Test Stitching Experiments and a Small Update.

If you saw my last blog post then you know I am playing with some 25 ct. DMC Magic Guide that was very kindly sent to me by Lesli. I've even tried stitching on a frame and I know I'm not supposed to do that. In the past I've tried going back to a frame and put myself out of stitching for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks because of the pain. But I tried it again for part of the 25 count and will keep trying in all likelihood because for me, my stitching looks much better on a frame.

I'm also experimenting with just plain half cross stitch on this project. Hey, in for a penny in for a pound!

First about the fabric. It is sort of soft but not too much, and sort of nubby, but not too much. I find I like the feel of it and it is easy to stitch, given its count and my eyesight. I can see very little showthrough in my stitching doing 2 over 1 half cross but in the extreme zoom photo's your about to see I definitely see a lot of show through which isn't visible at all to the naked eye. I might try 3 over 1 in the future but I think that would make for some very tight stitching in the confetti areas.

Anywho...

If you click on the photos you can see them in all their glory, the good and the bad. This is the first 750 or so stitches of SK The Spider Queen from Heaven and Earth Designs. I wasn't too sure I'd love working with these colors but I do. The open spaces are threads that I didn't have and that weren't available locally so they will have to wait until I place an order.

The Magic guide throws me off by having the gridding! How dumb is that? I do grid but I grid every 10 block and this is every 20 so I'm having to adjust and it is harder than it sounds. This chart is only 75 stitches wide btw. Some I stitched on frame as I said, and the rest I stitched in hand, all in half cross stitches. Normally I wouldn't mix them up that way but this is a test piece and that is how test stitching goes for me. I'm too slow a stitcher to do big sections of both and then decide.

I plan to try some other 25 ct. fabrics as soon as I can afford them. DMC doesn't sell the magic guide in the US so it would be expensive for me to buy if I get too attached to it. Do you have any recommendations on 25 ct.? I generally prefer natural fabrics.

Now to my other stitching this week.
I continued on with the Blue and White Sampler and actually had some stitching time. Not a lot of it but more than I have been having. I had to frog one little area twice and so drew in some grid lines and that is when I realized the chart itself, when it moves from one page to the next, doesn't have evenly numbered grid lines. They start over on the next page! So I wasn't just being dense but really, who does that?

Here is an update picture.
Last time:

And the progress:

Excuse the wrinkles, but I do stitch in hand.

Happy Stitching until next time my friends!