called My Way, which looks like a six-patch quilt design. We need to have the borders laid out as prework, and from what I've heard, this is fairly time intensive. I've got my color scheme picked out (see the collection of threads I brought home from seminar), but I'm waiting for a pair of Evertite stretcher bars to show up in the mail. They were shipped over a week ago, but the USPS website only shows them as being received into the mail stream. Goodness knows where they might be now!

Lastly (I think), I need to get started on Luan Callery's Summer Dream, an EGA GCC that some in my chapter are doing in conjunction with the Buffalo chapter. It's due in January. I've been following Pat's progress on this same piece, and I'm looking forward to it!

In other news, I believe I did mention that I had received my pieces (and ribbons!) back from the ANG seminar exhibit. Also in the package was a little card telling me to call the Boehm porcelain factory, because they had the rose that was part of the Princess Grace award. I made that call, and this week the package arrived. The box was huge - and full of foam peanuts! Inside the box was another box, with more peanuts. I finally found the porcelain rose taped to the bottom of the inside box, and I understood the need for the extensive packing. The petals are amazingly delicate. Here's a picture of my stitched Lilacs, its ribbons, and the rose.

And last, but the most important news of all (now that I've finally told everyone locally who might be reading this blog). I've got another work in progress: 19 weeks along, 21 to go. Yes, I'm expecting(!), due the first week of March. This is our first, and DH and I are very excited. No, we don't know if "The Kid" (shortened to "TK") is a boy or a girl, and we're planning to be surprised! This news is the main reason I'm taking classes now, because I know I won't be able to for a while. :-) I'm sure finding the time to finish any of these pieces is sure to become difficult though! :-P

Spiral Trellis stitch

****Warning - picture-heavy post!*****

As promised, when Examplar IV came through the rotation again, I took detailed pictures as the spiral trellis stitch was worked.

I mentioned in the last post that my first spiral trellis bloom was a bit flat. Here's a close-up of the flower from above.

And from the side.

On to the second flower. I had previously outlined the flower in double-running stitch. I specifically did not use backstitch because it has more thread on the back side, and therefore has more slack. This is the foundation row for the spiral trellis, and a loose outline would pull into the center and might leave gaps around the flower.

Here is the basic trellis stitch. Bring the thread up a the corner. Slide the needle under the next outline stitch. The needle point should be outside of the circle. Wrap the thread over and under the point of the needle, then slowly pull the needle through.

As you pull away from the circle, the knot will tighten up most of the way. Finish the knot by pulling the thread across the circle.

Slide under the next outline stitch to work the next knot. I stitch the spiral trellis counter-clockwise around the circle, but it can be worked in either direction. If working clockwise, the thread wrap will look different. Just be sure to bring the thread over and under the point of the needle.



Here are two completed knots.







After the first row is worked all the way around, start working into the previous row of stitches. The first stitch of the second row is the trickiest, because you'll insert the needle under the working thread before the first knot you worked. It's the loop between where the thread came up in the corner and the first knot. If you don't get it exactly in the right place, nobody will really know, though!

Work the rest of the stitches into the loops between the knots of the previous row. See the arrow? It's pointing to the loop between the first and second knots of the first row. That's where the next trellis stitch goes. This is why this is spiral trellis stitch. It spirals in to the center.

Here's my flower after three rows of spiral trellis. At some point, you might think you have have enough of this color and want to move to the next shade.

Bring your thread to the back close to the last stitch, but don't pull it too tightly. Your spiral trellis is starting to stand up from the fabric, and pulling this tightly will create a dent in your flower! I secured my thread with an L-stitch so it wouldn't pull any more, then brought the needle through to the front several inches away. After the flower is done, run the thread ends through the outline or neighboring stitches on the back.

With the next color in the needle, start your thread with an away waste knot (to be worked into the outline later) and an L-stitch. Bring the thread up in the middle of the flower close to the next stitch to be made. Notice that I brought it up slightly before the point where the other thread ended. On the next row, I worked a stitch into the little gap between these two threads so it looked seamless.

