Stitching Therapy

Good Morning Dear Blog Readers,

Anyone who identifies herself (or himself) as a stitcher can tell you that losing yourself in a stitching project is very therapeutic.  I decided to tackle the hardanger bookmarks from Nordic Needle to see if I could catch up before the March bookmark arrived, and I did!

January

The top photo shows one of the end designs after cutting and removing the threads, and the bottom shows the finished woven bars and dove's eyes.

The initial in the middle.  I cheated and did not add the picots on either side of the woven bars.  Picots are my least favorite thing to make.

February

Before and after photos of the adjoining wrap.  This is the first time I had done that particular decorative stitch.  That's a good thing, because it is getting me out of my comfort zone of woven bars and dove's eyes.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to find the middle filling stitch was woven bars and a dove's eye, with eyelets at the corners.

The kit came with a skein of Caron Wildflowers in Teak.  I decided I wanted a little more coverage, so I used one strand of Watercolours for the klosters and the box stitch.  It was a little chunky, probably not recommended for a 25-count ground, but I'm happy with the result.  I do love the Teak.  It's my new favorite Caron color.  My photo doesn't do it justice.   I also dug into my stash and found some #12 perle cotton in ecru for the decorative stitches on both bookmarks.  It doesn't compete for attention the way a variegated fiber would--just my opinion.

So, two bookmarks completed from start to finish in one week!  The fact that they're prefinished saves a lot of time--no blanket stitch to do around the edge.  OK, Nordic Needle, where's the March bookmark?