I Love a Challenge But This is Ridiculous!

Recently, one of the Facebook stitching groups that I follow started a once a month WIP stitch-in for those pieces that you really can't seem to get going on again. Most of the folks in this group have waaaaaaay more UFOs than I do.  That's not saying a lot since I generally work on only one project at a time until it's finished. However, occasionally I start a piece that is so involved or difficult or frustrating that I have to put it down to ensure that I don't pull all my hair out. "Margret Gatis" by Scarlet Letter is one of those pieces.

Make no mistake, I love the sampler. I love the various stitches and the colors. I use the sewing motion and work in hand rather than on a frame which, over time, has led me to stitch by feel to a large degree. I can just tell when I've picked up one or three threads instead of the usual two threads.  But stitching over three threads is tedious, time consuming and hurts my brain. You have to actually count threads and the vertical thread concept* is useless as a counting mechanism. Even more confounding is the fact that some bands on MG are stitched over two threads and some bands are over three threads! It makes the chart confusing and I have to constantly remind myself that each square covers three threads. And don't even get me started on satin stitches motifs with angles and turns over three threads!

Anyway, I chose MG as my WIP for this monthly exercise in futility. Thank heavens, it's only one day for whatever time period one can handle! I worked on some satin stitch motifs for a few hours then had to pack it up. The frogs were starting to scare Lester and Otis!

And now I'm back to the challenging, but stunningly beautiful, Cranberry Sampler. Although I'm in random stitching hell right now on this one too. The directions are pretty skimpy and leave a lot of the stitch and color choices to your imagination. I tend to follow the model stitcher's choices with a few exceptions. And there's nothing like a mountain of double running stitch to make you skip that last cup of coffee. You can't afford twitchy fingers when trying to keep a smooth and straight line going.

* as explained by Carol Leather, needlework designer and teacher

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