FINISHED NEEDLEWORK: "BCS #5-1" by Victoria Sampler

 The last of the Victoria Sampler ornaments turned quilt blocks is complete!   This is number 9 of 9, and teaches how to set up kloster blocks for Hardanger cutwork, but does not include any cutting.   There are also Algerian Eyelets and Lazy Daisy leaves with backstitch stems. 

All nine of these ornaments will become blocks for a wall quilt eventually.  For the moment they will be going into the 'under the bed box' to await their turn in the quilt queue.   There are several projects ahead of them, unfortunately.   But I will get to them once I have found the right sashing and border fabric.  I may be at UFO zero on knitting and needlework, but with quilts it's an entirely different case - there are a dozen started quilts at least.   I'm hoping that retirement next year will give me time to work on them.  But for now let's talk about the next project up in the rotation:

Back a couple of years ago when I introduced  the KC Plaza Sewing Bag and gave the history, I debated where to put it in the rotation.  It could have fit into the Historic slot since the overall design is taken from a vintage 1930s sewing bag.   But I had Dutch Beauty in that slot, so I stuck it in the Pictorial slot since I'd just finished Teresa Wentzler's "Millennium" and I wasn't quite ready to commit to another big picture piece at that point.  Well, I now have a full coverage pictorial going with the "Sugar Skull", and a new historic inspired project ready to go in the frame - a new BBD Loose Feathers kit that I'll introduce soon.

To complicate things, in general smalls and ornaments are done as part of the modern slot.   And despite the size of the project, the sewing bag IS the final piece of the KC Historic Sampler Guild smalls.

All of this is just a long winded way to say that I'm moving this project into the modern / smalls slot for the rest of its duration as a WIP starting with ten additional hours in the modern slot in this rotation.

Slow Sunday Stitching - May 28, 2023

Wow, this week went fast!   Work's been heating up for the end of the month stuff.  With the three day weekend and the first of the month falling mid week, next week will be even more frantic.  The US celebrates Memorial Day - the equivalent of Remembrance Day - on Monday, which is a time to remember our fallen service personnel.   

It's also Ascension Day today.  Since my church is named "Grace", we don't have a patron saint for the parish.  So we celebrate on the day that the greater church received the 'grace of the Spirit'.  There's a picnic today and just one service, and of course bells are playing.  Wish me luck - one of the pieces we have not had a chance to practice with the choir that we will be accompanying until this morning!

On the crafting front, I finished the ten hours on the crewel Eagle (changeover post here).  And I started in on the last of the Victoria Sampler ornament/quilt blocks. 

This one doesn't have any cutwork, despite the Kloster blocks in progress.   It's teaching how to set up the blocks.  Even though I'm no novice with Hardanger, I did learn a couple of tricks about how the 'path' that is stitched can be planned for maximum stability of the future cutwork.  It's going so fast that I should have it finished by the time the long weekend is over.  ETA:  Finished post here!

Linking up with the SSS crew (current roundup here).

FINISHED NEEDLEWORK: "BCS #4-2" by Victoria Sampler

 Back in the early 2000s, Thea Dueck of Victoria Sampler did a whole series of 50 ornaments, "Beyond Cross Stitch Learning Collection", each teaching one or two specialty stitches, from the very simple to quite complex.  Each batch of 10 ornaments addressed a specific set of skills.  The first level was basic specialty stitches (things like Smyrna Cross, Simple Eyelets, etc), I think the second may have been ribbon work (don't have any of those).  Level three is more complex texture - Rhodes, Double Running, etc.  The fifth level is Hardanger.   This project is from level four, which is drawn thread and pulled thread work.  They were re-issued in a slightly larger chart/package format in the 2010s with an additional 10 kits in a Level Six (Advanced Hardanger) and were available on Thea's website until a few years ago when the kits stopped being available.   I am not sure, but I think the patterns may still be available as online classes. 

All of these little kits have a stitched area about 3 x 3 inches / 8 x 8 cm on 25 count Lugana or Dublin linen with all the thread, beads and charms included.  The overall stitch count is around 40 x 40 over two.  Designs varied, but about half were either explicitly Christmas themed or had colors that were in the red and pink plus floral greenery range (or could be adapted to be there easily). 

I have 9 Christmas (or Christmasish) kits that I've collected over the years.  Three have been done in the past, but never fully finished.

