Having finally finished my stump work and silk ribbon embroidery last month,it was time to choose a new project to share. Now I’ve got three major projects in mind from a single copy of Inspirations magasine but I decided to do a fairly quick cross-stitch project first which needed to take priority…
During the summer Kate of Tall Tales from Chiconia shared her design for her next fundraising quilt for Ovarian Cancer, it’s called Signed, Tealed Delivered . Teal is the colour for ovarian cancer charities, a bit like pink for breast cancer. It’s a gorgeous design of letters and postcards, I noticed in the centre there was an embroidered postmark, in a rash moment I volunteered to stitch it!
When Kate sent the pattern over I saw it was a cross-stitch design with about 5 shades of teal used pretty randomly to give that nice mottled effect of a postal mark. I suggested that using a variegated thread would give a very similar effect with much less chance of me making a mistake – the last thing I want is to get all the way round to find the ends don’t meet up because I’ve mis-counted!
DMC4030 and 4025 are variegated threads in teal shades. I bought a couple of skeins in teal as well with the idea of mixing them to make the colour changes more muted. I sent a photo over and fortunately Kate was happy! In the end I used 4030 and 3848
I started a couple of weeks ago and luckily it’s growing pretty quickly as I’ve not had much sewing time over the last month, but by just doing half an hour last thing on an evening sometimes I’m making good progress.
The variegated thread is working out well. I’m using two threads for the circle, and one thread mixed with a darker teal thread for the letters so they stand out just a little bit more. When stitching cross-stitch with variegated threads it is recommended that the stitches are made individually, rather than doing a row of half crosses, then a return row. This makes the variegation clearer as shades aren’t mixed, however I decided to stitch in rows in order to make the variations more muted, I’m pleased with the effect!
I’ve found it easier to stitch the letters first, followed by the circle, I think I’m less likely to make a mistake that way!
Hopefully in three weeks time I’ll have cracked on with it.
There’s quite a few of us around the world taking part in this stitch-a-long, we all choose our own projects so there’s all sorts of different types of hand sewing. Why not have a look what everyone else is stitching, just follow the links to see some stunning projects;
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina,
Kathy, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Mary Margaret, Timothy,
Everyone is in different time scales, so if there isn’t a post when you first look, check later in the day. If you fancy joining us for the SAL, just send a message to Avis.
thecraftycreek 
The colours you’ve chosen are simply gorgeous and do exactly what you wanted them to do. Good luck getting it done. 😊
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Oooh, it’s gorgeous! This block is going to be a real asset to the quilt, I can tell. You’re so kind to have volunteered to do this, even if next day you were slapping your head and going “Doh!” 🙂
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So glad you like it, I think it’s going to fit in well as a nice easy project to do on the run up to Christmas,I can start another big project then in the New Year 🙂
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Glad ST&D could be of assistance 😉
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This is wonderful, well done you, and good progress too.
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Love the colours and the project. I would be harder to stitch at night but you are going very well in a short time.
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What a lovely project. Those colours are just lovely! It’s so nice to have something you can pick up at the end of the day that doesn’t require too much thought process too.
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Like your colour choices, and I do so agree about using variegated threads. They are also quite fun to stitch with. I must have missed this when it was on Kates site so will have to go and have a look at that later.
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such a brilliant idea to have a cross stitched block in the centre!
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That is going to work so nicely! I am really excited about the quilt this year, I can’t wait to see it all together.
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This embroidery is so wonderful! To use variegated thread is a very good idea, I think!
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You’ve managed to get the desired effect perfectly! I do love DMC 4030 🙂
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Looks brilliant so far and I love the shades of teal
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What a great project! I love the colours you’ve chosen!
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It’s looking great. The variegated threads work perfectly.
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It looks great. I really like the colors.
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I really like how you are combining the two threads in different ways to get different effects. It is very lovely.
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Ooo, an excuse to use those lovely variegated threads! It looks great so far. Kudos to you for taking this on!
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That variegated floss is beautiful!
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Teal is a lovely shade.
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