A Redwork Project – A SAL?

Anyone want to do a stitch along with me for a redwork project? It could be any color you want it to be. Mine is going to be red.

As I was going through the Gift of Cross Stitch magazines, one project grabbed me and wouldn’t let go! I thought about it Tuesday night. I thought about it last night. I woke up thinking about it this morning.

It’s Elle Brode en Lettres Carmin by Reflets de Soie. It starts in Issue No. 49 and is a six part series. They must start in the center but since I start at the top left, I will have to start with Part 3, then Part 2, then Part 1 and probably 4, 5 and 6 after that but I haven’t looked.

That’s a photo taken of my computer screen because my printer is low on ink and the cover picture that I printed is awful.

There’s good news if you didn’t want to buy all 72 of the magazines. This pattern is in shops. You can find it at Colorado Cross Stitcher! When I noticed it was by Reflets de Soie, and I know they have charts in shops, I looked and yes, it’s available in several shops.

Pattern Keeper:

I wasn’t sure if these pdfs would work with Pattern Keeper and it’s really important to me to use PK. I love it! I keep hearing that pdfs need to be formatted at certain way to work with PK and I have no idea how it all works but I have a few newer pdfs that just will not work. I’m happy to say that I entered maybe a dozen charts in PK and they all uploaded and formatted like a dream. If every pdf I have worked as well as those from this magazine, I’d be super happy. I didn’t have a single problem. So, if you look working with Pattern Keeper, that’s an added bonus to buying the whole magazine collection.

My Plans:

I’ve read about several stitchers, as well as watched some on flosstubes, who stitch one thread per day on some projects, especially redwork projects. One strand! That’s do-able. It would take a long time but it would be something to look forward to. That’s how I intend to stitch this one.

My Floss:

Because I’ve been collecting red Victoria Clayton Silks, I have the floss I need. I would order three or four colors of red with each order and the ones I like a lot, I’d order a couple more bobbins of that color with the next order. There are several redwork charts I want to do and I want to make them all a different shade of red. I may or may not have enough to finish this project, especially 1149, but if I run close, which probably won’t even happen in 2022, I can order another bobbin or two. That would be a necessity! 🙂

Colorado Cross Stitcher carries NPI silks and I’m sure they could do a quick conversion if you want silks. I’m also quite sure DMC would work just fine. I’m going to use 1149 and 1143. I’ll show photos below with the fabric.

My Fabric:

I want to use 40 count linen and I’m not ordering fabric! I have enough 40 count linen to make quite a few projects but I don’t have enough in the 40 count tub to find the perfect color I might like to use for every project. My choices are limited but that’s ok. I can live with it.

Here are some of the possibilities, and you’ll probably see these over and and over through the year til I use them.

This is Paperbark by Fox & Rabbit. You can see the floss there. 1149 is in the center and that one was for sure. 1143 is on the right and 1145 is on the left. I was afraid 1143 was too orange but in the not so bright light, 1145 was too close to 1149, so, 1149 will be my dark and 1143 will be the lighter one.

Here are the two floss bobbins on Vellum by Picture This Plus. I think it has just the right amount of mottling for a sampler project but not really what I want for a redwork project.

This one is Zwiegart’s Flax. I think it’s a bit more gray than I want.

This one is Zwiegart’s Cafe au Lait and it’s the same fabric I’m using for And Heaven & Nature Sing and I really like it.

Above, you can see Paperbark on the bottom and Cafe Au Lait on the top, with the two bobbins between them. I don’t see much difference in the two. Paperbark isn’t easy to find. When you can find it, the cost is usually about $29 for a fat quarter. The Cafe au Lait is easier to find and the cost is about $18 for a fat quarter. You don’t get mottling or hand dyed effects from Cafe au Lait, but sometimes that’s ok. I think I’ll go with the Cafe au Lait.

The Size:

The project is 250 x 400 stitches. On 40 count, the stitched area will be 12-1/2″ x 20″. With three inches from the stitching on all four sides, I need 18-1/2″ x 26″. The label on my piece shows 17″ x 27″. I’m ok with one inch for the border and one inch for lacing so that would mean I would need 16-1/2″ x 24″. I almost always start 2″ down and 2″ from the left, adding any space needed in case that top left stitching isn’t right at the edge (example: the top left stitching starts 5 stitches in towards the right but that outer border curves out to the left 5 stitches – then I would start my top left corner stitches 2″ plus 5 stitches from the left edge). I hope that makes sense. Anyway, I measured and my fabric is actually 19″ x 27″ but it could easily have been 16″ x 26″ so I always measure and I always pull a thread right at what I think will be the cut edge – just to be sure the fabric wasn’t cut wonky.

If you want to do this project, just plug the 250 x 400 numbers into a cross stitch calculator. I use this one.

Any takers? I’m going to do it so don’t feel bad if you say no . . like you would . . you shouldn’t! 🙂