Still stitching!

I am continuing to make progress on my Dresden Garden piece. I have only one more specialty stitch to do before filling in the background and then doing the flower petal outlines. Right now it doesn't look much different than my last photo so I'll update it when I have more stitching completed.

I have also made progress on my other correspondence course. I need to do four different pieces for this course which focuses on finishing techniques. I have started two of them. One uses hemstitching and mitered corners. I am just about done with the first side of the hemstitching, right along the hemline, and will need to do the other side of the open space so the stitches on both sides are the same. This sample needs to be left half undone so it can be checked for proper stitching methodology. 

The first photo shows it from the front side and the second photo is of the back side. You actually do the stitching on the back side.

The other piece has a picot edging. You need to withdraw threads and in between one set of withdrawn threads you pick up four threads and make two buttonhole stitches. You then fold this over so the picots are on the very edge and then do some hemstitching. I am not quite to the hemstitching part of that one.

If you look closely you will see the stitches on either side of the corner have three threads and not four. That is on purpose! You have to do a little compensating so the picots don't look odd against the open space at the corners.

Now, this next part should be filed under, “You must be joking!” because I signed up for one of the EGA’s Master Craftsman programs. Crazy, I know. It isn’t like I don’t have enough to keep me busy, but I thought it would be a challenge and stretch my stitching skills a bit. I enrolled in the Counted Thread program. I can’t share all of the details because that is against the program rules, but I can share my progress and the program info that is publicly available.

The program I’m in has six steps. Each one must be passed before moving on to the next. In the first step I need to stitch a piece that can have family or historical significance. I have several ideas rolling through my head but think I will likely do something with a German theme as both my husband and I have family that came from Germany. I have ordered several books on old German samplers. They are actually in German so I will seek out the help of my German speaking daughter to assist me with a little translating.  I do have up to two years to complete the first step so I should make that deadline!