Project a Month: Finished Beginner Rose by Lolli and Grace

Yes, that's right, this month I stitched three roses from the Beginner Rose pattern by Lolli and Grace! It was refreshing to tackle a smaller project that stitched up so beautifully and so quickly.

In my last post I was well on my way to finishing my Beginner Rose in chain stitch, and I'd only been stitching off and on for a few days!

Here's a tip that really helped in my stitching process...

Stripping Your Threads

Something I learned from one of Anne's videos that helped my stitching immensely - after her suggestion, I began stripping my threads.

I had heard of it before, but it seemed so simple, I doubted it would make a difference - all you do is separate each strand, one by one, then put them back together. I thought it would take too much time and do nothing, but it makes a HUGE difference - my threads used to tangle constantly, now they hardly ever tangles.

Threads also lay a lot flatter for satin stitching, so I highly suggest giving this very simple trick a try!

Here's my finished chain stitch version of the Beginner Rose - isn't she a beauty?

I absolutely LOVE the vivid colors in this pattern, take my word that they are even more lush and vivid in person - it was a joy seeing these colors each time I sat down with this pattern.

Blanket Stitch Rose

I decided I also wanted to try the blanket stitch version, so I tackled that next:

I used 2 strands of floss, instead of 3 as the pattern called for - this resulted in a very thin, sketchlike quality to my stitches that I really enjoyed.

I was amazed at the neatness of the back on the blanket stitch version - through no special effort of my own, this is just what the reverse of a blanket stitch looks like!

Here's my finished blanket stitch rose - I was absolutely shocked at how quickly this stitched up! 1 night of stitching, that's all! If you're looking for a quick project, this is definitely the stitch and pattern to try.

Washing my roses

Once again I washed my projects using a little dish soap. I soaked them for 20 minutes, and can attest that the lines from my Aunt Martha's pencil and DMC water erasable pen came out completely.

I turned them over on a towel to iron while still wet, to press out all the wrinkles, then put them in their hoops to dry.

Here are my two lovely roses, finished in record time, and since I had plenty of time, I tried another!

Blanket stitch rose on teal linen

Once again I pulled out the DMC water erasable pen that DMC sent me recently (thank you, DMC!) I thought it might not show up on my teal linen since the ink is a similar color, but surprisingly, it worked just fine!

I used a chunky #5 DMC perle cotton in white, with DMC embroidery needles (thanks again, DMC!) I don't use perle cotton often, but it created a really fun texture for this. Once again, I was done in one solid morning of stitching!

Here are all the DMC threads and colors I used in this piece:
#5 DMC perle cotton in white, DMC Etoile in Ecru, DMC 3813, 501, and 924.

I love the ghostly, monotone mood of this piece, and how different it is from the beautiful color versions.

And here they all are, one last time:

So, 2 months of stitching Lolli and Grace has me confident that I could spend an entire year happily stitching her patterns. Not only do I recommend her beautiful patterns and store, Anne is a wonderful, kind, teacher and encouraging person - you won't regret a visit to her Etsy store!

More on Lolli and Grace

You can find the Beginner Rose pattern in the Lolli and Grace store. Follow Anne @lolliandgrace.

All my Lolli and Grace Project a Month posts:
Project a Month - One Meaningful Word by Lolli and Grace
Project a Month: Wrap up - One Meaningful Word by Lolli and Grace
Project a Month - Beginner Rose by Lolli and Grace

Wonderful Wednesday #70 - Linladan

How lovely is this vintage reproduction Leaf Swirl kit by Linladan? Using vintage Swedish kit patterns from the 50s and 60s, Tanja from Linladan lovingly recreates kits using screenprinted linen and vintage linen floss. Since we last spoke, I disappeared down a rabbithole of vintage Swedish embroidery from the 50's, 60's and 70s. This rabbithole led me straight to Linladan, who posts tantalizing photos of finished projects on Instagram @linladan.

