Around the World in 80 stitches – part 13

I’m not sure how I feel about this section. I like most of the individual stitches in it but I don’t know if I like how it hangs together as a whole. Hopefully it’ll grow on me.

There were some interesting stitches in it. A couple of them had alternatives as they were apparently difficult. They were both ones that I’d done recently in Song of The Weather though so I didn’t have a problem with them. They were a bit fiddly, but then that just makes them interesting.

I’ve started to look forward to getting more and more new, interesting and hopefully difficult stitches to do. I fear I may be turning into a stitchy adrenaline junkie, if there is such a thing.

This is what the new section looks like.

One of the stitches for which a substitute was given was the flower made up of three stitches. The Satin Leaf stitch and Padded Satin stitch are simple enough but the Detached Buttonhole stitch was trickier and was the one substituted. I’d only just done that on July’s Song of The Weather though so it was fresh in my mind and although it was a bit more fiddly on this, being smaller, I’m pleased with how it turned out.

The other difficult one was the Porto Rico Rose. It consists of Lazy Daisy stitch, which I may be a bit bored of now but don’t  have a problem with, and Bullion Knots, which I’m ok with. I did them a month or two ago on Song of the Weather and more recently on The Flower Sampler book so although they may not look perfect, they are reasonable. I think it’s fair to say that I had plenty of practise at them on this piece.

This stitch is just a bit of backstitch with Lazy Daisys and Ray stitch but I think it looks pretty. I did have a mishap though. I’ve just been looking through the instruction sheets to check the names of the stitches before typing and noticed that there’s a diagram for Stem stitch. That’s odd because I didn’t do any Stem stitch. Having checked the chart, the green bits on this stitch should have been done in that and not Backstitch. Ooops. It looks fine though. I’m not going to change it.

I quite liked the effect of this next stitch and I love its name. It’s Maniototo and was a fun one to do, even if it did have yet more Lazy daisys in it. (sorry it’s a bit blurry)

Finally we have Pistil stitch. I couldn’t quite figure this one out from the instructions. You know how sometimes you stare at something and it just doesn’t make sense? In the end I Googled it and found a great YouTube video that showed it being done perfectly. It’s just a long stitch with a French Knot on the end. Simple really, but it looks great. I really like this stitch.

Now I have a few days free before going back to week one of my rotation so I’m at a bit of a loose end. I’m very tempted to start a new project but then again, I would quite like to do some more to Tree of Stitches. Or maybe some crochet…

Advertisement

Around the World in 80 stitches – part 12

I thought I knew which three parts were going to be done next, as it seemed likely that we’d continue round from the right hand side down to the bottom. I was wrong. This part is a new shape and sits in the top right corner. It made a nice change. There were a few new stitches for me to tackle, and all were fairly easy.

The first of the new stitches was Dunstan stitch. There are five steps to it and the instructions were to do each part in a different colour. As I’m using several variegated threads, I decided to do the first three steps in one colour and just the final two steps in different colours. I quite like it.

Next was Dunedin stitch. I like this one, especially with the subtle variegation in the blue thread and the diagonal leaf stitch around it.

The other new one was Bendigo. I love how this turned out in my favourite pink variegated thread. It’s a pretty stitch and would make a nice border, although it would be time-consuming.

The stitch with the longest name was probably the quickest and easiest to do – Enclosing Interlaced stitch. I do like this one. I’ve probably done something similar before but not exactly the same.

Finally there were the Woven Wheels. I’m not sure if I like these or not. They came out ok, but it’s difficult to get them all perfectly even.

Finally, a photo of the whole thing. It’s getting quite large now.

As I finished my week one project last month, and I’m currently up to date with my SALs, I’m going to start a new stitch today. Just a small one that I’ve had in my stash for a few years. Details to follow.

Around the World in 80 stitches – part 11

After what seemed like a huge break we finally got part 11 of this. I’ve had it sitting on my To Do pile for a couple of weeks while I caught up with Song of the Weather but at last I’ve got it done. It only took a couple of evenings as it’s just a small section this time.

