A slight obsession with books

Crafts, cats and books

SAL – Precious dreams #06

31 Comments

This is the scheduled three-weekly post for the SAL that I’m doing with several other crafty blogs and I’ve been carrying on with an old project that got abandoned about four years ago, probably because I wanted to do some shiny new projects. It’s a lovely design though and I’d like to get it finished so my plan for next year is to stitch on this for a few weeks and then do a smaller project before coming back to it. Hopefully that’ll stop me getting bored of this one again and it’ll get finished.

It’s called Precious Dreams and I got the chart from Etsy. I’m sure I got it from Kimshobby but it’s not listed there now. I did spot a few others that Iiked while I was checking though 😉

This is where it was up to when I last worked on it back in September 2015. It’s very different to my usual stitches as it’s tent stitch and is over one. It’s very fiddly and there are a lot of stitches. It’s taken a lot of concentration to figure out what I’m doing as it’s been so long. I had a system going but it’s taken me a while to remember it LOL

I’ve made a tiny bit of progress. I started by doing a couple of squares of plain navy to get me back into the rhythm of doing tent stitch and then started filling in the bits from the next unfinished column. It was quite gappy where I’d gone a bit off piste and hard to see where I was putting the stitches until I got used to it.

Excuse the rubbish photo. I usually take the photos in natural light, but this one is at night so the colours are all off and I had to take the pic at an angle to avoid a shadow. Hopefully you can see the bit that I did.

I’m thinking that I might try to finish a page before doing something else, and then going back and doing another page. I’m on page 3 of 8 at the moment but pages 4 & 8 are only two columns wide and 5 – 8 have less rows than the top four. I guess that means that I’m pretty much halfway so it’s all downhill from now on.

The other projects that I have lined up are mostly charts purchased on Etsy, that I’ve kitted up ready to stitch.

The big bang theory by Wee little stitches
Buffy the vampire slayer by Wee little stitches
Timey wimey by Pixystitches
Hobbits by Pixystitches
I never finish by Nerdy little stitcher

I also have several Disney kits that are on the pile of possibles. I’m thinking that little lot should keep me busy for a while LOL

For the stitch-a-long I’m linking up to these lovely blogs:
Avis, Claire, Gun, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, CindyLinda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, DeborahMary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie

Do allow for people being in different time zones, so not posting all at the same time, but it’s well worth doing a bit of blog hopping to see all the lovely projects that are being worked on.

Author: Carole

The books I read, the things I make, the places I go.

31 thoughts on “SAL – Precious dreams #06

  1. very cute 🙂 well doen for getting abck into it!

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  2. I don’t blame you for setting this project aside it looks extremely resource intensive. Full coverage with confetti stitch is my kryptonite, you’re doing very well picking it up to finish. It’s looking great already !

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  3. WOW. Just your parking makes me feel overwhelmed! This piece is so detailed and so lovely — well done you for how gorgeous it is!

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  4. It’s a gorgeous design, I find it hard to swop from cross-stitch to tent stitch, it just doesn’t count so easily. Your parking amazes me too!

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  5. Good luck with this embroidery! I don´t know what a tent stitch is, but it looks great!

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  6. A beautiful piece…my mind is boggling with how complicated the thread handling is. But you are young so can handle it! You’ve made impressive headway already. Happy Stitching from me.

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    • It’s a long time since anyone said I was young, so thank you for that 🙂

      The parking isn’t complicated really. You just need a system. I use different coloured highlighter pens on the chart to indicate parked threads and completed stitches. Counting the stitches, however, is a different story, even with the grid lines LOL

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  7. Wow, that’s some major thread parking! It’s a great idea to alternate working on this one. I’m already itching to get back to my full coverage piece!

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    • I do like a bit of parking. It takes a few seconds extra to park and then mark the chart, but when you stitch those bits, it’s great having the thread waiting in just the right spot. I’m getting back into the rhythm of it now so it’s going a little quicker.

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  8. Oh my goodness, this looks intense! Especially after completing the Fellowship of the Hooties! Well done with that one by the way. I wish you well with this one. I can see the need to take a break from it regularly but it’s looking good so far!

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  9. The shading created by all those little stitches is astounding! It is so pretty, but boy what a lot of work! Taking a break is good, it keeps everything fresh and fun.

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    • To start with I was dubious that the colours would work. There’s navy for the background, then there’s a bright blue and a green, and ten different greys. You would thing that the green and blue would stand out but they blend in nicely once you stand back a bit.

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  10. It’s really complicated,even for dark colors,but the effect is beautiful! Happy stitching!
    Carmela

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  11. What a beauty! I find it really difficult to translate a square on a chart into a tent stitch. I just get so mixed up when counting diagonals. It would be great if you could stick with this one for another page but it’s also good to take a break and do something easier now and again.

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    • It’s definitely harder to count, even with the gridding. Having the green and blue stitches in with all the greys helps though. I find if I stitch those first, I can use them to navigate. I’ve just sent for some more colours in highlighter pens and am going to mark the green and blue in green and blue on the chart so it’s easier to spot where I am. (if that makes sense 🙂 )

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  12. This looks very detailed and I admire your skill in doing a project like this. Excited to see you progress on this – it’s a really stunning piece 🙂 Sharon

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  13. This looks VERY complex, but what a beautiful piece it is! Happy to cheer you on!

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  14. what a brave woman you are! looks like so many subtle colour changes in there – gorgeous design though!

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  15. What a stunning design. Beautiful stitching!

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