is finished. Well the stitching is finished. It has yet to make its way to its fully finished placement. I expect it will do that quite quickly, perhaps even tomorrow.
I had quite a bit of the sixth skein. So I would say that six is a safe number to use one over one on 32 count.
Still don't think that the full impact of the thread comes across in the photographs. I might just take some more in natural light and see if that helps.
Still pleased with how it has turned out. And quicker than I might have anticipated when I started it back in April
to get to this point and I am now completely relaxed about having enough of this thread to complete the project . I have just this last square to fill and whilst this Wyvern is a lot more solid than the previous one its not going to take up all the thread, I have started skein number six and fully expect to have four left over.
Happily the variegated thread has held my interest through all the repeated motifs and in the picture squares in a way that using one colour would have driven me round the bend.
I am looking forward to getting it into its intended place. I am reasonably sure it will be a little smaller than the available space and so fit. But I better not get too ahead of myself still a ways to go.
completed, there were a couple of unique points but still happy with how things are going.
There are points that I have needed to stop and start with thread lengths to get the colour transitions to work at splits of the branches or where one line flows into two. That is part of the fun.
And so onto the last space and the second Wyvern.
Trying to get the stitch placement to emphasise the curves.
what fun, actually how funny as I received the mag, flipped through the letters page looking for a different letter and pictures submitted and which I have not bogged about yet and totally missed this. (Little update to this, the letter I was looking for made it into the October WOX and I saw it in August and blogged about it then here Its Twins ! )
Only spotted it when I was reading the letter top left and thought oh there is a dragons....oh it is mine.
Always nice to be in the WOX.
In case you missed it, and well you might have a little money from the internet thing I became aware of and s referral link to the Microsoft/ Bing rewards thingy from me https://rewards.bing.com/welcome?rh=pnkaXyr5VKc&ref=rafsrchae.
I am still working on this project but I am not posting it on an "as I go" basis.
I am posting various stages when I feel like it. Either when I have used up another skein of the thread or when an element has been completed.
In this instance it is the latter and there is a dragon , well of sorts, as it only has two legs I think the proper description is a Wyvern but whilst I am splitting threads to sew it I am not splitting them in the name.
It was interesting changing the direction of the stitching to trey and give curvature and movement to it.
I did have a deviation from the design here as I made an unpickable error. However, I am happy with it.
Here is a picture of the whole piece at this point in the project.
time for the fun part I have been looking forward to.
Time to think about how the direction or placement of the stitches in the variegated thread can be used to enhance the flow and movement of the design.
On feeling the curve here.
Not something I focused on for the edge designs.
Now are you wondering what it could be? Ah you know, what else!
always looks so pretty, always tempts me and yet often I have no idea what to do with it, there was a time that the result would be embroidered knots.
However, at the time I bought the knot work tree I also bought a sampler. The pattern is set for completion in a single colour.
I thought that it might fit in the top of my new box. The design is 300 by 300. An although the box is not exactly square it feels right.
So I am stitching one over one on linen. Starting in the left bottom corner.
Update to the finish CLICK HERE and ohps, the measuring issue of mine strikes again. The shorteds edge og the box is 25cm...the shortest edge of the cross stitch is 25cm. Ah. back to the drawing board!
is something that comes up on both Facebook groups and I have a feeling there is a blog that promotes that as well.
So my dragons, from the WOX and designed by Anne Stokes, the backstitch on the teal dragon was somewhat slower going than on the blue. Nothing to do with the change in thread , it just was.
The eyes were supposed to be French knots but instead I just did little black stitches and a teeny stitch of gold blending filament. I may have mentioned before that I have a Little BIT of gold blending filament.
I had decided that behind the warm toned linen I would put some gold card. Actual I started out thinking I would use some dark gold sparkly wrapping paper. and that looked rather good the sparkle came through in a delightful manner. But, you could feel that but coming couldn't you, I was a bit concerned the glittery part would come off the paper and do weird things to the fabric over time. So time to hunt for the gold card, I was pretty sure I had some, and indeed I did.
