Almost a Friday Finish: My Way

I’d like to apologize. I know my posts have been much too infrequent, and, worse, rather… um… boring and mechanical, if that’s the right way to say it. I hope you know what I mean.

There’s a simple reason behind this. My stitching has slowed down to a point where I’ve felt like I have to show some significant progress on a project before I can post about it. As a result, I’ve gone overboard. I get to the point where something is done, or nearly done, before I post about it.

The result, if I post too often, is that there’s nothing to show, and if I post too infrequently, you miss the process of my stitching. I’ve got to try to find a happy medium.

Anyway, I was going to post one block of My Way every few days just to put something up here, and I realized I was sorta dreading writing those posts. They’re as boring for me to write as they are for you to read!

The truth? All of the blocks are done. I’ve just got to make a few decisions on the border. What do you think?

You can see the slight beginning of some of the border decisions. The thin outside border is meant to be in a thread like pearl cotton #5. Unfortunately, all of the values of my border (gray-green) color family don’t come in DMC pearl 5. Specifically, the medium dark value of this family is only available in floss.

For a while now I’ve been meaning to try Linda Reinmiller’s method of making pearl cotton out of floss, so I gave it a shot. I guess I have to play with this a bit more, though, because I really didn’t like the look of the thread that resulted. It’s likely just operator error and lack of practice.

I did try stitching with my homemade pearl, but it didn’t stay in the project long enough for me to take a picture. I’ve decided to just lay three strands of floss for the thin outside border. Despite the need to pick up the laying tool, this will undoubtedly take less time than trying to perfect my pearl-making skills. And my stitching time is limited enough right now.

I’ve also put crescents around one of the corner blocks with two strands of the same color floss. So far, I really like this combination. Now I’ve just got to figure out what goes in the middle of each of those corner blocks!

I’d be interested to hear if you’ve tried making pearl cotton from floss and how your experience went. Some people swear by it, but I’ll reserve judgment until I try it again.

Friday Finish: Omega

Thanks for all of the great comments on my colors for Omega. Over two cards of Neon Rays and a whole bunch of crescents (and one Rhodes stitch) later, it’s done!

Design: Omega

Designer: Jean Hilton, for Rainbow Gallery

Technique: counted canvas

Ground fabric: 18ct mono canvas

Threads: Trio (a silk and wool mix) from brown paper packages, FyreWerks and Neon Rays from Rainbow Gallery, and just a touch of Kreinik braid

Stitches used: cross stitch, long stitches, plaited rays, backstitch, Rhodes stitch, and crescents

Stitching timeframe: August 2-8, 2010

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Thanks for all of the best wishes for E. We had a bit of a setback requiring recasting this week, but she seems to have adjusted quickly to the new cast.

Friday Finish: Jacqui's Choice

Since I'm back on a canvaswork kick, here's one of my early canvas projects.

Design: Jacqui's Choice

Designer: Nanette Costa

Technique: counted canvas

Ground fabric: 18ct mono canvas

Threads: cotton floss, metallic threads, seed and pearl beads

Stitches used: couching, beading, lots of Hilton stitches (jessicas, crescents, Amadeus)

Stitching timeframe: 2002-2003

This project was from my very first multiple-day class, taken with my local EGA chapter. Up until this, I had only taken classes through my local shop or 1 day classes at a stitching festival. Needless to say, I really enjoyed it.

I actually had it framed on point. Looking at it now, I like the diamond shape, but I’m not crazy about the rest of the framing choices, though I’m not sure what I would change if I were to have it reframed.

I’ve wondered whatever happened to Nanette Costa. She was a fabulous teacher. I’m saddened to find her listed on the “inactive or retired” list on the National Academy of Needlearts (NAN) website. Does anybody know what she’s up to now that she’s not teaching?

There are still a few of her commercial patterns in various online shops if you look hard enough.

Friday Finish: Silk Pageantry

This week's pick is just because I haven't featured much canvaswork lately here on Just String.

Design: Silk Pageantry, a now-retired ANG group correspondence course

Designer: Kay Cline

Technique: silk and metal on canvas

Ground fabric: 18ct mono canvas

Threads: silk floss, metallic threads, silver pearl purl

Stitches used: crossed and flat canvaswork stitches, couching

Stitching timeframe: middle to late 2006

I changed all but the background colors from Kay Cline's original design, including switching from gold pearl purl to silver. I was surprised to notice that the silver is starting to tarnish a bit already. Does anybody have any hints for slowing this tarnishing?

