Today is the start for And A Forest Grew by Rosewood Manor. It’s a beauty and at 420 stitches wide x 200 stitches high, it’s one of the largest projects I’ve started. Three Things Sampler actually has more stitches but, it isn’t finished yet. I have a lot of big projects I need to finish, don’t I?
Several of us are starting this one today. Anyone else who’s stitching this one, whether with us or on your own, how did you stitch it. Did you do “section 1” in its entirety, then move on to section 2? This one is going to be weird for me because there’s no border. I kinda feel like I need a chaperone or something. The borders are always my comfort zone. Getting them stitched makes me feel like I know my limits or something. It will feel strange to not be stitching borders right off the bat.
I am using all the called for DMC floss. The fabric is 40 count Granite by Forbidden Fiber.
A fat quarter should be 27″ x 18″ (or thereabouts). Sometimes fabric isn’t cut straight (almost always!) and it can be hard to find a piece of fabric that’s almost exactly the size the fabric should be cut. By the time I pulled a thread and squared this one up, it came to 26.25″ x 16.5″. You can see from the calculator that if it were 25″ x 14″, that would leave 1″ for a border and 1″ for finishing. This piece will give me about 2-5/8″ extra on each side and about 2.5″ on top and bottom, which is plenty.
I guess I’ve never stitched anything by Rosewood Manor but I love how she gives the symbols and floss color on the side of each page for the colors used on that page. I think this chart is 14 pages so instead of having to flip back to the legend, the colors/symbols I need for each page are right there on the side of the page to see. Very nice!
I’ll start this as soon as I get my morning chores done. Fabric is in a frame, floss is on drops, working copy of the chart is made. Sounds like I’m ready to start stitching. Hope anyone else doing this one is too!
CHRISTINA says
Hi Judy, rushing through my chores , cannot wait to sit down and START! Like you feel like a child who has its training wheels removed, with a no border to guide my needle by. Well I won’t know until I start. Happy stitching to all.
Cindy F says
I’ve been so excited to start this one! I had experimented with coffee dying and I loved how the 18 ct Aida turned out so that’s what I’m using. I was up early this morning and went right to it! lol I started on the upper left corner as suggested and I am going to go with the one page at a time. When I’m done with the first page I will jump down and do page 8 and then to page 2, etc. I will likely also pull the next page to the right so I don’t leave any motifs unfinished. I love having the floss chart on each page too! I ended up pulling all the floss for the page and separated it out and will do that for each page as I work on it. I chuckled at your comment about unfinished large projects as I’m right there with you. I don’t know how many I have and I think I like that! 😀
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I thought about pulling the floss for section 1 but didn’t. That’s a heck of a lot of floss, isn’t it? I do have mine all in order by number so hopefully I won’t spend too much time searching for floss. I’m doing it in the same order you are. I did get started this morning but then had kitchen work to do and outside work that had to be done so I’m just now getting back to it.
I’m with you. No need to know how many UFOs I have here.
Jean B in PA says
I started mine in January as it was a WIPGO piece and it got picked. Then it was picked again for February. My goaal was four days of stitching for each month picked. I probably did a little more than that. It is fun and there is a sense of accomplishment each time a little motif is finished. I did start in the upper left and finished most of the first page and have started on the second. I make working copies so I cut the section where the charts share motifs and taped them together until I finish those. Still have a few shared motifs along the bottom of page one to do.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I know what you’re saying. Yesterday when I put In HIS Image away, after working on red houses for over a week, I thought . . it’s going to be nice to have lots of small motifs and color changes.
How much (on average) do you get done in four days? I keep telling myself I can finish a “section” per week but I know me . . I’ll be doing good to finish a section per month.
Jean B in PA says
I don’t know how many days I put in over the 8 days of my wipgo goal, and I stitched 2-3 hours each of those days. I got the first page mostly done and a bit of the second. Each motif has different colors so a lot of time is taken with switching colors, starting and ending threads. Also, I am stitching with one thread, which I am not used to, so I was a bit slow.
Teri says
How about do a running stitch to make a border.then pull it out when finished
judy.blog@gmail.com says
That’s exactly what I ended up doing. It was just to scary to stitch without it. 🙂
Val says
I am going to order this one today. I am good without a border as I usually leave them off. I have a nice piece of 46 count that will work nicely. I will catch up after the chart gets here.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
What’s your favorite floss to use on 46 count linen? Glad you’re going to stitch along with us!