Incoherent Scribblings

Ph-whee! Today I finally finished my square for Dawn’s Stitching Bloggers’ Seasonal Round Robin! It took me about a week longer to finish it than I had expected, but this past week life seemed to keep getting in the way of my stitching every time I turned around.
I really loved stitching this square. I was lucky enough to get to stitch my favorite season’s square during the season and I was so happy to see that it contained my favorite sign of spring: Pansies! I also absolutely loved the colors in this square. From the bright yellow of the daffodils to the sea green, lavender, and blues of the pillows I can honestly say that almost every color in this square is one of my favorites. And even though I am not really fond of brown, I do so love wicker garden furniture.

As you can see, there was quite a lot of backstitching but in my opinion it was worth it. When I look at the scan before the backstitching and the one after I am so impressed by the way the design literally seems to pop off the fabric.

I know that Dawn will absolutely love it when she gets it back. I hope she gets a hold of me with her new address soon.

I have two things to report concerning the Stitching Bloggers’ Seasonal Round Robin that I organized via the SBEBB.

1.) I am getting *so* close to finishing the “Spring Chair” for Dawn’s. I should finish the cross stitching tomorrow and maybe even start the backstitching. My goal for the weekend is to finish it.

However, I am not going to post a progress picture of it today because…

2.) My own SBSRR made it home today and I have to say it looks awesome!! If you aren’t familiar with the theme, it is Passione Ricamo’s freebie series “Seasonal Topiaries.” We stitched on 32 count linen for this robin and mine is stitched on Cream Belfast. I stitched “Spring,” Dawn stitched “Autumn,” Laurie stitched “Summer,” and Nicki stitched “Winter.” I am so impressed with the quality of all three ladies’ stitching and I seriously can’t wait to get it framed so I can hang it in my home.

Thanks again to everyone for stitching with me… It was truly a pleasure!

The Robin’s Nest is now open for exchanges! If you are interested in joining the board, you can get more information here.

It’s Wednesday and time for the SBQ! Today’s question is:

Do you or have you stitched with over-dyed threads? (Weeks Dye Works, The Gentle Art Sampler Threads, Six Strand Sweets, etc.) If so, what is your opinion concerning them? If not, why not?

In the past when I had a pattern that called for over-dyed threads I just substituted DMC because I didn’t think over-dyed threads were so easy to come by here in Germany. However, I recently discovered that one of my ONSs has Weeks Dye Works and the Caron Collection in stock and the other will order over-dyed floss per request.

This discovery made me start looking at patterns that call for over-dyed floss in a new light and made me intensely curious to try them. So I did.

Unfortunately, as you can read here, I wasn’t too impressed: At roughly 3 times the cost of a skein of DMC (in Europe) these threads are expensive. This in and of itself wouldn’t be a big deal if I got the variation in color that I had hoped for, but I didn’t.

I am not going to say that I will never stitch with over-dyed floss again, but if I do I think I will take the advice of some of my commentators and make sure the project is large enough that I will actually notice color variations in the floss.

We had a long weekend here in Germany and since the weather was nice I didn’t stitch as much as I might have otherwise. However, I did make some more progress on my “Spring Chair” for Dawn’s RR and I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t finish it by the end of the week.

And now, since the best month of the year has officially begun (aka May), let’s see how I did accomplishing my April goals. As a reminder, they were:

1. Finish and mail Dawn’s SBSRR back to her.
   ** Not quite. I am still working on it and should finish it this week. **
2. Start TW’s “Above the Clouds”
   ** Yep. **
3. Continue working on “Catch the Wind.”
   ** Yep. **
4. Start Donna Vermillion Giampa’s “Four Seasons Cats.”
   ** Yep. **
5. Continue working on “Fairy Flora.”
   ** Yep. **
6. Continue working on “Stiefmütterchen.”
   ** Yep. **
7. Continue working on “Celtic Spring.”
   ** Yep. **
8. Get the groups organized and sent out for the next SBRR.
   ** Yep. **
9. Stitch a birthday card for my step-niece.
   ** Yep. I am off to the post office today to mail it! **

I haven’t been working through my rotation very consistently for the past couple of weeks, but I did manage to stitch at least a few hours on all of my projects, so all in all, I think I can say “not too bad.”

Now for May I hope to:

1. Finish Dawn’s SBSRR and mail it back to her as soon as she sends me her new address.
2. Get back to my daily rotation, stitching on each of the projects mentioned above.
3. Lay out my fabric for the new SBRR and stitch my square (First post date July 1)
4. Start Friendship Exchange (Post date June 16)

My final goal for May is only partly related to stitching and that is to comment on at least one stitching blog every day. (And not the same blog every day either.) I read so many blogs via my Bloglines subscriptions every day but so rarely comment on them and I am sorry. However, I vow to change that in May!