Playoff Sunday Stitching

Hello football fans and fellow stitchers!  All week, I have been looking forward to Sunday - kept clear of all responsibilities other than watching the playoff games and stitching throughout!  Such a "guilty pleasure".  So, this will be a quick post with an update on The Steady Thread Botanical Blackwork Stitchalong.  Two weeks ago, I had 2 hexagons to go, plus the leafy frame.  Check out my progress!

 

As with most blackwork, you have the option for a classic black and white design, or you can add color.  Since this is destined for a guest bathroom decorated with shades of blue and brown, I wanted some color.  I hadn't decided on colors for the leafy frame - I opted for one strand of DMC 3045 combined with DMC 3781 for the "branches", and then selected five leaf colors, two of which were in the hexagons (DMC 320 and DMC 166).  Armed with those five colors, I had to map out placement within the leafy frame, trying not to put DMC 320 and DMC 166 next to each other in the hexagons.  Does that make sense?  It was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle!

I hope you all have a lovely Sunday of stitching.  Go Ravens and go Lions!

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching

 

Stitching Updates, and a new project

In my post two weeks ago, I wrote about The Steady Thread Botanical Blackwork Stitchalong.  At that time, I had 13 hexagons to go, plus the leafy frame.  I am happy to report that only 2 hexagons and the frame remain.

The design (in the form of a pdf) only resides on my computer, so at times when I am away from my laptop, I have snuck in a couple of hours stitching #1 Son's Christmas stocking.

In the midst of all the preparations last year for #1 Daughter's wedding, I had reached an agreement with the betrothed to complete a cross-stitch for them, once they had chosen a favorite photo.  They settled on several options for the design, shown below in order of their preference.

I knew that Herrschners had a professional service for this, but when I went to the on-line catalog, I could not find it.  A quick phone call determined that the service is no longer provided.  Back to the Web.  I looked at several pattern creators, and chose StitchFiddle for an initial design.  I uploaded the photos and then played with sizing, thread count and the like.  Fairly quickly, it became obvious that photos 1 and 3 above would have to be massive (and bigger than the max design within StitchFiddle) in order for meaningful detail.  So, we have settled on the second photo (with a little cropping).  This is a screen shot of the design.

Assuming I work it on 14 count Aida, the size is 21.43 x 16.64 inch.  Now, we are considering the color of Aida fabric to use, and how much of a border to leave for framing.  Does anyone out there have suggestions on either topic?  Also, have you ever used StitchFiddle or another pattern creator?

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching