Sewing with Mama --- what it SHOULD look like!

See what I mean about color?

Oh well, maybe it will all work out in the end...

WIP myself into shape, Week 36

Well, I did stitch some --- took a break on that ghastly "blue-grey" and put in the cream (which is really hard to see on this fabric), and found two more one-stitch errors! AAARGH. And the fabric looks like it was skimpily cut as well --- only an inch to spare on the left side! And my Q-snaps are NOT happy with so little fabric to hold on to--- tension is a real issue!

This may be a kitting trend to save money  (this is the second kit company I have found shorting me on fabric in the last year...) but I do NOT like it! I mean, they SAY the picture as 10 by 12 so why do they supply a SQUARE of fabric --- more than ample margins top and bottom, skimpy at the sides! From now on, I'm re-kitting with my own fabrics.


 My September Bargello Club piece arrived Tuesday (I need to kit that out) and I still have to stitch my BJP for September...

WIP myself into shape, Week 35

"Sewing with Mama", designer Sandy Lynam Clough, kit by Candamar.

It's not a big piece (only 10 by 12) but already it's giving me headaches. At least six sheets of instructions, two of which are top stitching. So many threads and then there are the blended threads (WHY do I hate blended threads so much, anyway). The frog has visited regularly and then, when I got to this point, I found out I had goofed way back in the black ONE stitch which throws off the left side of the sewing machine (can you tell that's a sewing machine?) ... and I had already put in three more colors before I found it out. SOOO... fudge time!

What is more, this is another of those kits that shows a picture on the front that has no relation whatsoever with the actual colors that this is... for example, that "blue grey" in the upper right corner? It shows as a wedgewood blue in the photo. Irritating!

Oh well, enough whingeing. Here's the picture:

WIP myself into shape, Week 34

House guests this week so I didn't get much stitching done. And what little I did get done, I found, after four lengths of embroidery, was the wrong color so along came the "frog"!

So this is all you can see for "Sewing with Mama!", a Candamar kit, designed by Sandy Lynam Clough:

And the third... so I'm caught up with Bargello Club

"Bargello Surprise". It's supposed to be perfectly round but I lost my way about halfway through so it's more squished than I would like. Anyway, stitched with DMC FLoss (946, 972, 310 and 4124) as well as Kreinik gold cord (doubled but it still could have covered better).

Two of the "bonus" Bargello pieces complete

This one was called "Lightening Strike" and was stitched with three shades of wool: DMC 7768, DMC 7387 and Paragon 46. It looks a little "plain" but I think when it is finished and edged with cording, it will perk up a bit!


This one was called "Diagonal Wave" and I stitched it with Stranded by the Sea's Ocean Deep (#203) and DMC 964. Was afraid I'd run out of the Ocean Deep but it was one of the ONLY Stranded by the Sea threads I had two of! Luckily, i didn't have to resort to the second bobbin!.

The third, and last bonus, called Bargello Surprise, is in the works...and except for the metallic ribbon called for (I substituted Kreinik Cable instead), I had ALL the threads used in the model. Quelle surprise! LOL

WIP myself into shape, Week 33

...and catching up with Bargello! These are the August 2011 installments in Bargello club --- meant to be inserts in cards but again, probably won't happen.



As usual, I shopped my floss stash and neither of these uses the recommended threads: the green and red one is stitched with red (7666) Appleton wool, Stranded By the Sea overdyed called "Long Leaf Kelp" and Silk mori solids (4033, 4037 and 4034), while the gold one is made from three different DMC "metallics" (5284, E146 and 5282, a bobbinated "gold" cotton floss (identity unknown, possibky DMC 3046 if the number on the bobbin means anything - but I don't bobbinate and it's not my handwriting!), and a GAST overdyed "Cherry Wine".

Three "bonus patterns to go...