A Cross Stitching Experiment

Actually, two experiments.

Converting to NPI Silks:

I have been wanting to do my own conversion from DMC to NPI Silks. I’ve been looking at charts that I already have and that I’m anxious to stitch that might be good to use for my first conversion. I came up with two. First is In our Home by Teresa Kogut.

The second is Bluebirds and Bluebells by Pansy Patch Quilts & Stitchery.

In our Home has 10 colors where Bluebirds and Bluebells has 22 colors. In our Home would be easier to convert but I think Bluebirds & Bluebells would be more challenging. Maybe I’ll just convert them both. 🙂

There is one more cross stitch chart that is a Patreon chart from Teresa Kogut that keeps calling my name so I could do a conversion on that one. Maybe I’ll do three! Good grief, Judy . . get one done and stop that nonsense.

Verdal Stitching Fabric:

Kitten Stitcher has a new to me stitching fabric called Verdal. Maybe she’s had it for a while and I just noticed it but it’s 100% cotton and Kitten Stitcher has several 40 count selections that were dyed by XJu Designs. My favorite count fabric and one of my favorite dyers so I ordered a couple of pieces to try. So, the second experiment will be stitching on Verdal.

Thoughts:

My first thought was to combine doing a silk conversion AND stitch it on Verdal.

You can see how very even the fibers are. No slubs! Speaking of even, I often hear folks talk about “evenweave” and say that linen is not even weave. Jean Farish, who is my go to for expert cross stitching advice, has a very nice article about evenweave and linen. Basically, linen IS an evenweave. The fact that some fibers are thicker than others does not make it not an evenweave.

Linen has to be made with 100% flax and there has been a problem recently with getting flax, and there have been some quality issues with the flax. That all has me wondering if Verdal is possibly going to be an alternative to linen, even though Verdal has apparently been around for a long time but more so for other types of needlework than for cross stitching.

After a bit of going through charts, I decided (1) I know I love stitching with NPI Silks; (2) I don’t know how I will feel about stitching on Verdal; and (3) If I’m going to use silks, I want it to be something like a sampler (which will probably be large). Do I really want to stitch something large on a fabric I’ve never used and may or may not like? No.

Conclusion:

The first time I stitch with Verdal, I want to do something small. I chose Peppermint Bark by Dirty Annie. The stitch count is 84 x 84 and stitched on 40 count fabric, it will be 4-1/4″ x 4-1/4″. Pretty small!

It uses three colors. I should be able to stitch this before Christmas. I will stitch it on XJu’s Little Bunny 40 count Verdal, which is what it’s shown on above.