Day Seven, no stitching

No stitching today--my husband's been playing in a tennis tournament all weekend, so I've been stitching on my small carry-along piece while I've been at the tournament with him.

Crisis averted

I'm going to have to do some ripping before I can start stitching again. I'm just afraid that there isn't enough of the green wall color and the gray floor color to cover the extra 40+ square inches of fabric that need to be covered now that I've learned that my fabric is 28 count rather than 32 count.

Luckily I found that 3 of the greens are an exact match for DMC floss that I already had at the house. Two of the shades of gray in the kit don't match either their assigned Anchor color number, or the DMC equivalent. I liked the Anchor color a little more than the DMC, so I purchased 9 skeins of Anchor to replace/supplement what I already have.

I'll still have to sew some waste fabric onto the right edge of the fabric when I get further along, but at least I think I've managed to save the project.

Now to compose a letter to send both the the magazine and the distributor of the kit about the problem...

Day 5, and a crisis emerges

As I mentioned, this is a kit that I purchased from West Coast Embroidery (the distributor for Cross Stitch Collection magazine). When I ordered the kit I was offered a choice of 2 fabrics--16hpi Aida or 32hpi even weave. I selected the 32 hpi even weave fabric both because I don't generally like the hand on an Aida and because I find it easier to work partial stitches on even weave. The stitch count for the chart (verified with the chart) is 128x479, which works out to a design area of 8x30 when stitched over 2 on 32hpi fabric.

I had elected not to grid my fabric before I started. I hate all those pieces of floss hanging around the edges! If I had gridded my fabric I would have noticed the problem before I started. But instead of stitching grid lines I simply created an 8x30 rectangle, placed it on the fabric, and determined my starting point in the top left corner.

While stitching last night I noticed that I was going to be closer to the bottom margin of the fabric than I am on the top--and by more than just a stitch or two. I grabbed my tape measure and saw that what I had ALREADY stitched was 8 inches in length--and I still had 18 stitches to go before I reached the bottom of the chart! I couldn't have mis-measured that much, could I?

So I checked the stitches--and lo and behold--I wasn't sent 32hpi fabric, I was sent 28hpi fabric. I quickly ran to the computer to plug the new numbers into a floss calculator to see what the new dimensions of the piece will be--9.12 x 34.25!

With great trepidation I take out the tape measure again and measure the length of the fabric. Instead of having an generous margin on the right side of the fabric I'll have about one-half inch, plus the selvage.

So now I have a dilemma. Do I rip, or continue? If I continue I'll have to get some waste fabric sewn onto the selvage so that I can keep the fabric in the Q-Snaps when I'm working on that side of the chart as well as so that I can properly prepare the finished piece for framing.

I'm going to have to look at the floss and see if I feel 'safe' continuing with the floss in the kit, or if I think I'll have to re-kit the major colors--the ones used on the walls and the floors--to be sure that I don't run out!

Day Four

The Summer Ball by Sandy Littlejohn

A bit more progress on the wall...I stitched another block, and 2 stitches on the next block.

Laura G asked a question: Do I carry the threads? The answer is yes and no. On the first 3 blocks the colors tended to be repeated in such a concentrated area that I did carry the threads from section to section. However, there are already places where the concentration of color doesn't make carry threads practical, so I start-and-stop a thread to stitch those areas. I recently saw this neat needle organizer in the Nordic Needle catalog, I may have to order one just for this project to help me keep those threads straight! I think it would be really nice to have a needle already threaded for each color in this chart.

Pako Needle Organizer available from Nordic Needle

Day 3

The mirror is completed, and 4 new colors have been introduced! The greens are wonderful--and they are one of the dominant colors in the design because they are the color of the wallpaper. Good thing I like green!

I've learned that this is not a good late night stitch for me--the size of the fabric is too small for me to use my glasses, not small enough for me to see easily without them. I'm going to start working on this at lunchtime instead, and save my night time stitching for something else!

Day Two

The subtle color variation in the left side of the block is becoming more noticeable. It's taking me about an hour to stitch a single block, maybe on the weekends I'll be able to find the time to get an extra block or two stitched.

I'm railroading every stitch so that the thread lays flat and looks neat. I don't see much difference right now, but I'm sure that I will once I have a large portion of the chart stitched. I wonder what constitutes a 'large portion' on a project of this size?

Day One

Well, I've started. No gridding, I'm just going to jump in and stitch those 10x10 blocks. Hopefully this will work.

The project is much larger than I every really understood. It's going to take well over a year, unless I drop everything else and just stitch on this. I don't want to do that--there are too many charts in my stash waiting to be stitched as it is! Besides, I'm afraid that I'll burn out on this one if I don't have other projects to work on.



In this picture you can see that the left side of the square is actually made up of two colors. It's virtually impossible to tell that with the naked eye.