I’ve stitched various projects in the past using single floss colors in the needle, and I have to say now that I’ve been working on Egyptian Sampler that I love the result you get using blended floss. It gives the work some depth and dimension, instead of being somewhat flat in feeling. As time-consuming as it is to prepare the floss, it is entirely worth it.

On this progress pic, I’ve done the back-stitching on the left portion of the border. On the right corner I’ve back-stitched just the flower motif. Back-stitching makes all the difference in …read more

As some of you no doubt are aware, this past month Teresa Wentzler has taken the brave plunge into the world of blogging. Head over to Artistic License if you are so inclined. Her entries to date are enjoyable- showing the readers a glimpse of both the designer and the woman. I will be looking forward to reading more from Teresa.

Just a short note this morning. The last few days I’ve indulged in a frenzy of combining colors and stitching like mad, and what I have to show for it includes a slightly stiff arm and framing for border motifs across the top of the Egyptian Sampler. I am feeling rather clever for stitching in this manner. The little motifs would be a major hassle if I had to fuss with the floss tails for each one, but with the outline frame of the border stitched, I have somewhere on the back to catch tails. This …read more

I’ve been following Grace’s Gryffindor Gazette, and decided to see if I could find cross stitch patterns for the Harry Potter world. Well, this has proven to be much harder than I thought it would be!

There is an illusive Harry Potter Cross Stitch Design Book written in French and seemingly published by DMC, that I’ve seen mentioned (the Ebay auctions I found were already over). One would need to either be able to comprehend French, or know someone who would be willing to translate it.

Teresa Wentzler’s Tempest in a Teacup is not a Harry Potter design, …read more

Yesterday was an exciting needlework day. I finally got to start stitching Egyptian Sampler! When I first bought the chart and floss, I also made up my project floss cards. Noted the chart symbol next to the hole on the card, and filled ‘em up. For the blended colors I just cut one length of each color, so there are 6 prepped lengths of each color ready to stitch with. I cut two lengths of non-blended colors, so I could separate and re-combine the strands and have 6 lengths ready of the non-blended colors as …read more