I have three more of the Christmas Caroling ones like the bottom one above, and two 'odds and sods' ones in sort of Christmas colors.  

I'm thinking of using all nine as blocks in a small wall quilt.  I'll need to back the hardanger and drawn thread ones with some fabric, but looking at them plopped on a random hunk of solid '30s green , that will work fine. 

So look for the remaining five little kits to pop up sporadically in the 'Modern' slot of my rotation or as a travel project.  They only take about five to seven hours to stitch (and since none of the others have any cutwork, they will be on the faster end, I'm sure).  

This one took about seven and half hours, so I still have a couple of hours left in the Modern slot for this round of the rotation.  I'm going to get the Plum Street Samplers "Corgi Caboodle" on the scroll rods. 
 

GRRRR

 I hate eyelets.  This is all.

(I actually love eyelets, but doing them in hand is much more difficult than doing them with the fabric on a frame......)

Ten done, six to go.

Slow Sunday Stitching - December 26, 2020

 Hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Christmas holiday.  If you don't, hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

I did not get my sister's gift done, but it wasn't for lack of trying!  It's at the halfway point, though.  She thought it was a hat at first LOL. 

When it's done, it will be a Muppet.  (Pattern is Yip Yips on Ravelry).  Pattern (and photo below) by Carissa Browning.

Copyright Carissa Browning

I am right at the start of the 'mouth' area.  So funky and cute.  Kimi is a total Muppet fan girl and "Kermit green" is a favorite color of hers.  

And both of my socks now have heel flaps, heel turns and the gussets picked up. Even when I'm working socks with the magic loop technique on a long circular needle, I prefer to pick up the gussets using double points.  I think it's just easier to get the right count and not twist anything you don't want twisted if you do this step in two parts instead of "pick up and knit".  (The two legs and the two heel flaps are exactly the same length, but the right one happened to roll under in both places when I took this picture,)

There's also been quite a bit of this going on in the push to get the Sampler Sweetbag done before the end of the year.  Sixteen of these little buggers...  

Getting more of these done today will be my SSS project (after I check out all the rest of the crew).  Link to this week's roundup.

FINISHED NEEDLEWORK: Victoria Sampler "4 Elements: Fresh Air" converted to yellow

Designer: Victoria Sampler

Fabric:  28 count Cashel Linen

Threads: Caron Waterlillies Over dyed silk (daffodil)

DMC perle cotton 8 and 12 white

Kreinik Silk Mori (lightest lemon and dark butter)

Kreinik #4 braid (gold and lemon)

Kreinik Cord (gold)

Beads by Mill Hill and Fire Mountain Gems (?)

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 17

A simple band between the two most complex areas on this little sampler.  Four sided stitch and "tiny heart".   The bead on the original version was a "Tiny Rose Quartz Heart" from Access Commodities.  Well, 'barely there pink' isn't in the revised color pallet.  But my friend Beth, who is a fantastic jeweler, offered up a tiger's eye bead that is very close in size to the Access Commodities beads.   I picked the lightest, most yellow one out of her stash, and I think it looks great.

Just the bottom band of bargello - "River of Air" left.

ETA:  Beth isn't sure of the source, but it's probably Fire Mountain Gems.  She gets most of her beads from there.  Not co-incidentally, that's where I got the malachite beads for the "Green Earth" sampler.  Lots of lovely beads available there.  I just wish you could order single beads, because even the smaller jewelers' lots are more than you need for most needlework.   (I traded several of the left over malachite beads for this one, win/win.)

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 16

This band is interlaced hemstitching.  It presented several interesting challenges.   First as I mentioned in the last post - it's deep - 10 threads, which in this linen is nearly a half inch.  And it's not hemstitched.  The threads are just left loose in the fabric.


Set up and ready for embellishment

You can't leave them like that, of course, the ground threads above and below would eventually start to 'migrate' into the openwork area.  

So the next step is to twist each set of four threads.   I used an extra, sturdy needle to make the twist.  I know that often the instructions will have you just use the working needle, but you have to insert it oddly for the second side to work and it's just very awkward and also puts a lot of stress on the working thread.  In this case, the working thread is 12 Perle cotton and could probably handle it.  But the two needle method is just miles easier.

