Brummie Blogger

The Great Escape - part sixteen

This part consisted of some more flowers and some stems. The flowers were simple enough. They're just Eyelet stitch worked around in a square, leaving a square empty in the centre. I'll be putting beads in there once it's all finished. After doing several variations on both Eyelet stitch and Ray stitch for the first part of Around the World, this posed no problems at all.

For the flowers I used one of the off-whites that I've used for the other flowers. The green is the same one used for the stems at the bottom of the design. I'm trying to use as few colours as possible to keep it looking more like a night scene.

The stems were done in backstitch on the chart but Abi suggested several variations on that to make them stand out more. She gave instructions for a couple of types of whipped backstitch and also a thinner chain stitch. I decided to be a rebel though and got out my Jane Greenoff book to find something interesting, and ended up using stem stitch. I think it looks quite good and is another stitch that I hadn't used before.

Not much left to do now. I'm guessing it'll be the remaining flowers on the right side for the next part and the moon and stars for the final part.

The Great Escape - part fifteen

There wasn't much to do for part fifteen but I needed to get some more thread to use for the spider's web. I had a couple of different metallic threads but nothing in my stash was suitable. I finally found something in Hobbycraft. I've used some DMC in a silver. It's not ideal but it's better than anything that I had and it saved having to send for something online and then paying postage. And you just know that if I'd done that, I'd have added several more items to my order to make it worthwhile...

This is the spider and his web that caused all the problems.

It's quite difficult to get the web to show up on a photo. It's supposed to look like a web glistening in the moonlight, which it does pretty much, but that doesn't translate digitally.

The other bit of part fifteen was a few flowers on the other side of the Owl. They were in Lazy Daisy stitch but weren't the same as the ones that I've been doing for Around the World. The instructions for TGE were excellent though and I had a good read through them before doing the other project and they helped a lot with the Lazy Daisy stitch on that even though it was done a bit differently.

This will have beads in the centre of the flowers but as with the others, I'll add them once I've finished the whole project.

Just three more parts to do now. I've got part sixteen printed off and will be doing it this week if all goes to plan. I can't believe it's almost finished.

The Great Escape - part fourteen

I've decided that I don't like Van Dyke stitch. It's not that it's particularly hard to do. It's not. It's just hard to get the tension the same all the way down. Plus, the stitch sort of wiggles from side to side once it's done so it just doesn't look neat. I can't get a consistently tidy finish to it and that annoys me.

This is what it looks like, in Crescent Colours Dark Chocolate.

There was quite a lot of it to do, three rows in all, and the rows were split so had to be stopped and restarted as you have to have a special starter stitch at the top. Then there was the backstitch along the sides, and the backstitching that makes up the sign with a touch of cross stitch.

If you don't look too closely at the wiggly and uneven bits of the Van Dyke stitch, it looks ok, so overall I'm quite happy with it. It's made quite a difference to the picture now. The mouse that is trying to make his escape can now see which direction his home is, so he knows which way to run.

Can't wait to do a bit more to this. I wonder what we'll be stitching next. Some more flowers perhaps? Or maybe a spider...

The Great Escape - part thirteen

Two new stitches for part thirteen, both for flowers in the moonlight. The bottom flower is in Star stitch. There are only six flowers but they took a while to do as each one had to be done separately as any thread carried across the back would have shown. Also, I was being careful to get the threads to lay neatly. I've just ordered a trolley needle to help with all these fancy stitches.

In the centre of the flowers I can put either a bead or a French knot. I think I'll probably use beads and I'm sure I have some that are suitable. I'll add them at the end though. Abi also says that some beads could be added around the smaller flowers so I may do that too. I'll have a better idea if I want to do that once the rest is done.

The upper flowers are done in Tied Windmill stitch and again each one is done separately. Lots of counting, checking and double-checking of threads to get the placement right. The two lots of flowers are done in slightly different shades. Both overdyes so there's a variegation. The lower one is a touch darker. Both colours will be used quite a bit more throughout the design.

This is how it looks now.

I've still got part fourteen to do, which I'll be starting today or tomorrow. There's quite a lot of stitching in that. And then, finally, I can start Around the World as I'll have the fabric. Sew and So are replacing the problem fabric for me. It's in the post now so will probably arrive tomorrow.

The Great Escape - part twelve

There wasn't much to do for this part. There's one more mouse added. He's sitting beneath the first mouse encouraging him to make his escape from the owl. He's made of the same stitches as the first mouse and I used the same silk for him. I do like using that silk. It feels lovely and smooth on my fingers.

