And he’s all I have to show for the past few days of stitching!
Two more mitten fronts to stitch, and then assembly. Without the time needed to write a blog post each day, though, I’m hoping to get these done over the weekend! Maybe I’ll set a recent record for my own start-to-finish time!
…and three to go! I still have to add embellishment to the cuffs and do the final assembly of each mitten, but the individual design for each of these is complete.
That’s all for tonight. Enjoy!
Sometimes it’s challenging to figure out exactly how to start a thread. The two most common methods I’ve seen are to use an away waste knot (to allow the stitching to be tied off later) and simply using a waste knot in the path of the stitching.
When you’re stitching a line of stem or outline stitch, you could use the away knot and then tie off the stitches later. But the “knot in the path of stitching” option needs a bit of modification to make it work successfully.
The answer? Running stitch.
As shown here, I put my waste knot in the thread and then do a few small running stitches out to where the line of stitching starts.
Then you can simply stitch over these little running stitches with the stem or outline stitch, and cut off the knot when you get to it. If you can pierce a running stitch or two along the way, all the better.
One of the main advantages of this technique is that it doesn’t matter if the line you’re stitching is straight or curvy. The running stitches force the thread tail to follow the curve of the line.
Does anybody else have a tip for starting threads in this situation?
Okay, I know there will be a lot of eye-rolling on this statement, but I’ve started a new project. Yes, I know. I have God-knows how many in-progress pieces, and plans for more in the new year, and I’ve started another.
But I have a good reason! (Can’t we always rationalize a new project?) I came to the conclusion, rather belatedly, that there’s no possible way that The Magi might get done for Christmas. So instead of digging out another Christmas UFO (and I can think of one right now), I started something new.
The good news is that it, or rather, they, will be quick. And they’re a complete change of pace from the canvaswork I’ve been doing lately.
May I present The Mittens? This kit comes with woolfelt, floss, and a few accent buttons to stitch some darling mitten ornaments.
The kit is from Rachel’s of Greenfield. The transfer of the designs onto the woolfelt is really easy. Because the designs are printed using heat-transferrable ink, they’re just ironed on to the felt. Stitches include stem/outline (sorry – I can never keep those two straight) stitch, satin stitch, lazy daisy, french knots, and blanket stitch.
Oh, and I have two more of Rachel’s kits on order. So far, this one is a lot of fun!
Two words: RANDOM and NATURAL.
Those two words are part of the reason that Cinders has lingered in the WIP pile. While most of the design is counted, her hair is not. The hair is stitched in three shades of DMC floche using stem stitch, and it's up to the stitcher to place those lines of stem stitch more or less randomly such that it looks natural. Aack!
I cheated a bit when I started. I looked at Marion's picture of the original, and I used a pencil to sketch in the general flow that would be stitched in the darkest shade. For subsequent rows of stem stitch, I've tried to keep random and natural in mind. Yes, I ripped out a bit, but I think I'm done.
What do you think? Do I need to fill in any of the spaces? Does anything look really odd?
Today's featured WIP is Picnic Hampered!, designed by Kathy Fenchel.
Today's featured WIP is Overture II, designed by Kay Stanis.
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.
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.
What a fun, yet challenging, beginner soft shading project! I really enjoyed this.
At first, I had problems keeping the floche twisted correctly, but it was so nice to work with once I remembered to keep an eye on the twist. The thread has a very smooth finish, so it has a wonderful sheen, particularly when used in satin stitch. I'm going to have to find ways to use floche in other projects!
Thank you to Marion Scoular for an enjoyable class and a quick, yet effective, teaching project!
Another great day of class, but I'll have to skip a lengthy description. I've got to get to bed so I can get up early to drive 2 hours to the class in Corning!
Today we kept working on the long-and-short stitch and did outline stitch for the stems and tendrils.
This weekend's class with Marion Scoular is a shading class called The Long and The Short Of It. This piece is small; only about 5" across. Today we covered satin stitch over a split stitch outline, satin stitch leaves with a center vein, and regular long-and-short stitch. As shown in the photo, in class today, I finished 4-1/2 leaves and one flower bud. Tonight I'm going to continue to work on the leaves.
In addition to the stitches, today we also learned about the thread we're using: DMC Floche, a five-ply thread that is wonderfully round and smooth. It's got a wonderful sheen because it's twisted with so many plies. Marion told us about her crusade to correct the misuse of the terms ply vs. strand:
