Melitastitches4fun's Blog

I finished the top square and the center square crescents while enjoying a pre-meeting stitching session with Sue and Rosie. 

Later, during the ANG New Jersey Needle Artists Chapter monthly meeting, I started on the bottom square. The following day, after I got home while watching the Phillies, I finished the bottom square.

The center Double Fan Doubled (DVD) looked tough, and it was. It was fully demonstrated in a video. There are detailed instructions and several diagrams. So, I needed quiet and concentration. The TV was off and it still took three tries over several hours, getting threads to lay flat, going under, over, under over. When I was done the first time, I realized one arm was off! Can you find it? It’s glaringly wrong to me. Oh, well.  I cut it out in no time.

The second time was wrong after two rounds (no photo). The third time was the charm and a thing of beauty. The threads are laid flatter, too.

The last of the yellow in the center went in the next day because the DFD did me in!

Goal #10 for 2025 is completed.

After doing the rewarding but more difficult finishing recently, I pulled out Summer Fireworks by Ann-Marie Anderson-Mayes. The Walnetto in the outer rectangles was the fun new stitch pattern for me. It was a tad challenging because it called for 2 strands, and getting them to lay flat was tricky.

It’s so light, and in this colorway, it looks more like a spring bouquet to me. So, working on it now is appropriate. We’re enjoying several spring bouquets, including a ribbonwork one, a painted one, and a fresh one.

I’m heading to NJ on Wednesday to return the  22 pieces submitted to Woodlawn Needlework Exhibit from other members from the ANG New Jersey Needle Artists (NJNA) Chapter. Jacqui C will be discussing beading as the program topic. And, I will take this to stitch on. Rosie offered to be my hostess for the trip. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

Summer Fireworks is an ANG Central Jersey Chapter project, but several members are in both chapters. The April CJC meeting was canceled due to Easter. I’ll see them in May and have been asked to demonstrate finishing a coaster. It’s so interesting to be in multiple chapters and see the differences between the chapters.

The ANG Central Jersey Chapter (CJC) meet and stitch on the 3rd Saturday of every month (from 10 am – 3 pm). Since I last joined them at the November 2024 meeting, I have picked up Summer Fireworks by Ann-Marie Anderson-Mayes occasionally when a small, easier piece was what I wanted to do.

In January, it was all I could do thanks to a good old-fashioned head cold that I got from my husband after holding it at bay for 2 weeks. We went through two batches of homemade chicken noodle soup.

I hadn’t noticed it, but Rosie L is correct, Ann-Marie’s hand dyed skeins match perfectly when folded in half if you cut at the knot. There is no need to search for the repeating color, allowing colors to line up perfectly in the Scotch stitch border.

I didn’t make it to the CJC January meeting, but I did work on it an EGA Brandywine Chapter gathering yesterday where I started the outside Van Dyke border and finished it the next day during an Ellen of Serendipity’s 3-hour Zoom class on thread and stitch choices for snow scenes.

I started Summer Fireworks by Ann-Marie Anderson-Mayes at today’s Saturday meeting/Stitch-in at ANG Central Jersey Chapter (CJC). They meet on the 3rd Saturday of every month (from 10 am – 3 pm; I try to make it quarterly).

The chapter provided the Congress Cloth and threads, but I had enough of the lovely threads Ann-Marie sells on BeautifulStitches (.com.au) leftover from two previous projects based on Heather. A few people started stitching it last month in different colorways. It’s one of several free designs available on her website.

I do find black tougher to stitch on but it would look fantastic on black too.

As I read the instructions, I commented that the outermost border, a Van Dyke stitch, looked like it would be difficult to count. Sue C said she started with the Scotch stitch border before the Van Dyke border and said it was easy to avoid counting errors. An advantage of having others get started first on a project. So, I marked off the Scotch stitches with the needle (see the outline of enlarged holes). I prefer that to spend time basting. And, on Congress Cloth, it’s easy to see the holes (just don’t count wrong since it can be tough to make the hole small again).

We’re using 3 strands for each Scotch stitch. So, I am creating a mirror image working up each side. Here’s my progress for the day.