Remember a couple weeks ago, when we looked at progress on the stalled but not forgotten Hungarian Redwork Runner?
My plan was four hours of stitching a week. It hasn’t really happened. But I have made progress on it, and I’m pretty sure the stitching will be finished by the end of November, according to plan.
Unfortunately, every time I pick up this particular piece of embroidery, a nightmare unfolds.
Here’s what’s left to stitch – fewer than five motifs in Hungarian braided chain stitch, and the embroidery on the project will be completely finished. I estimate I can do about 1.5 motifs in an hour. So, about three hours of stitching left.
But for me, that’s a three-hour nightmare.
I don’t know how it happened. I suppose it’s because I’m stitching against the clock.
But there he is, in my head, every time I pick up the runner: Dick van Dyke, dancing on the rooftops, singing a whole new version of Step in Time:
“Stitch in time, stitch time, never need a reason, never need a rhyme. Stitch in time, you stitch in time!”
And the tune is unshakeable. It sticks in there All Day Long.
Oh, the sacrifices I make for embroidery!
There are about five of these motifs left.
The embroidery would go a lot faster if there weren’t as many starts and stops. The motif breaks down into seven parts, which means starting and stopping threads seven times in a relatively small space. But, hey! That’s just part of embroidery, right?
In the previous article on the runner project, I mentioned that I was using the sit-on hoop stand I reviewed earlier this year, and that I thought it was helping me speed up my stitching.
The other day, I decided to time myself. Using the same sections of a motif and working with a stop watch, I discovered that I stitch the Hungarian braid stitch almost twice as fast holding my work in hand, without the hoop!
Needless to say, now I’m hoopless, simply hoopless.
I’ll have the embroidery on this finished by the end of November (if not sooner), and then, the part I can’t wait for – damp stretching and blocking! I’m dying to see the whole piece crisp and flat!
Once it’s damp stretched and blocked, I’ll finish the edges. I still have some exploring to do in that realm.
May all your stitching this week go swiftly and satisfactorily, and may your head be free of any annoying songs that could drive you nuts along the way!
If you’d like to follow the development of this project step-by-step, including the preparation of the design and the free pattern, the set-up and transfer of the pattern, and all the materials and stitches used in the project, you’ll find all the articles relating to it in the Hungarian Redwork Runner project index.