There were some stitches that I hadn’t done before and a couple of familiar ones.

As usual, I’ve taken some close-ups.

That one is Victoria stitch. It consists of 6 steps and uses four colours. I rather enjoyed doing it.

Vault stitch. Very simple and to be honest,  I can’t really see why it’s got its own name instead of being a Rhodes variation. Nice to stitch – very easy.

Japanese stitch, which consists of just Satin stitch really. I do like the effect you get doing it in that gorgeous blue variegated thread though. Then there’s the rather uneven Lazy Daisies in the metallic. I’d be quite happy if I never saw another Lazy Daisy.

Japanese Darning. Two steps, two colours. Easy peasy. I like the little Rhodes Berries perched on the top.

Closed Fly stitch. I’ve either done this one before, or a very similar variation. I like it. It’s easy to do and looks interesting.

I thought it was about time to show another photo of the whole thing. It’s growing quite nicely now. I can see what the shape of the next three parts will be and then I can’t wait to see what we’re doing in the corners. I’m starting to wonder if there will be a border all the way around.

Onto Around the World in 80 days next and I hope to finish it off.

Around the world in 80 stitches – part 10

This part didn’t take too long, apart from a wee problem that caused me to frog one particular stitch three times. There are some lovely stitches in it, some of which I hadn’t done before, so I really enjoyed doing this part.

This was quite a textured piece so I’ve taken an angled shot too.

The stitch that I had problems with was the very centre one. It should be Ceylon stitch. I’m confident that I can do the stitch now, having frogged and redone it three times, but I just didn’t like it. It looked messy and was spoiling the look of the whole design, in my opinion. Maybe it would have looked better if it wasn’t in the metallic thread, but I wasn’t inclined to do it again so I substituted a Rhodes Square, which I’m very happy with. I did wait until I’d almost finished to see if the Ceylon stitch grew on me, but as it didn’t, I used the metallic for a different stitch so at least there’s some bling on there somewhere.

I rather like my Rhodes Square. It looks so much neater than the Ceylon stitch. The pink two-tone stitch is Indian Herringbone stitch and was lovely to do. I like that one of the pinks shades to gold which looks very pretty. The darker blue stitch is Amadeus stitch and I love that one. It was another easy one and I think it looks very effective. The small green leaves are in a sort of Ray stitch and again were very simple.

There are some Satin stitch flowers which I did in my favourite shade of blue. They’re surrounded by backstitch vines and dark blue cross stitches.

I did the Tied Windmill stitches in one of the pinks. I’ve done this stitch before. It’s easy and I think it looks good. It’s surrounded by Lazy Daisies. I think I’m getting better at them as these look a bit more even.

At the bottom is another new stitch called Pekinese stitch. I liked this one as it was fun to do. It’s done in two stages. I love how loopy it is, and I think it looks pretty in the two shades of green. There are more Lazy Daisys and some Ray stitches in the metallic.

This wasn’t one of my favourite sections but I do like it, especially now the Ceylon stitch is gone, and I really loved doing some of the stitches in it.

Can’t wait for part 11 now.

Around the World in 80 stitches – part 9

I loved this section. There were plenty of new stitches for me to try, all of which I enjoyed doing and I love that this part isn’t quite as full as the others so that the beautiful centre section is shown off to its best. It’s going to look gorgeous with the beads added at the end. This is a bit of a photo heavy post, as there are lots of close-ups of all the different stitches. Firstly, the completed part nine.

At the top and bottom the group of stitches is the same, but done slightly differently to accommodate the shape of the section. I really like how adaptable the stitches are in all these different shapes. The green is Chinese stitch, which was one of the new ones and one that I thought was very easy to do. The pink is Ray stitch, which is used a lot in this design, but can be done in so many variations so it seems a good one to make use of. The bronze-looking stitch is a trio of Lazy Daisys in an overdye that shades to pink.

This one is Crown stitch and another one that I hadn’t come across before. It’ll have four beads in the centre eventually. I enjoyed doing this one and again it was a nice easy one. I like the effect.

