Project a Month: Stem Stitch Class with Gimena Romero

Folks, I apologize for my lateness this month, but I am excited to report that I am finally stitching on this month's Project a Month! This month, I am stitching along with the Domestika class by Gimena Romero called Técnica de bordado con paso atrás, in Spanish.

Paso Atrás are the Spanish words for Stem stitch. I mentioned Gimena's class previously, and how much I enjoyed it, and how it taught me that I was doing the stem stitch "wrong" before.

I was fascinated by Gimena's beautiful, unique embroidery pattern, the vibrant colors she chose, the rich texture of her stitches, her fabric choice of wool, and just everything about this gorgeous class. If you are not a Spanish speaker, Domestika does provide English subtitles on this class, and I highly recommend it!

I purchased this Domestika class on my own, this is not a sponsored post.

Choosing My Materials

Light blue quilting cotton

First, I picked my thread - Gimena uses size 8 perle cotton in her stitching, and it adds such a lovely finish, so I knew I wanted to try that. I ordered a small batch on Ebay, then chose 7 colors that spoke to me.

Next, was fabric - I didn't have that beautiful dove gray wool Gimena used, but regardless, I would have wanted to try something different. The problem was, I liked just about every fabric option I found!

Mustard linen

Heather gray linen

Chestnut brown

Navy / dark gray linen

Teal linen

Pink linen

They all had something going for them and I just could not decide!

Then, there's lighting - under fluorescent light that chestnut brown looked yellower and the mustard looked olive:

But I finally decided! Heather gray linen, was my choice. I liked that it was neutral and looked good under fluorescent and natural lighting.

Transferring the Pattern

I whipped out my trusty Aunt Martha's transfer pencil, it's never failed me yet...

But folks, it failed me for the first time! I have been using this pencil forever, but I guess I've never tried it on linen before. I had a travel iron, but although it was small, it was very hot. I could not get the darn thing to transfer, as you see above. I tried another linen and got an even worse result.

So, light blue quilting cotton it was! As you can see, the image transferred very lightly, but at least I could make it out.

Thank you all for the MANY helpful suggestions of transferring methods you gave me on Instagram!

Stitching the Design

I started my stitching, and have been working at it, bit by bit. I love Gimena's technique of side by side layers of stem stitches - it looks so sleek and beautiful...

Here is my progress so far:

I'm loving this project, and as you can see, I'll have to continue it into next month, to finish it.

Why I took so long to start

Why did this project take so long to get going? I've been stitching so consistently all year! I began taking Tamoxifen, as prescribed to prevent a recurrence of breast cancer, and the side effects were debilitating. I've put the medication on pause while I consult with my doctor - looking back I can see I wasn't myself, I was miserable, and I was totally unproductive. Sorry for this aside, but I wanted to be upfront with why I was so quiet.

Stitch along on Domestika

I'm really looking forward to seeing what I'll do with this design. As always, feel free to stitch along with me, by taking Gimena's class Técnica de bordado con paso atrás on Domestika. More updates on my stitching progress soon!