Melitastitches4fun's Blog

The ironweed flowers were fun to put in. And, as I was adding the green leaves, I noticed that I had missed 2 pods and one whole ironweed flower. I wasn’t and am still not sure if I have enough leaves but I ran out of the 7 mm green fill in ribbon. So, I am done!

Deborah Mitek really explored the Japanese Ribbon Stitch in this piece.

I’ll have to make a trip to the framer soon. Since I’ve been doing my own finishing lately including 4 framed pieces, he might not remember me!

I felt the urge to go for a Walk in the Woods. This is a Deborah Mitek design from ANG Seminar in New Orleans this summer.

The leaves on wooded stems included a variety of ribbon stitches with a few different overdyed green ribbons. The seed pods were tricky and are probably slightly different from Deborah’s but they are fine!

The ironweed flowers are next and I am excited about that!

I decided to work on Walk in the Woods by Deborah Mitek for a bit. It was the first of the three ANG Seminar classes I took in New Orleans.

It’s on Congress Cloth and has a photo transfer that we’re embellishing. Not everything gets covered. Her husband took the photo of ironwood a few years ago.

Her kits are so organized and clearly marked. We got plenty of needles. Partial skeins help keep kit costs down. That takes some time but makes following her instructions even easier!

Deborah has excellent instructions and I started at the beginning by finishing the border and the background fern-like grasses and wooded stems.

Now that I’ve added the stems of the ironweed and seed pods, I can tackle the ribbonwork!

There is so much going on that you can barely see where it is stitched in the photos. It’s visible up close and under my light. The ribbons will pop.

The morning of Day 2 of Walk in the Woods with Deborah Mitek was spent practicing ribbon leaves. I will practice more – probably with the River Silk ribbons and save the ones in the kit for the piece.

In the afternoon, I worked on the border. There was a party going on last night into the wee hours that kept me up and we are on the 27th floor! It’s New Orleans so nothing you can do. So, I was fading and the border was easiest. It really it first to be stitched anyway.

Eight of us from ANG Main Line Stitchers and Bill and Jean had a lovely group dinner right across the street at The Creole House. We had to dodge a parade to get back for EXPO!

The local ANG Streetcar chapter had a table with a partially stitched Dorothy Lesher piece. I may have to rip out what’s there because no threads are included. I’ve wanted to try one of Dorothy’s designs and this suits me. The little ornament rounded off the purchase nicely.

It looked like a good turn out for Expo!

There is music again outside our 27th floor. Not as bad at 8 pm as last night. Did I mention that I am not a huge fan of New Orleans? HOT and noisy.