Back in 2017, I joined a Facebook group called Dear Rine Borduren. The owner of the group released a free mystery SAL week by week to fill a series of circles. The fill patterns alternated between geometric and animal designs, and the colors were completely up to the stitcher.
Dear Rine 2017 by Rine Oddens. Image from her website.
At the same there wasn’t a formal name for the SAL, so I’ve just nicknamed it “Dear Rine 2017.” It’s now listed on Rine’s website for purchase as Dierencirkels, but my original nickname will continue to be how I refer to it out of habit.
My version is going to be a little different than the original. I intentionally used fabric and floss that I had on hand for an ill-fated attempt at Stitching From Stash that year, so I think I’m going to end up with only 45 circles instead of 49. And I’m doing a rectangular version instead of a square. So there will be some playing with what goes where. One way or the other, I’ll make sure to keep an odd number of circles in a row to ensure the vertical variation between animals and geometrics. The hardest thing is going to be figuring out which ones I omit!
Oddly, I started this one in a somewhat similar palette to Fruits of Plenty, only years before. I decided to make mine a four-color version using DMC 924, 926, 839, and 841. The circles will all be done in the darker brown (839), with the lighter brown doing the decorative filler between them. Geometric circles will be done in solid colors, rotating between the two blues (924 is darker, 926 is lighter). The animal circles will be two-toned.
Dear Rine 2017 as of February 1, 2023 – stitched two over two on 32 ct Poltergeist Lugana from Silkweaver (2005-era dye lot) with DMC.
Before I add more of the centers, I want to get my first two rows of circles placed. This was an unusual piece in that Rine started it from the lower right corner. I know some stitchers do this naturally, but it’s an odd start for me as a center or top left starter, depending on the pattern. Not a big deal, though. I can adjust!
I have absolutely no set timeline on this piece. It’s purely a “whenever I feel like stitching on it” sort of piece. Obviously the original is long over. So I’ll finish it when I finish it. For now? I’m stitching circles. Lots and lots of circles.
Rine has done several other free SALs since this one, now available for purchase on her website. She just started another new one the other week if you like these small little squares and are looking for something to use that random fabric or floss that you have in your stash. You can find the SAL on Facebook here.
Week six of WIPGO leads me to one of my truly Big Ass Pieces (BAPs), The Fruits of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery. Aside from my Chatelaine, which is coming up later this month, Fruits is the most intense piece I currently have going. As far as stitching skill goes? It’s honestly an easy piece. But it’s nearly 50,000 stitches in total. And it’s incredibly dense.
It’s also incredibly stunning.
The Fruits of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery. Photo originally from designer’s website.
The photo above is the two-toned version. There is also the option to stitch it in monochrome, in which you’d stitch the heavy blue band in reverse – just the flower scrollwork. I am doing the two toned version in DMC 800 and 840. There were multiple options given in August 2021 for the house you see in the center. I will be doing the windmill option instead of the house above. I may honestly do some of the other options as ornaments at some point because they’re all very pretty!
The Fruits of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery as of February 1, 2023. Stitched 1 strand over 2 on 40 ct. Antique Ivory linen by Silkweaver with DMC.
I realized just as I uploaded this photo that I don’t have one of everything to date for this month. I’ll make sure to do that when I do my end of month progress on it. I will be doing much more than the simple two-night WIPGO allotment on Fruits. My goal is to get the entire February portion, framed in this photo, done.
Fruits was offered as a non-mystery Stitch-a-Long in 2021. The piece was divided into monthly release sections, but the entire design was known up-front. I fell in love with it at first glance. It’s just so complex and elegant. Intense? Yes. But there’s no backstitching or quarter stitches. The entire piece is straight cross stitch. I knew I wanted to do it in a light blue/brown combination, inspired by a thread called Blue Bunny produced several years ago by a European dyer called Nina’s Threads. (I think she has since switched exclusively to yarn). The chart indicates two colors, but I have seen some versions of it on Instagram that have more than two that absolutely work.
Two of my fellow Stitching Sisters of New England members, Amy (Gables Stitcher on FlossTube) and Sharon, completed theirs within or just after the 2021 calendar year. Obviously… I did not. I fully expect this piece to be a long-term commitment for me. This year’s goal is to finish three months. I’m in good shape to complete February soon. I should be able to also get March and April done comfortably. I think keeping it in three month block goals is a comfortable pace for me – and maybe I’ll have it done before Max goes to high school. (hee!)
