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Gettin' Crafty: Cross-stitch stuff
Jan. 13th, 2019 09:52 pmI decided to take a break from the temari I've been working on, because they're all Japan Temari Association Level 3 curriculum ones, and apparently what qualifies you to pass that level is no longer your ability to come up with and explain original designs but instead the sheer fortitude to get through the most tediously intricate patterns. Which, like, that's fine? They're all amazing end results? But, god, so boring.
Anyway, I decided to go back to finishing up some long-languishing cross-stitch WIPs instead. One is now done, after I decided to just do normal backstitching on the parts that were, on closer inspection, supposed to have couched metallic thread, which is both a pain in the ass and not as neat in the final product, so screw that. Well, almost done. What it also has is what M estimates to be 800 beads around the background lattice. I could decide it's done enough, but I've spent literal years on this damn thing and I worry I'll get it professionally framed, hang it up, and then be mad I didn't do that final step, so I went ahead and ordered the beads, because the tiny pack I bought 15 years ago when I started this project clearly wasn't going to be enough and I don't want the colorway to change halfway through.
While waiting for the beads to arrive, I found a Dimensions kit of three tree frogs that I'd apparently bought on a whim forever ago and then tossed in my needlework stash box, so I decided to do that, and it's been a surprisingly weird experience. I've been working with Teresa Wentzler cross-stitch patterns for so long now, I forgot it was possible for something to have no blended colors, beads, or metallic blending filaments. It feels like a trick! But it's definitely going quickly. In just two stitching sessions, I've gotten nearly an entire frog done. Very disorienting. Crafts can be simple and fun! Imagine that!
Anyway, I decided to go back to finishing up some long-languishing cross-stitch WIPs instead. One is now done, after I decided to just do normal backstitching on the parts that were, on closer inspection, supposed to have couched metallic thread, which is both a pain in the ass and not as neat in the final product, so screw that. Well, almost done. What it also has is what M estimates to be 800 beads around the background lattice. I could decide it's done enough, but I've spent literal years on this damn thing and I worry I'll get it professionally framed, hang it up, and then be mad I didn't do that final step, so I went ahead and ordered the beads, because the tiny pack I bought 15 years ago when I started this project clearly wasn't going to be enough and I don't want the colorway to change halfway through.
While waiting for the beads to arrive, I found a Dimensions kit of three tree frogs that I'd apparently bought on a whim forever ago and then tossed in my needlework stash box, so I decided to do that, and it's been a surprisingly weird experience. I've been working with Teresa Wentzler cross-stitch patterns for so long now, I forgot it was possible for something to have no blended colors, beads, or metallic blending filaments. It feels like a trick! But it's definitely going quickly. In just two stitching sessions, I've gotten nearly an entire frog done. Very disorienting. Crafts can be simple and fun! Imagine that!
