More Stitching....

 

Small Progress....

You Might recall, Dear Readers, that I ambitiously started a couple of new petit-point embroidery projects a few weeks ago. Because it is Winter and I am indoors, I have managed to make some progress on them! I apologize in advance for any blurry photos... it is also unrelentingly dreary and dark, making it difficult to get good photos here in my dark old (under-lit) antique house. But you can see in the above picture that I started to add the blue background to the central section of this carpet. It is one of Janet Granger's kits, on 18 count canvas, stitched with wool thread. I do just love the way these wool carpets feel... and they look wonderful in the dollhouses too. The reason I have not made more progress on this one  (besides the now completed Christmas Card project) is that the frame is a bit too small for the 9" square pattern of the carpet. I have not made any progress solving that dilemma. So instead, I have focused on the Other large carpet I started, the Chinese blue and white carpet kit from Phyllis Stafford. And you might recall, I had decided I needed to design a better central motif for it, adding dragons of my own design.

I am not sure what I last showed you, 

but I have been working out the scale pattern for the

body of the dragon.

 

 

Because I am designing it myself,

 I mark up my chart for a small portion,

 then stitch it to see how it looks. 

Here is the chart ... so far! 

I am only drawing one half of the central design, 

I will flip it and stitch the other half in reverse.

Here you can see I have started the outline for the second dragon...

 they are chasing each other around the sun!

I needed to be sure the two are spaced correctly

 and don't infringe too closely on each other's space.... 

even one stitch differences can make a problem! 

And it is soooo easy to get off by only one stitch...

 (already happened on the dragon's tail...!)

Here I have added a little of the sky blue

 background for the central medallion... 

just to see how the dragon looks against it...

Here I have stitched the scale pattern a little farther.

 It is quite challenging at this thread count (40 stitches per inch),

 so I have to be sure to not try to stitch it at night!

As for the Baktiari Carpet kit, Dear Readers, 

I have nearly completed the main carpet.

 

The instructions say that if you want to add a fringe (which I do)

 then you must stitch another row of the garnet color

 on the top and bottom, plus a row of the fringe color,

 before you take it off the frame and bind the edges.

And that reminded me that I wanted to try

 to stitch a couple of "cushions"

 using the extra canvas at the right

 before I removed it from the frame.

So I made a start

.

I made a start....

 and I made a few mistakes!

(Sewing it at night.... 40 count canvas...)

I didn't plan ahead for the border pattern repeat...

But I figured it was too late to change it....

So I'm winging it!

 

The border doesn't repeat exactly....

 but I think it will work anyway.

And I realized I did not make the shape of the cushion square...

But that can be fixed for the next one....

'cause there must be more than one cushion!

 

And that's as far as I got, Dear Readers,

Lots of stitching.... 

and very Small progress!