Yes, I know I have already have the Mary Wigham 1790 sampler as a WIP, but I just started her again anyway. I actually do hope to finish them both one day, but then again, I hope a lot of things. Here’s a pic of my latest version:

Fabric: 40-count Antique White Newcastle Linen
Fiber: Blue Bunny floss from Hand Made by Nina
Stitched 1 over 2
Progress as of 1 August 10

The main reason I decided to start her again was because of the fiber. I saw it on Nina’s personal blog and absolutely fell in love with it.

Here’s my progress on my other over 1 version of Mary:


Fabric: 36-count Maritime White linen from Lakeside Linens
Fibers: Variety of GAST, CC, and WDW
Stitched 1-over-1 using tent stitch

In other news, I got a promotion! Yep, I’m now officially part of “the man” since I’ve been promoted into management. The down side right now is that it’s meant a lot of long hours as I’m getting up to speed with my new role and responsibilities. Hopefully things will settle down soon. The up side is that I now have a private office with walls and a door and everything! YAY for no more cubicle land!

That photo was taken before I was completely settled into my new digs. It doesn’t look exactly like that now, but it’s pretty darn close.

On the move front, it looks like I’ll be moving into my bigger place over Labor Day. I definitely have a lot of work to do in the next four and half weeks to get ready! I just keep reminding myself that it will all be worth it once I’m in my new place and have all the extra space.

Ok, that’s all I have time for right now. Until next time …

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First of all, let me start by saying how completely overwhelmed I am by the amazing response to my blogiversary/1000th post giveaway. Thank you all so much for your well-wishes and kind words about my blog. As a reminder to those who may not yet have entered, you have until 11pm PDT on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 to do so. Click here for all the details.

I know many of you have mentioned that you are new to my blog having seen the link for the drawing on the blogs of your friends. Welcome! I always love making new blog friends and I hope you’ll stick around even after the contest concludes.

Now, on to the primary purpose of this entry. I have been working more on the Mary Wigham SAL project. I’m really enjoying this sampler thus far. I’ve not been stitching her exclusively as I still have other projects that need attention as well, but she is definitely my primary focus right now.

I’m stitching this sampler over-one on 36-count linen. However, I’m using tent stitch rather than a full cross. This will help keep the appearance a bit lighter overall and less bulky since I’m on a high count fabric. I really prefer using this method when stitching over-one on anything higher than 34/35-count.

Why do I do this you ask? In my opinion, tent stitch works much more nicely for over-one work than a tradition half cross. It helps avoid “losing” stitches, and it also provides a nice overlap on the back side which is good for burying threads. If you aren’t familiar with the Tent Stitch, there is a nice tutorial about it on the About.com: Cross Stitch website.

Here is my latest progress photo as of last night:

Click to enlarge
Design: Mary Wigham 1790
Designer: Ackworth reproduction sampler released on the Needleprint blog
Fabric: 36-count Maritime White linen from Lakeside Linens
Fibers: Variety of Gentle Arts, Crescent Colors, and Weeks Dye Works
Stitched 1-over-1 using tent stitch

Until next time …

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I’ve had several people post comments & email me over the past couple of weeks asking me to post my Mary Wigham conversion. I’ve been holding off up to this point because I still hadn’t finalized it. I’ve been doing quite a bit of test stitching to see which fibers worked and which disappeared on my fabric. I finished the last of my test stitching yesterday, so I’m finally ready to post my conversion.

Please bear in mind that even though I am providing the DMC color numbers in the table below, my conversion is in no way meant to be necessarily similar to the original DMC color recommendation. I used the DMC colors as a starting point for inspiration and then just kind of went from there selecting colors I liked that fit in with the muted palette that I wanted for this sampler.

I’ll start with a photo which will then be followed by the conversion chart. The photo is a toss of the fibers I’m using against my current progress on the sampler. I’m stitching my version of Mary 1-over-1 using tent stitch on 36-count Maritime White linen from Lakeside Linens. The fibers I’m using are a combination of Crescent Colors (CC), Gentle Arts Sampler Threads (GAST), and Weeks Dye Works (WDW).

Click to enlarge

Fibers are listed below in the order they are shown (from left to right) in the above photograph. I have not included color 676 from the original chart since Jacqueline indicated there is very little of it used, and that’s only for outlining. So, I will just use one of the other gold fibers instead.

Thanks for everyone who was interested in learning more about my conversion. I’m really excited about my colors and hope they stitch up as lovely as I think they will.

Until next time …

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Ta-dah! Yep, the Multiplicity piece from the class I took last weekend in La Jolla is finished after only six days. This piece was so much fun to stitch! Now I just have to try and decide if I’m going to attempt to finish it into the actual frame weight or let my local finisher do it instead.

Design: Multiplicity
Designer: Margaret Bendig
Fabric: 18-count white mono canvas
Fibers: Kreinik braids & Rainbow Gallery Fyre Werks ribbon
Click image to enlarge

I really love this color palette! It works really well with the color of my living furniture which is kind of a sage green microfiber. I really wish I could capture these colors better so you could appreciate them more fully. Photographing metallics is a real PITA! Here is a list of the colors I used along with a coordinating reference point in the piece:

Kreinik braid #4002 (Spiced Chai) – Smyrna border
Kreinik braid #4003 (Ginseng Gold) – background of the wicker/basket looking stitch
Kreinik braid #4004 (Earl Grey) – fill-in stitching on the sides
Kreinik braid #4005 (Sugar Cube) – top of the large overlapping stitches on the side
Fyre Werks FT33 (Moonglow) – light color woven stitches in the center
Fyre Werks FT50 (Old Gold) – dark color woven stitches in the center

As I mentioned, this piece was a very fun stitch. I enjoyed it so much that I’m actually considering stitching it again. I think it would be very cool to do it on black canvas using orange & black fibers for a Halloween look. What do you guys think?

Anyway, now that this piece is finished (project #10 on my 25 finishes challenge), I think I’ll be going back to Mary Wigham this weekend.

Until next time …

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I’ve been having so much fun this week stitching on the “Multiplicity” frame weight canvas project from the Margaret Bendig class last weekend. If all goes well, I hope to finish it up tonight. If not tonight, then definitely by tomorrow. Here is a series of photos that shows my progress on the piece throughout the week:

As of Sunday evening:

As of Tuesday evening:

As of Wednesday evening (colors are off in this pic – taken with my iPhone):

Thanks for the compliments about the additional fibers I picked up for my Mary Wigham sampler. In addition to the comments posted, I also received a few emails from people asking for my conversion. I’m still playing around with the fibers I picked up this weekend to see which will work and which won’t. Once I have it all worked out (hopefully by Saturday), I’ll post the full conversion.

Also, I’m aware that I still haven’t posted my Blogiversary giveaway information yet. I have taken the picture of what I plan to giveaway, but I haven’t had time to type up the names & find links for a various charts. That’s another thing I have on my To Do list for this weekend. Since I’m closing in really quickly on my 1000th blog post, I’ve decided to make it a joint blog candy giveaway in honor of both events.

Until next time …

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