So far, you're still working the same number of knots on each row, and your spiral trellis is getting taller. If you do this long enough, you can get some interesting effects. You could make a chimney, standing straight up from your fabric. We don't want a flower to be too tall, though, so we need to start decreasing stitches. To do this, simply skip a stitch. See where the arrow is pointing? That's where the next stitch would be if I didn't start decreasing. Instead, I skipped that stitch, and worked into the next loop.

Judging when to decrease is one of the trickier parts of spiral trellis. The first time I tried this stitch, I ended up with a tall bump that looked a bit like a beehive. (That might be your objective. You could even stuff it! I don't know if this stitch was ever used in stumpwork, but why not?) That's why my first flower on this sampler came out flat. I decreased too quickly that time!

Keep working the stitch into the center, decreasing and changing colors as needed. You'll find you need to decrease more frequently as the circles get smaller. When you reach the center and can't fit in another stitch, stick the needle straight down into the center of the flower and through the fabric. Again, unless you want a dent in the middle of your flower, don't pull it too tight! You can then end off all of your threads.

Here's a couple of comparison shots of my two flowers. Both are fine in their own way, but I think I like the puffy one better. In her original sampler, Catherine Theron made hers much more puffy than mine, then squashed them flat. None of these is wrong. They're just different! Isn't it wonderful that we have so many options, all with the same stitch?


A side-on view shows the height difference in my two flowers. I haven't decided yet if I'll take the first one out. We'll see how it looks when the others are puffy. Maybe I'll make them all be slightly different, so the difference between these two isn't that strange.

If you try spiral trellis, please let me know how it worked for you! Also, please feel free to comment with corrections. I'd like to make sure these instructions are as helpful and as clear as possible!

Shaded leaves

This is one of those posts that probably wouldn't exist if I weren't participating on NaBloPoMo. As it is though, I've pledged to post every day this month, and this is what my blog visitors get today! :-)

The leaves of yesterday's post did get finished, and while they're not perfect, they're much better than the first attempt. (Oh, by the way, I found a better "before" picture, and will be updating yesterday's post with it right after I finish this post.)

After these were done, I moved on to the panel of the etui that will eventually have grapes. The grape leaves are stitched in a variegated green in closed blanket stitch (sometimes referred to as buttonhole), with any gaps filled in later with satin stitches. Two of these leaves were stitched many moons ago, but I stitched the center one today. The remaining two will have to wait a few days until this project comes back to the top of the rotation later this week.

Restitching leaves

Today I've been stitching the main leaves in the center section of Rose's Pyramid. I started on the unstitched side of each leaf, and quickly saw a big difference between today's stitching and my work of a few years ago.

My old stitching looked forced, unnatural. I think I tried too hard to keep to the ideal of "long and short", and it ended up looking like brick stitch on silk fabric. I recognize now that it was my engineer's logical brain trying to control something I which which I was uncomfortable. I didn't enjoy stitching non-counted work, and long and short stitch was the most intimidating to me. This was the first technique in which I had forgotten my mantra, "It's just string!"

Now I have become more comfortable with non-counted work, after the goldwork GCC's and my work on Fantasy Remembered. I've realized that the natural look of the stitching is much more important than holding a rigid form of the stitch. This non-counted stuff forces me to stuff my logical brain in a drawer and go with the flow. I've ripped out the old stitches. I'm trying to look for the natural direction and color flow of the leaf, and just stitch as that flow dictates, and the results are much better.

Also, I've learned that it's better to have longer stitches in general. Later rows of stitches can always encroach on earlier rows, but if the first rows are too short, ground fabric shows through and the stitching looks unnatural - like rows of stitches, rather than a smooth flow of color.

I hope to finish these leaves tomorrow.

Stumpwork: One framed, one UFO

I haven't had a fairly slow day to show this yet, but last week, I picked up Fantasy Remembered from the framer. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the top mat actually sits about 1/4 inch above the bottom mat, creating even more dimension than the stitching itself. I'm very pleased with how this turned out.

