Rhapsody in Blues

Lots of shades of blue in my Cobblefield Road, and my husband finished framing it this weekend. I really like the job he did, though he's second guessing the color of the mat.

The Road is Cobbled

Yay, another finish! I got it done on Tuesday. Not even two weeks into the year and two finishes. Not bad. This, if you remember, is Cobblefield Road by Jean Hilton, taught by Ro Pace as a cyberclass oh ... a year and a half ago? The major thing I did wrong with it - and no, I'm not going to change it - is misplace the upper/lower border. It's off by one thread. I'm not going to let it cause me anxiety and redo the whole border, though. I think it looks fine. This piece stretched me with a few of the stitches, and the Edmar threads were awful to work with. They kink and twist no matter how careful you are. They did add some shine to the finished product, though.

Centered

The big center motif of the last band is all done, and I'm itching to finish this. When it comes up in my rotation later today or tomorrow, I'll work on it until it's done. Now that I have it this far, I really like it, even though it's been frustrating at times.

Back on the Road

I pulled this back out and into my rotation again, too! As you can see, it's very close to being done. I added the satin stitches in the middle of the medallion and all the smyrna crosses around it. I also fixed the triangular stitches that had pulled out in the major band above it.

All that's left to do on this is finish the outer border, four stars around the medallion, smyrnas around the medallion, and the two bottom corners of this bottom band. I hope to get it done by February.

Going Round in Circles

i finished the circles I was working on last week and added more circles inside. One more set of stuff inside- smyrna crosses, then these circles will be done!

Circling Around

More jessica stitches, who would've guessed? These ones are all largish circles on the inside of the center motif. When they're done, I get to put more jessicas inside of them. Wheels within wheels within wheels...

Pointy, Curvy, Round, Square?

This week I finished the skeleton of the great big snarl-thing in the final band. I can't decide what shape it actually is. It was somewhat of a challenge to put together, but I did it. The Walsh silk perle has a wonderful hand, but is almost as springy as the Edmar. Anyway, the rest of the band is anchored into this, so I can use it as a starting point.

Turning a Corner

So I'm working on the central motif of the last band now. It's pretty easy to do once you find your first stitch for each of the fleur-de-lis stitches. With them being this large, the canvas certainly fills faster. Maybe I'm farther along on this band than I think!

Starting the Huge Center Medallion

This medallion in the center is really, really big. I started it this week with a little bit of string art. I need to move faster on this because it's so close to finishing, but other things have higher priority. I'll get to it. Anyway, so far this medallion's gone okay. Only one counting mistake that I caught early. Wish me luck!

Starfle Me

More slick thread to work with, and more string art. I got both sets of starfles done this week. Not sure what I do next. I just -hope- it's not more of the Edmar. That stuff's hard to work with. I'm going to have to do some repair work when I'm done with this. My puppy Mattie dragged it off my desk and managed to break a couple of threads on the crescents on the band above. She's getting into everything, and she's tall enough that nothing's safe.

Spiraling Corners

I did more string art this week - spirals in the two top corners. They took up a lot of thread but were fairly easy to do. The hardest part was working with the rayon threads. They're from Edmar and are meant for Brazilian embroidery. All I know is that they tangle often and coil around themselves, making these string art bits with them extra difficult. They look pretty, at least. I don't think I'd use them for a project of my design, though. I'd be more likely to use a silk perle or something similar.

Filling in Corners

Finished up the second corner's braiding and started on the third, then did the jessicas on the upper corners. Lots of stitching on this band, and I haven't even gotten near the middle yet.

Cornered

Two of four corners done on this last band. If it wasn't such a huge band, I'd probably just sit down and get it done, but it extends quite a way and I want to make sure I get all the strange stitches right, since there's a lot of string art in it. My husband says he has ideas for finishing this, but he's not telling me yet.

Last Band Started!

A very little bit of the last band is now done. It's a big band, though - larger than any of the others, so I expect it'll take a while to complete. On the other hand, it means this is definitely almost done. I have no idea what my husband is going to do with it when it's finished, though.

Cobbling It Together

I got home so I picked up a couple of my pieces that didn't go with me. Got some more of the border done on Cobblefield Road this week, and there's only one more (huge) middle band to go on it after another row of starfles. I like the way it's looking but did need the break from it.

Fourth Band Finished

The fourth of five bands is done. Of course, the fifth band is rather large and I'm leaving in three days without this project. I had toyed with finishing it up before I left, but my husband requested I get a different one done (a gift) so he could frame it while I was gone. At least I got that one done today ... Oh well, I'll finish this up when I get back in the summer. I've really liked doing the string art and this was the first time I've done a triangular Jessica.

Triangles Into Diamonds

Unfortunately, this one isn't going to Europe with me. I won't have a way to make stretcher bars there and it's a bit big for my suitcase. I got the rest of the triangular Jessicas done. They went very easily. I almost feel like just sitting down and finishing this, since the large part of the work is done. I don't believe there are anymore huge numbers of tiny Jessicas in the last band. There are two small stitches to put outside the diamonds I completed and then the arcs again to finish off this band.

Starting to Triangulate

I got the large crescents done this week and started in on four triangular Jessica stitches. They go quickly and are fun to do, though it's hard to slide the needle beneath that many threads toward the end of the stitch. I'll finish up the other three triangular stitches next week. I thought this band was going to go a lot more slowly than it is, most likely because it's so wide.

Starfles Away

This week I finished the starfle row (yay!) and started in on the fourth of five big bands. Band four has crescent stitches and more string art stitches in between them. The first row of crescent stitches took very little time, so hopefully the second row, this week, will too.

Starfling Along

I'm about three-quarters of the way done with this starfle row, and will be starting another bunch of string art stitches next. I'm just glad I got to working on this at all this week. It's been that kind of day. Three bands done and two more larger ones to go, though none, I think, with the hundreds of little jessicas again.