Thursday, March 20, 2008

UFO Sighting

Until it is finished, my "official" UFO is Adia. I'm supposed to work on this every Tuesday. Sometimes I stick to this, other times... not so much. This is one of those projects that I will like when it's finished, but stitching on it is not a lot of fun. It has a ton of metallic braid and blending filament, which is particularly fiddly to work with. But the real problem is the fabric. I hate it. It's by Wichelt, and I personally think they make the absolute worst linen for stitching. In fact, I have refused to use it for years.

Unfortunately, when I first started working on linen, I was unaware of the vast differences between manufacturers. I had to learn the hard way how nasty this stuff is to use. Back then, it didn't occur to me to change the fabric (or anything else) for a project. I simply purchased whatever was recommended. When I started Titania (the companion piece to Adia), I bought the recommended "32 ct. Chestnut linen"... made by Permin, supplied by Wichelt. Later, when Adia was released, I purchased the same miserable fabric, so that the two would match. (Side note-- I also got the "recommended" fabric for Santa's Magic, which lived in the UFO pile for YEARS before I finally finished it.)

So here it sits, miserable fabric and all. I started it back in 1999. I worked on it off & on (mostly OFF) over the years and made quite a bit of progress. Then, about a year ago, I discovered that a large chunk of the left wing was off by ONE ROW. I probably could have "fudged" and gotten it to line up... sort of... but I knew it would bug me, so I decided it would have to be frogged.

I did the frogging 4 or 5 weeks ago. (Did I mention that it was all blending filament and metallic braid that had to come out???) I've worked on it every Tuesday, except one, since then and it is FINALLY at the point where it was before the frogging session. Maybe next week, we'll see some real progress.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Stitching? What's that???

Not much time for stitching these days-- no time for blogging, either. I've been too busy with business-related stuff over the last couple of weeks. By the time I finally finish for the day, I am so sick of staring at the computer that I can't bring myself to post anything. I guess it doesn't help that there are so many other things to do besides spending more time at the computer down here in the home office.

What little stitching time I've had has been devoted to Tradewinds. It's coming along nicely, don't you think?

Thursday, March 06, 2008

SBQ

Apparently, this question was originally posted in January 2005. I wasn't blogging then, so it's new to me. ;)

After you stitch a pattern or kit, what do you do with it?

It depends on the design. I've been known to stitch the same thing more than once, and I sometimes use parts of a design to create smaller items. If I think I'll re-use a pattern, I keep it. Otherwise, I almost always pass my patterns on when I'm finished with them. If I don't have anyone requesting the pattern, I file it away until I find it a new home.