On Instagram I noticed a “thing” a lot of stitchers seem to be joining up for this month; it is a Blackbird Designs Weekend SAL. I believe it was started by Laura and Brenda. Maybe all the details are in their flosstube but since I don’t really watch flosstube I don’t know much about it except to stitch on a Blackbird over the weekend and post your progress! Well I can do that! I wanted to work on my Strawberry Garden anyway!
Here is where I started last Friday:
And here is where I ended on Sunday night.
Yes! I got that basket done and also filled in the vine on the right. The basket took up most of my time and I am glad it is done done done! It is all satin stitched in alternating direction squares. You can’t see that in the picture but it makes a nice texture. Now I can concentrate on the pretty flowers and fun letters scattered around!
And yes, you can see I had to remove that strawberry I started on the left. I discovered I left off a stitch in the left branch. If I count off that branch the entire left side will go wrong. As it is, the bird is one spot over and down from where it should be and my basket is 1 stitch too small (can you tell the plant is not centered in the basket? It’s not too noticeable, right?)
I discovered this only when the basket was half done and I was not about to take out a bunch of that satin stitching not to mention all those lazy daisies, the vine, flower, and bird! I studied the chart and I think what will happen is my bird will actually work out well because it will not run into the left border as it does in the chart, which I actually like better:
And if I stitch up the next branch and count off of that before I put in the alphabet, I will be able to recenter the letters “T” “U” “V” and “S” in their spaces and no one will be able to tell. I don’t think anything will be too wonky. I think it will work out. Fingers crossed!
The only thing that bugs me a little is my bird’s feet are one stitch below the bottom of the basket. Should I shorten up his legs one stitch? I’ll see how I feel about it after I get the border in. I will have to go ahead and stitch the border next because that will keep me on track for my modifications I think.
It took a bit of thinking but I will get this figured out! It may even work out a little bit better!
Another lovely project. I didn’t notice the plant was the off centre until you told me! I am sure it will look fine, these are quite quirky designs anyway.
It’s a lovely project, perfect blackbird for your SAL. Until you said I couldn’t see any misalignment.
Only you pointed it out I would not have noticed the ‘wonky’ branch. It looks far too much work to unstitch when you can modify the design to get back on track. It should work out well for you.