Madness has its own reward.

I won a prize this round!

Seen here is the skein of yarn with MY name on it :)
Isn't it pretty?

Meanwhile...
I've been making Fabric Postcards during the lull.
Just what I needed! Very relaxing.
I'm pushing myself to try new-to-me embroidery stitches.

I bought Needle Lace & Needleweaving by Jill Nordfors for like $6 including shipping. Decided I would buy it the instant it arrived from a lending library.

It's that awe inspiring.
I have a Sunset themed Fabric Postcard Swap to finish as well as an Underwater theme to get mailed out. My partner for the Underwater theme went above & beyond. I may have to send her 2 cards to be worthy of this swap!

The Curious Frog

How it came to this

For some reason lines from the opening of the Lord of the Rings keeps going through my mind:
"What news of the outside world? Tell me everything ... Everything? ...far too eager and curious for a hobbit.
Most unnatural."

I may not have even known the terms Needle Weaving or Drawn Thread until 2 weeks ago. But I'm an eager hobbit... tell me everything!

I've gone to 2 libraries and carried home 1/2 dozen books (just now requested another offered suggestion through the lending library program), purchased a couple online that still haven't arrived...grr!... and dug out all the books I've collected on Stumpwork, embroidery, CQ, Hardanger & more.

All to satisfy a current mood to teach myself.
To stitch something.
I've been working on this 2nd experiment in stitching.

My thought bubbles along the way:
I want it to be bigger than the last piece so that there's room in the center for surface embroidery.
I want it to be square so I can try the Zig Zag hem tutorial - needs an even number of threads.
Baste A LOT because I can't count.
Okay that was too much. Didn't need half of it except as markers in counting to ten.
Tried following the diagonal flow of the last piece but it turned out too Laverne ...Letter L!
Fill in some more to disguise the L.
Now is it too much?
Maybe I liked rectangle better. Next time.
Sort of reminds me of ivy growing on the side of a building.
There's too much empty space to fill. Balance?
Try some Hardanger...make a window!
Now it makes me think of kitchen windows & garden walls...
Add more knots.
Now beads.
Too much?
Should I have left more empty space?
Should I snip OFF some of it?
Too late...filling it in.
Adding more.
And more.
Last night: "I'm stopping now... maybe it will look different in the morning."
When I got up this morning: "Something's not right."

And then I saw the frog charm in the bottom of my stitching container.
Purchased a long time ago and waiting for a place to go.
I dropped the curious frog down onto the piece - peeking into the garden window.
I knew what I wanted to do.
Maybe it would be okay to Add MORE knots & wheels to balance the window.

A line from something Stephani once wrote ends: "that's how you learn" has been repeating in my head as well. I'd been considering my next blog entry and thought I might go with the title I taught myself.

I'm nothing if not determined. If I see something I want to do, I try to figure out how. Whether the "teacher" comes from books, from internet tutorials, patterns with complete and detailed instructions or a simple image that I feel compelled to explore.

Explore. Yes that's what we can do. And access to internet is a seriously valuable tool. Just as we can pick and choose what to use. What to consider. What to discard. What stitches to put together and which "rules"to break.

One comment from a site I visit currently spoke about mixing stitch techniques. She asks: Is there a point when you do so much that it all gets fused in your mind, and you use any technique that seems appropriate, or should you keep each style of work separate?

In my head it was a description of what must be going wrong with my latest effort. What I woke up to this morning seemed "just not right" and I wasn't sure if it needed more, less or something not all. I was still looking at it when I read her comment. I didn't know if I would be brave enough to blog about it, if in the end I hated it absolutely :)

Still not sure about it but I tried something different...
I went exploring like the curious frog!

Does this look SQUARE to you?

NO.
Because I (still) can't count.

Here's the progress made on my 1st effort using a combination of Drawn Thread, Needle Weaving and Surface Embroidery.
I think I'm calling it finished.

Kind of small so it may have too much going on?

Cutting was not so scary as I remember it from the Hardanger project.
Fun even! Although I am going to need some sharper scissors.

But what seemed a huge expanse of open cut threads before attempting to follow Mary Corbet's tutorial for Hem Stitching, turned out to be a scrawny little patch for Surface Embroidery! Will need to go bigger and braver with next attempt.

And learn to count.
I would have sworn this would be square - until I realized it wasn't!!
There were 20 pairs of "threads" one way and only 15 the other.
Sigh.

So I wrapped the drawn threads with randomly symmetrical Needle Weaving. Or at least what I suppose is Needle Weaving.
I wish I had gone a shade lighter in color.

Next time...
(when I go bigger & braver ;)