Monday, November 3, 2014

Stitchers are the best!

Every year about this time a wish list is started on the 123Stitch MB, in which people post any stitching wish and grant wishes, either from their stash, by ordering items or sending a gift certificate. It's really a mood-booster to see the generosity of stitchers, as some pretty hard-to-find charts/items are gifted.

My wish this year was a long-shot, as I wanted to borrow someone's Witches Hollow by The Primitive Needle. This chart is hard to come by, and sells in the $150 range on eBay, which I just couldn't bring myself to pay. I'm not even a big fan of primitive designs, but something about this one really struck my fancy; the motifs and colors used just called to me. :)

Amazingly enough, a fellow stitcher offered to lend the chart to me (thanks Teresa!!), and it arrived last week. Here is my start on it:


With a close-up of the owl:


I think part of the reason I don't usually care for primitive designs is that so many of them are stitched on brown/tan fabrics; I barely have any of that color range in my stash. For this one, I pulled out a piece of my favorite Halloween-stitching fabric, PTP's Haunted on Edinburgh. I'm looking forward to seeing how different the design will look on this fabric; I think the colors will pop nicely.

Speaking of colors, this chart calls for a lot of over-dyed flosses. Luckily, I had about half of them in my stash, and I ordered and received the rest last week. However, last night as I was finishing the owl, I was thinking that it had used a lot of floss, so I looked at the instructions and, sure enough, I was supposed to be using one strand of floss instead of two! That's probably another reason I don't like prims; even on 36ct fabric, I'd rather use two strands of floss, because I don't like to see fabric through the design.

So, I am going to continue to use two strands, and just raid my stash for more floss in colors that I like. This will definitely be a one-of-a-kind finish!

As far as my previous WIP, Lightning McQueen & Friends, it has now been put away until this one is finished. I was able to finish Mater before I put it away, and he is just adorable:


Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

5 comments:

  1. Nice start Melanie. I love the fabric. The Disney one is adorable. In fact, I bought it on Oct. 15 but haven't got it yet.

    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  2. great stitching, love your new start

    ReplyDelete
  3. Witches Hollow is looking good, can't wait to see more.
    Mater is so cute.
    Marilyn

    ReplyDelete