Needlecase, center motif

Yesterday was my Lorri’s Needlecase Day, and I had a lot of fun working on the project.
I did something I have not done in a very long time, and I started in both the center of the fabric and the center of the chart. Per the directions. I didn’t want to run out of room to complete the stitching, so I figured eh, why not. Besides, there is all that Scary Hardanger to consider, and perhaps if I did things my usual way, disaster would strike.

The white floss is silk, and a complete dream to work with. There are just a couple notes I would make about working with silk floss, and those would be:
1. use short lengths so your floss doesn’t tangle and knot
2. it likes to slip out of the eye of the needle, so be sure to hang onto it
3. even if you think you have soft smooth hands, silk floss will prove you wrong, it catches on even unseen roughness

Blending filament isn’t too horrid to work with, and while it doesn’t catch on my gardening-rough hands the way the silk does, it suffers from the same “slipping out of needle” issue. Use short lengths and go slow, and it stitches fine. The initials and backstitching in the middle are done in a Kreinik blending filament.

The rest of the stitching is worked in DMC floss. I really am enjoying the dainty effect this pattern is producing, and am very glad that my weekend is almost here. Best thing about having free days on my Rotation is getting to put in some extra time on extra fun projects.

I realize it is a bit out-of-square, and I think that is partly because it is stitched on linen. Which by the way, is as lovely to stitch on, as silk is to stitch with. I’m in love. After I’m done stitching, I think the sponge cleaning and blocking process will get everything trued up.