Melitastitches4fun's Blog

My ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter has started Circles by Lois Kershner, the ANG 2008 Stitch of the Month. It is one of 2 counted projects for the year. We have more members than ever (35 and 18-20 show up in person and on Zoom). So, we (the chapter Board) thought that a couple of projects would be needed to appeal to more members. We have 9 people working on Circles and 10 on the other piece which will be the subject of another post. And 5 people are working on both (yes, I am one of the 5). So, we have 14 people participating in ongoing projects which is quite good. We have a third ready to start in a few months.

It’s great that alternate colorways are shown for Circles. I am using blues although not the ones listed in the Material List for the original colorway. I have a whole pack of threads of Chameleon, Shades of Africa, Two Oceans which consists of 5 skeins from light to dark and each overdyed that I picked it up at Half Moon Handwerks in Camp Hill, PA. They have lovely fabrics and some needlepoint supplies. I thought about using these for another project but I don’t like laying these threads because they are too slippery. They are such pretty colors but I don’t like fighting with the threads. However, ironing them helps some and I will use them for this project and be done with them!

Lois recommends painting some areas of the canvas. I already had 2 blue Copic markers and picked up 2 more darker blues. I tried “stitch painting” the 4-way Bargello pattern but I didn’t get it exactly correct – close enough anyway!

The circular Rhodes would not fit within the 7″ circle based on the template provided. So, I studied the other stitched samples. The Mango Sorbet kept the same size and placed it directly under 4-way Bargello, the Creamy Peach seems to have shifted a few elements, and several did not stitch it at all. I can’t understand how Lois got the larger one to fit with the template she provided. But, no worries! I adjusted it to a smaller circular Rhodes which is 5 wide and not 7 wide on each edge. With this smaller version, you would drop down 12 not 16 from the bottom center edge of the 4-way Bargello to start at the number 1 stitch. That still allows it to be offset which I prefer. 

The project and threads fit perfectly in a bag made by Linda from a blue fabric with circles in it! How perfect!?! I’ve got the ANG needle minder with blue in it too.