Noah's Ark Cross Stitch

This fabulous Noah's Ark is a classic!

My Mom stitched this for my son the year he was born (1988).  The design is from Eva Rosenstand.  The finished piece is quite large at approximately 16" x 40".

Two More Patches for Gleneagle

Half of the patches are completed on my version of Gleneagle.  I made a few changes and am very pleased with the way they look.  Here are the latest two.

Plus Patch - Gleneagle

There were only a couple of changes that I made to the Plus Patch.  The color suggestions  for the corner smyrnas were changed from A medium to A very light and the basketweave between the corner smyrnas I changed from B dark to A light.

Star Waffle Patch - Gleneagle

On the Star Waffle patch I did not put in any of the suggested backstitches.  The hesitation stitch in the corners is a great stitch but I charted it so that it frames the center diamond rather than having it appear as lines radiating out from the center.

Next up is the Pinwheel Patch.

Gleneagle - Leaf Patch Complete

Gleneagle - Leaf Patch

Yippie!! It's done!!  I finished the leaf patch on Friday.

This patch was quite a process. I ripped as much as I  left in -- not "perfect" but complete.

The border was another challenge for me. The chart does not show the border as a mirror image -- minor adjustment and easy enough to do. But I had to rip and re-stitch. There are compensating stitches at the bottom of the chart, but not the top. I tried it without any compensating stitches to keep it balanced but it just didn't look right. Ripped it out again.

Bottom line -- my leaf patch border has compensating stitches top and bottom...left is a mirror image of the right.

Colors changes: basketweave next to leaf is the accent (746). Jessicas are A light (224), inside Jessicas is the accent, and border is A Medium (223).

Note: My color selection does not have a perle for A dark (3722) - when the instruction calls for A dark perle I have been changing the colors to be able to keep the texture that the perle provides.

Gleneagle - Leaf Patch

Gleneagle - Leaf Patch

The Leaf Patch has been a challenge for me. The instructions have you start with the chevrons - I chose to start with the leaf in the center. Starting with the chevrons seemed to leave an opportunity for counting errors.

The leaf and chevrons went in beautifully but the diagonal weaving was not familiar to me. I tried a couple of ideas -- ripped them out. After searching my reference books, I found the correct stitch sequence in More Stitches For Effect.

I continue to stitch.....!

 

Gleneagle Needlepoint - Mini Mistake Patch

Another patch is complete!

This is really a fun piece to stitch -- even with all of the ripping.  I stitched the Mini Mistake with a couple of color changes.  Instead of using the dark, medium and light of family A, I used the medium, light and very light of family A - all of the other colors were as suggested.

There are a couple of things I would change (of course)...

First: I would use smyrnas and not spatula stitches in the corners and then add compensating stitches to the knitted plait stitch - by the time I decided this I had much more stitching in than I was willing to rip.

Second: Stitch the basketweave around the center motif before putting in the double straight crosses.  I stitched the crosses first and then had about 1/4 of the basketweave in before I ripped out both and changed the order.

Also: be careful with the chart when getting ready for the scotch stitches.  My piece matches the use of the scotch / basketweave as shown on the Gleneagle cover photo.  The chart shows an extra set of scotch stitches around the perimeter of the center motif for a total of 24 rather than 12.

Next will be the Leaf Patch... I will probably stitch the remaining patches in clockwise order.

Gleneagle Needlepoint - House Patch

Gleneagle - House Patch

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I started this project -- it would have been more logical to begin with the two center blocks.  My second block is the house patch, it is in the lower center position (third row, center block).

I made a couple of changes in the way I stitched this patch vs the directions.  When stitching the houses in the very center, I laid in a four legged eyelet stitch before putting in the 4 houses.  I also changed the shading on the basketweave that surrounds the center houses.  The directions state to use the medium and light values for five rows each.  My color selection  created the illusion that they were out of balance with a very narrow row of the medium.  I ripped those out and stitched six rows in medium and four rows in light, giving a more pleasing and balanced result.  If I were to stitch this again I would consider stitching seven rows in medium with three rows in light.

Gleneagle Needlepoint - Mistake Patch

Gleneagle - Mistake Patch in progress

The Mistake Patch is such an appropriate name for this design. The Amadeus stitches that were in my last Gleneagle update were removed and restitched -- the final sequence of stitches for each side were in the wrong position.  It is amazing how much better they look when stitched correctly!!!

The center stitch is what the designer (Jean Hilton) has called the Mistake stitch.  This is the second version that I have stitched.  I decided to start the stitch one canvas thread closer into the smyrna border and I like the coverage better.

There is a bit of disruption to the Mistake stitch as I fill in the background and am wondering if it would have been easier to stitch the background first.  I do not plan to find out -- I will adjust the center after the basketweave is complete.