Jo's stitching 2021

[Mabel Figworthy]

Awwww - and yes, doesn't it stand out well!

[wendywombat]

Wonderful. And I do like the fabric colour with those autumnal tones.

Yes so do I! Lovely detail in the Wee hedgehog!

[Nicola Main]

It has been a bit cold out in the conservatory since I complained about it being too warm last week

I owe you an update and now you should have no problem recognising it is:



A HEDGEHOG

I will have to start thinking about what to next: Flowers or wildlife

Jo

How precious! Look at that little face with his twitchy nose! I feel he's ready to come to life and go searching for worms and slugs at any moment!

[rcperryls]

Wonderful. And I do like the fabric colour with those autumnal tones.

I agree completely. He is adorable and the colors are perfect!

Carole

[Squirrel]

He is a cutie with such a sad face. Love it.

[fccs]

Wonderful. And I do like the fabric colour with those autumnal tones.

I agree completely. He is adorable and the colors are perfect!

Carole

I agree. It’s perfect.

[Steam.Jo]

As the weather has been a bit grotty I took the opportunity to finish of my "Prickly Customer". First before the backstitching:



then after the backstitching:



The back is not too messy:



The Lady on Ebay who I purchased this kit from asked me to send her a photo of it once it was finished so I have done that for her so now I am allowed to start another piece and I have a foxy lady stretched on the frame ready to go

Jo

[fccs]

Wow! This is so cute and full of personality, and beautifully stitched. I love it!

[Steam.Jo]

I started doing my Foxy Lady but have decided I don't like it and have taken it off my sewing frame. This is how far I got with it:



It is made from a Chinese copy of a Bothy Thread kit. What is wrong with it?

1, The fabric feels like it has been sprayed with white paint and it takes a lot of effort to push even a no 26 needle through the holes. The result is top of my middle finger has suffered from the needle digging in - I would need to use a thimble to continue with it.

2, The colours are washed out - it looks like it has faded in sunlight before I have even finished. Doing the backstitching would probably improve the over all look but I am not willing to waste any more time on something I know I will not be happy with.

I have sorted through my stash and put any which say made in china to one side. I will have to decide what to do with these. If I think they are potentially poor quality I would not want to give them to someone else who would be equally disappointed.


In the meantime I have mounted the piece of evenweave for my Teresa Wentzler "Peacock Tapestry" on one of my sewing frames. This was one of the designs I wanted when I was married but was not allowed so I will enjoy the pleasure of being able to do it 25 years on. So far I have tacked in the outline and just begun stitching the gold frame into place:



This is on 25 Count Evenweave so it is nice and easy to see, but this has some new stitches and features that I have never done before


And you can tell just how frustrated I was with that Chinese kit as I also mounted up my Budda kit:



This one also has new stitches for me to learn as it requires couching


I will be pleased when this month is over and I can go and get my second jab and finally get out and about again.

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

Theresa Wentzler's designs are gorgeous, you'll enjoy that peacock!

The Chinese copy, from what I could see in the picture of your stitching, also has some odd colours in the shading. Is it an outright copy of a Bothy design? Because in that case it's an infringement of copyright as well as a sub-standard kit. If you remember who you bought it from you may want to let Bothy know about them so they can take action.

[Podolyanka]

Ukraine being the poorest country in Europe, no cross stitcher here respecting herself and her hard work, buys any kits of China make. They are just waste of time, money and effort, as far as I can judge by comments and pictures on Russian speaking forums (some Russians do buy and stitch them). As for the copy right, I dont think Dimensions or Bothy threads would have agreed to see poor copies of their designs. But this is just a thought. I dont know how things are with copy right regarding those Chinese versions of world known designs.
Just to be fair. The Chinese do brilliant job where it comes to their own original designs(all those flowers, mandarin ducks, birds, etc). I had one such kit as a birthday present (and passed it over to my friend as it was too large for me to start playing with), saw its chart, threads and fabcric- everything could not have been better. And the result was perfect when my friend stitched it.

[Steam.Jo]

It was made by "Amishop " but as they are a Chinese manufacturer and the Chinese don't believe in copyright as they copy anything they can get their hands on Bothy threads will be wasting their money chasing them.