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but the pearl purl (see the arrows in the picture) is actually slightly stretched from its original form, resulting in a wavy silver wire that is couched. I really like this technique.

In case you're curious about how I framed this:

Friday Finish: My first Hardanger

In the spirit of the Hardanger piece I'm working on now, I present the very first Hardanger design I ever stitched.

Design: a runner made from doubling the bellpull design from Cross 'N Patch's Charity Sampler booklet

Designer: Emie Bishop

Technique: Hardanger and cross stitch

Ground fabric: 32ct evenweave (jobelan, maybe?)

Threads: pearl cotton and floss

Stitches used: cross stitch, kloster blocks, buttonhole, lacy edge, bullions, dove's eyes, spider webs, other filling stitches

Stitching timeframe: Finished in 1996. I'm guessing I worked on and off on this for a year, given that I was in college at the time.

This was my first Hardanger piece, as I mentioned above. It is a prime example of the attitude of "It's just string." Or it could have been simple ignorance. Take your pick.

• I didn’t think it was a big deal to essentially stitch the bellpull (which consisted of two of the diamond repeats and the heart at the bottom) twice.
• I didn't know lacy edge and bullions were supposed to be difficult.
• I do recall vigilantly checking the alignment of my kloster blocks before cutting any threads, but I don't really remember any anxiety about cutting the threads once I knew everything lined up.

In hindsight, it’s easy to see that I should have practiced bullion knots on a doodle cloth before putting them on the real piece. In this picture, you can see the little squares made up of bullion knots on the right, where I started, and those on the left, where I finished after going all the way around the piece. There is a very distinct difference in tension!

I don’t really recall having much difficulty with the lacy edge, but to this day, I haven’t used this stitch on any other piece.

Here’s a close up of one of the ends of the design.

I should find a place to display this rather than keeping it in my cedar chest. Maybe a high shelf where little fingers can’t reach.

Friday Finish: Casalguidi and Lavender

Only I would propose a new series of going through past (and some current) finishes, post only two weeks on that series, and then neglect it for another two weeks. There’s no excuse, but here’s my attempt to resurrect the plan.

Here’s one that’s been done for quite a while.

Design: Casalguidi and Lavender (a retired EGA correspondence course)

Designer: Barbara Kershaw

Technique: Casalguidi (of course!)

Ground fabric: 28(?) ct linen

Threads: pearl cotton

Stitches used: Casalguidi stitch, italian four sided, detached buttonhole, needleweaving, and some neat wrapped stitch that looks like a REALLY long bullion knot (but I didn’t look up what it’s called)

Stitching timeframe: I don’t know. Finished sometime in 2006, I think.

Casalguidi is often stitched white on white or ecru on ecru, but the book Casalguidi Style Linen Embroidery by Effie Mitrofanis (now MUCH more expensive than when I purchased it) shows some antique pieces that are white or ecru on pink or light blue. These inspired me to use some pinkish linen in my stash with ecru threads.

Does the stitch used in the heavy diagonal bar in the middle of the piece look familiar? It’s the Casalguidi stitch, which I used as Santa’s walking stick on Celebration Santa.

Friday Finish: How Great the Blessing

I can hear some of you thinking, “Didn’t she post about finishing that sampler a couple of months ago?”

Well, yes. I did.

But it wasn’t framed then.

Here you go.

Again, this is:

Design: How Great the Blessing (with a few minor changes)

Designer: Catherine Theron

Ground fabric: 36ct linen

Threads: silks, primarily from Hand-Dyed Fibers/Vikki Clayton

Stitches used: cross, smyrna, queen, oblong cross, chain, satin, slanted gobelin, tent, four-sided, leaf, lazy daisy, upright cross, long-arm cross, and cross over one. There may be one or two others, but that’s what I see right now.  :-)

Stitching timeframe: Started in a class April 2009, finished in February 2010.

The simple frame sets off the design. Nothing more was needed. Thanks to my LNS owner for great framing consultation, as usual!