WIP Wednesday: The SAL's and More!

Having done those really big boxes last week on the Vakje per week I realised I needed to be more careful as it was only April and I am getting close to the half way mark of the fabric. So this week I went the opposite way - instead of dividing the width of the fabric in half after removing the 3 stitches I have between each box. I first removed 3 lots of 3 stitches and divided the rest into 4 to make 4 mini boxes. Unfortunately this did not create 4 equal boxes - I get 2 x 20 and 2 x 19 stitches wide - by 20 high. But it will work out as long as I keep them mirrored.

I had to do quite a bit of fiddling to get more than one leaf shape into the box as the pattern for each leaf is 11 stitches square so I was quite happy to get 2 full and 2 partial leaves in my 20 x 20 box. I Used DMC 111 this week for it - in such a small space more colours seemed a bit much for this leaf pattern.

There is no update for the Linen and Threads 2017 Mystery Band Sampler Stitch Along as I was all caught up with that last week.

There is also no update for The Never Ending Band Sampler Stitch-Along as I didn't work on that either! Yes I'm getting behind again on this but that's ok, this is the project that's allowed to slide.

 

What I did do was finish the Anna fob pattern into a biscornu because it was just too big to be a fob. You can read more about it here though if you want to skip ahead to the pattern you can find it here

 

What I also worked on was the 2017 Easter egg using the pattern that NevaSirenda makes every year over on DeviantArt. I'd been impatiently waiting for it as I love stitching these and had made all of them last year in a fairly short space of time as they are so much fun. This one is no different, though I did finish it slightly differently. I also swapped the pink out for a red (DMC 3328) in the same value as I just really don't like pink. It's 4" wide by 3 1/4" high and the pattern itself is 31 x 35 stitches. I used 10 cm wide, 11ct white linen band with a lacy edge by Vaupel & Heilenbeck and as well as the called for DMC threads (and the one I changed) I used an off white craft thread for the cording. When submitting to DeviantArt I came to the discovery that the 2016 egg was missing! Somehow or another I'd set it aside to work on something else and forgot I'd not finished finishing it.

This of course had to be rectified and that's what I did yesterday. So now that too is finished and hanging in my Easter tree with the rest of the embroideries.

And having mentioned my Easter tree it's only fair I show it off too! Here it is in all its glory with all 7 ornaments in the tree along with some other bits and bobs from previous years.

You probably think that's all by now but wait... there is more! Oh yes... there is. You see... having finished catching up with the 2 cross stitch SAL's and being up to date with them I no longer had a cross stitch only SAL to work on, which, when you want to cross stitch, is a bit of an issue. So I started another SAL!

It's called the "Dear Rien" SAL and the patterns are only given in a FaceBook group of the same name (I'm not linking this one as it's a closed group, but you can find it with a search on fb). Like the Vakje per Week it's a weekly SAL, with patterns being given on Friday. Instead of the called for large bit of fabric I'm stitching it on a 10 cm/4 inch Aida band that has 53 stitches across, which is enough for one whole circle with a little space to spare on each side. The threads I am using are all DMC solids and for this project the colours are not only picked but also planned.

For the outer half diamonds I'm using the browns going from dark to light and back again. For the circles I'm using the browns as well, going from light to dark and back again. As I have an even number of threads there should be no overlap of colours. The contents of the circles I'm stitching with the blues going from dark to light again - I have a feeling that I will need to add white to the end of the blues or I may end up having to use a colour twice in a row but I'll see when I get to that bit.

The browns: 3371, 938, 898, 801, 433, 434, 435, 436, 437, 738, 739, and 712.
The Blues: 939, 823, 336, 803, 312, 322, 334, 3755, 3325, 3841, 775, and 3756.

So far I have completed the first 2 circles and the diamonds and I'm over half way with the filler of the second circle. Technically though that's not entirely correct as this SAL is working backwards! The Dutch seem to like starting at the bottom right instead of the top left for SAL's and BAP's, so what's at the top of my band is circle 49 and 48 and I'll be working down to circle 1 during the rest of the year.

That is all for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read! See you Friday with another mucha princess fob pattern or otherwise see you next week!