Mer's World

So, everyone has kindly been building up my stitch self-confidence (or just blowing smoke up my arse…), either way, I thought I would share a step-by-step guide to one of my current, favorite projects.

This is my first attempt at a formal ‘stitch guide’, so your feedback is welcomed and appreciated.  It makes sense to me, so it may very well be clear as mud to you!

This canvas is currently available from: The Wellesley Needlepoint Collection

Designer: Annie Lane for TWNC

Title: Red Porch, 18 mesh

Mer’s Guide to Successfully Stitching Annie Lane’s Red Porch

1) Let’s start with that red wall, best to get the biggest section done first so there is less of chance that this will remain unfinished in your stitching room for the next decade.

Using 4 f-ing ply of Gloriana in Rosewood (why do they insist on 12 ply just to torture us?!) work horizontally doing the Lazy Mer stitch.

Note: The Lazy Mer is an adaption of the Lazy Roman/Double Brick (consult a stitch book for a formal diagram).  Start your first stitch on the edge of the black outline of the patio floor and go over 5 holes.  Repeat 4 times.  After the fourth stitch, drop down 3 holes and repeat with another 4 stitches.  This really starts to look like a modified double brick, but remember to work on odd numbers of holes, so that when you do the sparkly long stitch, it’s in the middle…

For those that need a little picture to help them…

Here’s my lovely ‘cheat sheet’:

3) When you have carefully (consumed several glasses of wine) and compensated the shit out of the Lazy Mer stitch, around the chair, the window box, the patio, etc then grab your Silk Lame (#SL97) and fill in all the required end stitches to complete the Lazy Mer.

Don’t understand?  Whatever you do, don’t google Lazy Roman… trust me.  You won’t find a needlepoint stitch guide.  Email me or refer to the Stitches To Go book and look-up Lazy Roman.  You’ve already got the base set, now just add that missing bottom stitch and your wall is all finished!

3)Now about that chair… Let’s go back to that Gloriana 12-ply @#$) in Silver Fox.  Use what little patience you have left to thread your needle with 6-ply of those slippery things.  We’re going to start with a ‘Sound Waves-like’ stitch on the top of the chair and the ‘rounded’ areas.  I prefer to call this stitch the Mer’s Rocking Sound Wave Adaption.  The premise is over 1 (hole), over 1, over 3, over 5, over 5, over 3, over 1, over 1.  When you get to the compensation, make the stitches longer, rather than shorter.  Here is a guide for your stitches:

Once you have the top and the ’rounded’ areas completed, you’ll work the rest of the chair in the double brick stitch.  It’s my preference to overcompensate the stitches- in Mer’s World, that means to make them longer, rather than shorter.  I think with the small space that you have, it just looks better and less ‘choppy’.  Note the compensation at the top and bottom curve of the chair, the compensation follows the flow of the stitch, but is elongated.  Play around with it and do what is pleasing to your eyes, this is what worked best for me (after about 6 different tries!).

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What do you think?  Does it make you excited to complete this project?  Will the stitch modifications help you complete another project that you have in progress?  Did it challenge you to try something new on your current canvas?

If the feedback is good, then I’m happy to keep going with this canvas and maybe even contemplate stitching another project on the blog…  I know just the one- from Needle Nicely!  Gotta show the love to both of my favorite shops!!

So, should I quit my day job and become a stitch guider?  Or, keep working to pay the bills and offer a little glimpse of my creative adaptations on the side?!

Happy stitching, friends!