Noby (orange) and his littermate Elly (black) many years ago in their younger adult days
The rollercoaster that I’d mentioned in my January 16th post continued through last weekend, and so I’m now behind in updating what’s been going on in my stitchy life. Along with Carol’s passing, we had to say goodbye to the last of our original band of (pre-Max) cats, Noby, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Saturday at the ripe old age of 17. It wasn’t unexpected – he had been quite ill for a long time, and we’d been avoiding facing reality over the holidays. I’m glad he’s no longer suffering and that he’s able to run free with his sister and the extended cat family we had. I miss him though – even his annoying, gross habit of sneezing right in my face.
Work has been kinda busy lately too – the usual uptick of meeting preparations seems to be coming about a month earlier than normal. It’s not a bad thing, but I felt like I was caught a little flat-footed the past couple weeks. I made some good headway to get back on track early this week though – so all good there.
With the emotional and work weirdness, my stitching hasn’t been quite as productive the last couple weeks. I’m still quite happy with what I accomplished, though!
Apache Wedding Blessing by Kooler Designs as of January 21, 2023. Stitched 2 over 2 on antique white linen with charted DMC.
I completed both of my remaining WIPGO goals for January in the last two weeks of the month – two days of backstitching on Apache Wedding Blessing, and two days on Mute But Not Silent.
For Apache Wedding Blessing, I focused on the top left corner of the piece – outlining that upper feather and then running the straight line outlines for a couple of the poles. I’m happy with two nights of progress. I may bring this with me to Stitcher’s Hideaway later this month to get a bit more basic backstitching in on the poles on the other side. I would estimate I’m about one third through the backstitching at this point, and then I have a little more tension cleanup work on the left hand side where I originally pulled a bit too tightly. I’ll be fixing that side by simply running a tent stitch over my existing stitches to fatten them up a little bit.
Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten as of January 23, 2023 – stitched one over two on 32 ct Lambswool linen with charted silk floss.
On Mute But Not Silent, I decided to focus on the first of the two large H’s. While a good chunk of the work was double running stitch outlining the outside, I did also add some cross stitches in the center of the structure of the H to give it a bit more dimension. I still need to add a four-sided stitch into the center of each of those circles, and then that H is complete… and I can move on to the next one. These Dutch-style letters are quite ornate! And they don’t match each other – the stitches are put in different configurations, so I need to count almost the entire time.
Even though this is a “murder mystery” piece, I do know what the entire piece looks like. I posted it here on my WIPGO Week 4 post. The mystery will be linking the individual motifs to the storyline so they make sense. Definitely a fun way to stitch a piece – and have a little extra “if you know, you know” behind it on the wall.
Fruit of Plenty by Modern Folk Embrodiery as of January 21, 2023. Stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct Toasted Almond linen with DMC 800 and 840.
With my WIPGO stitching completed, I decided to pull out a couple pieces that were yelling at me to get some work done and threw them into the option pit for Semi Sane’s “Choose My WIP” challenge.
The first was Fruit of Plenty from Modern Folk Embroidery. I managed to get a little over 1,000 stitches in on this one in about a week of puttering. I’m very happy with the progress. And it will get more in February since it’s a featured WIPGO piece!
I outlined the entire cartouche you see centered here, plus filled in some of the blue at the top of it (where the “2” is shaded in). For February I’m going to try to finish up this section, which represented the February block in 2021. It’s super-intense stitching, so I do not expect to keep up with this throughout 2023. But I’m going to push it as far as I can this year. My goal was a modest three months completion. I should make that just fine.
Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy. Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct “Dreamin'” Lugana by Silkweaver with customized DMC.
For the final week of Choose My WIP, I stitched on the 2021 Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy. I have had a heck of a time overcoming the tree trunks on this one. Not sure why I’m struggling so muich – but I just have hit one of those ruts. I’m sure once I get that final trunk in, this piece will move a lot faster as I stitch in the individual leaves. I’m very happy to have added three limbs onto the tree – just a little more to go! About one and a half limbs!
This piece will definitely get finished this year. I already have a couple of other temperature projects waiting on the wings that I’d like to start – but I won’t until this one gets done. The heart you see is custom. This piece didn’t have a year or initials added in as part of the design, so I decided I’d carve my initials and the two-digit year right into the tree. I’d waffled whether I would change this to 2022 or… since it’s now 2023, the current year. I decided to leave it as a 2021 piece. I already have found a couple other fabulous temperature record pieces that I’ll work for the most recent years.
