Here is where I was last month:
I really hope I can finish this page this month and move on to another. I don't have my dress progress for you today. Hopefully I will get some done this week and I will post then :)
Monday, June 16, 2014
June Autumn Update
I'm actually quite happy with how I managed on this one this month. I got page two finished and also made some progress on the page below.
Here is where I was last month:
Here I am now:
I really hope I can finish this page this month and move on to another. I don't have my dress progress for you today. Hopefully I will get some done this week and I will post then :)
Here is where I was last month:
I really hope I can finish this page this month and move on to another. I don't have my dress progress for you today. Hopefully I will get some done this week and I will post then :)
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Oh Wow! Fantastic progress.
ReplyDeleteLinda
You are progressing nicely - great work!
ReplyDeleteI'm new to reading cross stitch blogs, and I have a couple of questions. I found your parking tutorial and it answered a lot of my questions and generated a couple more. I am getting ready to start my first larger piece that has more confetti in it and I'm a bit intimidated. Trying to avoid some rookie mistakes so I don't waste the money I spent on materials.
ReplyDelete1. When working from a design that has pages, I can't really start from the middle of the fabric. Any tips for setting yourself up to insure you are centered?
2. When using the parking technique, how do you determine how long to cut your floss? Seems like I am forever cutting it way too long or way too short.
3. Any tips for drawing on the ten by ten grid? Marker type, counting, etc?
4. The design I'm using has major sections of color (gray roof, blue sky, green grass, etc) Any tips for running the parking in a logical order? Seems like sometimes I see one batch of thread parked to the side and one at the bottom...
I thought your tutorial was well written and I bookmarked it for future reference.
Fantastic progress. This is going to be beautiful when done.
ReplyDeleteGordon-J, I can maybe help you with one of your questions... gridding and what to use (marker, etc)
I use what looks like a red fishing wire. It's plastic, and I find it's the easiest to grid with. I wish I could remember the name, though.
There is also something called "magic cloth" with the grid already stamped in.
I find I'm terrible at drawing the grid myself, so I prefer to use other tools.
I hope you found this helpful.
Great progress! It is looking amazing.
ReplyDeleteGreat progress. It always feels so good to see one coming along, doesn't it? :0)
ReplyDeletebeautiful progress
ReplyDeleteWow great progress xxx
ReplyDeleteWOW. Im falling behind!!!! Well done fantastic progress
ReplyDeleteGreat massive HUGE progress!!!
ReplyDeletegreat progress on a tricky looking design :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Rai Rai, that makes sense. I have used a bias type stitch before to mark center and can see where that makes a lot of sense. Even if I mark twenty by twenty it would make counting a lot easier. I'll keep my eyes open for something like that, while I wait for the package delivery.
ReplyDeleteGordon-j thanks so much for your comment. I would have replied to the comment directly by email but you are marked as a noreply commenter so I hope this will be ok. I'm so glad you found my tutorial helpful and I try and answer your questions as best I can. Feel free to email me at pulltheotherthread@gmail.com if you wish.
ReplyDelete1. When working from a design that has pages, I can't really start from the middle of the fabric. Any tips for setting yourself up to insure you are centered?
When working with a pattern that has pages I never start from the centre. When getting your fabric for such a piece it is generally advised to get a piece that has 3 inches extra on each side for framing. So if it is a 12x12 piece of stitching for example the fabric would be 18x18. In order to get you pattern centred all you do is measure 3 inches from the top and 3 inches from the left. The point where these two meet in the top left is where you start with the first stitch on the first page.
2. When using the parking technique, how do you determine how long to cut your floss? Seems like I am forever cutting it way too long or way too short.
I was the same as you for a long time and often cut my threads far too long which caused tangling. I read this tip on another blog and have used it ever since, I find it gives perfect lengths of thread whether I am parking or not. I put the index finger and middle finger on one hand together then wrap the thread around those fingers 10-11 times then cut it (the thread not my fingers, most of the time :D). This generally gives me a manageable piece of floss.
3. Any tips for drawing on the ten by ten grid? Marker type, counting, etc?
When gridding my fabric I use a water soluble fabric marker. The reason I use water soluble is that the air soluble ones wouldn't last long enough and I would probably end up having to grid again. I tried thread gridding but found to much more time consuming and also I ended up sewing the thread into the pattern and found it very difficult to remove after.
When gridding I usually do a little over a page each time rather than gridding the whole pattern all at once, as I find it very boring :)I count out ten stitches and line the tenth one. I would do all the horizontal grids first then the vertical. I just make sure that I do a couple of grids on the surrounding pages so that once the first page is stitched and the grid covered I don't have to count as much again. I am using a pre gridded 25ct evenweave from DMC for Bridge of Wings on my WIP page, however I am stitching over 1 and this grid is for over 2 therefore stitching over 1 4 pattern blocks fit into one on the fabric.
4. The design I'm using has major sections of color (gray roof, blue sky, green grass, etc) Any tips for running the parking in a logical order? Seems like sometimes I see one batch of thread parked to the side and one at the bottom...
ReplyDeleteThe most logical way to park is by stitching each block and parking in the one below if you work vertically or across if you work horizontally. However this can cause lines to appear between the rows especially in areas with few colours. If you look at Autumn on this post you will see I have thread parked all over the place. This is because, in order to avoid lines I stitch areas of few colours together. So if I have an area, as above, with lots of brown I stitch all of that without parking. I then fill in the areas of confetti in between the block colours, filling each block and parking in the next. This helps to avoid lines as the blocks of colours aren't worked in such ridged rows and the sections of confetti in between tend not to be in rows either. If you look at my last post on Clara this might make more sense. I stitched all the black and then went back and filled in the sections, like a colouring book filling in what was left of each block and parking in the next one down or across. In areas of LOTS of confetti like the detail on Bridge of Wings I just work in rows doing each block and parking in the one below. I haven't really found any trouble with this method in high confetti areas.
Sorry this is such a LONG response but I hope you have found some of it helpful and if you have any other questions or if any of this is unclear, please feel free to comment again or e-mail me :)
Woo Hoo you made massive amounts of progress. It looks so amazing. I love that big thick tree branch that has literally come to life. Beautiful stitching, congrats!
ReplyDeleteI love the way you stitch and thanks again for letting me in on your method that has been so helpful. You're such a treasure for taking the time. And now you've helped another stitcher.
Thank goodness for you!
xo Alicia
Great progress...it's certainly coming along!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the detailed response. I learned something useful on the commenting too, so I'll allow the follow-up e-mails in the future. The parking part was especially useful, as I'm worried about tangling the back of my piece up into a big wad of thread.
ReplyDeleteGordon-J I'm delighted you found some of my ramblings useful :D So long as you are careful in pulling your parked threads through to the front of the fabric you shouldn't have any trouble with tangles at the back. I use some very cheap hair clips to hold the threads together at the front to stop them tangling. I just wrap them around my fingers a few times and clip them.
ReplyDeleteLots of great progress :-)
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteBeautiful stitching and looking forward to seeing your dress progress (:
I think you made a giant amount of progress during the last month and I am very confident that you will have another page finish to show next month =)
ReplyDeleteDid I say that I looooove that design? ;-)
Thanks again for the useful info. My bigger project arrived via Royal Mail (love that!) and the confetti sections are not as bad as I had feared. The design has a thatched roof that will be pretty rough, but the trees and grass are blockier than I expected. I am grateful for that, as I was afraid I had bitten off too much in my first project.
ReplyDeleteVery nice progress :)
ReplyDelete