Heathwitch’s Stitchcraft

My Best Friend’s Bra…

Some of you will remember that I blogged back in March about a piece I’d finished, that I couldn’t talk about — the infamous electric-blue-thread-on-black-evenweave piece. Well, said piece came back from the framers at the start of March — which meant I was then able to present it to my best friend and heart-sister, Jo. :-)

Jo has been one of my rocks for many years, and while she was organising my hen party (held on April 4th) I was busy stitching her a whimsical but heartfelt little chart, courtesy of Sue Hillis Designs. Andrew suggested stitching it on black evenweave to give it some more “oomph” and, having never stitched on the stuff before, I thought it would be an interesting learning experience.

And y’know what? Black evenweave — in this case 28ct Jobelan black — isn’t that bad. Once you get used to the way the light catches it, and the interplay of the shadows on the fabric, it’s remarkably easy to work. The downside comes when you pause in your stitching to pick up a piece on a paler fabric, and then return to the black later — that’s when your eyes protest.

Oh, and your eyes also protest when you think, “Hmmm, some electric blue thread would work wonders on this..!” and proceed to use said electric blue thread — DMC’s Light Effects E3843, to be precise. That’s what the slogan is stitched in. I also changed the colour of the heart on this — opting for some DMC Colour Variations again, shade 4180, rather than three different shades of pink. I think it worked out quite nicely:

The backstitch on this piece took the most work — it alone doubled the stitching time! In the end, it was completed after 11 hours’ stitching, but it was so worth it. Then it went to the framers’ for around three weeks to be laced, matted and framed. Here it is fully finished and framed:

As for Jo, well — she loved it! I had great delight in presenting it to her during my hen party — right after returning from the Italian restaurant but before the complementary and beauty therapists pampered all us girls. :-)

Note to Self…

… Black evenweave plus Light Effects thread means sore eyes. Very sore eyes.

What was I thinking?!

Cross Stitcher In Residence [WIP]

I have been working on a Lizzie*Kate design this weekend, a relatively quick chart which is delightful in its simplicity. As I did not have the colours which the original chart required — and preferring to modify some of them anyway (e.g. red instead of blue) — I swapped some of the colours for ones which resonated more strongly with me. After all, this one will be for me! :)

This is also a new experience for me — I am stitching on linen for the first time ever. In this case, it’s a subtly mottled cream linen, 28-count (specifically, it’s Zweigart’s Cashel Vintage Linen, in “Country Cream”). I am pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to stitch “over two” — which I’d always intellectually understood in the past, but the concept of physically doing so freaked me out so much I had a mental block for quite some time!

And so, after four hours I had completed the hillside, house, roof, and trees — which I thought wasn’t bad! Here I am at the five-and-three-quarter-hours mark.

When I finish the entire piece I’ll probably write more about the colour substitutions I’ve made, but for now I’m just looking forward to seeing how it all develops…