I will post my WIPGO Week 5 piece tomorrow, even though it’s not Wednesday. For now I need to head to bed… it’s been a long day and I’m wiped out!
If you want to see what else I worked on in January, my weekly updates are here and here.
I started this entry but forgot to finish it… so backdating it to keep it in proper sequence. Whoops!
February’s WIPGO numbers have been pulled, bringing four new pieces forward for my monthly focus. Two are more intense pieces, and two are lighter stitching… a very nice mix for the short month!
Bayun Cat (Кот Баюн) by Owl Forest Embroidery. Photo is originally from Owl Forest’s website.
First up for February is Bayun Cat from Owl Forest Embroidery. This was my New Year’s Start for 2022. I purchased this as a full kit from Owl Forest Embroidery before the travesty in Ukraine I’m quite sad that getting another kit from the designer is virtually impossible right now.
Her kits are absolutely beautiful. So much so that I honestly felt a bit guilty breaking it open to start stitching. If you follow the link above to the designer’s website, there are images of the pretty presentation to the kit. Yes – it’s that pretty! It comes with the pattern, a backup copy of the pattern divided into smaller segments to cut out that are easier to handle while stitching, the floss – attached to bobbins pre-labeled with the key symbol (!!!), fabric, a needle minder, a needle, and a small pamphlet about stitching. DMC alternatives are given for the patterns, but Owl Forest’s threads are lovely and unusual. I would recommend getting them if you can.
The Bayun Cat is a creature from Russian folklore. He’s a bit of a complicated character – much like everyday cats. In many tales, he’s a huge talking cat with a voice that can lull a person to sleep with his tales and murders them. But in some tales, he’s more of a “learned cat” and an antagonist that can be defeated and will serve a hero, healing wounds with his purring. In the Soviet era, connections to Baba Yaga were made, associating him more with evil than good. But in this piece, I prefer to think of him as the teller of tales and a challenge to worthy heroes in all the ways a cat can be. After all – housecats remind us with those nibbles that if they were bigger, they’d probably eat us, too. 🙂
Bayun Cat by Owl Forest Embroidery as of February 1, 2023. Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct hand-dyed Belfast linen with kitted hand-dyed floss.
I really only worked on the piece last year for a couple of days before moving onto the flurry of chaos, so it will be nice to get back to this. I doubt I’ll finish this piece in 2023, but if I recall – it was a relatively quickly moving piece to start. So you never know. My goal on it is really just any progress, wherever it leads me. I’ll likely stay focused on the tail for a while and the rest of the houses he’s curled around.
Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten – photo from her class offerings.
My final project for January’s WIPGO numbers is Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten. I was introduced to the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild via this class Workshop in September 2021. It is not a reproduction sampler, but is designed in the style of Dutch Hindeloopen samplers from the 17th century. The threads are tudor silks that Amy dyes herself under the brand name “Fibers to Dye For,” and they’re all fabulously named with murder mystery names. She also has some threadpacks for Hands Across the Sea, Blackbird Designs, and Scarlett House samplers if you’re looking for excuses If I had a lot more money, I’d be buying ALL of the floss just for the names!
The motifs in the sampler represent clues in a murder mystery story that was included with the chart and read in the class. Amy also showed slides and some photos of images that inspired the motifs, giving context to what objects were, what they represented, or how they were used in everyday life at that time.
It was a very interesting class – fun to learn some history behind a sampler region I knew nothing about. It also was my first time learning how to do hemstitching and cutting threads (eek!! heart attack!!!). I have survived the panic about taking scissors to the fabric, but with a little more practice, I think I will be okay.
Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten as of January 21, 2023 – stitched 1 over 2 on 32 ct Lambswool Linen with charted/kitted silks.
I’ve worked on this a bit here and there, but it’s a piece I really need to sit and focus on due to the heavy counting – so it hasn’t been a priority of mine in recent months. This is a longer-term project. I don’t have it planned for completion in 2023. Maybe 2024, but likely this one is going to be a couple more years out because the detail work is pretty intense. It’s gorgeous though. I will be happy to one day finish it and get it up on the wall.
For this month, I think I have a miscount in that green ring I’m starting at the bottom. I’m not going to work on picking that out just now. Instead, I’m going to continue to work on those two large H’s at the top, since they have a bunch of embellishment left to go. I really should finish each motif individually before moving onto another one!
