November's TUSAL post

Well, the New Moon  was November 13th, so I'm a few days late posting my TUSAL picture.  What is TUSAL?  For those of you not familiar with the term, it's the Totally Useless Stitch A Long, sponsored by DaffyCat.  You can get more info at:  http://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/ including info to be coming shortly about 2013 sign ups.  Essentially we keep our thread ends in a pretty jar and show them to the only other people in the planet that can appreciate them - other stitchers!  Here's mine for November:

My TUSAL Jar, November 17, 2012

Can you see all the fuzzy blue-violet stuff in there?  That's the thread frogged from HAED's Eternal Promise after I finally decided that 3x1 tent stitch just wasn't for me.  It was a tough decision, but rather than move foward with something I wasn't enjoying, I frogged it all.  The frogging took a while, but the fabric is now ready for a new start. 

Frogging Project Completed and a Present on Its Way!

As mentioned earlier, my major project this week was to finish frogging over half a page of HAED's Eternal Promise (retired version) by Matt Stewart.  I'd started that on 25 count Raw Dublin Linen using a 3x1 tent stitch.  While I loved the design and fabric, I'm really a true cross stitcher and did not care for the tent stitch nor the bulk of the three threads.  I am very careful to finish the threads tightly on the back, and this confetti-filled project was not easy to reverse stitch.  However, I did finish it this morning and am pleased to say I now have a fully frogged fat half yard of Raw Dublin Linen ready for another project.

HAED's Eternal Promise (retired)
Over half a page stitched 3x1 tent

Fully Frogged Fat Half of Raw Dublin Linen

 



















On the left is the stitched part I frogged.  On the right is you can see the needle marking the place where I had done the reverse stitching.  Happily, not one thread of the fabric was damaged! 

In other news to share, my Mark 2 floor frame from Hearthside Craftworks shipped from Canada on Tuesday, with an estimated arrival in 10-14 days.  That means I may have it by next weekend!  I ordered it with 4 sets of scroll rods, figuring that was a good number of projects to keep in rotation.  This is certainly a wonderful birthday present, and I love that my husband is so supportive of my stitching.

The first two pieces to be put on the scroll rods will be HAED's Angel with Iris by Nadia Strelkina and HAED's Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, both of which are WIPs.  A third set is earmarked for a new start, Golden Kite's The Turtle Dove by Sophie Anderson.  I have not yet made a final decision on the fourth set, but I do have many wonderful charts in my stash.  I think I'll get some stitching done on the first three, then make up my mind, as there's no hurry!

HAED Angel with Iris
by Nadia Strelkina

HAED Sistine
Chapel by
Michelangelo

GK The Turtle Dove
by Sophie Anderson



WIPocalypse and Bullfrogs

I almost forgot to post a September WIPocalypse report!  You can check out my progress on the WIP page, where I have updates on HAED Angel with Iris and Gigi R's Belles-Lettres D.



While I suppose that reverse stitching doesn't count for WIPocalypse, I think I could make the case that my current struggle with Bullfrogs requires sufficient effort to qualify.  Why Bullfrogs?  I think the work required to frog over half a page of HAED's Eternal Promise, which was tightly stitched with 3 strands of floss over one thread of 25 count Dublin Linen (tent) could not have been brought on by ordinary little frogs.

With all kidding aside, I'm actually in one of those odd moods where I'm enjoying the frogging and reclaiming a lovely piece of linen.  Just so you know what I'm doing, the picture on the right shows the stitching I'd done when I finally decided to reverese stitch the piece rather than continue a project I wasn't enjoying.

The two pictures below show my progress with the frogging project as of last night.  On the left is the front of the piece, so you can see that over half of the frogging is done.  On the right, you can see the back of the piece, and I think it's pretty obvious that all the threads were tightly tucked in and the bountiful confetti made for some pretty heavy padding.  Still, I've gotten over half of it frogged with no fabric damage, and I look forward to having a nice half yard of Raw Dublin Linen to either re-start Eternal Promise or start another project in the near future.

Trying Again...

Last week I decided to post to my blog.  I know it was way overdue, since I had not posted since early July, but I guess Blogger decided I didn't want to blog anymore.  Nothing worked!  I kept getting thrown into a loop when I tried to work on it, and I couldn't even get into the help features to find out why.  Frustrated, I deleted it completely.  So....I'm starting again.  This time I'll take it slow and see what comes. 

What am I working on stitchwise?  I have a number of pieces in progress, but today I put in time reverse stitching HAED's Eternal Promise by Matt Stewart.

The design I have is the orginal retired version, which I purchased from Michele in July 2011 when she found six hard copies in her warehouse and sold them at a premium.  Last month she announced that she was again working with Matt Stewart and re-released Eternal Promise in a re-worked and larger format.  Anyway, the reason I'm reverse-stitching is that I started the original using a three thread tent stitch on 25 count Dublin Linen.  After more than half a page, I decided I really dislike the tent stitch.  I'm gradually taking it out, but with three threads, it's really tight and I have to be in a mood to concentratate on (dare I say the word?) frogging!  Still, I really like the fabric and want to be sure I don't ruin it.  That half yard will definitely be used for another project.