I am fascinated by the gorgeous colors and unexpected sheen of linen floss - so fascinated that I ordered a small sampling for myself, and I can't wait to try them out!

Nordiska Flax Flower set

Have any of you ever worked with linen floss? Aside from the discontinued DMC linen floss, which had a matte finish, I have never seen or handled linen floss, so I am excited to see how it stitches!

I fell in love with this Fairy Tale Castle screenprint, if you'd like to try your hand at this I would hop to it, as there are limited quantities available.

This breathtaking version of the Fairy Tale Castle was stitched by @clarkeandridley on Instagram using pastel linen floss from Linladan - isn't it amazing?

View this post on Instagram

The fairytale castle embroidery is all finished 🙂 ♥️ The good news is, you can make your own - visit Tanja @linladan to find out how! #embroidery #sagoslottet #nordiskaembroidery #nordiska #niab #lovelylinen

A post shared by Clarke and Ridley (@clarkeandridley) on Apr 23, 2019 at 6:08am PDT

Don't forget to follow @linladan on Instagram if you love what you see, but fair warning - her mouthwatering images might make you want everything in her store! :)

Project a Month - Beginner Rose by Lolli and Grace

We are well into April so I chose a smaller design this month, the Beginner Rose pattern by Lolli and Grace. The colors are gorgeous, and I like the idea of being able to finish quickly.

It's only fair to feature Lolli and Grace 2 months out of 12 this year, as I've been wanting to stitch up at least half her store! :) A few of the colors in this pattern are the same as the ones I used for the previous One Meaningful Word pattern, an added bonus for anyone wanting to stitch both patterns! This pattern can be purchased as either a PDF pattern or a kit in Anne's store.

I like that Anne suggests stitching this pattern 3 ways:

From left to right - split stitch, chain stitch, and buttonhole or blanket stitch.

I loved the buttonhole stitch and I do want to try that one later, but for now I settled on chain stitch:

I am using 3 strands of floss, as Anne recommends in her pattern, and all the same colors she asks for. I am stitching on a very light blue quilting cotton, so light it barely registers as blue.

I absolutely love these colors in the daylight - so bright and vivid!

When I transferred my image, I reversed it, so the petals are not in the same color order - but I like this because it makes it more unique. I don't like to copy things too exactly.

Only 3 days of on again off again stitching and I am almost done! Can't beat that for a quick stitch! I highly recommend this pattern to any beginner, or to anyone looking to practice a specific stitch. I'm also thinking this will be a lovely Mother's day gift...

If you'd like to join in this very quick project, head over to the Lolli and Grace shop on Etsy to buy the Beginner Rose pattern!

Project a Month: Wrap up - Lolli and Grace

Well here we are at the end of stitching up this beautiful One Meaningful Word pattern by Lolli and Grace! And here I am again, into the next month, finishing up the previous month's pattern, ha ha. Looks like I might have to stitch something simpler and smaller this month to get caught up and back on a proper schedule. :)

I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this pattern - this has to be one of the most consistently joyful embroidery projects I've undertaken in some time.

When I last left you, I had stitched up 3 flowers and was starting on the leaves and vines. I LOVE that blue flower, by the way. I could take and show you pictures of that blue flower all day...

I mostly stuck to the Lolli and Grace pattern, but I did a fw things differently, I'll try to point them all out. Up above is one tiny difference - as I mentioned I used more of a fishbone stitch for my leaves as opposed to satin stitch. And on the leaf above, if you squint you'll see the tiniest sparkle- I blended 1 strand of Etoile floss with 1 strand of the yellow green the pattern called for. It was an interesting effect, but as you can see, so subtle it's hard to discern...

Next I tackled the largest pink flower - I was intimidated by the floss blending and wasn't sure if I'd like the finished product...

But I really enjoyed this too! It's really bright and graphic and much lovelier than I expected.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this project is how I enjoyed the colors in every light...

