2 WIPs

I am loving my 2 WIPs, Sacred and Dorcas Haynes. I’ve been able to stitch a lot on them this first week of July. Here is my progress on Sacred…

You can see I’ve gotten quite a bit done this week.

O Most Holy Heart of Jesus fountain of every blessing…stitching a prayer is a nice meditative thing to do,

My new colors for the straight border and the gold for the scrolls by the small hearts (which also makes an oval around the large central heart motif) please me too.

Now let me tell you about Dorcas. My assignment this month is the acorn bands and floral arcade band. Yes, I have a handful of queen stitch leaves to finish on the strawberry band, but I will just throw those in when I have a spare hour. My plan for immediate work on Dorcas to keep her going on schedule is to get the outline stitched on the 2 acorn bands before filling in with the satin stitch and detached button holes.

At first, this band was really hard to figure out. The chart is over 2 and the instructions tell you to do the 4 sided stitch across the bottom over 3 along the horizontal and 2 along the vertical. That was nuts. But then I saw, the acorns themselves are charted over a hybrid over 2/over 3 backstitched outline…ugh, I just wasn’t having that. I stitched one acorn and it was a mess. It just looked like a mess. I recharted the acorn/oak leaf motif so the whole thing is over 3 and the count worked out correctly against the 4 sided stitch baseline when that was squared up and done 100% over 3. It will work out, glory hallelujah. I feel like this project is a lot of work and I wonder how others have managed it, so many having stitched this beautiful sampler. Maybe I’m just not advanced enough a stitcher to do it without whining!

I got along to the middle of the acorn outline and decided to drop down to work on the large floral arcade. I am starting this band in the middle 1, so the sampler stays centered and symmetrical, and 2 because that blue flower is outlined in normal cross stitch and by this time, boy howdy did I feel like going back to something straightforward that I didn’t have to think about too much. I used the centering from the grapes and strawberries rows to line it up and now that it’s stitched I discovered I’m off center by either 1 thread or 1 stitch, I can’t figure it out. But it is close enough and I doubt anyone will be able to tell when it’s done. If I couldn’t figure it out in the stitching probably it’s ok. I’m telling myself, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of progress! I am not sending a rocket to the moon with this.

So…the flower outlines are nicely in. I still have to figure out the fill stitch for the large flowers and am also eager to fill in the centers with so many French knots. I love the pendulous pansies, those were fun, and I have just gotten started on the stems and vine which are done in Montenegrin stitch. I really really really like Montenegrin stitch. It is not my absolute favorite stitch because I love herringbone and satin stitch even more, but it certainly is satisfying to watch how it comes out. Friends, I cannot recommend enough the Autopsy of the Montenegrin Stitch book for doing a band like this. The stitch diagrams in this book show EVERY permutation of direction changes with this complex stitch. I would not be able to do without it. Thank you to Amy Mitten for writing such a magnificent guide. Copies of the book are available at The Attic if you need it (along with another invaluable resource, The Proper Stitch by Darlene O’Steen, a book which, even in it’s most recent printing is again out of print.) A plug in for my LNS where I work for sure but also a PSA for anyone wishing to benefit from these books and unsure where to get them! The Attic doesn’t have a website you can order directly from so just send an email or fill out the order request form. Ok.

I have written you a nice long boring post. I hope some of you liked reading most of it. Ha! I feel like maybe I’m writing a book about Dorcas bit by bit. Or maybe a stitch guide. Some of you have said me sharing my experience is useful so I will keep it up. That is all the typing I have in me right now. Hopefully I will get some FFOs to share next week so you can have something new to read about!