If you have visited before then you know I save stuff, I make do and mend and recycle where I can. Therefore it will not be a surprise that the gold card had a life before adding to this piece. It was the top of a box of chocolates from Thorntons that a former team leader and his wife gifted me many years ago. Thanks Ian and Sue, the box has extended the life and usefulness of that gift past the consumption of the chocolates.
The wide frame I has was rejected and became the home for an earlier finish, as per my earlier post and this thinner frame with a touch of gold felt as if it fitted both the frame and its intended destination much better.
I like the changes I made to the material used, the colour of the knotwork and the thread count that let me use an 8" square aperture for it,
Backstitching. That tiny detail that somehow manages to be both essential and utterly maddening.
I’d been looking at the special threads people on Facebook kindly recommended, but the only way for me to get them was online. That meant no chance to see them in person, no way to judge how fine they really were. And of course, the postage for one skein cost as much as the thread itself, and without knowing if it would meet my need I was not inclined to order multiples to make the postage feel worth it.
A lot of people suggested using ordinary sewing thread instead. At first glance it looked too thick, but then I started wondering if the problem wasn’t the thickness at all — maybe it was just too black. A few encouraging souls even said the piece looked good enough without any backstitching at all.
I’d never seriously considered leaving it off. But it did make me pause.
So I laid out the options: from left to right, a dark blue, a very dark teal, and the original black. I stared at them, put them away, got them out again and dithered a bit. Eventually I decided to embrace the colours — blue for the blue dragon, teal for the teal one. It felt right, enough contrast without overwhelming the cross stitch.
I started with the blue, and honestly, the difference on the dragon’s face was instantly encouraging. It’s amazing how a few lines can bring a creature to life.
My mother asked why I was studying the pattern so intently when I was “just backstitching”. She had somehow forgotten that backstitching does not mean simply outlining the edges. If only it were that simple
Let me explain. All of the cross stitch is I think finished. There may be some ninjas hiding on the edges that will make themselves known when I am Backstitching.
Ah and that is the reason for the pause the backstitching, I am contemplating what to use.
The pattern of course recommends one strand of 310. However, it also recommended two strands on 14 count Aida and I have not done that. My Dragons are one over one on linen. So small stitches.
I think backstitching with one strand of DMC might be too wide and impact on the detail. I am not sure if my usual solution to this issue is going to work. Both on the basis of darkness and availability. I don't think mid to dark brown will do. I do know someone with the right shade and a decent length but I have only met her a few times, and I am not sure how comfortable I would feel about asking?
So a ? raised on Facebook cross stitching groups to see if anyone has any ideas of what would be suitable. I little space from it might be good anyways.
It does look quite nice as it is in the photograph, but in reality its a bit like looking at something just slightly out of focus and I expect the backstitching will sharpen it all up.
I have recieved some suggestions and then been trying to find somewhere on line to get them, but if anyone visiting has any thoughts please leave a comment.
I have not forgotten the dragons. I have been on a ninja hunt, here a stitch there a stitch, two the same shade at the same time bliss.
I think I have under thirty stitches to go, all on the wing struts.
I hope I have spotted all the stitches around the edges. If not well backstitching will no doubt serve its dual purpose and not only add clarity to the design but flush out any lingering ninja stitches.
In 2022 I burned a dragon on a box the dragon was holding a sphere and I thought I would make it look like it was holding the world.
Except when I took a picture of it, well to me it looked like the head of a bear and my BFF thought it looked like a wolf.
In an attempt to make it look like the world I coloured it blue and green. That did not work, just made the creature, whichever you saw look mouldy.
A re think was required, and whilst I did that it went up into the loft as I had a stand or perhaps mount thought going on in my head.
That got paused, I think I wanted to do some extreme sanding and then could not be quite bothered.
So, whilst I was in the loft over Christmas and working on something else up there (expect that something to get a post of its own later when it hopefully gets to its intended placement) I came across the box whilst looking for a pencil.
Down from the loft it came. I am not sure what I intended to do with it. It sat, and I looked at it and it sat.
Then I thought I would just go over the sphere with a white marker pen. A few times, until the blue and green went away. I did, it sort of did and I wondered "would it look better if the background was all dark". Getting out the pyrography stuff takes a bit of time, and preparation and organising ventilation, its winter and cold. There just happened to be a black marker pen in arms reach.
