Oriental and Checkerboard

I decided that the negative space in the oriental block should be in squares, but it was taking an age to get anywhere, so I decided to make a start on the checkerboard block.  I feel like I should have covered a lot more ground this week given the amount of time I've spent on it, but it takes as long as it takes!

Byzantine block and the bigger picture

The byzantine block is finished.  I enjoyed stitching this one and really like how it's turned out.  I decided to use only full stitches, and I think it gives it an interesting edge.

I have chosen another cloud block, and stitched the outline, but that's about as far as it's got so far.

The bigger picture!  This is the bottom half of my 16 block grid.  I have plans for the two empty blocks, and I really need to get to work on the cloud blocks.

St Basil's

I'm taking a break from the wallhanging project and looking again at the other project I have in progress.  This one is an embroidered panel, based on the domes of St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.  I have already started looking at canvas work stitches that will work for the onion domes, I still have a few more to work out.

Mounted

Now it's all done and almost ready to hand in for assessment. I just need to fill in the assessment form. Then I can concentrate on goldwork!

Stitching done!

Tracy got me back on the right track today and now it's all done with just the mounting to do! I didn't think it would be finished today, so just some curved needle torture to look forward to and then it's on to the goldwork.

Unpicking...

It took a few attempts, and a lot of unpicking, before I was happy with the curve at the bottom of the swirl.  There doesn't seem to be much canvas covered for the number of hours I worked!!!

Back to work

I had a longer Christmas break than I planned and did nothing at all!  I got back to it today and got a little bit done.  The light is rubbish today, so I struggled to see the colours a bit.  So I gave up for the day!

Wild or just messy?

I've just finished the first big swirl in the sky.  I'm not sure if it's wild and swirly, or just a bit messy.  I've decided to see how it looks in the morning!

Tree finished

I got the tree finished today, and I think I'm happy with it overall, so just a bit of sky to do now!  I'm still hoping to finish on time but I really don't want to rush it and do a sloppy job.

More big black tree

My goal for today was to get the tree finished, but I didn't quite get there.  Just the edges and fiddly bits left to do though, so not too far off.  I think I've looked at it enough for one day, so I'll come back tomorrow and see what I think about where the stitches meet, because I don't think I got quite the curve I wanted to.  It started out well, but got away from me!

Big tree

The big black tree is coming along.  There are far more colours in it than I originally thought!

Church, sky and big black tree

Got lots worked out in class today.  Tracy rescued the church, we came up with a plan for the big black tree and the remaining sky.  I now have two weeks to get it all done...

Half a village

I've been pressing on with the village today.  There are far more trees in it than I imagined!  The bottom right corner is filling in nicely now, I just need to keep going!!  

Half a village and a steeple

I made lots of progress on the village yesterday.  It made a nice change to be working on straight lies rather than the curvy sky, and it was easier than I thought it was going to be, the houses have an almost grid pattern.  Still some work to do on the village, then its back to swirly sky.  A lot of canvas still to cover and not much term left...

The last stars

The last four stars went in today.  I've been concentrating on the swirly sky so I've made no progress on the angular village, but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere.  I'm starting to think I might get this finished   by the end of term!

I got a bit carried away with the sky...

I'm hoping it's turned out OK and that Tracy doesn't make me pull it all out on Thursday! I still want to get the remaining stars in and have a go at the village before next class.  I'm very aware of how close the end of term is and how much canvas is still to cover.

Even more sky

After a hard morning of procrastination, I got down to some work on the sky this afternoon.  I was following the angles of the brushstrokes but some of the joins look a bit clunky to me.  I'm hoping I can blame van Gogh for that!!

A new star

A new star and a bit more sky.  Now as well as worrying about the colour of the sky I'm having to keep a close eye on the direction of the brush strokes.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the moon and star surrounded by sky. I am a bit concerned about the edge near the bottom, even though I've stitched to a straight line it looks indented where the fields/woods are.  

More sky

I have been concentrating on the sky today.  I built up the blue around the moon a bit more and then moved on to the bricking on the other side of the sky.  I stitched right up to the edge of a woolly star as a bit of an experiment to see how it looks. I think I will do the remaining stars next, and hopefully start pulling some of the separate elements together.  

Moon #3

So Tracy managed to pull me back from despair today, as I knew she would!  The main progress today was on the moon.  I pulled it out and started it again, and this one looks much better.  The bottom isn't as pointy as I would like, but a vast improvement, and I love how the blue of the sky is fading into the yellow glow of the moon