Slow Sunday Stitching - July 15, 2018

The band sampler continues to hum along.

This week I finished off the center band with the lettering, a band of simple satin stitch in the larger perle cotton with a few beads and started the row with the irregular eyelets.   My goal today is to finish that row; there's the rest of the eyelets, some satin and straight stitches and beading left to go on that row.  

One thing I like about the designer, Thea Duek, is her sense of balance.  Even though this series is all about whitework of various kinds, there's just enough color that this piece reads "red" with screaming "RED !!!!!"  It's lovely.

I also managed to get all the freezer paper templates cut out and ironed on the scraps of fabric for the Honeybee block that I'll be hand appliqueing for my sampler quilt.

The freezer paper is just there until I trace around it, then I'll do needleturn applique.   I'm thinking about trying glue basting on this just to try that method out.   I gave it a shot when I appliqued down the hexagon panel, but it was so heavy that it pulled away despite the glue and I ended up thread basting it.   These pieces are much lighter.  

And last but not least, the lace shawl is staying on track with two rounds a week.  Just finishing up Round 18 today.

Kathy's link up widget is broken, I'll link up with the SSS crew later.   Off to get ready for church!


ETA:  Here's the link to this week's post at Kathy's

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Fire" - Band 10

Another simple band, just some satin stitch with #8 perle cotton and beading.  

But this band does show how sometimes a very simple motif that allows the eye to 'rest' in a busy piece is very effective.  


It's like a 'break pattern' round in Shetland lace, or a neutral fabric in a quilt, or a rest in music, or a subtle pause in a story.

The Piggy Bank Challenge!

Last week, I found Val and her piggy bank challenge.  (I'll update to the 2018-2019 post when it goes up).  

I've always been a 'change saver' person.   And so this is right up my alley. 

No fancy piggy bank here, and no paper money.   Just a mason jar and all the change goes in there at the end of every day.  I follow Dave Ramsey's "envelope method" of budgeting and deliberately take out my 'pocket money' for personal spending in paper bills instead of using my debit card and I always pay with full bills (unless it's something like $3.01 and even then, sometimes I'll say 'oops, no change, sorry' and pocket nearly a buck in coins LOL).   I do keep a few quarters and dimes in the change purse part of my wallet in case I need to feed a parking meter.  

So what's my savings goal?   A really, really nice pair of Dovo embroidery scissors to start with.   That's about $50 to $75 depending on the model.  I can get them from the Silver Needle in Tulsa when I go to camp next fall (in October).   Since I'm starting with a nearly full jug, that should be do-able. 

But for the rest of the year, I think I will be saving towards an extension table for my vintage Singer Featherweight.   There are several at different price points and which one I get next year will depend on how much I can save!  (I am shooting for the expensive one with the gold detailing that matches my 1949 machine = so CUTE!!!)   

I will be dumping my change into the sorter at the credit union and putting the result into a separate savings account just to see how much I can save this year.

Come on over to the link up party (link to be added when it goes live); join up and see how much you can save!!

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Fire" - Band 9

The mid point band.  Very simple with running stitch lettering and two tiny areas of four sided stitch.


I didn't do the lettering in double running, because this doesn't need to be reversible.  The finished pieces will be framed, though I'm still debating if I want to frame them individually or in a single frame.  

I did discover with the first section of four sided stitch, that it works best if one uses an away waste knot that is located in the 'direction of travel' so that the four sided stitch is worked over the trailing thread.   This is a pulled thread stitch and once you 've gone over those two threads on each side, it's really difficult to wedge the thread in there to end it off.  The working end is bad enough, but shoving through both the working thread and the trailing thread is ......   Well, let's just say pliers were involved.

Slow Sunday Stitching - July 8, 2018

I am working along on the little band sampler.  

This week I did the drawn thread work with layered herringbone.  And another small dab of goldwork - sheaf stitch this time, which is a partially couched stitch that works up very quickly in this thread (Kreinik #4 braid) since it's nice and flexible.

This brings me to ten hours on this piece and about the mid point.   I do not want to loose momentum on this project, so I'm going to continue to work on it until it is done.  That means that I will skip Millennium this rotation.   I feel kind of bad about doing that, but I won't make a habit of it. 

On the lace shawl I'm going to finish round 16 this afternoon.  Slow and steady on that project.  

On the quilting front, I finally got all the materials to do the hand applique on the Honeybee block, so hopefully I can report on that next week.

Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday over on Kathy's blog where it's the start of the SEVENTH year of SSS.  Lots of interesting projects going on in our group.

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Fire" - Band 8

A very simple band this time.   Just sheaf stitch and beads.   The only difficult thing about this is handling the metallic braid as an embroidery thread instead of a surface couched thread.

There are four three long stitches and a couching stitch for completed motif.  I used a 'stabbing' motion on the stitching, going up and down in separate passes. The braid just has far too much texture to be 'sewn'.   It also helps to let the working thread dangle down every completed stitch to unkink. 

I have put in 10 hours on this and am not quite at the midpoint.   I am going to skip "Millennium" temporally, and keep working on this until it is finished.    

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Fire" - Band 7

This band on the Victoria Sampler piece is drawn thread work.  

Basically, drawn thread is a whitework technique that exposes all the threads in one direction (unlike Hardanger that exposes groups of four threads in both directions), and then does some type of decorative work on the exposed threads.   The very simplest drawn thread is to work a band of hemstitching along the top and bottom of the open area.   This band actually takes that a step further and puts a band of double herringbone stitch down the center that effective acts like a soft hemstitch.   Very textured and pretty.

Most of the time with this band was spent in the prep work.   You withdraw part of a thread and then weave back into the edge of the sampler.  The first thread is always the hardest, especially working right up against the beads this time.

Eventually you have removed and replaced parts of six threads.   If you do it right, it looks like the linen was woven with a void in the weft threads.

Then it's just a matter of doing the decorative work.