Jo's Stitching 2023

[wendywombat]

So much detail! I love this interesting piece

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you Ladies The flowers are growing:



Only a few more stitches on the right and that half will be completed

Jo

[fccs]

You’re making great progress on this magnificent piece.

[Serinde]

I'll second that!

[Mabel Figworthy]

It's like a delicate watercolour !

[rcperryls]

It's like a delicate watercolour !

I'll second that one!

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

A quick pic of where I have got to on Rome:



Its doing my eyes in so I am going to put it to one side for a while.

Instead I have taken the TW sampler out to the conservatory to work on it:



I seem to remember that I had chosen the wrong posh stitch at the bottom so I will have to find the laminated charts I made up and decide if I want to unpick them and do the correct stitch. I known only I will know but I KNOW

Back inside to my dining rooms and I have another butterfly in the house:



A small Tortoiseshell. I love these smaller butterflies they are one of the first to appear in March, after their winter hibernation, sitting on the catkins or the dandelions in the garden. While we all hate having nettles in our garden these are one of the wonderful butterflies you will find in your garden if you let a few nettles grow in a sunny corner. Then they will lay their eggs on the nettles and there is nothing better than seeing their caterpillars devouring the nettle leaves for you .

Jo

[rcperryls]

Good progress on all these projects and each is so very different. I think I especially the delicacy of the butterflies.

Carole

[Mabel Figworthy]

Lovely progress on Rome, and it's so nice to see all these butterflies appear!

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you ladies, I need some encouragement I am pulling my hair out or rather my stitching on the Harvest Sampler:



I am having to unpick the row of mixed stitches under the serpentine row. The instructions on this kit is poor to say the least. I thought that I had the wrong stitch but worse than that I have got the wrong colours as well . This is because the chart shows exactly the same symbol/colour on both the top and the bottom Serpentine rows. (Yes there are two of the Serpentine rows ) Having looked at the picture of TW's own piece I now realise that I should be using a different pair of stitches on the first Serpentine than the bottom Serpentine panel and logically stitches 11 & 12 go at the top and 13 & 14 at the bottom.

Needless to say cheese and port is required to "calm my nerves".

Jo

[fccs]

How frustrating! You totally deserve your cheese and port. Your work is beautiful on all your WIPs.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I do dislike confusing instructions! here's to sortingit out with the minimum amount of reverse stitching!

[rcperryls]

Confusing instructions are a very good reason for cheese and port with an extra large glass for the port. I pulled out a few of my TW charts from years (maybe decades) ago. I stitched an afghan for my granddaughter that included some of the Carousel Horses and remembered how complicated the pieces can be. But the end result is always so beautiful that it's worth it. And your piece is certainly going to be beautiful.

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

It took longer to unpick those stitches than it took to put them in

An interesting one: This is an old design so the date block is designed to take a date starting with a 1. Any other digit, say a 2 needs more space.



Thankfully there was sufficient space on the inside of the initials and date blocks to increase the width of the outside frame.

Jo

[rcperryls]

Looking good! It almost always takes longer to undo stitches than to stitch them. At least, it always feels like that to me. That’s a good head up on the date difference. Glad you spotted it before you did the stitching. I have a lot of old charts from the 1900’s. If I do any I will hopefully remember what you have had to do.

Carole

[Serinde]

Well done for finding a work-around. It's looking beautiful.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Clever of you to notice and cleaver to work out how to adjust the design !

[fccs]

Frogging stitches is always more time consuming than the stitching. I unpick each stitch one at a time, using my the tip of my needle. I know some stitchers use seam rippers but I’d be afraid I’d accidentally grab a thread in the fabric.

Well done on the date change.

[Steam.Jo]

I am back on my Butterflies and I have found another Peacock to go with our Small Tortoiseshell:



I am well over 75% complete which is handy as I am hoping my HEAD kit will turn up tomorrow and other than my floor stand this roller frame is the only one wide enough for it to fit on.

Jo

[Serinde]

Stitch! Stitch! Quick!