Stitching and SBQ

I’ve finally got around to adding the links for my two RR finishes to the sidebar. The mystery piece will have to remain a mystery for a while longer.

I wanted to try and get on with finishing Middy, especially now I have my little pot of Thread Heaven, but wouldn’t you just know, I can’t find the box of threads and the chart now *grr* Ah well, at least I know where Middy herself is. I just feel I ought to finish her before I start on Egyptian Garden. Now I’ve seen just how big the piece of fabric is, it’s brought it home to me just what a mammoth project it’s going to be.

In the meantime I’ve started another small piece, Purr-dicament by Margaret Sherry. I’ve seen many of her designs and thought that they were quite sweet, but most of them come as kits with Aida in, and as I mentioned in last weeks SBQ, I’d really have to fall in love with something to spend the money on a kit only to then replace the fabric. I came into possession of the one I’m stitching when a fellow stitcher put it up for sale on one of the forums I frequent. It actually included evenweave fabric, and since this has to be the most adorable of her cat designs (IMO), and it reminds me of my boy Muscles (lost Nov 2003), I decided I had to have it. It’s stitching up quite quickly but it’s also introduced me to a new version of fractional stitch, one done vertically or horizontally rather than diagonally. I must admit I’d never thought of doing it before, but now I see them in action I can see just how useful they are. Of course they would be quite tricky to do on Aida but then that’s not really an issue for me. Gives me a few ideas for my own designs.

Well that’s the stitching round-up for now, so on to the Stitching Bloggers Question:

How many strands of floss to you prefer to stitch with? Why?

I usually stitch with two strands and that’s entirely due to the fact that I usually use 28 or 32 count fabric over two. When stitching over one I’ll use one strand of thread, although I’ve recently seen someone suggest using two strands and tent stitch for over one pieces. Another piece I stitched recently used one strand of thread (over two) deliberately to give a ‘background’ effect to the stitching, much in the same way that some designs use tent stitch or half cross.

I’ve also done some embroidery and there too I use two strands of thread. In this case it’s due to the fact that some of the stitches involve splitting the previous stitch and it’s just easier to do with an even number of threads. Also, trying to get more than two strands to lie flat becomes a bit of a trial.

Suze has tagged me for a book meme so you can look forward to that one tomorrow.