Friday, January 29, 2016

Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave

Most of my cross stitch projects look like plates of spaghetti when I try to photograph them.  I'm trying to determine which way of stitching I prefer.

I started this one (Ornament The Enchanted Christmas) using a version of cross country stitching.  That's where you stitch with a color until you've completed all the stitches of that color on a page, or the entire project (extreme cross country).  I don't complete all of them on the whole project, or even on the current page.  I stitch with that color until the current thread is finished, then I go back to the beginning and thread up the color for the next unstitched symbol.  And so on, and so on.  Gridding my fabric really helps with this process so I don't lose my place.


I had tried parking on another project, but didn't have much luck with it.  With that method, you stitch one 10 x 10 square at a time, completing all stitches on one color, then bringing the thread up in the next stitch of that color in an adjacent square and leave it "parked" until you complete that square.  I decided to try again, only starting at the bottom of the project instead of the top.  When I tried it before, I thought it was taking me too long because I was constantly threading and unthreading the needle.  Turns out I am actually stitching faster with this method because it takes less time to park one color then thread up the next than it does to search for the next symbol of the color currently on the needle.  My only problem now is I have tons of threads hanging around that are bound to get tangled up.  I need to find a method of keeping them organized when I put a project away for any extended period.

The photo above is what my project looked like on Tuesday evening after I finished stitching.  I'll get a new photo tomorrow, and plan to show progress on this one weekly.

Below is what Stocking Walk As One looked like at the beginning of the week


And here is what it looks like after finishing up yesterday.  Not a lot of progress, but every stitch counts and gets me closer to a finished project.


I didn't work on the stocking this afternoon as I was finishing up a few other projects that are gifts and need to get in the mail tomorrow.

I did work a bit on The Kiss however.  Again, not a lot of progress for the week, but every little bit helps.


This weekend I will again be working on Time I.  I'll show starting and ending photos on Monday.  The handy dandy RNG chose another Mirabilia project to be worked on next week.  This one is a mermaid that I've been working on a bit here and there for several years.  Again, photo on Monday.

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