TW Camelot Sampler- 15 May update

[rcperryls]

Stunning! The detail is fantastic. You are doing an awesome job!

Carole

[Squirrel]

WOW that is fantastic and a realy great update in spite of other duties taking up valuable stitching time.

[littleturtlegirl]

It looks great!! Keep up the great work!

[xstitchkatie]

Wow! This is so beautiful and you're doing a great job. I'm excited to watch your progress.

[karen4bells]

WOW that is fantastic and a really great update in spite of other duties taking up valuable stitching time.

I absolutely agree!!! Beautiful update!!

[Rose]

Oh how pretty!!!!!! Lovely work!!!!!

[LastingAllure]

This is looking marvelous!! great job so far! its good to see you're sticking with it

[AriannaF]

Wonderful progress, it's looking great!

[fccs]

Fantastic!!! (And I hope the horse show is a success.)

[Oriettait]

looks great!

[msufly]

Here's my progress after week 3 on this piece. I finished the Camelot castle medallion in the center, the initial & date blocks on either side of it and started the dreaded twisted vine border above it. The twisted vine area is 216 wide X 20 high and is entirely over 1 on this 28 ct evenweave. Since it's hard to tuck floss ends on the back with such small stitches, I thought using the parking method would make this block easier but I've never parked before.
First: a look at the whole piece -

A close-up of my parking on the twisted vine block, showing how I keep the parked threads orientated most of the time:

I'm left-handed so my right hand is on top. I'm also starting this block from the right side because the Qsnap isn't wide enough to start from the left edge. But working my stitches in columns right to left leaves me constantly moving the parked threads so I can either see the completed side & the column I'm working on, or flipped to see the unstitched part so I can park the color I'm working with.
Flipping the threads so I can access the unstitched portion to park the color I'm working with:

Should I be stitching horizontally in rows with the parked floss hanging down, like in this pic?

It just seems like I'm constantly moving the parked threads. And since it's over 1, everything is so cramped so I spend a lot of time picking the 2 threads of the next color apart from the other parked threads so I can stitch with it.

Any advice? I love to stitch cross country but with 28 count fabric going over 1, I'm scared of going cross country because any hole requiring a stitch is very hard to see. The only good thing about this twisted vine section is that there aren't any blended threads so at least I can loop start. TW loves blends but she had pity on us in this section.

[BizzieLizzie]

Gorgeous work!

Re parking, there are no 'shoulds'. Try different ways and see what works best. On some designs I park in columns left to right and on others I park in rows top to bottom. Sometimes I combine the two - it depends what the pattern or just that part of the pattern calls for. But enough about me . Have you considered parking in columns right to left? The columns would be short but at least that way your threads would be hanging down and not getting in the way too much. When you reach the bottom of the column with a colour, you could then carry it to the top of the column to the left to reduce rethreading. It will still get anchored if you're carrying across enough of an unstitched area.

ETA: I just reread your post and see that you've already tried the columns thing. I clearly need more coffee.

[nachosmiley]

Let me first of all say Wow this is stunning and your stitching is divine

As for parking it depends on how fussy about the back you are.....when I work my Haeds over 1 on 28cnt I do park but I also cross country within a given sized area (for me a 20x20 block). So how I personally would tackle what you are stitching right now is allocate a set area say 10 or 20 rows from right to left, I would flip my floss over to the right as shown in your pic and grab the leftmost parked thread and stitch as far left within my current stitching area and then park it where it's needed in the next section I'm going to stitch. Then grab the next leftmost thread and repeat until all the threads I have are parked further along. I would then start adding in any missing colours until the allocated block Im working on was complete.
Now this is not the best method for a super neat back but I'm not too fussy about that myself but for me it keeps my dangling parked threads very manageable and never in the way. I'm sure you will develop your own way of parking once you get a few more replies....everyone who parks seems to tweak it to how they like to stitch....what I love most about it is not missing odd stitches of colours I've already stitched....and if I do I've invariably got the colour parked somewhere

Good luck with your parking adventure...Im sure that however you decide to stitch this it will look just perfect

[Rose]

Fantastic work!!!!!!!

[rcperryls]

Can't give any advice about parking since I can only manage 4 threads or so before I get confused . I do want to say that this is gorgeous. I love TW and this is one of her prettiest designs!

Carole

[littleturtlegirl]

Stunning work!!!!

I will say I switch the way I park each day. I have not use that small of fabric, but I cross country most of the time. I didn't in the beginning, but I too didn't like moving the string all the time...

I say park how you want to park. Either way it looks great to me.

[msufly]

I like to do week-long rotations on my big pieces but I couldn't finish a week on this one...the over 1 Twisted Vine border on this is SO hard for me to keep motivated on! It's so cramped and I can't keep my stitches neat. I'm getting more comfortable using the parking method but I just had to put it down after 4 days of stitching on it to do something different. In 4 days, I only did about 560 stitches...frustrating! Especially because I know the jousting scene at the top of this piece is an even BIGGER section of over 1!!!

And for a close-up of the Twisted Vine border:

So I've moved on to my xmas ornament for May and it's going SO much faster!!

[LD282]

This. Is. Stunning!!!! It looks fantastic!!

I can understand why the over one is frustrating especially if you are using two threads but it looks amazing and will be worth it in the end!

[Oriettait]

I know how hard is to work on small count over one! I learned to park for the Sam reason you did but I find it much easier with a magnifier lamp.
Your work is gorgeous! Keep up with it, it looks great!
I confess that after a few months parking I actually cone to enjoy confetti

[fccs]

This. Is. Stunning!!!! It looks fantastic!!

I can understand why the over one is frustrating especially if you are using two threads but it looks amazing and will be worth it in the end!

I agree! Absolutely gorgeous and your stitching is perfection!