To continue my stumpwork momentum (because I had so much fun with this), I pulled out an old UFO. This picture shows the partially-complete panels and center of Rose's Pyramid, a stumpwork etui by Marsha Papay-Gomola. Marsha taught this class to our EGA chapter a few (3?) years ago. I worked on it for a while, and then it was stored away in a closet.

I'm dragging it out again, and want to start a semi-formal rotation with this, Examplar IV, and Scottlee. I'll switch between them every other day or so. Of course, when the new Jim Wurth ornament arrives, the rotation will go out the window for a week or so until I finish the ornament! :-)

Fantasy Remembered pic & NaBloPoMo

Here's a big thank you to Kathryn for pointing out that November is National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo. Essentially, when you sign up for NaBloPoMo, you're pledging to post every day in November. Since I was 1/30 (!) of the way there by posting yesterday, I thought I'd try it! It will help make blogging a bit more of my normal routine.

Anyway, here's why you're really reading this post. I did remember to bring my camera along to the LNS last night, and managed to find my Fantasy Remembered in the framing room. I'm sooooo happy with how it turned out, and can't wait to see it framed!Thanks to EGA and Luan Callery for such a fabulous and challenging project!

Happy Dancing (but no picture!)

I was so excited that I finished Fantasy Remembered late last night! It's my first completed stumpwork piece, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

I wish I could share a picture. :-(

I couldn't wait to get it to the framer, so I took it in today. Unfortunately, I failed to take a picture of it before I dropped it off to be framed. Oops!

Well, my LNS is the frame shop, so I'll try to sneak into the back workroom to take a picture while I'm there for stitch night on Thursday.

***************************************************
At long last, this is my second finish for the WIP-loss challenge!

WIP-loss challenge status: 2 down, 8 to go

It's progress, plus the mystery sampler isn't far behind!! :-)

Sending in Fantasy Remembered

Well, I didn't finish the canvas ornament, because a reminder from the coordinator of Fantasy Remembered indicated that I needed to send in this project! This piece is an EGA group correspondence course by Luan Callery. After the reminder, I spent a good part of Sunday and tonight working on this project. I needed to get at least some part of each section done, plus all the wired elements cut out before it was ready to send.

I was on a roll with the long and short stitch yesterday, although I still don't like it (or my results) too much. As a result, I finished all the "fantasy fruit" (or berries, as I see them), and all of the leaves except the largest. Since the largest leaf is the same techniques and threads as the top-most leaf, I don't need to get it done before sending it in. The picture on the right shows the work on the ground fabric.

Tonight I finished the dragonfly wings and cut them out. Here's the piece with the wired elements laid on top. I'll attach them when the piece is returned from the instructor, so they don't get damaged en route. The pieces will stand up a bit more then, so the dragonfly wings won't look quite so long!Despite my dislike of long and short (or maybe just a bit of discomfort with it because I haven't done much), I really enjoyed this piece. The vast majority of my needlework has been counted work, but my recent goldwork experience helped me get past the idea that I need to know exactly where each stitch begins and ends. I've started to develop an "eye" for knowing where stitches need to go in non-counted work.

EGA just posted two new GCCs to the web site. One of these is another from Luan Callery. Summer Dream is the same size as Fantasy Remembered, and will make a great companion piece! Either I'll convince my local chapter to do this one, or I'll join the class sure to be held by the CyberStitchers chapter next year!

If you're on the fence about non-counted work, give it a try. It may be frustrating at first, but it makes a great complement to counted work, and should be in every stitcher's repertoire!

Bugs & a Berry

I've made a bit of progress on Fantasy Remembered this week.

The spider and her web are in! I'm really pleased with how it turned out - and it's SO simple to do! Just a bead, a wrapped knot, and a few straight stitches for the spider, and some long backstitches for the web.

I have a wingless dragonfly, too... the wings will be wired elements (like the leaves) and aren't done yet.


Felt padding has been added for the raised leaves and for the "fantasy fruit" (which look more like berries to me), and one of the berries is done. Long and short stitch is NOT one of my strengths, but I don't think the berry is too bad.