The Clematis square is yet another completely new one and was done in four steps using two colours. I think it’s a really pretty stitch and it was quite simple to do. It’s surrounded by more Lazy Daisys in the green.

The centre is my favourite part of this section. I absolutely love it. There’s a lot going on in there and I really enjoyed stitching it. The metallic in the very centre is a Smyrna Cross. Around that are Rice stitches in two strands and around those are Chinese Rice stitches in three strands. Both of the Rice stitches are in the same blue overdyed thread. The four paler blue bars are Persian stitch. They took a bit more concentration for the counting but were easy enough. Finally the green squares are Bokhara couching. They took a lot of concentration but they’re one of my favourite stitches in this section. I love the way they look. Both the Persian stitch and the Bokhara Couching were new ones for me.

As I haven’t posted a photo of the full piece for a few months, I gave it a quick introduction to the iron earlier so I could get a slightly better shot of it. It’s getting quite large now so it’s trickier to get a good photo on my small desk but this one isn’t too bad.

Back to the start of my rotation now, which means Around the World in 80 days. Unless I sneak in February’s Song of the Weather, that is. It’s printed off, and it’s calling to me…

Around the world in 80 stitches – part 8

I finished the latest part of this just before the end of the year, which means that I’m now completely up to date with it. Phew! This was a fairly quick one to stitch with two small sections. I’d done some of the stitches before, but there were some lovely new ones to play with.

In the rounded section to the left, there were some Lazy Daisy stitches. They’re still not my favourite stitch as I dislike the fact that I can’t get them perfectly even, but these will do. There are several Rice stitches scattered throughout the two sections, one of which can be seen in the top right of the photo below. The pale green stitch is one of the new ones and is Mossoul stitch. I liked that one.

In the centre of that section is a Divided Round Eyelet – the blue stitch. To either side are Damask stitches in the paler pink. More new ones. Above and below are the Diagonal Feather stitches in the pale green with Partial Ray stitches coming off them in the gorgeous deep pink. That and the blue of the Divided Eyelet are definitely my favourite threads in this.

So far so good as all the stitches had been easy and had gone well. Then I came to the other section and encountered the Feather stitch. It just didn’t seem to work out as well as the Diagonal version. I couldn’t figure out exactly where I was stitching and I’m sure the placement isn’t perfect. It’s close enough though. The blue stitches are Rhodes Ovals. I do like doing Rhodes stitches as they add such a lovely texture.

Also in this section is a Diagonal Mossoul stitch in the green, with a different version of Damask stitch in the centre. Inside the Damask stitch is a Rhodes Square. There are also some more Partial Rays scattered about.

And in the pointy bit of that section, there’s one of the Pinwheel stitches. They were a bit of a faff, as they used three steps to make one small stitch, but once I’d got the section completed, I rather liked the effect.

I’ve made a start on Around the world in 80 days now. This could get so confusing with the two projects having such similar names. Must make sure not to just refer to either of them as Around the world any more.

Around the World – part four

This section consists of two smaller pieces. They both have similar stitches in them so once I’d done the first one, the second one didn’t take long. I’m getting into a rhythm of doing these now. Outline first and then the backstitch in pale green. Once that’s done, it’s easier to see where the fancy stitches go.

This stitch was one of my favourites. It’s crossed Romanian Stitch with the blue Ray Stitch on the top. It was quite fun to do although a bit fiddly. I rather like the large pink stitch too. It’s called Romanian Stitch and was a nice easy one.

This close up shows one of the butterflies that are done using Hungarian stitch. It’s a base stitch that is used to make up flowers, hearts and butterflies. There’s some Ray stitch in the dark blue and some Tied Windmill in the variegated pink/gold. I’ve done that stitch before and I really like it. It’s very easy but looks so pretty. There are some Cross stitches dotted about too. Just for a change.

In this section is my other favourite bit. The centre is made up of Hungarian stitches and is surrounded by two different forms of Romanian leaf stitch. There are also two hearts formed from Hungarian stitches.