Last, but certainly not least, those beads between each twist.  The pattern calls for the same petite beads used in the last couple of areas of openwork and elsewhere on the sampler.  I tried.  Oh, how I tried.  But the perle cotton is just too big for the bead opening.  I broke a needle threader, a beading needle and three beads before I gave up and searched in the stash for standard Mill Hill beads in a similar metallic gold.   It went much better then.   And I think the larger size works perfectly for the spacing in this band anyhow.  The petite ones would be 'skimpy'.

One final note.  Often this type of openwork has the vertical edges done in satin stitch, like you'd do for Hardanger.  That goes MUCH faster than preparing the threads by re-weaving.  I do like this look with the rewoven ground, but it begs the question - where/how that center working thread is anchored without the satin stitch edge to hold it?   I secured it with several backstitches in the right selvage, brought the thread to the back and anchored it along the correct ground thread with a tiny over one back stitch every inch, then brought the thread up in the 'turn' of the re-woven ground stitches 5 and 6.  Worked the twists and beads across, down into the turn of the threads at the left edge of the openwork, tiny back stitches every inch or so across to the selvage and ended off. 

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 14

Another band of pulled thread work.  This one is "Pulled Bricking".  Unlike the four sided stitch above (and upcoming), not all the sides are 'pulled'.  Only the short verticals are wrapped and distorting the ground threads.  The horizontal stitches are not pulled at all and lie on the surface of the ground fabric. 

This makes an interesting pattern that looks almost woven.

Just an accidental shot, but it looks like the 'art-sy magazine photo'  LOL.
By the way, if you are doing this project, this band starts and ends one thread in from the other bands!  Yes, there was a bit of frogging, but luckily I noticed near the start of the band as pulled thread work is not that easy to pull out and the deliberate distortion of the ground can linger even when the working threads are removed.

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Bands 12 and 13

This section is actually several bands the work together to make a complex compound band.   The designer, Thea Dueck, broke it into two sections, but there are actually four distinct bands.   First a simple cross stitch border frames the area on both the top and bottom of the band.  Thea has this as Band 12.  

Next there is a band of slightly modified half diamond eyelets; the center vertical stitch is shortened by one thread to accommodate a bead on the tip of the pyramid.  Then there are darling little Rhodes Stitch butterflies in the overdyed silk - two threads with antennae of a single strand of the darker silk. 

I love doing Rhodes Stitch; clever designers can tweak it to make all kinds of interesting shapes.  You do have to use a laying tool to get the strands to lie parallel - having a smooth appearance to the threads really is essential to having the Rhodes Stitch look good.

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 11

The title band on this one falls a little below the center, but I still feel like I've passed a milestone now that I have it in.   The same font and little bit of four sided pulled stitch as the other title bands.  I wasn't happy with the darker silk for the lettering - it was still too pale.  So I went with a DMC (one strand) that is just a couple of shades darker but still in the same color family. 

Finished this yesterday, but didn't get the post written up.  Backdating. 

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 10

Another drawn thread band.  This one is six open threads with the more common 'four sided' hemstitch.   Unlike band 5, I got right into the rhythm of this stitch and it went pretty fast.   Beading, on the other hand, took a bit.  Lots of bling in this row!

 

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 6

This band is pulled thread.  Unlike the drawn thread band above, no threads are removed.  Pulled thread just deliberately distorts the ground threads in a decorative pattern.  The chart for this one has errors in the center section, but I figured it out from the cover photo. 

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 5

This was a deceptively simple looking band. 

Withdrawing the threads for the drawn thread work was simple - just two sets of two.  But take a close look at how they are gathered - every OTHER set is hemstitched, the alternate sets are left free and then pin stitched two threads below the openwork area.  I could not get into a rhythm and had to look at the stitch diagram for every repeat.  Then when attaching the beads, I had to turn the work over with every bead to run threads though the circling stitches above and below so that the beading thread wouldn't show through the open areas between the beads.  

Very fiddley, but effective.

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 4

Band four on the VS "Air" is a very simple slanted Gobelin Stitch band.  This stitch looks good on both the front and back.  There's very heavy thread coverage on the back, which 'pillows' the work on the front so that it looks denser than it is.   This stitch is often used in counted canvas pieces and needlepoint

 

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 1

Success!   The Fray Check reinforced satin stitch was enough to keep the hardanger area intact for Band 1 of Victoria Sampler's "Four Elements: Fresh Air".  

You can really see now how that center band in the 'window' is unsupported and why it needed reinforced!  Four little threads holding it together!!!!!

