Confessions of a Remedial Stitcher: Flying Along on Some, Inching on Others

I've finally gotten some stitching done. I was beginning to think I'd never get back into it in a meaningful fashion.

Wonderful discovery: Stitching on 14-ct canvas goes really, really fast! Who knew? Well, I guess a lot of people have known for years. One of my WIPs, Flyways by Michael Boren (a workshop project that sadly had to be canceled due to his ongoing back problem, thus leaving us to work on our own), is on this canvas. At first, I wasn't sure I would like it. I tend to gravitate to higher counts, coming from the counted-thread world of 28-, 32-, 36-, and what-was-I-thinking 40-ct linen. Big difference. I'm pleased to say, I've been enjoying this immensely. Not only is the design fun to stitch (well, except for the tedious, to me, tent/reverse tent part), it's quick!

     I'm now ready to embark on filling in the diamond areas with all the fun, special stitches and motifs. I did the center one before completing all the tent/reverse tent background of the Milanese-stitched Flying Geese Flight Paths to motivate me to keep going with it. I'm so pleased with it overall, although I'm not that great when it comes to tent stitch. I'm never totally satisfied with the result, but I think I did an adequate job here and won't stress about it.

     Now the question is, do I barrel ahead with the four diamond areas around the center, or do I switch to one of my larger ongoing projects, in particular From Molehill to Mountain? I think it has to be FMTM.

     My ANG chapter is doing FMTM as one of our two year-long projects, with the goal of exhibiting the finished pieces at the 2012 Seminar in Philadelphia. Since we all started on this in April (I think), we should be able to complete the stitching and have our pieces finished in time for the Seminar at the end of August. Hahahaha. That's the plan; we'll see if I'm among those who actually reach their goal. Here is the progress of everyone who was working on this at the August meeting (light attendance, it being summer, and not everyone attending is doing this project), starting with mine:

Note the section of the far-right block that shows the signs of having been stitched, then ripped out. This block has been the bane of my stitching so far. I think I ripped out almost everything stitched at least once if not more, except for the center top and left squares of the block, the ones made up of two triangles. Thus I haven't done anything on the block to the left of it and proceeded directly to the block on the far left, the focus of our third meeting session. I have high hopes for this one proceeding much better, as it's variations on the Milanese stitch, which as we all now know, I just finished stitching quite a bit.

Now on to my friends' progress. Please note that some of us only recently started working on FMTM, thus we're all over the map on how far along we've gotten. I also like the variety of colorways, in spite of several of us apparently being drawn to the purples and greens. The variety of threads is interesting too.