In The Gloaming - finished!

Afternoon all!

Dark October has ended for another year, and what better way to celebrate than by joining Tiff with her In The Gloaming happy dance?

In The Gloaming was the first (and my favourite) of the 17 pieces I started for the Spring Into Summer New Start Binge 2020 and is now the seventh to be finished... literally scraped in on the final day of Dark October!

Here's a reminder of the 50 hour progress picture:

And now finished!

In The Gloaming by Whispered By The Wind

Stitched on 32ct Grey Murano

Stitch count 112 wide by 121 high

Started - 4th April 2020

Finished - 31st October 2021

Total stitching time - 59 hours

I swapped out the colours of the monument from those charted (which looked nothing like the cover picture) to 167, 738, 3823 and 3865, and include Etoile in the moon and railings for a little bit of bling. The moon looks a little lost against the fabric, but I don't think the design really needs it so am happy with it being subtle. And no, I didn't backstitch the railings - 'twas a silly idea!!!

My only regret is that, despite looking at the cover picture numerous times, I didn't notice how the top of the middle railing is not curved like the others. The straight bit between the two birds looks really weird. It's a bit annoying, but not enough for me to want to frog and restitch that section!!!

So now Dark October's finished it's time to move on to November and that means the Naughty November SAL and four (more!) new starts - one during each weekend of the month. My chosen projects are by the same company as In The Gloaming and I've been looking forward to starting them for ages, so am glad Naughty November's finally arrived!

Each Monday I shall post my progress along with a linky-widget thing, so if you fancy being naughty and joining in please feel free. Note - they don't have to be weekend starts, and you don't have to do all four weekends, just start and join in as and when suits you best. Maybe see you there?

Take care,

Rachel x

In The Gloaming - 50 hours

Hi all!

Well, Dark October has been good, and allowed me to put in another 10 hours on In The Gloaming.

Like I thought, I carried on and finished the monument but was then soooooo desperate to stitch the railings that I had a couple of late night into early morning sessions to do just that; a lovely treat for which I paid the price when the lack of sleep caught up with me!

Here's how it was at 40 hours:

And after the couple of long stitching sessions:

I'm still quite a way off finishing but think another 10 hours should be enough. However, I need to get back to The Loneliness Of Autumn so doubt I will be joining Tiff in her Dark October In The Gloaming Happy Dance.

I'm also cautiously wondering whether or not to backstitch the railings. It would require a lot of work, and would definitely make them 'pop' more, but then would I also have to backstitch the monument?

Another deciding factor is that I'm stitching a similar project, Gatekeeper, and if I backstitched the railings on this one I would have to do the same on that one and, as you can see, that would be a mega undertaking, so maybe not afterall!

Thoughts?

Take care,

Rachel x

In The Gloaming - 40 hours

Hi all!

It was my hope that during Dark October I would be able to do a bit of Halloween stitching, and I have! Aside from the piece for this month's Smalls SAL, which you will see towards the end of the month, I've managed ten hours on In The Gloaming; yippee!!

Here's how I left it back in January:

And here's the progress as of now:

I'm so close to finishing the monument that I will carry on until that's completed, then next time I pick it up I'll only have the railings and a bit of backstitching around the birds to do. Exciting times!

If you want a reminder of how the finished piece will look, visit Tiff's blog as she's just finished hers!

I'm now off to do a bit of catching up on The Loneliness Of Autumn but am hoping to return to this for more Dark October stitching before the end of the month.

Take care,

Rachel x

In The Gloaming - 30 hours

Hi all!

I had a fantastic stitching month in January, completing all my 'compulsory' pieces, finishing three WIPs, AND making a fair amount of progress on In The Gloaming by Whispered By The Wind. I think I'll name it Jolly-rific January!

I last stitched on In The Gloaming for Dark October, leaving it here after just over 20 hours of progress:

This ten hours was enough time to finish the top half and make a good start on the bottom half; gotta love how some of the birds are sitting on an invisible fence!

Here's a reminder of how the finished piece will look:

You may remember that I used one strand of normal DMC and one strand of Etoile for the moon and thought it looked a bit pale against the fabric? Well, instead of frogging and restitching it all I simply backstitched around it in a slightly darker Etoile. I think it's just about enough of a difference to make it satisfactory - it's more visible in real life.

As for the remainder, my intention is to stitch all of the monument before the wrought iron railings, not only because the railings are the bits I'm looking forward to the most, but because they will contain Etoile which I absolutely LOVE stitching with. In my humble opinion, I'm definitely saving the best to last!

