Today's discussion topic is: "How did you learn to stitch?" To be honest, I don't really remember! I know I watched PBS to learn crewel and took up needlepoint soon after, sometime around the late 1960's. I think my first cross-stitch piece was completing an eyeglass case kit for a friend's wife in grad school (late 1960s - 1971). She was trying to make it as a gift for her Mother and give up and asked me to finish the stitching. I guess I just applied my understanding of stitchery from the crewel and needlepoint to that little kit. And from there... ~~~~~WIPS~~~~~ 1. Elizabeth Almond's "Save the Stitches", begun in 2014, on white lugana in mostly DMC 310 (with some scattering of two blues and two greens where metallic threads had been called for - I flat out REFUSE to do metallic in blackwork!). I worked on block 109 through 111: and finally finished it. On to block 112 out of 131! 2. "Royal Gardens", a mystery SAL by Fox & Rabbit, begun in 2023. On a pale green/saphire 32ct Lugana and Threadworx variegated thread (1048 "Woodland Green"). I began to work on the right border in August...  and found where it was the ONE stitch off that made the left border not meet up properly! Made a fudge-correction on the right side and have now located another error (also one-stitch) in the center of the bottom border which also affects the left-border meet-up...  So I had to do some fudging at the left corner, resulting in a pair of "leaves" being trimmed to fit:  Here is the full border; The fudging is obvious in close-up but here's hoping it's not too obvious/drastic when looking at the full pattern...  On to stitching the last two installments! 3. "Faith, Hope, Love", a mystery SAL for 2024 by Fox & Rabbit. On antique white 28 ct Lugana using a Threadworx variegated (Autumn Leaves 1039) and three DMC colors (436, 975, and 310) that closely match some colors on that Threadworx floss... I'm on schedule here - the next installment is due out October 1.  4. Stitchonomy "Halloween 2024" SAL. Stitched on Chocolate Raspberry AIDA using the provided kit DMC threads. Fabric color is off in this (and all subsequent photos): it is really more pinkish-brown and not at all "orangey"! I am a member of the pattern club so have already received six installments but only the frame has been released to the stitching public. Here is my frame, with one massive error that I have since "frogged" (the middle column in the bottom half would not have three horizontal rows! I zoned out while stitching and forgot to consult the pattern. I have since frogged the erroneous row but forgot to take picture!  ~~~~~Completion~~~~~ Here is the photo of the completed Stitchonomy "Fall Banner 2024 SAL" that I couldn't show last month:  As I wrote last month, I skipped using the charms and, because of spacing issues, did not stitch the "sparkles" between the rows. ~~~~~ On the non-SAL (and inactive SAL) front:
and that is my September report! Happy stitching, every one! |
