Drunken Monkeys

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In a few days, I leave for Phoenix to attend Moss Creek's A Stitcher's Gathering. And just in time, I have finished all the prestitching (and finished watching the last season of Downton Abbey, which was crucial because the project is Downton Abbey themed!) The project is Lady Violet's parasol (in needlebook/pincushion form), so the prestitching was eight tiny panels with violets, outlined with chain stitch, then outlined in machine stitching to secure the linen.

Actually, you had to do three sides of the chain stitch, then iron on some interfacing, then complete the curved part of the chain stitch through the interfacing, like so:

I should have put something in the shot for scale; these panels are less than 2 inches tall (5 cm). Here's what they look like from the front:

This was one of the last ones I stitched around (first a tiny straight stitch, with a tiny zig zag stitch on top). The thread I had on the bobbin is shown here; you can see in the first shot that the other thread was pretty much exactly the color of the linen. This turned out to NOT be a good thing, since I couldn't really see my straight stitch to zig zag over it.

Now, the sewing machine and I are on fairly good terms, but it's a tenuous relationship at best. In reality, I pretty much stink at anything other than straight lines. So in the interest of Truth in Blogging, here are some of the other ones...

And this beauty...

My comment to my friends was that I was finally finished, but it looked like it was done by a bunch of drunken monkeys, because one drunken monkey alone could not have achieved the variation in crazy shapes that I did.

JiffNotes
I am ready for A Stitcher's Gathering!