Take care,

Rachel x

In The Gloaming - Dark October Progress

Hi all!

I am so proud of myself for resisting the temptation of a new start for Dark October/Halloween and instead pulling out a WIP - In The Gloaming by Whispered By The Wind.

In The Gloaming was the first project Tiff and I started earlier this year for the for Spring Into Summer New Start Binge. We both did a lot of frogging and re-stitching to get the colours right, since those listed on the chart, and supplied with Tiff's kit, were nowhere near the colours on the cover picture. From darkest to lightest I was using 3828, 739, 738 and 3865. I wasn't really happy with the darkest colour, and the middle two were very similar but it looked OK and I left it like this:

I started this session by frogging and re-stitching the first colour in 167, and then the third colour in 738. I think I'm finally happy; well, I must be because I carried and on! Here's how much further I got:

Stitched on 32ct Vintage Grey murano evenweave

Stitching time to date - 20 hours 30 minutes

Last night for Halloween, and to celebrate the full moon, I actually stitched the moon itself. I used one strand of the recommended colours and one strand of white Etoile so it's a lot paler than it should be... perhaps too pale? I'm not sure. But it does have that little bit of sparkle I was after. Maybe next time I pick it up I will frog and re-stitch it slightly darker - well, why not... all of the other colours (apart from the black) have been frogged!

But that's for next time. For now it's on to November and four more new starts to look forward to.  ;)

Talking of which, a few of you are planning, or have expressed an interest, in joining in with Naughty November. It's not an official SAL as such, but would you like me to put up a linky-widget thingy? I don't want to create any pressure, but it might be nice to have a snoop at other new starts. I don't mind either way. Let me know when you leave a comment.

Take care,

Rachel x

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge - #1 In The Gloaming

Hi all!

This is the beginning of a completely bonkers 17 weekend-long new start binge which came about mostly, but not inclusively, as a result of the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Stitching Challenge planned for later this year (which has now been rescheduled in line with the Olympic dates for 2021 if you're interested).

Tiff will be joining me for the whole 17 weekends, and you are more than welcome to join in and stitch along for as many or as few weekends as you wish, be it with new starts, WIPs or a combination of both.

So let's get going with new start number one.

This is a project both Tiff and I were desperate to stitch, so we thought it would make the perfect first new start. It is In The Gloaming by Whispered By The Wind.

But it was definitely not a straight-forward start.

I thought it would be fun to start with the top of the monument but what a disappointment the colours were! I really like the sandstone colours in the cover picture, but the suggested threads were far too dull and, I think you'll agree, NOTHING like the photo:

Tiff had bought the kit of In The Gloaming, and it just so happened to include the 'yellow' conversion for the cover colours. Brilliant! Only these are the colours suggested... the palest two looked OK but the other two? Far too orange and, I think you'll agree again, NOTHING like the cover picture! How could the threads suggested by the actual designer be so wrong?

So, Tiff and I went thread diving for the two darker colours and came up with our own combination. They weren't perfect but they're so much better than those recommended by the designer. You can see them on the left in the picture below.

I restarted the project late Saturday and continued into Sunday but, guess what? I still wasn't completely happy! I thought the 'white' looked a bit too harsh so frogged that and replaced it with the yellow, which meant frogging the yellow already stitched (there wasn't much) and replacing that with another colour. But that 'another colour' was too close to the yellow when stitched and so I ended up frogging both again!

To cut a long story short (I know, too late!) I tried numerous combinations in order to find two colours which were dissimilar enough to actually show the difference but as close to the cover picture as possible. And guess what? I ended up returning to the white I had frogged in the first place! The threads in the photo below don't look as if they match the stitched piece but they do in real life; my camera's just rubbish at picking up colours correctly.

So, after stitching and deliberating and restarting and frogging and stitching and frogging and deliberating and stitching and frogging and stitching again, this is how much I actually achieved over the weekend - not a lot really considering how much time I spent on it in total!

Stitched on 32ct Vintage Grey murano evenweave 2 over 2

Stitching time to date - 2 hours 40 minutes
(plus goodness knows how long frogging, deliberating and restitching!)

I'm still not completely happy as I think the brown behind the skull isn't quite dark enough, but I'll wait until I pick this up again before even thinking about changing that. The top of the monument is sort of separate from the rest so I may be able to change colour without frogging what I've done. If not, oh well, it's about the only part which hasn't been frogged to date so is probably feeling left out!

I'm already looking forward to my next new start on Saturday, although sincerely hope it doesn't turn out to be as dramatic as this one!

Take care,
Rachel x