Wow! I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. Life can sometimes get so busy, this weekend I finally had time to sit down and get some stitching done.
The Kaleidoscope from the Lolli & Grace One Meaningful Word #7 SAL is nearly completed. I have made a few blunders along the way but all in all it still looks good.
Here is where I am today: Just started the Violet spoke using DMC Color Variations #4250 "Amethyst Ripple" I plan finish this later today.
Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon and evening stitching the Indigo Spoke and finishing the Blue Spoke.
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| Indigo |
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| Blue |
Here is where I was yesterday when I began stitching the blue spoke using DMC Color Variations #4022 "Mediterranean Sea".
The doll head pincushion has been with me for over 30 years.The
Green spoke on the Kaleidoscope, I have several mistakes in
the stitches I used, the inner shield was supposed to be couched and
the outer spoke was supposed to be a threaded back stitch. I left the
couched stitched on the outer spoke and just did the whipped backed
stitch on the shield. I used DMC Color Variations #4050 "Roaming Pastures" It has more yellow in it than I thought but it flows well from the yellow spoke.
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| Green |
I am enjoying this SAL so much, it’s been quite a while since I used a variety of embroidery stitches. If you are familiar with my stitching you know I mostly use the back
stitch in my embroidery but after working on this for the past few weeks
I’m sure more of my work will include a variety of stitches.
The
Yellow Spoke I used DMC Color Variations #4075 "Wheat Fields" I had trouble doing the cable chain on the
outer spoke so after tearing it out for the 3rd time I made my own way
which nearly resembles the stitch but I wasn't about to try a 4th time.
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| Yellow |
The Orange spoke went along with out a problem I used DMC Color Variations #4124 "Bonfire"
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| Orange |
At the start of the piece the first color was Pink and suggested DMC Color Variations #4210 "Radiant Ruby" which when shown next to the Red spoke looks like the colors should have been switched, the Red spoke was stitched in DMC Color Variations #4200 "Wild Fire" which in my opinion has more pink than red, but overall I like it.
I did make one change to the 1st spoke, I decided to use all reverse chain stitch on the outline, we were supposed to use heavy chain part way through but after pulling it out twice because it looked too messy I went with the reverse chain.
As I stated above I am enjoying this so much, using a variety of embroidery stitches I haven't used in a long time, some I never used.
Here are a few things I have learned along the way, I don't much like the chain stitch, my French knots have vastly improved. I love the whipped back stitch. I have a love/hate relationship with the split stitch, yet I love how it looks.
As a quilt maker that pieces and quilts most of my quilts by hand at times I found myself making my stitches very small. For the outer spoke on the Indigo spoke I used a small piece of Tiger Tape to keep my stitches at 1/4" long I just moved it along as I stitched and it worked out quite well. I have had the Tiger Tape in my notions bin for years and never used it until I decided I didn't want to use a ruler to make marks or eyeball it, cause these old eyes don't see as well as they used to.
Using the tiger tape helped with the spacing, my buttonhole stitched scallops are a bit wonky, the eyelet stitch my hole was too small so you can barely tell it has a hole in the center. (its the large circle, the other two smaller circles are the Rhodes stitch.
I will link my post to Kathy's Quilts here
https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2023/04/slow-sunday-stitching_01155257091.html
Over the last few weeks I finished a few cozy mysteries by Leslie Meier:
I am currently reading Thai Dye by Monica Ferris, I think this is 15th in the series, which I began years
ago, then put aside for a while to take a break from the series. I recently finished Knit to Kill by Anne Canadeo, another author I read a few years ago.
I also started to read Laura Childs tea shop mysteries again though not in order. I have Lemon Curd Killer on the reserve list at the local library, I believe it's the newest.
