AFRICANA……now a bigger challenge

I’m really liking this project. So much that I stitched on it every day and made great progress.

A Lorene Salt Design

NOTE: I must say now that I am stitching the with the canvas and charts turned upside down. The stretchers are 13”X18” so it would be hard on my arms and shoulders to reach up to the top.

As I approached the area to the left and began the final area…..I almost cried. There is supposed to be to be 12 threads for the pattern………if you look close you can see that I have started the first part of the pattern and there is only 4 threads to the border not 6 🤯. It turns out that I made a counting error that I can NOT correct. My border was 2 stitches too narrow. No way am I taking the big circle out, there is about 10 hours of stitching and ripping in that circle.

Step one; I used the colors called for and the pattern but redesigned it to fit within the 10 threads I had. Step two; I went to bed and thought about that error most of the night 😢. Step three; it dawned on me that if I miscounted on the width….did I do the same on the length….yep

Canvas now upright

That error was correctable 👏👏. I very carefully took the border out. I knew I needed to use the same thread, if possible, because the same thread is used in the design and I might run out. This worked ok. I did check my thread stash and found a purple silk that is very close to the Vineyard Silk that is in the kit….just in case.

Now I was excited to get back to stitching BUT I began to think about all the possible adjustments I’m going to need to make because of those two threads. Just added to the challenge, as I really want to finish this design.

The next area to be stitched is a continuation of the partial edging that defines areas. It’s done with Kreinik braid and no way did I want to wander out in space and not be sure exactly when I needed to be. Out came a basting thread. I wanted to baste the edging but also to baste the areas along the bottom to check placement and make sure when I got to the right side I was still off just two threads. Whew ‼️‼️‼️

A Lorene Salt Project

Tomorrow I will get back to the real stitching 👏. My plan is to post every week….so stay tuned for challenges I know I will encounter and the ones I haven’t thought of yet.

Happy stitching.