Monday, October 15, 2012

TUSAL and. . . getting closer with Deep Peace

Here is my October contribution to the TUSAL:


All the sparkly bits on the top are from the metal stitching on Deep Peace.

I have made more progress on Deep Peace, but it has not been without frustration!

I finished illuminating the D.


I did not stagger the rows as described in the directions, except where the rows were uneven. I started to, but just didn't like the way it was turning out.

I was pleased that it was finished, and I was ready to go onto the pearl purl part, until . . .  to my horror, I discovered that I had one skein of silk that was unused! I checked and discovered that the berries were supposed to be stitched in pink! This was sort of buried in the text and I missed it. I stitched them in the same shade as the vines. Admittedly this gave it a rather November look, but I thought it looked ok. Then I realized that the scene inside the D was a Spring scene. Yes, it would be better to have pink berries! Those !*#&@ berries got me again! Well you guessed it, spent the next two evenings replacing the brown with pink. If anyone out there stitches this design, I would strongly suggest going through the entire set of pages and highlighting all the steps. Some of them are easy to miss.

Ok, now it was finally time to go onto the pearl purl. I found the secret to this was to go very slowly. You feel like you need 3 hands to do this, but it finally got done.
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of this yet, but I will very shortly.

I do have another problem though, and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. The linen inside the D has stretched. It now puffs upward. Grrr! Not sure how to shrink it back to size. Not sure if it will show when it is framed. I am really not sure what I could have done to avoid this!

Have to think about it for a while I guess.

12 comments:

Nicola said...

I am sure that everything will be worth it at the end.

Margaret said...

It's so pretty! I wonder if in stretching the piece for framing, the bulge will go away? I hope so! Sorry about the pink berries..... at least they're done now.

Barb said...

I hope that when you stretch it for framing, all the problems will work out! Things like that are worrisome.

Julie said...

It looks super. I get so excited sometimes when doing a project that I don't read instructions carefully.

Giovanna said...

Well it's beautiful, that's for sure!

Samplers, Silks and Linens said...

oh dear this is sounding like a difficult piece and stitching is supposed to be fun isnt it? i pray everything works out for you in the end - if its any consolation it looks very pretty from here - hugs and stitches, Amanda

riona said...

Seamstresses use steam to shrink small areas of fabric, like the gathers in a sleeve facing. Lightly spray the area with clean water from a mister bottle [using the finest mist]... it's best to hold the bottle at least 12" from the fabric while doing this ... to ensure the finest mist. Cover with an ironing cloth [a clean piece of muslin or cotton sheeting will do] Then using a hot dry iron, go over the area a few times.

I would definitely test this process on some scraps of your linen ... before touching the piece in which you have invested so much time and energy.

Siobhán said...

I can't tell you how many times I've just gone on and done my thing and THEN realized that I missed something! It adds your own unique touch to the piece. It looks great!

Patti-Rocky Mtn Stitcher said...

Its beautiful! What a wonderful piece.

Karoline said...

It's looking gorgeous, I love Lauren's designs but her instructions give me fits sometimes.

Brigitte said...

Misinterpreting the colours - that could have happened to me as well, lol. But it's always good when you mend a mistake immediately. Looks absolutely great, this design!

stitcherw said...

It looks gorgeous. Sorry to hear that the frog came to visit with the berries, hopefully it wasn't to difficult to get them back out to redo. Sue