In the meantime lets let everyone know how rubbish the "Amishop" kits are and I will let my sister know not to buy me any more of these as presents.

Jo

[wendywombat]

What a shame that you have spent time on that Fox design.
I would still contact Bothy just to let them know about this infringement of the copyright! The Wrendale designs are vibrant and deserve better! Worth the money too!

The Peacock is gorgeous you will enjoy that!

[rcperryls]

I love Teresa Wentzler pieces and have stitched several of them. Mostly were fantasy designs (dragons etc) but the Peacock design is stunning. I am really looking forward to seeing your updates and I know learning new stitches will be fun as well.

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

One of the new features is Diamond Eyelets which are concerning me as on one version of this I saw they seem to form holes in the work. I am hoping they are nothing more than long stitch out of a single centre. I think I prefer that as an idea

It also has gold beads on it which I haven't done before


Thank you for mentioning other Teresa Wentzler pieces Carole. It made me do a search for her stuff on Fleabay and then I remembered I had the pattern for Four Seasons Faeries. Having had another look at it (yes I found it!) I can remember why I had not started it it is all two strands of different coloured cottons.

Jo

[Steam.Jo]

I've started laying out the frame for the Peacock Tapestry:



I am amazed just how many lengths of thread this outline is taking. I have done the top rails and am working down the piece and will put the second set of rails in at the bottom before looking at any of the infill, it is going to take me until after the weekend to to those.

The other piece is the coming along:



It has got a lot more going on in this piece than I anticipated. The half stitch is done in 5 mixed thread strand which is a tight fit through the holes and it is really important to get it to lay flat and for the different colours not to twist around other coloured threads.


While my Robins have not yet brought any fledglings to see me I am pleased to say the Dunnocks have been successful . It is amusing to watch one bird picking up a seed and popping it into the mouth of an equally big fluffy version of itself. You can imaging what it is saying goes along the lines of "See these, pick one up (open wide) and pop it into you mouth, swallow. Your turn.... Pick one up, PICK ONE up, pick one up like this, and pop it in your mouth". It is very distracting watching them

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

I admire you for having the patience to do that groundwork (or rather framework) first - I tend to rush in with the exciting bits and then lose interest

The half-stitches sound interesting; have you got a laying tool, or if you'd rather not add to your stash, a very chunky blunt needle? That really helps with getting so many strands to lie flat.

[rcperryls]

I think you have made fantastic progress on each of these pieces! I can't imagine trying to get 5 strands of thread through one hole. At least they are half stitches. I had a HAED (my first one) which I never completed because once I got past the 6 full pages of black stitches into the confetti section I couldn't get the needle through the fabric and that was using two strands of full cross stitches rather half stitches. I tried restarting using only half stitches but couldn't ever face all that black again. I expect the textures you will get with different numbers of strands and varying stitches is going to be magnificent. I am pulling up the magic bench in the S&G to watch the progress on these pieces!

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

The half-stitches sound interesting; have you got a laying tool, or if you'd rather not add to your stash, a very chunky blunt needle? That really helps with getting so many strands to lie flat.

No I haven't but with the five strands it is a good idea.

With two strands I am famous at my sewing group for "here she goes again twirling her thread" as I keep twirling the threads to get rid of the twisting before going through the fabric (in the group I have to be careful to make sure not to jab anyone in the eye doing this it is not a problem at home on my own) and then I use the needle in the destination hole to slide any remaining twists through the hole to keep the top smooth.

I noticed somewhere someone using curved point tipped watchmaker tweezers with their needle work so dug out a pair that I had acquired as an apprentice to see what they may help with: they have been really useful for unpicking, getting threads to line up and for pulling cut off ends that are trying to loosen themselves.

Having mentioned those to a friend he dropped round a pair of angled pointed tweezers which might help doing this and I have just found a flat sailmaker's needle in my box 80mm long and 3mm wide which is likely to be even better. I'll give them a go, thank you for the idea Mabel. Pictures to follow...

Jo

[Serinde]

Years ago I mortgaged something or other to buy a beautifully made and perfectly smooth laying tool. Never regretted the purchase in all the years since, and I use it a lot.