Well, I've put in my 10 hours on Teresa Wentzler's Millennium. Last rotation, I finished all the stitching on both of the angels; this round I wanted to do the back stitching down to the under tunics (the gold back stitching on that part will be done when I work on the base of the arch and the lettering there since the 'fabric' of the under tunics overlaps over the 'stone' of the base in several places). But in order to work on the back stitching, I had to have at least one stitch on the outside of the figures. I put in a 'needle's worth' of each color, then proceeded to finish the back stitching of the torch poles, outer masonry, wings and upper tunics with their sleeves.
Where I started:
And where I ended up:
I will admit that since most of the work was back stitching this time, the change in the coverage isn't as dramatic as it is some rounds, but I love the way the back stitching makes the figures so much more distinct. I'm looking forward to seeing how the center landscape part fills in next time this comes up in rotation.
And now for the Zombie Kittens. As I have mentioned before, as I'm packing up for my move this spring, I keep finding partially finished projects tucked away. I call these "Zombie" projects because it's like they have come back from the dead. I have trashed a few where they were either damaged beyond fixing or were a "what WAS I thinking??!!" type of project. Most, though, are still to my taste or at least something that I don't mind working on. This project is more the later.
It's a set of two surface embroidery pillow cases. I had worked the crochet edging and most of the first pillow case before abandoning them. These have to date from no later than the mid 1970s (and possibly even into the late 1960s) since after about 1976 I didn't do much surface embroidery; counted thread work became my embroidery of choice. Also the finished one has some faint rust spots in an oval, which I know would have been from my grandmother's vintage cork lined spring hoop, which I stopped using then when I realized it was leaving marks.
Not exactly to my taste now, but with only the embroidery on the second case to finish, I will go ahead and work them up. Maybe Alexis would like them. There were no threads with these, so I think the second one will be a black kitten with silver paws and tail tip. There's about five different shades of grey in this one, and I'm not going to spend time trying to color match.
Where I started:
And now for the Zombie Kittens. As I have mentioned before, as I'm packing up for my move this spring, I keep finding partially finished projects tucked away. I call these "Zombie" projects because it's like they have come back from the dead. I have trashed a few where they were either damaged beyond fixing or were a "what WAS I thinking??!!" type of project. Most, though, are still to my taste or at least something that I don't mind working on. This project is more the later.
It's a set of two surface embroidery pillow cases. I had worked the crochet edging and most of the first pillow case before abandoning them. These have to date from no later than the mid 1970s (and possibly even into the late 1960s) since after about 1976 I didn't do much surface embroidery; counted thread work became my embroidery of choice. Also the finished one has some faint rust spots in an oval, which I know would have been from my grandmother's vintage cork lined spring hoop, which I stopped using then when I realized it was leaving marks.
I have a set of embroidered pillowcases that my grandmother made for me when I was little. All of her 13 grandchildren received them for Christmas one year. I laughed when you said your cats were zombies! It’s interesting to see the before and after pictures of your counted cross stitch project. Happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteI also have some vintage pillowcases given to me by my grandmother. Those are lovely heavy cotton. This set is a lighter poly-cotton fabric and not my first choice for embroidery. But with just one pillowcase left to embroider, I figure it should go fast(ish).
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