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The multicoloured ones “three more squares from Mary Hickmott's two books, two of them made into mats using four-sided edging” are beautiful and I love the “double-sided Christmas ornament” and the Christmas mini’s!! “project on 28ct opalescent Lugana”, light blue thread is also really pretty!!! And the bead one that follows is very interesting! (I like beads )
The white cross (in the begining) – WOW, beautiful!!! Now I really wish I was in the UK, then I could play in the snow, attend those classes/courses of yours and get cross stitch mags for a lot cheeper!!
Your work is really magnificent and extremely impressive!! Really inspiring and makes me want to try but it looks a bit complex
Was wonderful to look through them, thank you for the link!

Another one from the "Experiment List":



22ct cream Fein Ariosa; #5 / #8 DMC 729 and 676
To my surprise coverage on this 22ct evenweave was not as good as on hardanger fabric, which is the same count; I haven’t quite worked out why. Still perfectly adequate, though, and I like the less blocky look of the fabric.

It's lovely, I like the flatter look (not sure that is the right word)

2Danes wrote:
I have a question What keeps the threads from pulling out anymore then what you have cut?

Hi Heather,

If you look at the design, you'll see little satin stitch blocks that are five threads wide; these are kloster blocks. The kloster blocks are paired. For example, look at a kloster block with threads running horizontally on left side of the design. If you follow straight across to the right side of the design, you'll see another kloster block with horizontal threads. This makes the pair. You can cut and remove the four horizontal fabric threads running between the pair. The paired kloster blocks, with the vertical kloster blocks and fabric weave secure the rest of the threads. There are decorative wrapping stitches covering the remaining fabric threads, which help secure the piece as well.

Hope that made a bit of sense,

Well, this is really fun!

The sparkly lugana piece is very delicate and pretty. I think you'll find that a trial with pearl 5 on 28ct is really bulky, however.

The coverage on the 22ct Fein Ariosa might be due to the nature of the weave. Hardanger fabric consists of two flat threads woven, warp and weft. Ariosa's weave isn't flat, I suspect, so it competes with the plys of the pearl 5 cotton. There is a pearl 3, allegedly...

The CWF Aquamarine isn't as successful, to my mind, as the Anchor 1344 for one simple reason. Although a lovely movement of colour through it, some of the Aquamarine is almost the same colour as the fabric, and so it seems to disappear. Might work more successfully on a coloured fabric?

The beads are wonderful. You should get any of Jill Carter's hardanger books from the library: she loooooves beads! (Almost makes me think there is a reason for filet stitch, seeing your beads.)

Oh Oh, this is not good. I dug out my Sue Whiting, Janice Love, Meirer & Watnemo, and Emie Bishop books........

Emie Bishop!! I have her Embelllishments No. 96, with that extraordinary sampler. I've been circling around it for years!

Lovely work, Mabel!
Faith

Serinde wrote:The sparkly lugana piece is very delicate and pretty. I think you'll find that a trial with pearl 5 on 28ct is really bulky, however.

I think it will be, but as I'm doing so many anyway i thought I might as well try, in the interests of research

Serinde wrote:The coverage on the 22ct Fein Ariosa might be due to the nature of the weave. Hardanger fabric consists of two flat threads woven, warp and weft. Ariosa's weave isn't flat, I suspect, so it competes with the plys of the pearl 5 cotton. There is a pearl 3, allegedly...

That's a very likely explanation, thanks! I think #3 would be a bit too much for this fabric, but I have considered a trial piece on 20ct Bellana with it -- I happen to have one or two skeins of #3 lying around. I'll let you know if I do try how it works out!

Serinde wrote:The CWF Aquamarine isn't as successful, to my mind, as the Anchor 1344 for one simple reason. Although a lovely movement of colour through it, some of the Aquamarine is almost the same colour as the fabric, and so it seems to disappear. Might work more successfully on a coloured fabric?

It definitely works beautifully on black (I did a satin stitch Madonna with it), and I don't think I'll use it again on light fabric. It's just one of the many advantages of trying out these little pieces that you get to see all sorts of effects!

Serinde wrote:(Almost makes me think there is a reason for filet stitch, seeing your beads.)

You don't like square fillet? It's one of my favourite filling stitches (admittedly I don't know that many ), I think because it stitches up so quickly and I find them easier to get "even" then dove's eyes

I'm really enjoying these experiments! I'm still looking for good scissors for the finer fabrics -- after Googling fine point scissors I came across several fly-tying sites and so went to the angling shop in or village; they were out of stock of the fine point ones but will have them again in a few weeks so i'll have a look then; I'll be able to take my stork scissors and actually compare them, so much nicer then guessing about scissors you've only seen online.

As I said in the Wanted thread, Janice came back to me saying the titanium squissors will actually cut a single thread of 55ct linen as long as it's stretched in a hoop, so I will certainly be buying a pair!

Meanwhile, what a LOT of nice hardanger designs there are -- and I'm not even talking about the big ones with lots of speciality threads and so on (which are gorgeous and I must try a few), but just small designs; I love the way that with a few filling stitches and lots of satin stitch you can create so many different things !

Anyway, I found this as part of a larger New Stitches design, and I thought it looked rather star-like, and as I had been thinking of using Hardanger for Christmas 2011 I lengthened the bottom point to make it more like a "Bethlehem star" and gave it a go:



I think this will work very well for cards, and it's quite quick -- I'm thinking of using it without the lengthened point in this icy blue as a snowflake, and use the pointy design perhaps in goldy shades. This one was done on 22ct cream Fein Ariosa using Pearl #5, 8 and 12 and Mill Hill opalescent white beads.

I've also designed a candle which I started last night and hope to finish this evening -- watch this space .

Wow, Mabel, you really got the hang of it! This is again so beautiful

I really love the extra pointy bit on the one you've done ..... would having all four points 'extra pointy' be possible, as I think it would look even more icy-typey snowflakey!! ..... sorry for the terrible description there and the possible invention of new words, but I hope you know what I meant!!

Hmm, sounds like an interesting idea, ali-cat -- I must try that!

Ordered the titanium squissors -- miniature Hardanger here I come !

Oh, Ali-cat, I had a go at lengthening the points of that star in my stitching program and it really does look nice, I must stitch one up to show you!

Lovey, as usual, Mabel! You are so skilled.

Mabel Figworthy wrote:Oh, Ali-cat, I had a go at lengthening the points of that star in my stitching program and it really does look nice, I must stitch one up to show you!

Actually .... I'll have to go and lie down now - I'm not used to having a good idea!!

The star is lovely

I love the colour of this one