Tuesday, August 23

August WIPocalypse!

I think I'm one of the few WIPocalypsers that didn't Olympic stitch, but I still got a lot done... just not as much on my WIPocalypse pieces (Darn you, Tapestry and Barbarian Pooh!)

I have been working a bit on Triforce of Badassery at work.  My September "free time work" project will be genealogy, so I'm hoping to get this finished quickly and work a bit on Desert Sunset before the Labor Day weekend.

I was here:

And now I'm here, finished the first two triangles, working on the third, all in PTB 01:


I made progress on my EPIC RoundRobin.  I finished up the last two bands that I needed to do, now the only thing I have is to do a band on my own RR and it will be done (I'm so tempted not to and declare it "finished," of course).

Belinda's

Melanie's
And I finally got Egyptian Sampler in the Qs.  I'm always amazed at how freakin' slow TWs are, and this border is fussy as all get out on this one (I can't quite get into a good groove with it).

I started here:

And now I'm here (after several evenings of stitching):


It's like TW is taunting me.  Not only do I pick up a TW after forever, but I'm literally stitching almost nothing but quarter stitches with blended threads.   "Did you miss me?" taunts my TW piece.  "No, did you misssssss me? Muahahaha!!"

The progress is also a little skewed.  This was part of a UFO-RoundRobin at some point, and whoever did the left side papyri was one thread off at the top, so I had to frog them all and start over.  I noticed it when I went to start the fourth papyrus motif and saw that it didn't match up (on linens I always try to use two points of reference since the slubs and general variety of thickness sometimes throw me off).   I traced the mistake up all the way to the top.  Oops.

I'm one color away from being done with those 5+6 papyrus motifs so I can start with the eyelets and then I'll backstitch all of it.   I'm actually starting to look forward to the backstitch at this point.   I'll do the Papyrus panel next.    I'm hoping to post on WIPWednesdays for this one, because I feel like if I keep seeing progress, I'll be happier.  I think once the backstitch starts getting in there and makes it look more polished, that will definitely help.

I've stitched TWs before, I'd just forgotten how much slower they are.  I'll get over it, but I might go straight to Fantasy Sampler after I finish this one, though, instead of stitching something easy between them, just so I don't spoil myself again.

Question for the month: Have you ever read any fictional books that involve embroidery? If so, give us some recommendations?
I'm sure I have, but I don't really remember any all that well.   I do keep all of my reviews on Goodreads, but embroidery isn't a category I've ever used (I kinda wish I had, now).



And for some non-WIPpy fun, I had a piece of evenweave left over from the Barbarian Pooh piece that will be the exact size I'll need for Not Today.  Only it was white, which is not what I want to stitch this piece on, but I had left over coffee, soooooo...


I spritzed it with some foaming bleach cleaner, let it dry in the sun, rinsed the heck out of it and I am so happy with the result!

I'll only have a little over half an inch on each side of the design, but I'm going to finish it into a bellpull anyway, so I don't really need the extra.  I serged it so the pieces won't ravel any further.  I can't wait to stitch and finish that piece over the holidays.

7 comments:

  1. Awesome coffee dye! And great progress on the triforce and TW is getting there. Good idea to give yourself regular updates to see progress. That definitely helps.

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    1. There was a discussion with friends regarding blogging (whether facebook has killed it). I find regular updates for me, keep me motivated. I also find that pictures from others are very inspiring. So I'll definitely do my best to update. I'm going to need that motivation! I do think that the border will be the worst, so hopefully the other stuff makes up for it :)

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  2. Great progress! I hope you'll get back into the TW soon, as it deserves some love and possibly a finish! Your stained faric looks great, I might need to try that as well at some point.

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    1. Thanks! And the coffee dye was on a lark because I saw someone else tea dye something. The worst that could possibly happen is that I would ruin a scrap piece of fabric, sooooooo ;)
      I do recommend it, it was kind of fun, really.

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  3. The coffee dye is beautiful! I have a TW WIP too... Definitely slow going.

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    1. Thank you! I kind of want to buy a cheap bolt of 32ct white just to keep on hand now that I know I don't need to purchased parchment/cream fabric any more ;)

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  4. Wow great progress I love the dye job :)

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