OhSewCrafty Blog

March started with my rotation on Winnie the Pooh; I needed it for the Magical Stitches HW.  I gave it 5 days, for a total stitch count of 3,032.  About half of that was detail (backstitch & french knots on pages 1-3, then some new progress on Page 4.  More detail is blogged here .  

Bird of Happiness also got some love in early March; I needed something smaller/easier for a stitchy meetup.  I worked on it all through the afternoon meet up, finished the stitching on the bird’s neck and heaad, and started backstitching with gold Kreinik.  There is now a bit more backstitching to do in red & navy blue (Kreinik).  I decided to sub Kreinik for the backstitch colors because I thought the project needed a little sparkle.  

My second 5 day rotation was for the Mill Hill Christmas village, which I needed for the District Games challenge (Semisane Stitchers group on FB).  The theme was water and the village has snow, which is semisolid water.  I gave it 5 days, which was enough time to finish the Palace Theater and start on the Post Office, next door.  

After that, Save the Stitches went on the scroll bars.  Previous:

It got 4 days and then I was a little burnt out.  I finished part 3, stitched more border to surround parts 1-3, then cross stitched the diamond outlines of part 4.  Then I filled in the medallion patterns, stitched more border, and finally added the metallics.  I also made a tiny start on Part 5 because I needed more “blue” stitches for the district games challenge.  It was 1500, or more than that since backstitch only counts as 1/2.  Later in the month I brought it out for an hour or so, did another 200 stitches on Part 5 and more border.  

On March 5, I had one day left in my rotation and I knew that wouldn’t be enough time to stitch Part 5.  So I decided it was time to do my Magical Stitches HW and rotated to my Christmas Teddy.  Before:

Overall I decided to spent 3 days on it.  Figured I may as well keep it on the scroll bars after the homework, to knock out a few extra credit challenges, and fill it in some.  I wasn’t quite satisfied with it after the homework, because the assignment was to stitch “brown” so I skipped around the chart some.  I prefer to work more solidly across.  Then it got another hour on 4th day.  

On the next Monday, we got our new magical stitches HW and it was quite challenging, in terms of my WIPs.  I actually worked on 3 projects that day, 200 stitches each, for 3 different “classes”.  Christmas Teddy for the opalescent fabric, reminscent of crystal balls, for “Divination”. (pic above).  Save the Stitches for the diamonds, a geometric shape, for “Arithmancy” (pic above).  Finally The Mill Hill Post Office, certainly a muggle institution since wizards use owls to deliver the mail, for “Muggle Studies”.

Then it was Celtic Winter’s turn. Before:

After 6 days:

I finished the dress bottom and started working on the borders and small mandalas on the right side.  The pattern also calls for silver kreinik and white wisper thread (for the cape trim).  I found some silver high luster kreinik in my stash and decided that would do.  Later in the month, I took it out for my birthday SAL and a Magical Stitches “Christmas Break”.  At that point, I finished the silver metallic in the dress, started on the cape trim, and ran out.  I also filled in some ninja stitches in the dress, then reloaded it on the scroll frame and started the top part of the cloak… that was ~1400 stitches.  But it was almost 6,000 stitches overall!  

At that point, I had only project left that I wished to focus on… Teresa Wentzler Fantasy Triptych.  Previous progress:

On the Sunday I had to finish my magical stitches HW, the class was “Care of Magical Creatures” and this piece has a uncicorn, so 200 stitches.  The next day, “Boggart” homework for the next week was assigned and fortunately, the tasks were rather flexible, so I continued on to do 500 stitches as a “scary” project.  The scariness can be attributed to the 3 page floss list!  In all, I gave it 3 days and got >1500  stitches.  

Discussion Topic: What newer designers and product creators (fabric or floss dyeing, etc) out there have you discovered and recommend?  I really like the hand dyed fabric from Colour & Cotton .  She has beautifully soft colors with subtle variegation on the linen.  

April is starting with my birthday SAL, it’s a daily rotation challenge and the details are on Instagram (@msohsewcrafty).  Winnie the Pooh, Save the Stitches, Xmas Teddy, and Bird of Happiness will each get a day this week.  Besides those, my focus pieces for April include Fantasy Triptych, Christmas Village, and Spooky House.   So basically, everything!  This is the beauty of having 8 WIPs… all my pieces get attention, regularly.