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I love it all: embroidery, canvaswork, quilting, crochet. So much to do, so little time.





Monday, January 23, 2012

My First IHSW (This Project is Cursed...)

Hey Blog Buddies,

Over the weekend, I participated in my first International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and it was quite fun to be stitching along (virtually) with so many fellow stitchers, and then be able to visit their blogs to see what they did.  Here is what I accomplished on the Uptown Stitcher:

Starting with just a few lines of backstitching
in the lower left corner,
I stitched almost half of the background.
It's a criss-crossed backstitch
(Alicia stitch)
done on the diagonal,
and it's really time consuming.
I spent a lot of hours on it
both on Saturday and Sunday.

Although the Alicia stitch
done in this exact color
was listed as a background option,
the photo showed a different background,
with much of the white canvas left unstitched
(a design element I still have a hard time with).

I also redid her little shopping bag:


Yes, I'm aware the design is a little off center (sigh).
This is the second time I've put this little bag together
(after ripping it out the first time)
and I think it would fall apart if I went for a third go-round.
But that's not even the worst part.


Here's the bag where it will
eventually be placed in the finished piece.
Yes, it stands out because it's 3-dimensional,
but to me it looks way too tone-on-tone
next to the background color.

That's all I'm going to do on her for now.
When she comes back up in the rotation,
I'll decide whether I want to rip out the background,
redo (from scratch) the shopping bag (probaby not!)
or leave it the way it is.

I look forward to participating in
many more IHSW weekends.
They are the third weekend of every month.
To find out more about them, go here.

Hope your weekend was productive.
Thanks for visiting!

9 comments:

Joysze said...

Hi!! So glad to have your company for this IHSW. :D Stitching looks great and the Uptown Stitcher cracked me up, she's so cute. My hubby is a southpaw too. :D

Unknown said...

Love your uptown stitcher and that background is just fab, I love her. Well done on getting so much done on her this past weekend. IHSW are wonderful aren't they

cucki said...

me too..i love your uptown stitcher so much..what a sweet project..
i also had a fun ihsw weekend..
big hugs cucki xxx

Sarah said...

Oh she really is wonderful looking - though its a shame her shopping bag will cover up her other foot!

Anonymous said...

Hi

I've just done my first ISHW too.

I love your uptown stitcher she's great!

♥ Nia said...

Lovely stitching :)

Melissa said...

Great job! I love her bags :)

Gill - That British Woman said...

great stitching, I love it.

Gill in Canada

Siobhán said...

I think you're being too hard ton yourself--I think the bag looks great! I don't think it's too tone on tone at all but rather stands out but doesn't take away from the rest of the piece, if that makes any sense at all.