OhSewCrafty Blog

• Pattern(s) by Elizabeth Almond, Blackwork Journey, available for free
• Materials: 25 count stormy clouds lugana, DMC 336 and 4240, DMC Diamant in gold, silver, and copper, Mill Hill beads
• Size: 15″ x 30″ inches
• Time to stitch: 54 days since January 2019

I’m pleased to share a major exercise in perseverance and in my humble opinion, heirloom quality needlecraft!  

After dipping my toes in blackwork with a monthly SAL in 2018, I wanted to tackle a larger project.  Save the Stitches is huge, gorgeous, and amazingly free.  The pattern is way more interesting and challenging than I expected.  It was a fun puzzle to figure out the best way to stitch each pattern to maximize speed and minimize thread use.  My project is not true blackwork, nor backstitch… but rather a combination.  My only quibble with the pattern is the introduction calls for beads in 3 colors (to match the 3 metallic threads), but in the pattern charts, all the beads as charted are gold.  As for the border, I chose one of the patterns from Elizabeth Almond’s free corner & borders pdf, started in one of the top corners, and worked it across and down as I went.   The border was boring, but I think it completes the project nicely.

The materials called for include No. 12 pearl cotton, for the outlines, but I used two strands of DMC floss instead, since I have more of that handy.  As for the color, I didn’t want black, nor a light color, and I had the variegated DMC 4240 “Midsummer Night” in my stash, several skeins that were purchased for a different project which didn’t work out.   I took a close look at the DMC 4240 and determined that DMC 336 (dark navy) is one of the colors included in the variegated mix.  So I used DMC 336 for all the outlines and the border.   The fabric is 25 count, as suggested, and I definitely recommend 25 count, since some of the patterns are quite dense and the details would be lost on higher count fabric.  The beads are Mill Hill.  I used the 3 colors of beads to coordinate with the metallic threads (gold, silver, copper), and matched the beads to the metallic thread in the block.  Using that method, most of the beading was done in gold or copper, there are only a few silver beads on the entire piece.  Overall, I found the beading to be rather sporadic and random.  I’m not sure they were necessary at all.  

My favorite aspects of this project at the sheer size, it’s a huge BAP and I think it’s like a tapestry, will look amazing hanging on the wall.  I would like to do a wall hanging, not frame it.  A frame would be just so big and heavy!  I love the color.  Blue evokes royalty, to me.  It’s moody and deep. True blue.  The cascade of interlocking diamonds is perfect- I’m an Aries so Diamond is my birthstone, and besides, diamonds are a girl’s best friend ;).  Some of the “diaper patterns” remind me of flowers, or scales, cables, stars, snowflakes, crosses, all excellent motifs.  I’m happy that I personalized the words at the bottom.  “My soul is fed with needle and thread” is more personally meaningful, than “Save the Stitches”. 

I’m chuffed this is done but not feeling the urge to start anything that huge anytime soon.  I do have my eye on another blackwork project, the black and gold angel by Lesley Teare, but I don’t own that chart (yet).  I do have a few sampler style charts in mind for next year….