HAP SAL and YOTA Update - HAED Bridge of Wings & Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient

HAP SAL update time, visit here for details. Progress on Heaven and Earth Design's Bridge of Wings has been scarce the last few months, which is a bit disappointing to be honest. This is the second month I have failed to complete my current page.

Bridge of Wings looking surprisingly similar to last month.

Recently most of my stitching is taking place on my couch. When stitching Bridge of Wings I have been using my large Q-snaps but I find it quite difficult to hold due to it's size. I also tried using a scroll frame but the larger ones are too awkward to use in hand, leading to a circus like performance as I have one leg raised by being on tip toes or using my lap stand, having to contort my arms to try and reach around the back of the piece.

I do have a floor stand but find that frustrating to keep assembling and disassembling all the time. The option of just leaving it assembled is always a possibility, if I don't mind having it take up space and tripping over it all the time. I don't want to use a smaller frame and have the clamps over the stitching, experience from other projects shows it can damage or distort the stitches. There is too much bulk in this piece to be able to put some felt between the frame clamp and the project, I tried the clamps kept popping off.

This is also my late Year of the Acronym check in,  for details on this click here.  I did start the backstitching on my Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient piece this month, however there is a lot of detail in this. Several hours of laborious stitching later and I only managed to get some of the upper section of the kimono outlined.

Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient

I believe I may have discovered the cause of my frequent grudge match with backstitching. Once I finish all the cross stitching, my mind starts to convince itself that I am close to completion. However the backstitching still remains, taunting me with how close I am to the finish but still not quite there. I begin to feel that it is being obtuse on purpose, preventing me from crossing another piece off my ever lengthening WIP list.

This is another piece that I have been finding a bit difficult to work with lately. I have been using my scroll frame but I keep hitting my hands off the wing nuts at the back as I bring my hands around. The time I experimented with having the wing nuts to the front, my thread kept getting wrapped around them. I suppose this should encourage me to get the hang of two handed stitching but when my progress slows down I get annoyed and switch back to my usual method.

While fighting with the backstitching, I worked with Elegance of the Orient in hand for a while. It actually helped and perhaps it would be worth trying this method with Bridge of Wings. The thought of trying to manage all that extra fabric as well as the hanging threads has always detered me from trying this. If I ever want to make progress on it and maybe get the illusive HAED finish I might have to experiment a little.

I will post on any solutions I manage to find to these cross stitching annoyances. Please leave a comment on any techniques you have found helpful in the comments below.