Brummie Blogger

The Great Escape - Wheat Ear stitch

I got a bit behind on this but I'm gradually catching up again. Part seven is the wings of the owl which are done in Wheat Ear stitch and I decided to do them in a darker colour. I quite liked doing this stitch but it was a bit fiddly to do because you have to take the needle under an already stitched thread, and then under another one. This took ages and there are a lot of stitches. Also, you have to work it from the top down so when you reach the bottom of each column you have to finish off and restart at the top of the next.

I got a bit bored of Wheat Ear stitch by the time I was half way through the second wing but I do like the effect of it. I'm going to carry straight on and do part eight, which hopefully won't take too long.

February's Cottage

I've got the next cottage ready to go and will be starting it at the beginning of February along with Tree. February's Cottage is really pretty with lots of pink and a bit of green and brown. I'm really looking forward to doing this one.

It's on the same fabric as January's Cottage which is that lovely 28ct Lambswool Permin. I've bought a huge piece of it so that I've got enough to do the remaining eleven cottages. It worked out to be more economical buying it that way and made sure I'd have it ready each month.

I realised that I'd have a piece of it left over though, and there was a chart in my wish list at Sew and So that used the same fabric. "Hmmm" I thought, "maybe I should get the chart that goes with the fabric."

Pretty, isn't it? And it turns out that Tree has the same chart in her stash so it looks like we have another SAL lined up.

I'm trying to catch up with The Great Escape before the start of February, and I'm bogged down in Wheat Ear stitch at the moment. Photo coming soon, I hope.

January Cottage - Finished

My first finish of the year. If all goes to plan there should be at least another eleven joining this one which'll be a record for me. I've mostly enjoyed stitching this too although I did hit a couple of snags along the way. There are in fact three errors in it. One I could change but it's making no difference at all so I'm leaving it. The other two you can barely see and they're not bothering me so again, I'm going to leave them. I'll just call them features.

I have come to the conclusion that I cannot do French Knots. I have no idea why. I did the first one and it was perfect. Great, I thought and went on to do the second one. The thread went straight through the fabric. So, I did it again, and again, and again. Every time exactly the same as the first one I did. The one that worked. Only these didn't.

Then I went and got some instructions and checked in case I was doing something really stupid. I wasn't. Needle up. Thread round needle twice. Needle down in a slightly different place. Thread held against fabric before needle goes all the way through and held in place as thread is pulled down. And it just doesn't work.

I was so patient. I sat there for almost an hour trying variations on that, looking in different books to see if any gave alternate instructions. I used blunt needles, sharp needles, I wound the thread twice or three times. Nothing worked.

In the end, I did the only rational thing. I used cross stitches instead. Result = one finished snowman, and one sane cross stitcher.

The only problem that I have now is that the next bit to do on my Tree of Stitches is...

... you guessed it - French Knots. Wonder how long it'll be before that one comes back out of the drawer.

January Cottage - nearly finished

I'm just about to carry on with my current favourite project, so before I do I thought I'd post an update. I didn't get much done during this last week. On Monday I went and got most of my hair cut off as it was really getting on my nerves. On Tuesday the tooth with the hole in it decided it didn't want to be ignored any longer. I've been pretending that it was ok for a couple of months now, but the hole got a bit bigger and it was getting a bit painful to eat. My dentist did a great job of taking the tooth out because I didn't feel a thing at the time. I did feel a bit unwell an hour or so later though and the next morning I woke with a migraine. That lasted for two days. So, not much stitching got done, as I said.

This is where I was up to before my stitching time got so rudely interrupted.

There's a mistake in there unfortunately. It's only a small one where I miscounted and I'm not sure if I'm going to correct it or not. At the moment it's not jumping up and down and waving at me but I'll have to see how much it's bothering me later.