The rest of the piece is pretty straight forward, but lots of decisions will need to be made with the colors as I am doing a conversion from "baby blue and pink" to "bright yellows" in order for the piece to make sense with the strong reds, kelly greens, and medium blues of the other three pieces in the series.

Slow Sunday Stitching - March 29, 2020

The quarantine continues, our state is now in lockdown and we've had the first local death - a woman just five years older than me. 

But here at Casa Threads, there is work and housework and handwork aplenty to keep me occupied.  I do miss the social interaction, but my son is checking in on me regularly and there are the daily video calls with my co-workers.   And of course my online communities are busier than ever.  (I am linking up with one of them - Slow Sunday Stitching.)

And I have been knitting up a storm.  As I mentioned in my 'travel project' changeover post, I rather binge watched a couple of BBC historic/anthropology series that are available on Amazon Prime last Sunday, knitting all the while on the sock feet and got my socks done by mid week - no work knitting this week, I was slammed with month end things.

I was able to keep them matching until down toward the end of the gussets, but when I hit the FIFTH knot in these two balls, I was out of matching yarn.  So the feet are at best fraternal twins.   But at least the part that shows when you wear them are more or less matching.

Then my knitting attention turned back to the Rosemarkie vest.  I cut the first arm steek,

picked up the ribbing and have the first arm ribbing almost done!

And for those of you who are going "she cut a hole in her knitting????WHAT!!!!", here's a shot of what's going on inside.

The checkerboard is one half of the steek (the temporary bridge of stitches across the arm opening which was created to allow the work to continue in the round), cut up the center of the white stitch as in the photo above.  I then picked up the ribbing well in from the cut edge (which is also secured by the line of hand stitching I put in before cutting).  The steek then folds in to make a nice facing. 

Even the very edge right next to the cut is holding up pretty well to the stress of having the ribbing put on and will continue to felt into the body of the vest as it is washed and worn.  This is an historic technique that works well in Shetland style yarns - they are 'hairy' and will felt from just normal humidity and wear.  I will tack the steek edge down to encourage that once the ribbing is finished.  I have just three more rounds to do before binding off this side.

With the socks done, I introduced "Lucy Boston" as my new carry along project.  I know I said I wouldn't work on Block 7 until after the quarantine was lifted, but then I needed to see if my colors would work, right?  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) 

I have all twelve of the dark pieces prepped and the remaining light ones cut and ready for basting.

And last but not least, the cutwork continues on the Victoria Sampler piece.  So far, so good.  That middle section where the thread does not go across has held up to the cutting and thread removal at least.   We will see how the weaving goes after (online) church - that's my SSS goal for today.

I'm trying very hard to resist the spate of 'quarantine quilt alongs', 'start a new stitching project for self care', 'are we bored yet knit alongs' that are happening.  I have enough stash and works in progress to keep me occupied, thanks.  That being said, I did pull out an old UFO stitching project that was a class back in 2000 and worked on it for a couple of hours Friday night.  It's a Sharon Cohen sweet bag that was published in Just Cross Stitch back in Aug 1996.  Technically, this should be waiting patiently until I finish Dutch Beauty and a space in the 'historic/vintage' slot opens up since it's inspired by pieces from the Elizabethan period.   But it's better than a new start or throwing my needlework rotation out the window altogether, right?

where I started

after a couple of hours of 'guilty pleasure' stitching

Stay safe, everyone. And happy stitches.

Slow Sunday Stitching - March 22, 2020

Very surreal week this week.   My work has transitioned to work from home, which I always wanted to try.   Still working out the bugs - especially for printing, but Skype meetings are working well.  But other than seeing video of my co-workers and waving at the mail man and the neighbors, I haven't seen a soul all week.   Guild is cancelled, as are church services and my choir.  I'm totally out of my usual routine. 

But I'm all caught up on laundry LOL.  And it's nice to be able to cook every day.  I need to add in a walk over my lunch hour, and watch the amount of snacks.  It's too easy to nosh all day with the kitchen just steps away. 

There's been quite a bit of crafting, as I'm sure is the case with everyone in the Slow Sunday Stitching crew (link to the week's roundup). 

