Jo's Stitching 2023

[Steam.Jo]

My excuse of cold weather is still valid so I have finished off most of her wing:



Normally on a Saturday my father joins me and we garden for a few hours but as it is due to be -1 degrees today he has wimped out and told me not to be silly and stay inside. So that means more stitching


I have seen many photos of these fairies on the web and it always strikes me how poor the reproduced colours are and just how vivid the colours are in truth. Hopefully you are seeing them in their full glory

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

I don't know if the colours in the photograph are a faithful representation (I agree on the wild variation in how colours are reproduced) but they do look lovely!

[rcperryls]

They look beautiful. I did one of the fairies on an afghan (gave to my granddaughter) and if I remember correctly, the colors are pretty close to accurate in the photo. I think what might be harder to appreciate is the subtle changes that the mixed threads bring to the piece.

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

I just realised I have been beavering away and have not shown you my progress for a while.



I'm currently working on the light coloured pattern in the border. Some of the pattern around the edge has blue stitching and beads in it, the others will have a big eyelet stitch. I have noticed that TW does like her eyelet stitches - every one of her pieces I have done so far has used them

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

Yes, eyelets feature greatly - and aren't they effective to create texture!
Great progress, you're really speeding along with these lovely elegant creatures.

[rcperryls]

Beautiful!

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

I've started work on the Holly leaves:



These leaves have reasonable clumps of stitches in each colour but her skirt is going to be another matter.

My target is to finish this piece before Xmas

Jo

[wendywombat]

I haven't been able to catch up with this one for a while....
Excellent and I love the various colours in the wings. Very pretty

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you Wendy,

I have started work on her skirt:



Its another of those areas full of 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 stitches, so much that I have (again) been forced to start the back stitching to be able to keep track of where I am

Jo

[rcperryls]

I am so amazed by your speed! This is beautiful and going to only get more beautiful every day!

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

With all the Christmas parties last week I stuck to easy bits for a few days and did the backstitching around the brown bit of the border:



After some heavy gardening on Saturday morning I allowed myself to start work on the lower holly leaves:



Not sure if this will be finished for Christmas But I am already looking forward to choosing the next Fairy to do.

Jo

[Serinde]

You know, it's kinda reassuring that something slows you down... it's looking amazing!

[Steam.Jo]

You know, it's kinda reassuring that something slows you down...

.. Life is too short not to be doing things we enjoy I was talking to my new neighbour earlier and we were talking about how people choose dogs that reflect their personalities: I had a springer spaniel who could never stop as everything was too exciting/interesting until he got home when would instantly fall asleep the second he got back to his bean bag bed.

I'm looking forward to having the set of four Fairies to hang on my wall and I know where I want them to hang so the gap looks empty. The other two fairies (woodland and Lilly) I have not yet allocated a spot to but once I realise they are missing from it I will become equally single minded to get them done

The other way of looking at this is I have the HAED Seasons to finish

Jo

[Serinde]

Yup. Can see all that. I have a couple of items in frames (not stitching) that haven't decided where they want to live. Problem is, DH does have an idea, and it's not actually one I share... Oh, dear.

HAEDs. My unfinished one is no longer whispering to me. It's shouting, but not louder than the loom. I'm hoping there is room for them both between Christmas and New Year.

[Steam.Jo]

Quick note of an error on the winter faerie chart: the symbol “ k “ is not listed on thread list. TW‘s old webpages listed the errors on her charts and identified this as colours 318/414. These pages are no longer available but on the web archive they are listed

In theory if using the book to do these faeries you could look on one of the other charts to find the colour pair “ k “ but I could not find it. The good news is that I started with the spring faerie which had no errors, all of the other three do.

Jo

[Steam.Jo]

I had hoped to post a nearly completed pic of this piece but my windows machine still is not letting me. All I can say is that I am well underway on the backstitching on the holly leaves. Touch and go for getting it done by Monday, possibly by the end of Tuesday.

Jo

[Steam.Jo]

I’m still unable to access the forum from any of my three windows computers so posting progress is a challenge: start on the pc by loading the pics, upload to internet then email the pic links to my iPad. From the iPad I can now post the pic:



I hate typing on the iPad … The term faff comes to mind.

I don’t think I am going to finish for tomorrow

Jo

[Serinde]

Sorry that you are still having difficulties -- and others have reported issues too, of which Alex is aware.

But this is looking wonderful. You might not finish, but there's so little left to do.

[Steam.Jo]

I'm on to infilling the odd stitch and backstitching



Hate tablet computers for typing

Jo

[fccs]

She's beautiful. I just can't get over how quickly and how beautifully you stitch!