Embroidery Projects Update Part 5

In March, I finished cross-stitching Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum’s, “Once Upon A Time” that I plan to give to one of my sisters.  The plan is to frame it and send it to her. 

Since completing this project, I took up stitching a Greek Key rug again that I started back in 2004.  A couple of years ago, I put this pattern into my cross-stitch design program and before resuming stitching, printed out the pattern which has made working on it a lot easier. 

The original pattern is in sections that are in an old dollhouse plan.  The rug is being stitched on 32 count linen over 1, so the stitches are very small.  To make it easier to see, I’m using a magnifying lens that my husband bought me years ago to make stitching this easier.  The rug will be put in the living room of the Green Gables house I made.

Another project that I’m working on is a needlepoint oriental rug kit that I bought back in 2003 at a miniatures show.  At the time, I didn’t know where I would put it and only bought it because I’d seen kits like it at a dollhouse store I used to frequent as a kid.  As time passed, I decided to put it in the daughter’s bedroom in the Lily house. 

I’m trying to stop devoting myself to one embroidery project at a time, which is proving easier said than done.  The Oriental rug is worked on 18 mesh canvas, so the stitches aren’t as small as the Greek Key.  The pattern seemed fairly simple at first, so of late I’ve been working on it a bit more. 

At first I thought that I would finish up with this kit quickly, but this idea disappeared very soon after realizing that this wasn’t the simple pattern I thought it was.  When I started, I primarily used the picture of the rug as a guide instead of referring to the pattern constantly.  Then I noticed that the design in the picture on one part of the rug varied slightly from the pattern and thought that it had something to do with the needlepoint stitch format. I was determined to be on the alert to match this discrepancy.  However, as I worked it became apparent that it was just a mistake of the person who stitched the rug for the picture and wasn’t really meant to be in the finished product.  So this meant that the pattern was completely correct. 

This belief then proved to be wrong!  As I continued stitching the design in the four corners of the center section I kept glancing at the pattern as I stitched.  I then decided to begin stitching the darker blue line that goes around the outside of the center of the rug.  This was when I realized that the pattern contained mistakes as well.  The pattern painted on the needlepoint canvas clearly shows a white or ivory colored line that’s nearly continuous around the outside of the center section; however, on the pattern this color wasn’t shown in that part.  Even though, the color ivory is represented in the very center part of the pattern.  Nor, is it indicated that it be used again according to the pattern.  Yet, both the picture and the painted design on the canvas indicate otherwise. 

I’m very glad that I followed the advice of the pattern and started in the center and then worked outward because the directions warned me that if “adjustments” needed to be made then this would be easier.  My thinking is that their definition of adjustment is really just synonymous with mistake.