Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Mushroom and Fern Mandala - post #2

After taking a little break to work on Dream of the Sea, I bounced right back to Mushroom and Fern Mandala. It's so much fun because there are lots of little details in each area, so if I get tired of one type of stitch, it's easy to move on and do something completely different.


As you can see, I'm really bouncing all over! The heavy backstitching around the central medallion is going to be the most challenging part, so I'm taking lots of breaks to work on the border outside of that area. There's so much variety!

I've also decided to couch the curly light green ferns and the pale blue scrollwork in the points of each diamond instead of backstitching them. I don't like the look of backstitching with heavy thread at all, and it's especially bad with light threads on a darkish fabric like this. Unfortunately, it's very time consuming and it's so easy to make mistakes or tangle up the threads. Oh well, as long as it gets done eventually, it's fine. :)

This will continue to be my focus so I'm sure my next update will be more of the same! Might even start adding some beads since I never leave them until the end on a Chatelaine. I love beading but I think even my brain would explode if I tried to do it all at once!

Monday, February 26, 2018

Dream of the Sea - 3/4 parts done!

I keep forgetting to post things, whoops. I finished the third (of four) parts of the Dream of the Sea limited edition kit by Hands on Design last week. It's the tray insert, so it's about 5 inches square and meant to be finished with some padding behind it.


Cute, isn't it? Makes for a nice break from larger projects - I think this only took about a week of distracted stitching during the Olympics. :3

Next will be more Mushroom Mandala!

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Mushroom and Fern Mandala - post #1

I haven't been stitching all that much recently, but I do have a new start to share today! I fell in love with the Mushroom & Fern mandala by Chatelaine when I saw it by chance on FB, and I started gathering materials in December and made a small start.

Yesterday, the remaining stuff I needed arrived from ECC!


I busted into the package immediately and got back to work - I'd made a small start with the blue NPI silk colors in the center but had to stop since I didn't have any of the other threads. Not much progress due to attempting to stitch while watching the Olympics, but... good enough. :3


As usual, the colors are pretty bad in this photo. My fabric is dark cobblestone Belfast, which is a lot more grey and a lot less brown than shown here.

Hopefully I'll have more progress to share soon. :)