"just to get an feel of how it would look" I tell myself.
"Hmm not bad" was quickly followed by "people sometimes colour the pyrography perhaps?"
The metallic watercolour paints also happened to be within arms reach and one thing leading to another..
...painted dragon, it even has metallic blue over the black, just to see how it looked, background.
The question of if it is progress or not, I do wonder what was the point of doing the woodburn in the first place if I was just going to paint it?
It is not even finished. The sides need something doing to them, and the inside of course and that mount/stand whatever may need a rethink.
At least I have a new Forestella Song to add to the musical background of my ongoing contemplation.
I wonder if perhaps the title of the previous song might be something the box is singing as it waits to be finished.
which is of course short for approximately meaning in English not completely accurate but close.
But first the dragons update
it is getting to that oddly slow stage. There are less stitches to do than have been done and yet it feels like it is taking forever to fill it in.
Right the reason for the concerns about aprox. I am getting set for that All Our Yesterdays project and unusually for me have the frames I want to use before I have started the stitching. So I need the stitching to be in the right count to fit the frames. Which state they are 4" by 6" (approx.) and 5" by 7" (approx.), Now here is the thought about that word in brackets and the definition of close. When looking at 4" I would not consider 3.5" as being close. Indeed the approx. measurement on each frame is a half inch out on each side. It will make a difference.
A half inch might not sound much, and if the measurement was in feet or miles that half inch maybe would be a slight figure and be classed as close. but when it is the equivalent of an eighth of the promised measurement, that's not close! And goodness knows I am challenged quite sufficiently by my own measuring deficiencies without outside assistance.
I am just glad I checked and did not believe the big numbers without wondering what impact the little word in () would have. I would have ended up with completed pieces that did not fit in the intended frames and have to buy more and hope they were telling the truth!
well sort of, worked up from the tail and met up with the working down from the head and it joined in the right place.
Still some dotty filling in to do on the tail and the wing struts. This is confetti filling in and so will be quite slow.
wondering about the backstitch now, not sure if the one strand of normal DMC will be too thick and I think there is maybe a bit much to do with my usual alternative. Plus the availability of the darker strands is reducing and even if I do find sufficient not sure dark brown will be dark enough.
on the dragons, and a note of the double benefit of the heated over blanket I bought . Not only does it keep me warm but the mag with the pattern in slides off less often than it does just on my knee.
well to be clear it is the knot work around the dragons as I can manage that and chat.
This time of year things can get peopley and busy. Most of my planned busy has been cancelled for one reason or another, some stemming from my fathers health, my health or my BFF's or a combination thereof.
Its nice the BFF meeting has not thus far succumbed.
This session I started that last section of knot work.
This is the scary part, waiting to see if the circle connects? Oh it is mostly a circle, the picture distorts it a bit.
Pop over to my BFF's blog, click here to see how her RAL is going.
my Pen Pal sent me a cross stitch of a Dragon (yes she knows me well) a large magnificent dragon sewn on black and with blending filament which is not the easiest of things to work with.
I have had it for more years than is reasonable waiting on the right frame. I thought I found one but it was too small.
Then, well it became a thing to look for, the dimensions saved onto my phone just in case I came across the right frame.
Then this November my BFF and I were talking about frames and the unframed pieces we have both accumulated (although mostly our own work and not that of others) and as I recalled my waiting dragon she said that she might have just the frame.
She kindly popped over with it, I popped the dragon into the frame and then the frame onto the wall and I am delighted with my gift in a gift now on my wall.
wow, it has been ever so long, it was long last time I mentioned it in this blog click here for that back in , wince, 2017.
and he is off the first page of the pattern. So I would allow myself a bit of knot work and the soothing use of one colour. I had contemplated doing the ones at the cardinal points a different colour. Then nah! a tiny bit of keeping it simple occurred and I will do them all the same.
So this is the point reached.
After deciding that.
well, the life issues have for the moment gone beyond a level this distraction helps with so there will be a pause with this I think.
