If you haven’t noticed, we’re moving really slowly with this! I’ve had some stitchers express the desire to “keep up”, but at this pace I don’t think you’ll need to worry! I am in the throes of proposal season, and that limits my time to create. For those who don’t know, proposal season is the time of year when designers present proposals for classes to the national and regional seminars for 2027. As you can imagine, it’s a time of scrambling to present our best work in hopes of offering classes in the future. But I’ll do my best, at least until proposal season is over, to share the next stitch hopefully once a week.
You can find the next set of instructions here: Stitch Along 2026 Part 2
I am adding the next bit of instructions to the previous instructions, so it will all be in one place when we’re finished. If you want, you can stitch from your device rather than printing the instructions, and if you want printed instructions wait until the end when it’s all finished. Or, print the selected pages as you go.
Up to now, I’ve been using stranded silk floss. You may use any thread you like, but I thought you might enjoy seeing my color inspiration. I selected Gloriana 084 Laura’s Garden. I thought the colors were very beautiful, and plenty of them to select from.
The colors are a little dark in this photo – I’m not the pro my official photographer is (hubby), but for this I think it’s ok. When I was looking through my threads for the first ones, this caught my eye and I kept going back to it, so this is my color inspiration.
I’ll be adding more threads and more types of threads as I move through the project, but for now it’s stranded silk floss. I encourage you to look into your own stashes for any stranded thread you’d like to use, cotton, rayon, silk, etc., or any of your favorite non-divisible threads. For these first stitches I suggest a lighter weight of thread.
The thread I used for this second part, Amadeus stitches, is another Gloriana Silk Floss, 014 Jewel Green:
Of course I didn’t think to get a picture before I stitched, so it’s taken apart. I always use a thread management system and I encourage you to do the same. I like Floss Away bags, but small snack size zip top bags work just as well. I like to use the bags because I can put the whole skein, with color tag and any cut pieces, into the bag so it stays together and I can quickly see the color/thread through the bag.
The large bobbin in the picture is something my husband printed for me on his 3-D printer. If a thread isn’t on a reel, card, spool or pull skein, it can be difficult to keep it untangled and ready to use. These are perfect for me, much larger than regular floss bobbins so I don’t have to wind as much, and fewer kinks in the thread.
I haven’t mentioned it before now, but when working with stranded flosses or ribbons a laying tool helps everything to lay smoothly. My favorite is a trolley needle, worn on a finger. I like this because I don’t have to hold something, which causes hand fatigue for me rather quickly, and it’s as easy to use as a finger. And no, I haven’t poked my eye out with it!
Stay tuned for the next installment – it’s already stitched and I’ll show you next week.