OAAT October

It seems that of late I've turned into a OAATer, who would have thought it! I decided to stick with Stéphanie until she was finished, here is what she looked like at the start of October and for most of the month actually as I didn't pick my stitching up for a fortnight......

 

 

After a lot of over 1 darning on 40ct.......
 

 

 

I was considering having a new start after a brand new chart dropped through my letterbox, but I gritted my teeth and kept on darning.......

 



 

 

 

Until the happy event on Sunday evening when she was finally finished!

 

 

 



I'm really pleased with the finish, considering it is made up of two of the most common and simple embroidery stitches (cross and running) I think the end result is very effective!

Speaking of darning samplers, I've decided that I am going to part ways with Antje Reints.  I still love darning samplers and plan on doing more, it's just that stitching time is short and I need to be stitching on projects that really float my boat.  I wondered what I would do with the fabric, as I had started the central darning cross in the middle and then inspiration struck!  I will use it as my doodle cloth for next year!  At 36ct it's the perfect count to practice any new stitches and I might even make it my practice to add all the different stitches I'll be using, old and new, to it.

That leaves one WIP left to finish before the end of the year and I will be very happy to get back to it.  This is where it stands at the moment:

 

I wouldn't be surprised if this turns into another OOATer!  While I was off work last week, as well as darning my heart out, I also prepped my projects for my January starts for next year.  I have to be in the mood for kitting and cutting so I struck while the iron was hot.  I decided to treat myself to AVAS silks for the Darlene O'Steen sampler that I plan on starting, but more on that next time as I think there have been enough photos in this post!

 

Happy Stitching!

2017 Needlework Musings......

This is going to be one of those posts that is more for my benefit than my poor readers.  So if you aren't in to plans and general rambling, feel free to skip...........:)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think it's fair to say that I am one of life's planners!  My stitching is pretty much wrapped up for 2016, so that's when I start to think about what I want to do in 2017.  What I want to stitch is easy, how I'm going to achieve it, well that's another story!

So as for the what, here's a little selection of next year's projects:

 

 

 

I'll be stitching projects from both of the books and treating them as "learning projects" as a way of improving my stitching techniques, reading around the subject and generally enjoying immersing myself in a project.  I'm looking forward to the Hardanger and using entirely new-to-me-threads that thanks to a specialist lacemaking and tatting shop I was able to source online in the UK.  I'm still wavering on which of the samplers in The Proper Stitch to go for.  Being a Tudor nut, I'm thinking maybe I should go for the Tudor Rose Sampler but the other two samplers are beautiful too.

 

Alongside that will be more samplers including a piece I have wanted to stitch for about five years by Reflets de Soie.  It's a redwork sampler to be stitched using the AVAS silks and flax linen in the left hand side of the photo along with a bit of ribbon work.  At 250 x 400 stitches, I'm hoping the bands of letters will be a soothing stitch to possibly last the year.  Then there are the other samplers pictured which will be stitched on high counts of linen probably using Nina's gorgeous threads.

 

Once again it will be stitching from stash which is what I have basically done for the past two years.  The only exception would be completing my collection of Nina's silks and cottons and buying linens as and when I need them. My Pinterest board is so full of the many patterns in my stash that I want to stitch that very few on my wishlist make it much further than that these days!

 

Now for the how.........  I no longer have the time and energy I used to have to stitch.  I'm okay with that, after all my life amounts to more that the number of stitches I make and the stash I buy (or don't buy in my case!).  This means that when I do get a chance to stitch, the project has to tick all the right boxes - otherwise I feel I just as well sit making random stitches in a piece of linen to no end and to no avail!  I've been stitching for long enough to know what I love and what works for me and basically that is what 2017 is all about - quality not quantity I guess.  Taking patterns I love and using the stash that I love to stitch them.  I see no point in starting a project just because I can, which is why despite the fact that I've been contemplating starting another Chatelaine for a while,  I haven't done it because they no longer tick all the boxes for me.  I like to have projects that are easy, mindless, soothing stitching and I like to have projects that are challenging and 2017 is going to be a mixture of both.

 

Where this leaves blogging I don't know, less stitching means less to blog about - but I'm thinking I should be able to manage a monthly update.  I've really enjoyed the bits of OAAT stitching I've done this year (thanks to Justine), so that will be something I will be taking forward to next  year. 

 

I'm really looking forward to my projects for next year and a much more chilled approach to my stitching. By now you know that I'm not much of a "social stitcher" and all the hoop-la that goes along with that side of things - but it's nice to share what I've done in this little corner of the interweb :).

 

 

Thanks for reading.........

 

 

Happy Stitching!

Sneaks back in..........

Whilst I've been silent on the blogging front, I have been stitching up a storm - just haven't felt like yapping on about it, though I always keep my Current WIPs and Finishes tabs up to date.

So here is a post about it all - brace yourselves!

