A lovely few days

Yay - I've finally put in a few more stitches in on St Petersburg as I'm waiting for a LHN pattern to arrive for Cheryl's RR. It really has made for a lovely few days.

I took some pics this morning - I'm still on part 4, but this week I've completed the section along the top and am ready to start working my way down the sides.

It was wonderful to get back to the different colours, stitches and textures, and of course, all that sparkle from the beads and petite treasure braid. It's so different from everything else I've been working on recently. I'm going to keep going with it for now until the LHN design arrives, although I'm sorely tempted to work on something completely different and non-stitched!

I've been really bad this week at commenting on other people's blogs, I am reading them, but I just don't haven the energy these days to comment as I should. There are a couple of things going on in my life right now that just seem to be sapping my energy. Hopefully, I'll perk up a bit again soon and find a bit more energy and enthusiasm (hard to be enthusiastic when you're completely knackered!).

Plans – HA!

I hadn’t planned to blog today, but have got myself feeling rather stressed out, and need to let off a bit of steam. It’s turning into one of those weeks when everything seems stressful.

And a colleague is off work this week meaning that a chunk of their work and responsibility has landed on me, just when I felt I was getting on top of things. Every day I seem to be moving slightly further away from the goals I set myself this week.

I think I’m also going to have to accept the fact that I’m falling behind with St Petersburg. It’s half way into June and I don’t feel as if I’m progressing very well. I knew this would happen, and in some ways, I’m surprised it didn’t happen earlier, so I’m pleased to have made such a good start. I also know that because of holidays in July and my sister’s baby due in August, I’m unlikely to be able to keep up then either. I'm also sadly neglecting MTM and would love more time for it.

So, I’m going to accept it now and revise my stitching plans (again!). No pressure on myself to even attempt to keep up with St Pete. I may even take a complete break from it, even though I really am enjoying it!

The Mill Hill kits I’m stitching for DS’s teachers are nagging at me, and I don’t like the one I’m currently working on. I really don’t think it’s a good idea to be stitching while telling yourself how much you hate it. However, I will finish it. I may stop working on St Pete just so that I can finish it sooner.


So the revised plan, when I get round to it, is 2 weeks St Pete/2 weeks MTM per month. Weekends flexible as it's been quite nice to do something completely different at the weekend.


I spent no more than 30 mins on St Pete yesterday, but spent last night dreaming/worrying constantly about it and, for some strange reason, the story CDs my DS has been listening to (Terry Pratchett's Truckers read by Tony Robinson (seems to have cured DS of his obsession with the Hobbit!)).

Definately time to chill out!

Silk threads and St Pete

So the frogs have been banished and I've finished part 3 of St Petersburg!

I really loved stitching this part, despite the frogs, it's such a contrast from the dense stitching of the first two parts. And I love the backstitched gates.

I find it interesting while I'm stitching to compare the silks and the DMCs and the varigated/solid colours. On only one of the four sides in part 3 have I used varigated colours in stitching the vegetation. And it happens that on that side I particularly like the way the vegetation looks with just that little bit more variation in colour.

The is probably the first design where I've used varigated threads to any significant extent and up to now, I was slightly sceptical of their value. Now I'm starting to change my mind a bit. I like those variagted threads where there is significant colour change across the length of the thread. I still can't entirely get the point of threads where the colour variation is so subtle, you can hardly see the difference.

I've also been thinking about silk threads - what is the point in using silk thread? What does it add to your stitching? I'm still a long way from being a convert on this one and at this point, I really prefer DMCs. I know the sheen of silk is supposed to be more than cotton. But, after a piece is finished and framed, I'm not convinced that anybody will be able to tell the difference. I'm fairly certain that, even when I've stitched a piece using silks and cottons, I won't be able to see any difference. I know that some stitchers prefer the feel of silk for stitching, and I know that for designers, using silks can create a much greater palette of colours. But I'm not convinced of the value in this.

Sometimes too, it seems to me like there's a kind of snobbery in stitching - silk is "better" than cotton and linen is "better" than evenweave as evenweave is "better" than aida. I'm not convinced I like linen - give me evenweave any day!

Anyway, the important thing is for all stitchers to enjoy their stitching, whatever the materials they're using. And don't be afraid to mix and match or substitute fabric and fibres to meet your preference.


Anyway, having finished St Pete, I didn't particularly want to pick up anything big, so I've gone back to my Starflake from Patricia Ann Designs. I started this around my birthday in February but didn't get any further than the beginnings of the central motif. I've made good progress since Sunday, but it's slow work. I'd hoped I would get it finished by the end of this week, but it looks like that isn't going to happen. It's all eyelets and smyrna crosses which, although I love them, stitch up soooo slowly! And then I came downstairs this morning and on a quick look, noticed that a group of eyelets I stitched last night aren't centred within the motif! Aarghhh! And then there's that other group of lumpy eyelets from yesterday and I'm also tempted to frog .......

Stitching to a deadline

I finished my Part 2 of St Petersburg at the weekend, with 2 days to spare before part 3 is released tomorrow. That was cutting it just a bit too fine for me. I’ve decided I really don’t like stitching to a deadline like that. By Friday evening I was just about sick of the sight of Algerian Eyelets and was relieved to get them finished and out of the way early on Saturday.

The deadline was entirely self inflicted as I didn’t get started on part 2 until after I came back from Scotland on the 13th. And yes, I know that it’s not compulsory for me to stitch each part of St Pete within the month when it is released, it’s just me! If I can do it, I HAVE to, and I’ll push myself to do it, getting completely stressed out along the way.