First and foremost - the hand pieced Christmas Carpenter's Wheel is done!  I really like the way this one turned out.  It will be a striking focal for the eventual sampler / orphan block quilt.  I'm leaning toward doing this 'medallion style' with this block as the center.  But right now, I'm just collecting blocks of all sizes.  Since this is only added to when I want to do a 'test' block, it will take a long time to get enough blocks for a decent sized quilt.

needs a good press, but it will be folded up
in the project box, so ironing will be later

The socks also got quite a bit of time this week.  The gussets are done on both of them.  Now it's all plain knitting down to the toes.   Since these are the travel project and I'm obviously not going anywhere, these are getting a few rounds off and on during my work day and also the 'TV knitting' time.  The majority of the knitting this week was during a long meeting (Skype) that I had to attend but not present for, so I wasn't up on the video.  And also some online professional development classes that didn't need much note taking.  I focus so much better if my hands are busy.  

I haven't put as much time this week into the Victoria Sampler "Air" as I had hoped, but I did get the first of the 'curtain' panels done and the second side panel cut.  Once again, I used Janice Love's excellent Hardanger series for a reference.  This time, 'wrapped bars with dove's eyes' and 'Greek crosses' were in the second book "Fundamentals Made Fancy".  So far, so good on the cutwork. 

pin is keeping the pink basting tails out of the way until the center is cut

 Stay well, everyone.


ETA:  My church hosted Morning Prayer online (link to the main page, recorded service is embedded) , which was interesting and I really enjoyed it.  We are also doing Compline (the late evening service) live on our Facebook page at 9 every night.  I have been doing the early Morning Prayer as my Lenten discipline, so my days are bounded in reverence.

Slow Sunday Stitching - March 15, 2020

Well, I have TP, but no eggs!  I braved the grocery store last night, and it looks like something you'd see in a socialist country with aisles of empty shelves.  But we will get through this.  It's a good day to hunker down and spend sometime with my online stitching buddies at the Slow Sunday Stitching crew.  (Link to current round up.)

Other than that, it's been a great week.  I took a couple of days off and babysat my grandkids for their spring break.  We watched movies and played board games.  They are cut-throat at "Sorry". 

And crafts were also worked on.

Since I was out of the house, the socks got the most attention.  I got the heel flaps and turns done on both of them and the gussets picked up.  That's the fiddley bits done.

On the needlework front, I got the fix done on the VS "Four Elements - Air" band sampler and the remaining satin stitch completed.  I am ready to cut the side areas for the 'curtains' in traditional Hardanger.  That's today's Slow Sunday Stitching project.

And the hand pieced Carpenter's Wheel is on the final triangles around the edge - two done, six to go.  I'm not going to jinx myself and say that it will be done this week, but I am hopeful.  Picture when I get the that point, of course.

Needlework WiP: "VS 4 Elements: Air" Band 1 Set up

As with all of this series of small samplers, the top band is modern Hardanger.  In this case, the area is a 'window' with lacy 'curtains' on either side. 

Now traditional Hardanger is formed with kloster blocks that are in a four by four grid.  The open areas have four threads on each side (or more if on the edge of the lace area) that go all the way across the lace and into the ground fabric on the other side.  This makes Hardanger surprisingly sturdy.   It had to be sturdy, it's used for table linens, towels and aprons, after all.   And it holds up to fairly vigorous laundry.  Historically, laundry of the 'boiling water with lye soap, wringers and washboards' type.   Even though the most ornate versions were probably used for 'Sunday best' clothes and 'the preacher is coming to dinner/holiday dinner' type use, those items still had to be washed fairly frequently.

The problem is that modern Hardanger doesn't always follow the four by four rule.  The other three pieces in this series did, but used shaped kloster blocks and different fillings to make their designs.  THIS one, though uses four by four blocks in the 'curtains' and six by six blocks in the 'window'.

Vertically, that's not an issue, the threads running from the top to the bottom of the lace area go into the ground fabric just fine.   But horizontally is another thing.  There are exactly two sets of two threads each in the entire area that go all the way across.   That's not nearly enough for structural stability.  You can see in the photo below, the pink basting is where the threads will be cut.   Especially problematic is that highlighted center bit.

It's hard to see, but the right basting will be cut.  Directly opposite that cut is a woven bar in the 'window' section.  Only four threads keep the entire thing from falling apart.

So the solution is one that I would NEVER use with traditional Hardanger - Fray Check.   I'm going to run a line of it down both sides of the center 'window' before I do the satin stitch in that area.  Heresy to use it on fine needlework, but needs must.

I sure hope this works......