Since my last post in April I have had 7 new starts, 4 finishes and now have 5 current WIPs to date, so let's start with the new WIPs that I've added to Cinders and my LHN:

 

Stephanie Desmidt by Reflets de Soie on 40ct, which I decided to stitch using the DMC conversion making it a very economical project stitched from stash - though I must say the temptation to purchase the required AVAS was strong :).  Again another darning sampler, I'm having a thing for those at the moment as you will see later......

 

 

 

Another sampler, this one is taken from SANQ and is just called Band Sampler and is designed by Susan Haverson.  It's not a reproduction sampler, more an adaptation, but it is based on a sampler stitched in 1656 by Margaret Woodleigh.  Another one stitched on 40ct with the DMC as charted all from stash :).

 

 

The final new WIP is yes you guessed it another sampler, but this is an almost 100% darning sampler.  It is taken from GOSM and is titled Antje Reints Darning Sampler.  It's being stitched on 36ct linen with my choice of Nina's gorgeous threads, so another stash neutral start :).

 

Now for the finishes!  First up were the next parts of Mabel's Hardanger SAL, Rounds Four and Five:

Round Four - stitched with a variety of threads from stash including Jodyri Perles

Round Five - my very psychedelic version using Jodyri's Sunshine State perles


 

I also started and finished a Dinky Dyes Design that had been in my stash for years.  Slight sacrilege though as whilst I did use a few Dinky Dyes silks (from an oops bag so not the named colours called for), I did use a few other brands of silk as well......... 
It's Wave Dancer by Stacy Tippin:

 

 

 

I think the design originally called for one colour of bead and 2 colours of krenik, but I used several different colours of bead and at least 5 different colours of Rainbow Gallery PTB and PSLB!

 

The last finish I have to share was completed over the weekend.  The designer herself actually sent me the chart as a thank you for talking about her designs in one of my videos.  I loved stitching it and was so pleased with my colour choices, although I don't want to see a Greek cross in quite some time!  The design is A Little Victoriana by Loopylou Designs:

 

 

 

 

This one was stitched on 28ct using DMC 3033 and Jodyri Designs antique silk in Brighton Beach

So that's the scoop on what I've been up to, basically stitching from stash and having a lot of fun doing it!  I did purchase a few new blackwork charts from Banu though (Seba Designs) as she was having an amazing sale due to the very sad fact that she has to shut her Etsy shop for a while as Paypal doesn't want to operate in her country.  I look forward to picking out threads for those designs though settling on choices might take some time!

 

I think for the month of June I will focus on my oldest WIP - Cinders, I would like to get her in the finish pile even if 28ct over 2 isn't so much my bag anymore.  I love her, but may fiddle around with the fabric count on the next of Joan's ladies I stitch.  If Cinders gets too much and I need a change then I will switch to my LHN which is 36ct 1 over 2 with gorgeous hand dyed threads just to mix it up a little.

 

Let's see how much I can get done - though with the weather having been sizzling and gorgeous these past two weeks I'm not sure there will be much progress lol!

Big Berthe!

Justine and a few other bloggers are committing to stitching on the same piece throughout April and it seems I have unwittingly joined in!

Here is what Berthe looked like on 1 April, exactly the same as where I left her mid way through January:

 

And here is what she looks like now:

 

 

 

All finished!

 

 

As a side note I just have to mention every time I say Berthe I think Bertha, which reminds me of the children's TV programme in the 80s which people of a certain age will remember and then I get the little song in my head..........anyway I digress..........

 

I absolutely adored stitching this one on 40ct 1 over 2 with beautiful AVAS d'Alger.  For the sake of anyone that has visited this page as a result of searching for info on this piece, I will say that some of the lettering on mine may be in a different colour than charted - only because I was short on one colour of silk (I think it went walk about) so I just used an excess I had of another colour that was in the chart's colour palette.  Also of note is that, as is the case with a lot of repro samplers, the border is not symmetrical :).  All those cross shapes that make up the border are identical, except for one which has a "leg" four stitches long instead of three - always worth examining the chart carefully!

 

I particularly enjoyed working the pattern darning sections, and a few darning samplers have been pinned to my wishlist for a rainy day so there will definitely be more in my future!

 

 



 

 

I have at least two other Reflets de Soie samplers in my stash which I am now very much looking forward to doing.  They are the perfect project for when stitching time is limited as the colours used are minimal and you can quickly see progress being made even if only a letter or two is completed per session.  Stitching with 1 strand on 40ct makes for much faster stitching too - no railroading required!  A few years ago I'd always thought that HAEDs would be my easy stitching projects, but the thought of stitching one now makes me feel almost claustrophobic - I need my stitches to be able to breathe lol!

 

No idea what I will be working on next, I had started LHN's Home of a Needleworker last month so I might carry on with that.  Still don't think I can face Cinders just yet, so maybe an entirely new project is in order!

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!