Do you know what I mean? Sometimes I choose colors for a project in broad daylight, and I only like my project in nice bright light, or vice versa, I choose my colors in the evening, and find I hate my project in bright light. Anne's colors were just consistently beautiful in every light, in my opinion!

You can see above that sometimes my fabric looks bright green, sometimes lime green or khakhi - and in every instance, the floss colors pop and work beautifully!

I did a real cruddy trace job and my trace lines were all over the place - so I stitched a thin split stitch on the inside of that big pink flower using 2 strands of thread, to cover my messy trace job.

Here I am most of the way through, but at this point realizing I had LOTS of details to fill in. All the same, I loved looking at this project, no matter what stage it was in.

These little red flowers were supposed to be Lazy daisy stitches in the pattern, but I decided to do clusters of French knots instead...

Progress on those tiny French knots was slow but so satisfying and restful...

French Knot Frustrations

I don't always enjoy French knots, however!

I had a heck of a time feeling happy with the French knots in the centers of the large flowers - I just was never satisfied with my placement of them, the way I spaced them looked haphazard and messy to me...

The French knots always looked ok to me in the beginning, when there was a good amount of space between them...

But filling in the spaces made them look too cluttered and messy to me.

More messy flower centers on those bottom 2 flowers - ok I realize I am nit-picking - but it's hard not to be obsessed with tiny details in such a lovely project.

So I picked out all my French knots for the 5th time and tried again!

I did a simple chain stitch in place of the French knot ring, and I instantly felt 100% happier with the look! This is an important lesson, I think - if you're not happy with a given stitch, don't be afraid to just try something different.

Choosing my One Meaningful Word

Choosing my one meaningful word for the year was hard for me - Anne offers plenty of options:

It was hard to choose the one word that spoke the most to me...

Well, this one fits, but as a cancer survivor, I am hesitant to use that label because I don't want cancer to define me. It was something that happened to me,  but cancer is not me - there was so much more before and after cancer to define me.

So while I recognize the value of this term and all that it implies, I kept looking...

This applied, too - after cancer treatment, I have experienced so many little moments of pure joy which are overwhelming. The smallest things that I never had the grace or ability to see as blessings or beautiful before, now move me. Life, and all its beauty, people in all their uniqueness and strength, overwhelm me with joy.

But still, I kept looking...

I settled on "Bloom" because I love this idea of not just surviving, but blooming - after all the pressure and worry and fear I've endured - to bloom more fully into a new creation, a new person I didn't have the ability to be before...

Finishing my Hoop

I purchased a smaller hoop to frame my finished embroidery...

I was inspired by the bright lime green of my fabric, and the way it matched this green patterned masking tape that was on the table... what if..

I wrapped my wooden hoop in the patterned masking tape - which fit nice and smoothly...

I love the bright pop of color, and how well it coordinates with my fabric.

Here's my finished piece!

I chose to leave off many of the lovely details on the larger flowers- because I loved the large, unbroken areas of satin stitch and was just so proud of my work, I wanted to leave them undisturbed and as simple as possible.

I decided to stitch my one word on a nice olive green felt I had leftover from last year's 12 Months of Christmas stitchalong. I used the suggested dark teal color and filled in the letters with the lightest yellow green in the pattern, I enjoyed the contrast.

Some last lovely details I enjoyed on my piece...

I haven't yet stitched the one word on - but I plan to either pin it or do a light basting stitch because I like the idea of swapping out words or displaying it without the word as I see fit...

What a satisfying project this has been! Thanks to everyone who followed my progress, either here or on Instagram (@nyfloresita), and thanks especially to Anne of Lolli and Grace for designing this pattern and so graciously taking time to cheer me on!

First post: Project a Month - Lolli and Grace

Buy the pattern

You may purchase this pattern in the Lolli and Grace Etsy store, of course it has my very enthusiastic approval: One Meaningful Word pattern.