OY THE PAIN!!! I really, truly hate to railroad. The only thing worse is having to lay my threads :-(. I have started the Autumn Bleeped (the first of a series of four I will do) from Country Crossroads and there is a lot of satin stitching. I spent hours changing the floss from DMC to silk -- mostly Rainbow Gallery with some of the Dinky Dyes. The DD is variegated (this is the stuff I am going to need more of) and because it's so pretty, I felt I should force myself to railroad so that the threads lay nicely right next to each other. I have now decided that I don't really need to do this -- LOL! It takes absolutely FOREVER and is a total P.I.T.A. to do when working with silks! Fortunately, the satin stitches are all 2 stitches wide and are in long rows or kloster blocks so the fact the I am not going to railroad anymore isn't all that noticeable. It's not bad enough that trying to railroad the floss is a P.I.T.A. but I'm using the banding fabric called for on the charts -- with many thanks to my stitchin' buddy Janet because she bought me FOUR yards of the stuff last Christmas. It's very pretty, white 16 ct. aida but -- there's *always* a but isn't there -- those rows of 2 stitch wide satin stitches (and satin stitched hearts as well) are done in the holes where they belong and also in between the holes!!! The chart calls for you to pierce the blocks of threads and put stitches in between the holes! I never took a close look at the chart -- just made a note of the fabric that was recommended! I would have much preferred to do this on even weave banding and NOT had to mess with trying to pierce the aida thread blocks and try to get my stitch placed smack in the middle. Of course, that's near impossible because this aida banding is made with three
*&$#$%#^%)% threads per row. VBS -- ahhhh the trials and tribulations -- LOL! It's a good thing the banding is so pretty. Anyway -- I have decided that there is no way I will continue to try to get those satin stitches railroaded while I am trying to pierce the threads in each row! HMMM -- I'll have to see if I can find the charts so that you can get a look. OK -- here's the Autumn bell pull- posted
16 years ago
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It's very pretty but the colors are a bit to soft for my decor. Instead of doing the letters in an ecru, I am using Dinky Dyes #33 Desert Sands. I've changed the letters of all the seasons to one of the variegated Dinky Dyes fibers; the Winter design (done in BLUE -- YUCK) has been changed to a red flower and the letters are going to be done in Waterlilies "Holiday" which is a variegated red/green combo. CiaoMeow >^;;^< PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at
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