So I've made some progress on these two - this week was a slow week; probably because I had to do a lot of extra stuff like take my daughter to the dentist (She's going to need "quality time with the oral surgeon" to deal with her wisdom teeth. She's thrilled.) and all the extra things my husband normally does, since he wasn't here until late Thursday night. He's here until Wednesday afternoon and then again flies out. At least it means lots of frequent flier miles. The large black area is about halfway done on the panda and I think I'm going to start doing two colors per round on the ornament instead of one, since there are so few stitches per ornament.
I managed to get all the running stitch outline on the silk. I got a really good deal on it from Plumridge Silks. They have a closeout duiponi package for about $50 that gives you 8 or more yards of silk. It's fabric ends and can be as much as two yard pieces. Excellent stuff. Anyway, the picture my husband took tonight is before I got the paper off. I can't wait to start the next step, even though I have no idea what to do. Probably practice on the sampler they are having me do at the same time. Anyway, it's really visible progress!
Finally done with all the cross stitch on part one! It's only taken me three months to get it done, nearly. The Rhodes stitches should go quicker. Although a lot of people are using three strands of silk for this, I'm sticking with two. I don't like my stitches sticking out so far from the fabric. It's going more quickly now. I think the repetition and so much Treasure Braid was making me go slower earlier. I hope to have all the top part done this week, and maybe to start the bottom special stitches. The picture was taken two days ago - I have the stitches on the left outlined now and the Rhodes stitches in the middle are done.
Yay! I got all eight butterflies done! Now I'm stitching the square in Treasure Braid before filling in the corner motifs. This is turning out a LOT sparklier than the picture looked originally. Maybe at one point I'll be able to stitch large amounts of Treasure Braid without getting it twisted. That's my major gripe with all metallics, though - that and the difficulty of keeping them properly even while stitching. This piece is giving me practice with it, though.
So, this is the beginning of my first goldwork project. I'm following the directions rather carefully, so under the silk top layer is a linen twill layer attached with staples to a wooden frame made by my wonderful husband. Unlike the transfer for the crewel class that I completed last week, this teacher is having me attach the paper to the fabric and tack the design outline with running stitches. As of now, I think I like it better and would probably use it for crewel. I started the process today. The initial tacking will take a lot longer, but no pencil or carbon smudges and less likelihood of slippage. It seems to give more control, too. Next week's picture will show how the tacking looks on the silk.
These are the two newest projects, and therefore the least stitched. The panda is started and I am working on the largest solid black section now. Once it's done, the rest will go pretty quickly. On the other ornament, the threads used are the same as in the Midi Mystery, and the chart is available only for those taking the Midi Mystery group. Martina evidently uses these smaller designs to check how the colors go together. I'm just happy I get to have another ornament to do for gifts and have all the threads on hand.
As you can see, I finished sections C and D on the bargello. Only four more sections to go, and I've started one of them. This particular ribbon part is harder to do - the black is really being hard, even with a white background, and the counting to keep everything straight is somewhat of a headache. On the positive side, both my daughter and my husband really like it; my husband is expecially fascinated with the star. Maybe I'll have this ribbon done by the end of the week, but I doubt it.
Posts
So I've made some progress on these two - this week was a slow week; probably because I had to do a lot of extra stuff like take my daughter to the dentist (She's going to need "quality time with the oral surgeon" to deal with her wisdom teeth. She's thrilled.) and all the extra things my husband normally does, since he wasn't here until late Thursday night. He's here until Wednesday afternoon and then again flies out. At least it means lots of frequent flier miles. The large black area is about halfway done on the panda and I think I'm going to start doing two colors per round on the ornament instead of one, since there are so few stitches per ornament.
