More on felt from Lesson 5

Below is some more play with rice stitches in the beaded areas. And my best efforts to implement some SharonB's tips about them. In the rest of the piece I'm sure my classmates will pick out other elements from lesson 5. Thanks to the good advice I've been getting I'm off to the store to recheck the fabric and purchase some other needles to try. Many thanks to everyone who was so willing to help me.

I've almost finished reading the amazing lesson 6. I'm looking forward to beginning the stitching. What a great opportunity SharonB has provide for us to learn. I would highly recommend this class whenever she offers it again. The class link should provide a good overview of the course as well as other links for information about it. I thought this class and Sharon's teaching style allows any stitcher to start where they are and go as far as they can. I don't see how anyone could exhaust all the material provided in the six weeks. I plan to be returning to it time and time again. The elements on design that Sharon provided in addition to the stitches is a great plus. I found it augmenting the design course I am taking concurrently.

Making holes

Much to my distress, I am leaving needle holes in this felt. If anyone stopping by has knowledge of this subject and would kindly post an answer, I would appreciate it along with any other tips you might have. I'm wondering 1. if I bought the wrong kind of felt and if so what do I need instead? 2. how do I avoid making the holes besides not changing my mind and parking threads outside of the design area? 3. is it possible to reduce or smooth the hole after it's made? I used a 26 tapestry needle and a thread about equal to a Perle 8. The 22 inch bolt said wool felt. But it looks very different than the wool felt that my LNS had. However, they(LNS) did not have any light neutral color that would work with the threads I had. Therefore, I went off to the craft store, where they were very nice but had no idea how to answer my most basic questions. The thread is actually a very nice purple and the felt is antique white even if the picture didn't capture this. This is some attempt at suggestions SharonB made for the rice stitch and the rest is just testing the material with a variety of stitches.

Shapes and Grids

My design class and SharonB's stitch class are pushed together on this page. On the design side we have been studying grids and stitch shapes in SharonB's. The rice stitch is a very definite shape either square or diamond. I decided to push it into a rectangle too. I've got one more grid to add to this, but my LNS is closed on Mondays. I can't find any suitable thread in my stash.

Rice stitch

Rice stitches are a favorite for me. I like the queen stitch and the satin stitch, too. Is there a stitch I don't like? Yes, the one's I haven't worked with until I've understood their beauty and usefulness. Oh, yes, and then there are the ones I failed to learned how to execute successfully. The french knot and the dove's eye immediately spring to mind. They are beautiful, I see their usefulness, but I don't like them. They give me fits when I do use them and I tend to avoid them as much as possible. I did this sampler as I first began to understand and work with the rice stitch. Darlene O'Steen's book The Proper Stitch helped me. She encouraged stitchers to try a different weight or color of thread for parts of the stitch once the basics were learned.

I am excited that this book is being republished and expanded. I'm sure it may be a help to so many stitchers who haven't a copy of the previous edition.