However, from a designer’s point of view, 'deadlines' like this must be very useful. With a large project like St Petersburg, releasing the chart bit by bit ensures interest is retained throughout the length of the project. I suspect the 'drip-feed' approach in this way means more money for the designer.

I’m sure a lot of stitchers would be completely overwhelmed if handed a chart like this all in one go. The 'drip-feed' is therefore also beneficial to the stitcher.

And on the plus side for both stitcher and designer, one design successfully completed this way is likely to encourage the stitcher to come back for more, and to encourage more stitchers in to this way of working.

However, from my point of view, deadlines are all very well, as long as I have plenty of time to keep up with them. I’d never make it as a model stitcher!

Monster scroll frame

So, the challenge was, how could I get a scroll frame big enough for my fabric for St Petersburg? 411 stitches is almost 30 inches on 28 count fabric, and then you've got to add on at least 3 inches around the edges!

I know it's possible to buy frames of 40 inches and more, but I haven't seen any online in the UK and it just didn't seem worth buying that sort of thing from overseas. After seeing a post on a message board, I decided to make one myself.

At home I have a table/lap frame (an ebay win) which I didn't really use as the frame part of it hasn't been a good enough size for the pieces I've been working on recently. If I could make myself some long scroll rods for it, then it would be perfect to use for St Pete.

So, first I checked the diameter of the rods currently in the frame (19mm) to work out roughly what I'm after. Then off to my nearest B&Q where I bought a 2.4 metre long piece of 18mm pine doweling.


On the way home from B&Q, I popped into Dunelm and bought 3m of 1 inch curtain header type of tape.

On the living room floor, I measured the rod and marked the middle. Next, out to the garden and a rummage in the garage (with advice from husband) to find a small saw and cut the dowel into two pieces.


Back inside again, I dug out a box of coloured drawing pins, cut the curtain tape into convenient sized lengths, fastened the tape to the rods with the drawing pins. Hammer required I realised after my thumbs got rather sore pressing the drawing pins into the first rod!


Things were looking good and I was starting to get excited!

Out with the sides and legs of the frame. I'd suspected that the rods might be slightly loose fitting in the frame, and I was right. They were so loose, they wouldn't stay in! So, out with the masking tape and a few layers round the ends of the rods had them fitting perfectly!

Finally, out with St Pete and some thread and I stitched the fabric to the curtain tape.

What do you think of the end result? Personally, I'm dead chuffed! And I can't believe I have a scroll frame almost as big as my couch! Oh, and St Pete now has significantly more stitching on it than in the picture!

Kitting a Chatelaine

This is a subject which has been occupying me faaaar too much over the last few weeks, so I thought I'd get it all down online.

Many Chatelaine designs use a variety of silk threads, both solid colours and varigated. As they're silk, this significantly adds to the cost of the project. Fortunately, Martina Weber also publishes a DMC conversion for these projects so that stitchers can choose how much they wish to spend or swap out those threads they dislike. The question of buying beads also needs to be considered as Martina normally uses Delica beads, but also produces a conversion to Mill Hill.

I've now got 2 Chatelaine projects started and will be adding a third fairly soon. Each of them has been kitted in a different way.

Project number 1 - Watergarden
Watergarden uses quite a lot of DMC threads, as well as silks, so is easier than for many other designs to get hold of all the materials. However, for this design, I chose the oprion of making a simple purchase from European Cross Stitch for all the silk threads and Delica beads. This really was the simple, easy option.

Project number 2 - Medieval Town Mandala
I started this project on my birthday but have made little progress to date as I discovered I have a couple of threads missing. Other than that, I have all the silk threads for this project, no DMCs at all. In this case, the silks were all collected as Christmas and birthday presents from my family. I emailed them a list of the threads needed and suggested a couple of online shops to buy from. From my point of view, this worked our fine, but I have now discovered a couple of threads missing and I haven't been able to find an online source in the UK. I've now emailed European Cross Stitch who have the necessary threads and will be able to send me them.

For the beads, I bought several of the colours required on ebay, but have one colour I don't have yet. I know of one or two online shops that stock this bead colour, but it seems a bit ridiculous to pay more in postage that the actual price of the beads!

I haven't made much progress stitching this one as I discovered early on that I needed to use the threads I'm missing. I could keep going, but would prefer not to as I don't want to risk mistakes.

Project number 3 - St Petersburg White Nights
This will be a 12 month project with the chart issued in monthly installments. The materials list and DMC conversion were issued in early February and the first chart will be issued on 1st March.

For this project, I've decided to go with the DMC conversion rather than use the majority of the silks. That part at least is straightforward! The problem really is to decide which of the varigated silks to keep and which to swap for DMCs. There are some online shops and thread producers who show sufficiently detailed photos of the thread to see just how much varigation there is. Even then, it's still not as good as having the actual threads in your hand. However, I have made my choice on this basis, and I'll see how it goes.

For the beads, I've given in and simply ordered the bead pack from European Cross Stitch.



Although I've mentioned European Cross Stitch several times already, I haven't mentioned the different options they offer for kitting a Chatelaine. For St Petersburg, they offer full kits with all fabric, threads and beads. You can get a kit without the fabric, without the solid colour silks, or just the bead pack. On other designs, you can order only the silk threads. I see that Needlecraft Corner too offers a similar service for some Chatelaine designs, althout I've never bought from them at all.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that, for me, European Cross Stitch is the answer. In future, I may just opt for a full kit minus solid coloured silks and fabric - the other ways are too much hassle!