Flowers of the Field

Hey Stitchers!  Time and energy have eluded me when it comes to stitching and consequently for the first time in years my stitching mojo is on the wane - my reading mojo has replaced it though, so every cloud and all that!

However as some of you who follow me on IG know, I finished Flowers of the Field last week, so I actually have something to blog about.  It was a lovely design to stitch, but I'm glad I chose 32ct and not 40ct after all that over 1 lettering!

Here is a close up of the final part:

 

And the whole design completed:

 

 

A terrible photo, but long and narrow designs are so hard to capture!

 

I know that samplers aren't every stitcher's cup of char, but I love them - original and repros!  I love their deceptive "perceived" simplicity.  Flowers of the Field, though not a difficult stitch by any means, contained a much greater variety of stitches than is found in any Chatelaine Design - designs that look very busy and complicated, but are actually quite simple to stitch.

 

Difficulty, like beauty, is very much in the eye of the beholder though - which reminds me of a recent article by The Oracle of Needlework.  There are some reproduction samplers that I would love to attempt in the future that scare me to death, that other stitchers wouldn't bat an eyelid at.  In a weird way the difficulty makes me want to stitch them all the more so - much safer to be an adrenaline junkie from the comfort of my stitching chair lol!  The designs themselves look simple, but if you are fortunate enough to be able to look closely at an original (or if you are stitching a reproduction), you can see the variety of stitches used and the perfect tension (my personal nemesis!) applied to thread and fabric.  The really mind blowing thing though after you've admired such a piece of stitching, is when you realise that the needlewoman that created the original piece was actually only a young girl!

 

In the future I would love to stitch a "scary" repro sampler as a learning piece for myself, really focusing on the quality of each and every stitch to produce the best piece of needlework that I can.  For the moment though, the closest I can get to that is by stitching vicariously through SANQ, by reading through the last collection of the final issues on CD that will hopefully be dropping through my letter box sometime today.

 

In the meantime, who knows when I'll put another stitch in a piece of fabric.........my next blogpost may be quite some time lol!

 

Happy Stitching!

Finally a proper finish!

Started 2 January 2016 Completed 7 February 2016
Jodyri Designs 28ct Brittney Opal in Christmas Poinsettia (Dec 2014 LE)
2.5 skeins of Anchor 403

 

 

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my previous post and for everyone that continues to pop by my blog and who emails and messages me.  I think Monday marked a year of blogging for me, the time seems to have gone so quickly!  Considering I started this blog for myself as a better way of keeping track of my stitching, it's nice to share a bit of what I do with other likeminded stitchers.

 

Happy Stitching!

Round Two!

Just a quick post!  A day off today, so I spent the morning starting and finishing Mabel's second instalment in her Round In Circles SAL:

 

I used a variety of threads, including some #8 Kreinik braid that I used for the whipped backstitch and some of the square filets. I'm not a fan of Kreinik as you know, and the #8 braid is worse than #4 - but it worked well for this project, possibly because it is on 25ct.

 

Hopefully I'll be back in a week or two with some slightly larger finishes!

 

Happy Stitching!

More of the same........

As predicted, stitching time continues to be significantly less and time for blogging even more so, hence the lack of posts in January.  To be honest, I've been working on the same four projects all month so it would only have been a case of more of the same, so maybe a monthly post is better lol!

The majority of my stitching time for January was weekend stitching or the odd hour or two grabbed before I leave the house at 7.30am - thankfully the pieces I picked to start off the year are nice and easy for early morning stitching!  Considering these pieces of fabric were all blank at the start of the month, I don't think I've done too badly, though I am missing working on more challenging pieces, so I may tweak my "rotation" a bit when these WIPs turn into finishes.

Anyway, without further ado, here is my progress for January!

Firstly QS Lady Bug, such a fast stitch this one and I'm sure I'll have a finish in February!  All the surrounding foliage you see in the picture below was a Sunday afternoon's worth of stitching whilst streaming The X-Files - hurrah for tent stitch!

This is how far an entire skein on Anchor 403 will get you!

Next up is Flowers of the Field by Eileen Bennett, I got up to part 2 (of 3) this month, again a great design to pick up when time is short as you can stitch a band or two and see the progress immediately.

 

 

Over 1 lettering on 32ct and tweeded French knots!

 

Berthe Massiet didn't quite make it to her second turn in the "rotation", but I still managed to chip away at her and complete 1 (of 6) pages:
 

 

 

 

Lastly Cinderella, which I very much expect will take me the longest to finish as I think to make any sort of progress she needs to be a weekend stitch:

 

 

I've just downloaded Mabel's February RIC SAL chart, so although I won't get to it until later in the week, at least I can think about colours and it will make a nice change from cross stitch.

 

I'm thinking that once these four are finished, I will reduce the amount of WIPs I have on the go to a weekday piece and a weekend piece - with the weekend piece providing me with a bit more of a challenge.  I've got my eye on some new hardanger designs and a Ukrainian whitework piece so I may well treat myself to some new patterns to start once these four are completed.

 

Happy Stitching!