Back in June, we collaborated with Susan Ache & Wendy Sheppard to introduce a fabulous little stitch club called Stitch Buddies.
It’s nothing official… nothing that requires deadlines or any kind of stress. It’s just all fun and ALL encouragement. Susan and Wendy simply want to inspire and engage you in something they both feel particularly passionate about.
Today, we’re back with part 2 — to check in on Susan & Wendy, grab a few extra tips, and see how vigorously we get to cheer you all on in the process. Thank you, as always, for following along and sharing in our stitchy excitement!
Wendy: Hello, my name is Wendy Sheppard (@ivory_Spring on Instagram)! It’s nice to pop in check on how you are doing with your Stitch Buddies Stitch Along project. If you are new to Stitch Buddies – it’s just a little Stitch Club Susan Ache and I started to share our love of stitching through projects that have NO deadlines!
Susan and I tend to gravitate toward the same designs. I can’t count the number of times we’ve discovered that we either already have or plan to purchase the same charts when we call or text each other. Our current Stitch Buddies project is the Elizabeth Hall 1809 Weston School Sampler. If you are stitching along, I hope you have been enjoying the process.
For my sampler, I am stitching 1 strand of Aurifloss over 2 threads of 40 count linen. I absolutely LOVED the lacy effect from 1 strand of floss over 2 threads of linen, but when I hit the over 1 portion, I quickly realized 1 strand of floss over 1 thread of linen wouldn’t work. The stitches looked crammed and untidy!
That’s when Susan texted. She wasn’t excited about the over 1 portion on her end either. Stitching so often ends up being an experimenting exercise. In decided to try out a few other thread weights to see if they would work better for stitching over 1 on a 40 count. I tried 40, 50, and 80 wt because they are finer than 1 strand of Aurifloss. In the pictures below, from top to bottom, are stitches stitched over 1 on 40 count linen:
- Floss (crammed stitches, untidy look)
- 80wt (distinct stitches, tidy look)
- 50wt (distinct stitches, tidy look, better coverage than 80wt)
- 40wt (slightly crammed stitches, though look is still somewhat tidy)
I went with the 50wt because my needle seems like it better than the 80wt. And here is the closeup of my over 1 alphabet stitched with 50wt!
I use a tapestry 28 needle when stitching over 2, but I do switch to a size 10 beading needle when stitching 50wt over 1. My thread doesn’t slip and form the annoying knots at the back of my linen. As you see below, I am back to regular stitching for a bit… before I play with more over 1 stitching.
I have used 50wt for piecing, quilting, and machine appliqué. Who knew I would stumble upon another use for it? I almost feel like a scientist discovering a new element, haha! Over to you, Susan!
Susan: Hi! It’s Susan (@yardgrl60), back for more stitch fun! Oh boy, I can always count on Wendy to bring the splash to the party. Thank you Wendy for giving your update on your sampler. You can tell by mine that I haven’t even started with my over 1s yet!
Can I at least make a few excuses before I even tell you what the intention is? The stitching of this samples happened to coincide with putting our house on the market, so I was a crazy woman packing, sorting, and storing all the things. For the most part, stitching had to take a back seat, except for how fast this adorable chart flew by with the over 2s.
Let’s fast forward to the over 1s and my frustrated text to Wendy about how I should have looked closer at the chart before committing. Wow… if you ever need a great friend to talk you through something, Wendy is your gal. She immediately explained to me that for her, changing the size thread and needle helped her in the past and she was going to do this again for this chart. Boy oh boy was she correct.
I immediately ordered the beading needles that Wendy recommended and now I’m here to sing some praises, y’all. It worked! Even though I haven’t gotten my first over 1s stitched on my chart yet, I have practiced and I am now ready to Rock ‘n Roll. That’s the great thing about working on the same charts and creating our new little club. There is never a time limit to your stitching and there will always be a helping hand if you get stuck or frustrated like I was. What a great feeling to know that we have a group of like minded stitchers out there that want to play and have positive thoughts coming our way.
If you aren’t playing now, it’s never too late to jump and get on board with the cheerleading.
HUGE thanks to Susan & Wendy, as always, for sharing all the great tips and keeping us engaged and excited about ALL the stitching!
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