Finished Blackwork Project

Last November, &Stitches hosted a blackwork stitchalong — specifically blackwork in any color other than black. They made these adorable templates, and you just can’t turn down a stitchalong with cute templates, right? At least I can’t.

This was only a few weeks after I got the cast off my arm, and I was maybe still suffering pent-up craft insanity because I decided that stitching one copy of the template with the overlapping rectangles was not enough for me. Oh no, I was going to go ahead and do five versions of it, all cleverly arranged, thus guaranteeing that I could not possibly finish the project in November. Or even that year.

The arrangement I planned on wasn’t workable due to issues with the size of the fabric piece I had and the fact that it was cut a bit off-grain, so that when I got to the top left corner I would have had no fabric left on the side at all. When I first measured I didn’t think to check that, just measured how big the finished piece would be and compared that to the dimensions of the fabric.

Since that wasn’t going to work out, I decided to go with a simpler plan.

Finished Blackwork

All the fill patterns I used are from the Ensamplario Atlantio (which is free and is a fantastic resource). It’s done with a single strand of DMC 154 on 28-count cotton evenweave fabric (apart from the outlines, which are two strands).

I finished it maybe a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to washing and blocking it over the holiday weekend. This afternoon I managed to work up the gumption to trim it and lace it onto cardstock (actually mat board — it was the only thing I could find that was big enough and acid-free) which I’ve never done before. This tutorial was a big help. It was a little tricker than I expected because I needed to cut pretty long pieces of perle cotton to work with (even though I started in the middle and worked out to the sides) and I kept getting all tangled up and feeling as though I needed an extra hand. I was also terrible at estimating how much thread I needed, so I still ended up having to tie off and start over again anyway despite starting with an insanely long strand. Next time I try this with a bigger piece I’ll probably just use shorter lengths and deal with having to tie off — it seems to me it’d be less hassle than having to untangle the thread.

Now just need to find a frame for it and mat/frame it!

2 Comments

  1. kbsalazar
    July 6, 2014

    I love it! I get such a kick seeing what mischief “pattern children” are up to, out there in the wide, wide world. A nice finish to a sweet project. Gold star! -kbsalazar

  2. pam
    July 6, 2014

    Oh! I am so happy to see this completed. Your black work patterns are brilliant and beautiful.

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