Saturday Spring Snow and a Stitching Post

This morning we woke up to a bright white winter landscape. The trees that had been leafing out for weeks were covered with white fluffy snow. It is an annual phenomenon here that after fruit trees have blossomed and spring flowers have made their appearances that we get a cold spell and a killing frost. We don’t always get a late spring snowfall.

We have had weeks of beautiful spring weather so I know this is just a temporary setback. I am able to enjoy the beauty that I see out my window. It began snowing before we went to bed last night so we covered the most tender of the plants, like the blackberry shoots. The snow will be gone by noon.

Today in my Saturday stitching post I will display some slow and steady progress on the previous UnFinished Object (UFO) which has now become a Work in Progress (WIP).

On March 28, I published Hide and Seek, a post about a piece I had started many years ago but put aside and never went back to. After getting it out to photograph it I decided that would be the next project I would complete.

Finished Design

Previous Progress

Part of the reason I had abandoned it was because it included some rather complicated areas. I had mis-counted my stitches and I could not figure out where I had gone wrong. And it is stitched on linen which for me is more difficult to count than many other even weave fabrics. The fabric is 32 count linen, which means that every inch contains 32 fabric threads.

To get back on track my solution was to “grid” the fabric. Cross stitch charts are already marked with 10 x 10 squares to help stitchers keep track of where they are.

Current Project Chart in Color With Grid Lines

Example of Black and White Chart Showing Grid Lines

Gridding the fabric is marking the fabric without leaving any permanent marks on it.  Running stitches are done vertically and horizontally to form 10 x 10 squares corresponding to the squares on the chart.

Gridded Fabric

Gridded Fabric Detail

After gridding the fabric which was quite time-consuming I was able to identify more easily where I had erred in my counting. I then frogged my mistakes. (Frogging is the cross stitch term for having to remove stitches. Think of the sound frogs make: “Rip-it, Rip-it”).

Progress as of 4/18/15

I was then ready to proceed with more stitching. It is slow progress as these aging eyes do not do well with the small stitches, but it is progress nevertheless. The grid on the fabric definitely helps in placing the stitches properly.

When I have had to remove stitching I am struck by the idea that most people would never realize that errors had been there to begin with. There are times when I proceed with the errors knowing that they may never be seen. Other times, like with this project I felt compelled to correct them because I worried it would throw the whole design off.

Spring snow and slow and steady progress, just additional threads of my life.

[Project Details: Hide and Seek from  For the Love of Cross Stitch, May 2001.  Design worked on 32 count antique white linen using 2 strands of DMC floss over 2 fabric threads.]