This has flowers made from Hungarian stitches but the hearts are made from diagonal Hungarian stitches so are slightly different. They’re much tighter. There are more Tied Windmills and Ray stitches and some odd cross stitches dotted up and down the backstitch vine.

I’m not quite caught up as I have part five printed off so I’m trying to decide whether to carry on and do that next or if I should start August’s Cottage with all its pretty blues. Ho hum.

Around the World – part three

Finally! I actually finished this several weeks ago but I made a mistake with the Lazy Daisy stitches in ALL of the petals, which meant that the Ray stitches didn’t fit properly. What I should have done at that point was frog the Lazy Daisys and redo them but they’re one of the few stitches that I really don’t like doing so I convinced myself that it’d be ok. I sort of fudged the Ray stitches and made them smaller than they should have been and once it was all finished I told myself that you really wouldn’t know it was wrong unless you’d seen the chart. So, it was fine. It looked fine. It wasn’t a problem.

Only it was, you see. Because I knew it was wrong and it was bugging me. But because I’d now done not only all of the Lazy Daisy stitches, but all of the Ray stitch too, there was now loads to be frogged and redone so I wimped out and put it away and did most of July’s Cottage instead. Basically, I hid it and hoped it would look better in a few weeks.

I got it out again yesterday and it didn’t look better so I’ve just spent two days very reluctantly putting it right. I was more reluctant yesterday to be honest. Once the first two petals were done and I could see how much better they looked, I felt a lot better about doing them. And now they’re finished I’m feeling all virtuous about it. As you do.

This is what the four petalled section of part three looks like.

I did the centre section first, after the outline of course, and really enjoyed that. I’m loving working with the perle threads. The cross in the centre is just Satin Stitch but it looks really effective. Around that is Faggoting and inside that are four Buttonhole Wheels, which were a bit fiddly and aren’t very even. Pretty though.

This next pic is one of the offending petals. In the centre is a Point Russe, which looks lovely on the back because of the order in which you do the stitches. In the  point is a cluster of Pulled Square Eyelets and there’s a pale green vine in backstitch beneath the other stitches. Then you have the Lazy Daisys and the Ray stitches. The Lazy Daisys should have been done in two different colours, as well as the metallic ones that are on the ends, but because I used a variegated thread I just used the one. I didn’t want to use too many colours.

This is the other petal. It’s mostly the same but the point is different as it has Satin Stitch instead of the Pulled Eyelets, and the colour scheme is different. It has the beastly Lazy Daisys in it too.

That’s about it. I’m quite relieved to see the back of part three but it does all look rather nice now that I’ve finished it.

I’m just going to do the last bits on July’s Cottage, and then sew the beads on The Great Escape now that I finally have them and then I may just start a new project before doing part four of this. I’ve been kitting it up today but amazingly enough, I don’t seem to have any fabric that’s the right size, count and colour in my stash. Looks like I may have to go shopping. Drat 😉

(I know I really shouldn’t start anything else new. It’s my reward for finishing The Great Escape. That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.)

 

Around the World – part two #2

The second Tulip is now finished which is good as I have part three waiting to be started. I’m much happier with this Tulip than I was the first one that I did. That’s probably because most of it was exactly the same as the other one so I had a much better idea what I was doing. The only differences were with the shape of the Mordvinian Star Stitch and the Hardanger, but the basic stitches for those were the same.

This is what the whole Tulip looks like. This one is mostly pinks with a bit of blue, so the opposite of the other one.

I’ve taken lots of close-up photos again, to show the different stitches. This one shows the two lower vines with the Swedish Split stitch, done in the two shades of pink, and the Divided Round Eyelet, which I love in that deep pink.

This is the other vine which has the Rice stich in the centre and the Danish Knots at either end. That’s eight pairs of those knots that I’ve done now, over the two Tulips and finally on the last set, I managed to do a nice tidy matching pair. I found it much easier to do the Danish Knots by doing the Ray stitches first, rather than afterwards, which is how I did them for the other Tulip.

