I am sure it is my imagination, but there have been a plethora of little annoying things happening in the past few days. Makes me stressed and ill tempered. Nothing major, just those minor things that get on my nerves and distract me from what I want to accomplish.
17th Century Irish Garden, Liz Taylor Deihl
I have determined that the Madeira Threads that are with the Irish Garden will have to be put on bobbins as I pull out one strand. I am not sure I like the Madeira threads as much as I like DMC. They seem alot "thinner" and prone to tangling and shredding. So far this project is coming along nicely. The chart is different in several ways but it is not bad once I get the hang of it. The instructions are not as clear as I like but it is testing my brain power! Lots of fractional stitches and back stitching so far but not enough to make it a pain to stitch. I think the cats are really cute. There is a story about them that I will put with the finished project.
Books Reading Books, HAED
Still working on the same page. Try as I might I simply cannot figure out the parking method. I am going to try once again on the next page. I would like to at least do the page in some kind of systematic order rather than scattering all over the place. It makes the tiny holds of the 18 count Aida harder to count than it needs to be. I really want to figure out a better system as I have many pages to go to complete this project.
Lavender Fields, John Clayton
I find this a little boring as I thought I might. I am just about 2/3 of the way done and would like to finish it this month.
Gardens of London, Chatelaine
I finally got the top part of the buildings done. Now moving on to the left side......more buildings. Here again, perhaps being able to park my threads would be helpful. I put it on a different size Qsnap and have not decided if I will try a large scroll frame again until I get to Texas.
Grace Needlepoint Project, Dimensions
Had to do some riding in the car last week so I got a little more accomplished on this project.
I also ordered a new kind of frame. I am trying to find an easier way to work on the large Chatelaine designs I have kitted and ready to go. While I like the Q Snaps I dislike moving them around and I do not like the way the excess fabric as to be wadded up. In particular, because I know I will not be able to launder the chatelaine design projects I am concerned about constantly messing with the stitched areas. I look at it and it looks like some of the stitches are worn. Probably my imagination.
Here are the "fabric stretchers". I have not yet put them to use. I have been trying to avoid starting a new project! I put the marks on the bars for lining up the fabric. They are from Just a Thought. I have two of their stands and am anxious to use these bars.
Pumpkin Swirl, Glendon Place
And last but not least, I frogged the incorrect stitches from Pumpkin Swirl and put it back on the scroll bars. It was one block off so the center did not line up correctly. I have been beading as I go so I think I will just finish up the stitching before I add any more beads. I hope I can get this done this year. While I like this project and have a couple of other Glendon Place dessert series kitted I am not sure I will be starting another one any time soon. It is not that they are hard, but they are a little tedious with all the beading. Time will tell I suppose.
I seem to have a few projects that I have put aside (at least six). I call them my TWIDME (this WIP is driving me crazy). Pumpkin swirl is only the latest. They are haunting me lately so I think I will try to get back to them one at a time.
That is it for now. We have a busy few weeks coming up; guests and birthdays and packing for our trip. Hopefully I will be able to put in a little stitching time.
Thanks for visiting and for putting up with my ranting!
Great progress on everything, I especially like your Irish Garden and the needlework project!
ReplyDeleteAs for reading books, I can't properly park as well, but here's how I go about my projects, maybe it will help you: First, I decide which area I'm going to work on first - I usually go by columns, but my latest project has a distinctive 'frame' all around with colours not used in the main area, so I do that separately. Then, I pick one colour - I like to do the ones with more stitches first so I have something to 'anchor' my confetti in later. Then, on a working copy of the pattern, I mark all the stitches in this colour in yellow highlighter, and, as I stitch them, I mark over that with orange highlighter so I always see what I have done already and what I still have to do. When one colour is finished, I change to the next one, and so on. I don't like to pull my thread over too long a distance on the back, so when I don't have other stitches to go under, I will sometimes just finish the thread and start again in a new position if the stitches are too far spread, it depends on the situation.
I am definitely going to try that. I have a bad habit getting lazy and pulling the thread over WAY too far. I like the marking idea. Makes more sense!
ReplyDeleteLove all your pieces especially your HAED. Need to get back to mine.
ReplyDeleteyour embroidery is beautiful Suzy, such precision....
ReplyDelete