Filling in the Blanks

The second line's no longer, but it's more filled in after this week. On the first panel, I've gotten all the first row of color done and am working on the second and third.

On the Second Row

I'm on the second row now of the first rectangle, so you can pretty much make out the pattern of it now. This picture doesn't quite capture the color well, though. On the second line, I'm wandering across rather nicely. It's much more complicated than the top line was.

Ups and Downs

Doing the stitches on the second band is like walking up and down a rolling hill over and over again. That said, I'm making some significant progress on it. The first rectangle is all downs, this top stripe to the left, and then the next to the right. The color I got to use on it this week is a really shocking lime green that didn't photograph well.

Darker Than the Picture

As I'm working on this and starting the first of the bargello rectangles, I'm discovering how very overexposed the picture of the project is in the magazine. I liked it lighter, but I love it darker. I know how hard this particular project is to photograph, so I'm not complaining about it being wrong. I'm just pleasantly surprised at how much more saturated the color is in person.

The Third Way

Since I finished the top line last week, I decided to start the third part this. You can barely see it on the small picture; there's not much of it. The second line with the swooshes is coming along pretty well; I'm almost a third of the way done with it.

Top Line Done

I hit a very minor milestone this week - the top line of the bag's done. Now I'll be working on the third line and the first of the rectangles that make up the sides of the bag. Progress!

Started the Second Row

The color on this is too light this time, but you can see I started a new color this week. There's a row of Algerian eyes between the two lines, but I'm going to be doing that last. I'll be finishing up the top row and working on the second area at the same time next week. I really do love the colors on this project; I wish they showed up better so you can see what I mean.

More V's

Still stitching away on everything. I added the bottom part of the top band to the left. We couldn't get the color quite right on the photo this time for some reason.

Banding

On the left, you can see how the top band of the bag is going to look. I'm at about the two-thirds point on the top color's extension. I really like the thread, but for some reason, this is harder for me to stitch than other things.

A Line on the Blue

I've stitched on this twice now. There are over forty points across - I think that's all the way around the bag. So far, I've found that I really need good light to work on it, but I like the feel and colors of the Tentakulum. I wish it was easier to find and had more colors.

A Bargello Start

I actually finished Camelot this week (yay! post soon) and so was able to start another project. This one is Bargello Medley Bag from The Gift of Stitching issue 35. I bought the kit and the colors look much better than in the pictures in the magazine, even though those look really nice. It's my first time using Tentakulum silks. My only problems so far are with the directions. It's easy to tell that the designer isn't used to putting together bargello designs. She has the whole area colored, which makes it hard to see the actual pattern you're supposed to stitch. Luckily, I've done bargello before. If I hadn't, I probably would have given up. Anyway, I'm really happy to have a new start and I hope this one goes well.