Thursday 31 July 2014

Footprints #1

So, my new project is called Footprints and it is a kit by Bucilla. It is the first project I've ever worked on linen! Actually, that's a fib - one of the first projects I ever started way back when was Peacock Majesty by Teresa Wentzler but it was so beyond my skill level at the time that I've never finished it - it's about the only project I've never completed. I made so many errors it is beyond fixing now, I'd have to restart and I think the experience of it being so complicated has put me off trying again, even though I really love the picture. Anyway, I've decided to give this one a go now and I completed quite a bit last night - I even surprised myself!
I wanted to complete the curly bits of 'you' at the bottom, but it was already 10.30pm when I finished the thread and looked up at the clock, and I just couldn't stay up any longer...
This is one of those kits that doesn't have the threads already separated and labelled - I spent a while trying to sort them out and I just hope I've selected them correctly. It's so hard to tell how, for example, 'mint green', 'light green' and 'light mint green' differ, especially when they have the same number of threads.

And an update on the Heartfelt series I've been stitching recently - thanks to a comment from Tricia, I'm now aware of at least 2 others in the set - which I have now ordered... I'll still get the ones I've finished framed tomorrow and will stitch these 2 new ones once I finish Footprints.

Happy Stitching,
Kerrie

6 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your finishes and the new start. From bitter experience, I would advise you to double check your thread separation in daylight. Hope you enjoy working on linen.

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  2. I was about to tell you about a couple more in the heartfelt series as well.

    Is this one of the ones you have ordered:

    http://www.ilovecrossstitch.co.uk/cross-stitch-kits/give-thanks-counted-cross-stitch-kit

    And this one

    http://www.ilovecrossstitch.co.uk/oh-sing-counted-cross-stitch-kit

    And finally this one which I think Teresa may have already linked to.

    http://www.ilovecrossstitch.co.uk/hope-lord-counted-cross-stitch-kit

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  3. Glad to help! : ) Your new start is going to be beautiful!!

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  4. I also meant to add that I think you should restart Teresa Wentzler's Peacock pattern. I think you are an amazing stitcher and I am sure it is now well within your capabilities. Perhaps a project to kick of 2015?

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  5. I think you could manage the TW piece now, you are such a good stitcher! And yes, do be extra careful with the sorting of the threads - I had this piece almost halfway done when I realized I hadn't done the threads right and there was some sort of a big hangup about it. I don't quite remember because it was years and years ago, but I just know that I got so frustrated that I never finished it and even cut up the rest of the fabric to use for something else. Buuuut, that being said, double check the floss and then just go with whatever you decide the colors are. I am sure if you use 'light mint green' in a place that calls for 'light green', it will be fine :)

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  6. Sorting the floss in kits is my least favorite part of kits. I don't do a lot of kits anymore (I did mostly kits when I first started stitching) and most of them don't have sorted floss. A few years ago I got one of the Disney Kinkade pieces (the Snow White one) and the amount of floss to sort in it was insane! Like 60+ colors. I agree with one of the commenter's suggestion to look at the colors in daylight because that really does help sometimes.

    I have come to love stitching on linen. Once your eyes adjust to how the fabric works, it's just as easy as stitching on Aida, plus fractional stitches are so much easier.

    Don't be too discouraged on the TW piece. Her stitching is very complicated and it probably wasn't the linen itself that did you in. Never be afraid to try again. I let a piece sit for years because I made a mistake but eventually I went back and fixed the problem with minimal frogging. The problem with it may not be as large as you think. I found grid lines help a lot on large pieces like that too.

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