Today is Germany’s national holiday so I had the day off to stitch, stitch, and stitch some more! I worked on my “Spring Topiary” for the Stitching Bloggers’ Seasonal Round Robin (hereafter known as SBSRR). I actually started it yesterday, but was unhappy with how it was turning out so I started it over this morning. It looks much better now.
Up to now this particular piece has been slightly challenging because it has a lot of patches confetti-type stitching. On the first try I stitched a few stitches of one color and weaved it under before moving on to the next color. However, after about an hour and a half of stitching I realized that my back looked horribly knotted up so I decided to rip it out. (After all, I don’t want my RR companions to think I am a messy stitcher, now do I? ;))
Therefore this morning when I was contemplating the best way to start over so that I didn’t end up with another knotted mess, it dawned on me that perhaps I should try parking my threads. It seemed logical to me that if I did so not only could I work on more than one color at a time; I could also avoid starting and stopping my floss so often.
I have parked my threads before, but it wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I ran into the term for what I had done. When I did it before, I did it because it just seemed convenient, not because I wanted to try some new stitching trick. However, the last time I parked my threads I didn’t do it throughout the entire project, just in a section that had confetti-type stitching.
I have to say that I like parking my threads because it is nice to just thread the needle onto the appropriate strands when they are needed. Nevertheless I am not sure if I will do it that often because I don’t see it as particularly advantageous unless you have to change your floss colors frequently.
Christine V says:
Great start on your topiary, Renee! Sorry it had to be started twice. I was lucky enough to get the remaining two topiaries so I look forward to stitching them one day!
3 October 2005 at 22:01
Dawn says:
It is looking good! I can’t wait to stitch on it for you
I still haven’t started on mine!
4 October 2005 at 17:54
Jenna says:
The topiary looks beautiful! Is this a Passione Ricamo freebie?
4 October 2005 at 22:54
Vash says:
I’ve tried parking threads before. I’ve found it’s ok if you are going to use them again fairly quickly, but if you park them, then go on and stitch another section, the parked threads get tangled up with your other stitching, so I guess it’s better not to do it in the first place.
5 October 2005 at 11:55