Mary goes for coffee

I took Mary Wigham out for coffee the other day...I didn`t have any time to actually stitch on her here, as I had to shop before the stores closed...

This was my progress up til that point...you can see I took the black out the leaves around the squirrel were done in and used the lovely green (my favorite colour). In the medallion on the right, I substituted the black with the dark brownish red...

Isn`t this a cozy cafe? In fact, It`s called the Cozy Internet Cafe...I think i`ll take my stitching someday soon and drink lattes all day!

Keep stitching ladies!

Traditional Stitching

I Have have been on a rather tight budget lately, saving for expenses which I am sure will be incurred during my upcoming move to the USA, but when I opened my email today and opened up the latest newsletter from Traditional Stitches I just could not resist buying some of her fabrics.

I have been stitching Mary Wigham on 36 ct. This has been somewhat of a stitching revelation for me. I have always stuck to 32 ct and larger, thinking I could not see well enough to go for a smaller count. As I have gotten older, I am now doing the 'trombone' manoeuvre (holding things at arms length to focus). I have started stitching with my glasses off. I am nearsighted, and I have tried magnifying lenses of all sorts, including prescription, but I can`t stitch using them. Glasses off seems to work fine, and I have not noticed any increase in eyestrain. Even while stitching Mary Wigham. Which brings me to my point...I love the higher count fabrics now! I especially love only using one strand of floss...no twisting, tangling is reduced, no laying tool!! Not to mention the mileage you get from a skein...not a big deal for DMC, but if you are doing a large sampler with expensive silks, it is much more affordable this way! Most antique samplers were stitched on very fine fabrics with one strand of thread. They knew what they were doing!

So, I ordered some of Janice`s fabrics...36 and 40 ct, from her pre-cut fabric selection. These are a wonderful deal anyway, but she is offering an additional discount to her newsletter subscribers. If you haven`t signed up for her newsletter, you should. Granted, she is In Canada, and shipping to the US would be more, but it still may be worth it to those of you 'south of the border'.

As always...keep stitching ladies!

Mary Wigham

I am still loving stitching this sampler! (I bet you are tired of hearing that). It is so much fun completing one medallion at a time and seeing it develop into a cohesive whole. Well, somewhat cohesive...sometimes I wonder about the colour choices. Of course, maybe the girls at Ackworth didn`t have a lot of choice, they stitched with what they were given. It makes me wonder just how much freedom they had to choose designs and colours. Some of the motifs are a little puzzling...like this one. (I apologize for the poor pic)

Is it a turtle? A bird? A lump with legs? After looking at it for awhile, I thought it just might be a dove with an olive branch in it`s beak. But then that begged the question...why do leaves in black? So I dropped the black from this section...and possibly the whole sampler. It just looks too harsh in contrast with the other colours. And what the heck...as I had already made some earlier changes, and it will be hanging on my wall, I may as well do it so I will enjoy looking at it!

Keep stitching ladies!

Mary Wigham

Not a very good pic colour-wise, but you can see my progress. I am still stitching directly from my comp screen, so it`s kind of slow going. I changed the colours on a few of the motifs as the ecru and white just don`t show up on the cream...I really, really am loving this sampler!

Keep stitching ladies!

Grateful Heart Chit Chat for Silklover

SilkLover asked me some questions about my version of Grateful Heart. She wrote:

I Love the Grateful Heart Sampler. So happy to find someone else stitching it! I was checking Just Cross Stitch Mag for corrections as I had a question on the colors used in Areas C and E since the directions said to use color 7044 (Dungarees) for BOTH of the stitches, but the photo of the design (and your pic) differs. What I found instead was that all double-running and backs stitches should be stitched using one strand of floss rather than the two noted in the instructions. If I was more experienced, I would have figured that out. Too late. Since I have too many hand problems to rip out the work I have used these stitches in, and if I did I would toss it right now as the GAST floss is terrible quality and does not hold up, I will leave as is. I have a question - did you use Old Blue Paint or Blue Jay color for the long-arm stitches in Areas C and E? Thanks!



Hello Silklover! I looked for an email addy for you, but can`t find one, so i`ll answer you here...I really wondered about doing the double running with 2 strands, so I stood back and looked after I stitched it, and it looked ok to me so I left it.

I completely agree about the GAST quality...I have some older stock in my stash that is nice, but this is terrible...I won`t be buying their threads again unless I can see them first(I mail order all my supplies right now). This also makes me wonder if I am going to run out of thread because i`m using twice as much for the double running stitches. I know mistakes happen, but geeze...don`t they check things before they publish? Grrrrrrrr......

As for areas C and E... I used Blue Jay for the long armed cross...I think it is a mistake in the pattern saying to use Dungarees. The pic looked like she used Blue Jay, so that`s what I went with...

Thank you so much SilkLover for the info...I didn`t see any corrections for the sampler anywhere...where did you find them, and are there any more little 'surprises' I should know about? Do you have a blog where I can see your stitching?