There are also two beetles. You can see one in the photo above. He's just peeking out from the log. I used some silk for him too, from the same card of leftovers as the mouse silk. It's CC Belle Soie and is just a shade darker than the log, although it's difficult to tell from the photo.

The other beetle isn't hiding so you can see all of him.

As you can see from the full picture, this beetle is at the edge of the design and is running off into the distance.

I love this design and I'm really enjoying doing a bit every couple of weeks.

I'm going to do a bit more to the Cottage now as virtually none got done over the weekend due to the excellent F1 coverage on the new Sky channel. Luckily I have this week off work. I'll be out and about quite a bit, including my trip to the NEC for Sewing for Pleasure, but I should find lots of stitching and reading time.

The Great Escape - part eleven

Part eleven took me a little longer than I thought it would. I mean hey, it's only backstitch and straight stitch. That shouldn't be very time consuming. Right? Wrong. As I don't know what might be going in and around all of this part, I had to make sure that every stitch was in exactly the right place so I had to count, recount, and then count again. And as you can see, it goes all over the place.

The log and shading is in a chocolate brown and the grass is in a mossy green. Both are overdyed threads so there's some variegation. I do like the knots in the log although they were very fiddly to do. I think it's starting to look more like a scene now with the various parts appearing.

This is a close up of the log with its knots.

I've got part twelve printed off and may do that over the weekend. It adds another mouse and a couple of beetles and in the next part I think we start adding some flowers so I'm looking forward to that.

I need to fish out some simple stitching, maybe the Cottage, ready for the qualifying and race coverage over the weekend. I think the Hamilton cross stitch piece may be coming out from its temporary retirement soon too. I just need to finish Firefly, catch up with The Great Escape and finish this month's cottage. Not much then...

The Great Escape - Rhodes stitch

Part ten is the mouse, who is attempting to make his great escape from the clutches of the owl, who has mouse's tail under his talons. Mouse is made up of Octagonal Rhodes stitch, Heart Rhodes stitch and an adapted Ray stitch. There's some backstitch forming his ear, paws and tail too.

This part wasn't difficult at all. Rhodes stitch is simply a case of making sure you start in the right hole and then following the chart exactly. As Abi provides very good instructions and an excellent chart from which to work, you can't really go wrong with this, as long as you get the placement right.

This is how the whole thing looks now.

I used a slightly different colour for the mouse and to give just a touch of texture I used silk. I had some left over from a coffee design that I stitched and one of the colours just looked mouse-like. It's Crescent Colours Belle Soie and the colour is Cinnamon stick. It's very pretty.

I rather liked the height you get to the stitch with Rhodes. I took a close up at an angle to show it better.

I'm caught up with this again now and won't be starting the next cottage until March 1st. That's all prepped ready so there's nothing left for me to do to that, leaving me with almost a week to do something else. I have four other WIPs so you'd think I'd be getting on with one of those, wouldn't you? That was the plan but when I was rummaging last week, I came across the Pixel People charts that I have printed off. I've been wanting to make a start on one of those for a while. I do really like them so today, instead of cracking on with an existing WIP, I've started a new one.

Yes, really.

It was a toss up between The Eleven Doctors and Firefly but Firefly won. I spent a very happy hour earlier stitching Mal from his boots up. He's missing his coat until I get the right brown though. I may go shopping later...

The Great Escape - Queen stitch

The owl now has some feet and is complete. Next we'll be working on the rest of the design so I'm quite excited to find out what's coming up next. Queen stitch was interesting. It wasn't difficult and wasn't as fiddly as the previous two stitches but it did take some concentration on the placement. I like the effect though and I do like his feet.

I've taken a close up shot of one of his feet to show off the stitch a little more.

I've made a start on the February Cottage of the month. It's so pretty. I'm doing the cottage itself first starting off with the lovely deep pink and I'm really enjoying it. Update coming soon.

The Great Escape - Buttonhole stitch

This is part eight and is the area just below the owl's breast feathers and is shaped where his feet will go when I do part nine. This was another slightly fiddly stitch but it didn't take too long to do once I'd got into a rhythm.

Tomorrow I'll be starting on February's Cottage of the month. Everything is laid out so it's all ready to go. This afternoon I didn't prepare just one piece of fabric, or even two. No, I've prepped three pieces so I'm all set for March and April too. It's not often I get a burst of enthusiasm for the sewing machine or the iron so I thought I'd make the most of it.

I'll get the owl's feet sorted at some point too. He looks as if he really needs them now, don't you think?

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.