The Vikings!

For most of you, it might be a surprise to find that I am a big Minnesota Vikings fan.  American football is fun, even though I do prefer soccer (real futball), I still get bent out of shape watching games when I can. 

For many years I had been looking at Blackwork and loving how dainty it made things appear.  The different designs create different textures.  Finally, I decided to make SOMETHING.  It came to me one day to take the Vikings head logo and do it in Blackwork.  It was my first, so don't be too harsh on me, but I love it as is just the same.  

The most fantastic part about doing this project was learning the stitching and what it can do for you.  This may or may not make sense but I will share some examples with you.

After I had finished this piece, I was all about making Biscornu.  Another thing I wanted to learn.  I found that it was much easier than it looked and frankly, the ability to just create a pattern as you stitched was a complete thrill for me.

The first biscornu I had made, I had to copy a pattern that had been stitched by a woman who had a blurry tutorial online.  This did not make me happy since I have no idea who to credit the actual pattern to.  

Blurry pictures, bad instructions, and yet I figured it out and managed to produce my first one.  I took it to work since I had been working on the stitching during lunches and showed it off to my co-workers.  This prompted the need to create another one immediately.

This is the first biscornu, which is a gift to my daughter in Wisconsin.

This second Biscornu has been mentioned here before as has the first, but it was THIS one that caused quite a stir at work and I ended up with my first commission for a biscornu!

 One side of the commissioned cushion.  Tiny beads for added dainty look.  This is the first one I did with no pattern, except the four corner crosses came from something I don't remember where, but the blackwork was all from my head.

One side definitely takes longer because I am creating a pattern as I go.










The second side goes more quickly.  Both sides are stitched using variegated flosses, which is another great idea for Biscornu!

The woman who commissioned this loves it so much she will never stick a pin in it.

She then asked if I would make her one she could stab her pins in and try as I might I still came up with something she really thought was pretty! However, she can still find it in her to stick pins in it.

My whole point here is Blackwork is so wonderful to stitch, adds something to anything you are working on and is EASY.  If you aren't into cross stitch, give the Blackwork a try.  You might find it to your liking.

For now, I'm working over time and have not done the one hour per day stitching on Project 1 as I had hoped I would.  Because it IS International Hermit & Stitch Weekend I will certainly do some and HOPEFULLY finish Project 1 by Monday.

Monday is a holiday, but I'm still going in for the 6.5 hours just like I am tomorrow.  For now, please try the Blackwork!  It really is quite wonderful and you can use any color you like.  The different stitches can be found all over the internet, your home, the pattern in your clothing or on a blanket or your tile floor!

Until next time.....