The Marquoir

Here is the main project I'm working on. It's called the Marquoir, which I believe means "sampler" in French, and it's by Isabelle Vautier. It comes with a story and contains symbols of her life and allows for the stitcher to substitute symbols that are important to them.
A lot of people call it the Legacy Board Sampler, because that's where the pattern was posted several years ago. It was really popular for a time, and my mother-in-law has finished and framed it.

Here are my threads:
Just three colors--red, yellow and green--plus metallics for accent. I am using Gloriana silks in Olive Grove, Honey Bronze and Dried Pink Roses. One great thing about silks is that you only need one thread for good coverage. So even though silk is a lot more expensive than cotton, it has 12 strands, as opposed to cotton's six, and cotton generally requires two threads for the same coverage.

I believe this sampler was originally a mystery sampler and it has nine sections. I recently completed--mostly--section four:
I mentioned that these are symbols from the designer's life--this section has to do with her moving to the city (Paris) and living on her own. You can see there is a large blank section. The designer went to hair cutting school and she put symbols of that here. I've never cut hair in my life. (Unless you count the time I attempted to cut Jazzboy's hair when he was a toddler: I chased him around the room and cut a bit of hair off whenever I caught him. I wish I had pictures of that.) So I've decided to put some of my own symbols there: a Y for BYU, a volcano for my years as a geology major, and a book for my Humanities degree. I just need to design these.

Section 5 is my favorite so far:
It has to do with music, which has lately been a new hobby for me.

Tatting

I got some tatting done today. Here is part of round 3 done, just before joining it to the main part:

And here it is, partly joined:


I like to wait as long as possible before joining it to the main piece. Once joined, it becomes unwieldy and difficult to manage. Plus, the thread twists as I tat, and I can't easily untwist it once I have the whole huge project in my hands.

And now, it's totally joined:

And here is the whole piece, so far:

There will be smaller, cream-colored motifs in between, in the squarish areas. I think it will be no longer than 9 rows. Maybe a little longer--the first ball of thread made three rows, but that was before I learned how to measure my shuttle winding and conserve thread.

I was able to work a little on the Marquoir today, and will hopefully write on that soon.

Tatting, and an update

I haven't posted lately, in part because I couldn't find my camera. I looked everywhere, but no dice. Finally, today, after much searching, I found it hanging on my closet door knob. Hmmmm. I guess you always find things in the last place you look. And now you get to see that my photography skills have not improved, even a little bit.


Lately I've been alternating between cross stitching on my Marquoir and tatting. Tatting is very portable, which is useful, with the way my life is right now. Above is the center of a motif of my current tatting project, "The Grid," found in the book Tatting Patterns and Designs by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson. It will eventually be a piano scarf, if I bought enough thread. Or a table center. The thread I'm using is a size 20 tatting thread, in hunter green. The little ring above is about the size of my pinky tip.

Next, I finished round 2:

Tomorrow, assuming all goes as I planned, I will do round three, which includes attaching it to the larger part of the project.

Here are the tools I'm using for this:
Hey, that picture didn't turn out too bad! OK, clockwise from the scissors, which I hope you recognize. They are Ginghers, and I have several pair, and I always keep the tips covered, because they are sharp! And I don't want them blunted. Next is a magnet, with a needle and threader on it. Then, a yellow piece of paper. Yes, that is a tool, and it really saved me. When I first started this project, in order to save thread, I calculated how much thread I needed to wind onto the shuttle for each round. Then, as is my MO, I didn't work on the project for several months and when I returned to it, I had forgotten all about that. But since I had it written down, I was able to start up where I had left off with little trouble. I'm a big fan of the stitching journal for that very reason. Not to mention you can tell people just how long it took you to make "that little thing." However, I haven't kept track of my time on this one. Each inner ring is just a couple of minutes; the second round took me just about an hour today; round three will take longer. I have made 17 motifs so far.

OK, to continue, next is the crochet hook. I use this to make joins. It's my understanding that you can do this without a hook--if anyone can direct me to instructions for this technique, I'd appreciate it. I love my crochet hook because it's the tiniest I've ever seen. I can't remember the brand, just that it's German. Unfortunately there are no markings on it as to size or origin.

Next, a yellow paper clip. Yellow, because I don't care much for that color, and I was using all my other colors to mark hymns in my hymnal at that time for piano practice. I wasn't using yellow for that purpose. I use the paper clip to mark the thread at the point where I should stop winding the shuttle. Ever since I learned about the ball-and-shuttle technique, where you don't cut the thread, my life has been so much easier. Tatting-wise, that is. So many fewer threads to knot and weave in. Speaking of which, I've heard of a knotless joining technique, and I'm also wondering if I'm finishing my threads correctly--to me it looks so sloppy to make a square knot and weave in the ends. If anyone knows where I can find this information or technique, I'd really appreciate it.

Below the paper clip is my shuttle. You can't tell from the picture, but the shuttle is attached to that ball of thread. I like these Clover plastic shuttles best. I tried some metal shuttles with removable bobbins and I was so afraid that I'd cut my fingers when I tried to get the bobbins back in place. So I just wind my plastic shuttle and annoy everyone with the clicking.

And just a note: I've added an update to my Fudgenellies post. Further experimentation led to more necessary information.