Progress Reports: Peace and Stars

     I have to admit that I haven't taken another stab at those fleur-de-lis crescents on Prelude to Peace. The third week of a cold left my brain function less than optimal last week, and I really didn't want to be ripping out that Flair yet again. My partner in crime (um, Scarlet Thread) Dawn, however, in spite of being on the first (maybe beginning the second?) week of her cold has completed the crescents in the first diamond, along with a sampling of other stitches. Since we're using the same colors for this part of the design, let's pretend that this is what my piece would look like, had I made some progress. (Thanks, Dawn, for kindly allowing me to post your progress, which looks great!)

 

     Note the extremely long piece of Flair draped across the canvas. Dawn decided to try the suggestion of others and was successful in stitching a crescent with one length! Here's a close-up of the left diamond.

     Isn't this gorgeous! I can't wait to get going again on my piece. My cold seems to truly be on the wane, so perhaps I can get some stitching done this week.

     Sunday, the Stars for a New Millennium group met again, and I did manage to make a little bit more progress on that. I had intended to take pictures of the various stages of everyone's pieces, but by the end of the session, I had completely forgotten and was thinking only of what I was going to order at the Indian restaurant we were going to for dinner.

     The couched rust triangle gave me fits and starts, and I ended up ripping it out twice before getting it right. Having no motivation to proceed around the block on that stitch, I decided to work on the rest of the stitches for that quadrant. Mercifully, they went very well and I'm pretty satisfied with the results. I still may modify the upright lattice triangle a bit, not being satisfied with how the top layer looks. It may be a bit too light. I think I'll stitch the one lying above the rust part using more strands of the floss and see how that looks. Perhaps I'll do that tonight at my stitching group. Unless I decide to work on the SOTM.

     Decisions, decisions.

     Kthxbai.

My Colors for Jim Wurth's Prelude to Peace

     So far, my progress has been negative. I finished the two diamonds in the white #5 perle coton, then ventured on to the fleur-de-lis crescents in Flair. Ha! I stitched two of them during my Tuesday night and Thursday morning stitching groups, then removed them at the same Thursday session. I haven't touched it since. Something has come up in the class discussion since then that I find very interesting. On the Flair card, we are told to use short lengths. I was astonished to hear that people were using 50- to 55-inch lengths when doing those stitches in order to complete the stitch with one length! Jim noted that the "Hilton length" (for any given thread, I assume) is generally accepted to be 36 inches. I may have to try that, since I think it was the starting and stopping of threads that got me into trouble last week.
     Stay tuned. I may have a progress photo by the end of the week.
     Now for something of interest to those who are taking the cyberclass along with me. Several people have asked me exactly what threads I'm using for my red and gray colorway. Here's the list, according to Jim's numbering system:

#3 DMC Perle Coton
1A. 317
1B. 318
1C. 415
1D. 762
1E. 3685
1F. 3687
1G. 3688
1H. 778

#5 DMC Perle Coton
2A. 317
2B. 318
2C. 415
2D. 762
2E. 3685
2F. 3687
2G. 3688
2H. 778
2I. Blanc

DMC Floche
3A. 762
3B. 415

4. Rainbow Gallery Fiesta F742 (substituted for DMC Rayon)

#8 DMC Perle Coton
5A. 415
5B. 318

#12 DMC Perle Coton
6A. 415
6B. 762 (I'm substituting DMC Floche 762 because I couldn't find the color in #12 Perle Coton. It's a 1:1 substitution.)

Kreinik #8 Braid
7A. 101
7B. 192
7C. 105C

Kreinik #4 Braid
8A. 101
8B. 192
8C. 105C

Kreinik 1/16" Ribbon
9A. 101
9B. 3231
9C. 192
9D. 105C

10. Rainbow Gallery Grandeur G930 (substituted for Kreinik Silk Serica)
11. DMC Satin Floss S5200 (substituted for Fiesta)
12. Flair F590
13. Frosty Rays Y203
14. Neon Rays N92
15. Rainbow Linen R438

     Kthxbai.