I was much happier with the Queen stitch this time. I like it in the blue, and again I did the Ray stitch first and worked the Queen stitch around it.

I had a bit of a problem with the Mordvinian Star stitch. I got four of the blocks done and realised that I was one hole out so had to frog nearly all of it. In hindsight, I should have frogged all of it and started again with a fresh piece of thread as the Pearl #12 does not frog well. The part that I restitched doesn’t look pearly any more. Something to remember for another time. I rather like the middle of this one with the Pulled Square Eyelet and Cross Stitch.

And finally, the Hardanger. This is much the same as the Hardanger in the other Tulip, but in a different shape. I like doing this. It’s very easy, and very quick.

So that’s the central section all done now, and this is what it looks like.

There are lots of beads to go on this so I’m going to be very busy with it once the stitching is finished in a couple of years time. Part three looks really nice so I’m looking forward to getting on with that, but I’ve just started June’s Cottage and I want to finish that first. It’s a good incentive to get on with the cottage, eh?

The Great Escape has taken a back seat as I need some beads for it and I don’t want to place an order for just those. As soon as I need something else from one of the internet shops that I use, I’ll get those beads and finish that off.

Around the World pt. 2

Part two of this SAL is two tulip-shaped areas, both filled with lovely specialist stitches. Unlike the first part, they are more or less the same, with a slight difference in the Hardanger and Mordivinian Star stitches. So, once one part is done, the second should be much easier with a bit of luck. And as I’ve finished one of the tulips, I’m hoping that is true.

Not that it was difficult. Just fiddly. Very fiddly. There are several single stitches and quite a few odd small Ray stitches and small groups of cross stitches so lots of threading and re-threading of the needle and not so much stitching.

There are three vines in the three different greens, all done in backstitch. On the top vine is some Swedish Split stitch. This was easy, and very quick to do.That’s at the top of the photo in the dark and pale blue.

In the bottom two corners of the photo, in the dark pink and pale blue is what may or may not be two Danish Knots with Ray stitches. The pink is the Danish Knot. I think I’ve done them right, but the diagram showed the stitch one way up and I needed to do it mirror image to that for the other side of the Ray stitch. My brain didn’t want to cope with that. Don’t even get me started on the Knots that are upside down. I had to turn the fabric upside down to do them rather than try and do the stitch the wrong way up. It was making my head hurt…

I’m rather loving that Pansy-like flower made from Ray stitch in the middle of that photo though.

In the centre of one of the other vines was some Rice stitch. I’ve done this one before so it was easy peasy.

Medium blue with the pretty metallic over the top.

Then we come to the main stitches in this section. First we have the Mordvinian Star stitch. For this I used some DMC Pearl #12, which I haven’t tried before. I can’t say I liked using it all that much but it does look nice. The stitch looked a little messy as I was doing it but once I got it away from the magnifier I thought it looked rather pretty.

There’s a pulled Eyelet stitch in the centre. To the bottom left are two rather wonky Lazy Daisy stitches on either side of three Queen stitches. I’ve done Queen stitches in The Great Escape so once again I had no problems with those. I like the effect there. It looks like a little cluster of cherries.

The other main stitch is the Hardanger. I’ve done it the basic way but instructions were also given for Cut Hardanger. I did think about having a go at the cut version but I actually prefer the look of the non-cut one. I’ll be joining in with a Hardanger SAL in January so I’ll be learning all about cutting then.

The Pulled Eyelets are done in that Perle #12 and the bars are stitched with DMC #8. Again, a new thread for me but this one I really liked using.

This is what it all looks like. I think it looks slightly more bitty than the hearts but still nice and I enjoyed doing it.

Before I do the other Tulip, I’d like to finish off The Great Escape. I did sit down to do that on Saturday but I fiddled with it for about half an hour and as I hadn’t put a single stitch in it, I put it away again. I wanted to stitch, but just not that. So, with three SALs waiting, and June ticking away, I got out Pixel People Firefly and did some more on that for a couple of hours. I really enjoyed myself too.