Project Updates

More progress on Knotgarden - this is the upper left corner.

To keep straight which end is up, I've done a hemstitch across the top of the fabric in green thread, and the rest of the hemstitching is in white. Since the fabric is a 28 count lugana, the hemstitching also prevents fraying - I find lugana is particularly prone to this.

I'm leaning more and more towards using DMC floss instead of buying the varigated silks for some of the specialty stitches. I may buy the ones to use in the borders, but some of them are very sparingly used. If I subsitute, I'll use floss colors that are already within the pattern.



Sleeping Beauty is back in rotation. I'm just working my way down some of the lavender bedding. I'm debating about doing the hands and face over 1 - I like the look of it, but the actual stitching (especially on a darker background) can be a bit frustrating.

Sleeping Beauty has a bit of a history with me. I first attempted to do her back in the mid-90's, but I had never done a Mirabilia nor had I ever worked on linen (or any over 2) before. I saw the pattern at a LNS and just loved it, and splurged on the materials. Not long after I started, I gave it up - I kept making mistakes and having to frog, and all those frustrating things you do when you really do not know what you're doing. I don't know what happened to what I'd worked on - probably ditched it. About a year later, I was determined that I was going to learn to stitch on linen, did some research to learn some of the ins and outs, and ended up doing a much smaller project - a teacup that I still have - and I've never looked back.

I still love Sleeping Beauty, and am very happy to be back working on her now. Such a gorgeous piece! Thanks to Sandy on the Mirabilia yahoo group for helping me out with the fabric choice.

There are so many Mirabilias that I've fallen in love with over the years - that I still love them 10+ years later is very gratifying, and inspiring me to work through some of those favorites. The Queens, Fairy Idyll, now Sleeping Beauty and Midsummer Night's Fairy. It's really become kind of a bucket list. Rose of Sharon is another classic that I'll need (yes - need) to do, but I'm going to change the dress colors as I'm not overly fond of the yellow/blue she's wearing. I'm leaning towards a lavender/cream combination instead. I don't have a lot of embroideries where lavender is featured, so that'll make a nice change. I think that color combo on a cream background will give sort of a faded/antiqued overall finish which is appropriate for the piece.

There's some other future plans under the "Wish List" section to the left of the blog - just for fun.

I'm stalking my mailman for an order I placed with Nordic Needle...not that I need it anytime soon, but you know how that goes :-)