Melitastitches4fun's Blog

For April’s New Jersey Needle Artists’ chapter meeting, Jacqui continued Tumbling Stripes by Marilyn Owen by going over Stripes A-E (bottom 5 rows).

I see now that the top 7 rows are mostly blue with a touch of yellow and the bottom are yellow with a touch of blue.

I decreased to 2 strands of floss again because I am working on 24 count Congress Cloth.

Since I am finishing this into an ornament, I won’t be doing the 3 outer borders framing it into a square. Instead, I backed out a few of the light yellow fill in stitches and evened out the corners to create an octagon that will be easier to finish.

Then, I tent stitched around the outer edge to make finishing easier and retain the full design.

I got my finishing done ready for Show and Tell at this month’s New Jersey Needle Artists Chapter meeting Wednesday night! I’m attending in person. In fact, I am posting from the meeting room.

In March, Jacqui from New Jersey Needle Artists continued Tumbling Stripes by Marilyn Owen by going over Stripes 5-7 (counting from the center out).

Initially, in Stripe 5, I thought I would use Kreinik #4 Braid on the smaller count Congress Cloth, but it was too thin. Luckily, I had the same color light blue 194 in #8 Braid. I did cut back on the number of strands from 3 to 2 for the dark blue floss (820). Working 2 needles, as Marilyn suggested, went well.

I stayed with the number of strands recommended for 18 count for Stripe 6.

Stripe 7 has Smyrna stitches using Kreinik #4 Braid in the same color as the surrounding floss (back to 194). So, the inner and outer stripes are solid, with the middle stripes containing all the tumbling movement.

All caught up for Wednesday night’s meeting!

Last month, Jacqui from New Jersey Needle Artists continued Tumbling Stripes by Marilyn Owen by going over Stripes 1-4 (working from the center out).

Stripe 1 in blue floss (DMC 797) worked fine with 3 strands of floss. Two strands looked skimpy with just enough speckles of white showing through to make me go to 3 strands. Apparently, coverage on 24 count isn’t that much different from 18 count.

Then, I thought I would use the darker blue floss shown (DMC 820) and the Petite Sparkle Rays in Stripe 2. The dark blue 820 looks a lot darker in the photo but sure didn’t when I stitched with 2 and 3 strands up against 797 (no photos). I tried both because 3 was way too heavy, and 2 was still heavy. Then, the Petite Sparkle Rays was way too wide for the stitch on Congress Cloth.

So, I pulled my old favorite Bijoux MMT437 Sapphire (same value) and decided to use 2 strands and go even thinner. And, the Petite Silk Lame Braid SP11 was thin enough to work. So, this stripe may not have the same color contrast as the original, but it definitely contrasts with Stripe 1. I was hopeful that it would work with Stripe 3, and it did.

For Stripe 3, the blue Silk Lame Braid was the right color but was too heavy (For 13 count). So, I pulled out 2 silk and 1 rayon fibers (the same as what Petite Silk Lame Braid comes as). I can’t remember the teacher who told us you can thin down Silk Lame Braid, but it works. I decided that combining them together would too, and it did. I wouldn’t recommend this for larger pieces, though. Also, since I had to repeat the first and third rows in the same DMC floss and Herringbone is worked left to right, I used half of the long floss on the top row while the rest of the thread was parked out of the way.

For the 4th stripe, I stayed with 3 strands of floss and my makeshift Petite Silk Lame Braid.

I’m ready for our next session tonight!

I ditched the threads I’d gathered for Tumbling Stripes in favor of DMC cotton floss. The first batch just didn’t look right to me when I went back to start the project, Tumbling Stripes by Marilyn Owen.

My floss has a better selection of light, medium, and dark yellows and blues. So, I matched the yellow Petite Sparkle Rays to 445, 307, and 444, and the blue Silk Lame Braid to 800, 797, and 820. I included yellow because Jacqui, who is leading this for the ANG New Jersey Needle Artists chapter, has a Zoom talk, Why You Need Yellow in Your Life, which we enjoyed a while ago.

Our assignment this month was to select threads and baste. Well, I don’t like basting. So, I stitched the blank faces of the cubes first. They are actually the last step before the borders, but they line up with the stripes. Since I am doing this as an ornament, I will have to round it out after the stripes are all completed with the same light yellow thread.

Because I am stitching on Congress Cloth, I am using one less strand than suggested for 18 count canvas. I am all ready for February’s meeting next Wednesday night (thanks, Cathryn for reading my blog and letting me know about the date change for February; I even updated the NJNA website but not my calendar).