You're Going to Have to Learn It

Those were Megan's words in her comment yesterday "You're going to have to learn it" - referring to the detached buttonhole stitch.  Those words resonated with me and I took her advice.  I went to the Thistle Threads blog and looked for the PDF for the detached buttonhole stitch.  It was illustrated in the magazine I am using but I hadn't had much success doing it.  I found the PDF and it had one crucial picture that helped me figure it out.  So I tried it on the top leaf.  It worked out!  I probably didn't do it exactly right. (Are you just supposed to go one direction or can you go back and forth?)  I had been messing with one leaf putting in reverse chain, fly stitch and a vein in stem stitch.  It looked rather "eclectic".  

After seeing how well the detached buttonhole worked out, I took out the first leaf.  Then I tried a holly berry.  It is in the trellis stitch.  I don't think I did it right and I want to try it again. The leaf won't look so striped once the gold laying thread goes down the middle.  Anyway I like it better than the top half light and the bottom half dark.  I am proud of myself for trying to learn a new stitch.

I also took out the tacking stitches in the Dolci Bead and put in the border that I had forgotten.  I also worked on the next lesson of beads.  I'm not wild about the colors but I am trying to follow the directions.  I want to try putting a bead entirely together.

The next one of my Christmas gifts I want to show you is my new curio.

You've already seen it in previous posts.  But now the fingerprints from the delivery boys are gone and the shelves have stitching on them.  I just put things in that wouldn't fit back in curio#1.   DH says it is full.  Actually I like how spread out the items are as I can see them better.  The top shelf doesn't have much on it.  I have to get a step stool to help me reach it.  As DH says, I am a dwarf.
 I'm always afraid that I will run out of cool things to stitch.  I know it's crazy to think that way.
So I am very excited to see that there is going to be yet another Online Tutorial from Amy Mitten.  There is a new sampler book coming out and she has designed a small sampler and a needleroll based on a sampler in this new book.  She is going to give more information in February.  Next year is going to be so fun.
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