Here's the entire piece so far. (Click on the picture to enlarge!)

Tricks to making blueberries!

It was a slow week on Fantasy Remembered - until I discovered a trick or two for making the blueberries! Each blueberry is made with a large plastic bead, covered in floss. Sounds easy, right? Simply take a length of floss, strip* all 6 strands and recombine, thread the needle, go through the hole of the bead, around, through the hole again, etc., until the entire bead is covered.

But, oh by the way, try not to let the threads twist as you do this!

As I made the first couple of blueberries, I struggled a bit, until I figured out two invaluable tips:

#1. File the bead first!

Ok, that sounds dumb, but these beads are made in a mold, which can leave a ridge down the middle of the bead. The very first blueberry I made looked like it had a seam right around the fattest part of the berry (and unfortunately, I didn't take a picture). I knew I'd always hate it if I actually put this berry on my piece. When I moved on to the next berry, I tried to take a smoother bead, but this one also had some rough areas. My solution was to pick up a nail file and gently buff away the rough spots. (The emphasis is on "gently" because you don't want to make a flat spot on the bead - the berries are supposed to be round!) I eventually discarded the first berry made.

#2. Find a third hand!

Hanging on to the tail of the thread with two fingers while slowly wrapping the floss around the bead and keeping the threads from twisting eventually gave me a cramp in my hand! I needed to figure out how to hold the tail another way.

Aha! The wedding ring! Using a tapestry needle so I wouldn't puncture myself (!), I ran the thread under my ring toward my palm, then wrapped it around my little finger.

Then I passed the thread back under the rings, this time away from my palm, trapping the tail of the thread under it. I wrapped it once more around the rings to make sure it was secure.





This technique worked wonderfully, and I was able to finish making all the blueberries, without having to deal with hand cramps.



The finished cluster of blueberries:

Now I've just got to put leaves on the raspberries, and I'll be through "session 3" of the instructions for this piece!

* If anybody wants a tutorial on stripping floss (since I couldn't find one on the web with pictures), please let me know by leaving a comment!

Leaves & Raspberries

Quite a bit of progress has been made on my Fantasy Remembered lately! All of the wired leaves are done, but these won't be added to the main piece until everything else is finished.

The past few nights, I've been working more french knots on raspberries. Most of the berries are stitched on a separate piece of fabric and then individually attached to the main piece so they have dimension.





Here's the entire piece so far:

SBQ: Love and Hate

It's been almost a week since I posted, and that's partially because I haven't been stitching much this week. We've had landscape contractors here, ripping out shrubs & weeds, and fixing the flower beds so I can repopulate them with nicer things! Anyway, on to stitching!

I'm so far behind on SBQ's (Stitching Bloggers' Questions), I won't even try to catch up! This week's question applies to one of my current projects, though, so it's getting me back into answering SBQ's!

This week's SBQ was suggested by The Wagon:

What do you love to do that many people hate? What do you hate to do, but do anyway?

All right, I'm strange, but I find french knots very easy, and really like doing them. It seems that so many people avoid french knots or replace them with beads or other types of knots!

For the record, I make french knots with one wrap around the needle (although most diagrams show two), and sink the needle just a little bit away from where the thread came up through the fabric. Maybe some people don't like them because they try to go back down in the same hole and the knot slips to the back of the fabric. That would frustrate me, too! Try moving over a bit (or over 1 thread of linen/canvas) when bringing the needle to the back, and it becomes very easy!

Here are my most recent additions to Fantasy Remembered - french knot raspberries:

I've even picked up one of Theresa Layman's kits (Snow White, Rose Red) that is nothing but french knots!

As for what I hate to do - that's easy! BACKSTITCHING! I'll do it if it's just a bit here and there, but nothing will make me put a cross stitch chart down faster than tons of backstitch to define the shapes in the picture. It's as if the designer has never heard of shading. And if the backstitching is used as a separate element, like a tendril on a vine, I'll stitch that in double-running so the thread on the back doesn't show through to the front.