Rebecca Cullin Update

I have been diligently stitching Rebecca Cullin and have finally taken a full photo to show. She is quite large! I have decided to restitch the leaves in the top embroidery, but leave the flowers. I am waiting on an HDF order of the premium (twice the diameter) silks needed, so in the mean time I will put her away. If you look at the leaves under the carnation in the center, you can tell the leaf on the left is regular silk and the leaf on the right is premium. It stands out so much better!

I had the pleasure to see Bethany and her mom's inspiring photobucket pictures on Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year Blog 2. It was so inspiring that I have decided to pull out Polly Phillip. The colors in PP are so bright and happy. The inside panels are over one tent/continental stitch, which I love! I plan to outline the rest of the panel and then start filling it in.

Rebecca Cullin, the Good and the Bad

The Good: I have finely been able to pay attention to my beloved SL Rebecca Cullin. I absolutely love this piece. I have been concentrating on the bottom and trying to fill in the massive amount of stitching in the border. After all my recent stem stitching with Ring in the New, I couldn't resist outlining the tree. The trunk will be filled with stem stitch and the branches are supposed to be straight stitch. I have been spending a lot of time on Mary Corbet's site trying to decide which stitch I wanted for the leaves. After rejecting the straight stitch and fly stitch, I decided to go with the fern stitch. I think it makes cute little leaves! I am using HDF Old Maid of the Forest in Premium. The trunk is an old dye lot of OMotF in SSR and darker, so it will make a nice trunk. I am using the chart/ stitched model/ and original Rebecca Cullin to decide how to stitch this cute little tree.



The Bad: I began looking closer at the work I have already done at the top of the embroidery... the stem stitching is dreadful!! It seems like such a simple stitch, but if you don't follow the rules, it can get very sloppy. I didn't realize there were rules when I first stitched that part. Thank you Mary Corbet!! Now I really must redo the stem stitch vine. I decided to go with premium there as well. You can see from the photos the beginning (on the left) that is redone is much nicer than the rest... I do not mind to frog the vine because it will be much prettier. I may restitch the leaves as well, but the flowers will stay.



Look at the lighter green vine in the center connecting the leaves- yes, that is supposed to be stem stitch!! Yuck!! That will get a definite do-over as well, but I have to order more premium floss first.



I will take a photo of the entire piece later this week after I have more completed. There are so many threads sticking out here and there that it looks like a real mess!!

Rebecca Cullin Update

I thought I would share what I have stitched on Rebecca Cullin last week. I have finished the strawberry border and started on the bottom- there is a lot of intense solid stitching there! I have decided to focus on finishing the cross stitches before going back to the embroidery. The bullion knots are why I gave up last time, so hopefully completing the cross stitches is just what I need to motivate me to finish her this year!!

I hope this post works- I am trying to blog by phone. Sometimes it works and sometimes I get a big red "x" instead of a photo.

Lovely seeing everyone's New Starts and WIPs. I love to read Nicola's Scarlet Letter blog just before bed and add to my growing SL Wishlist!

Rebecca B in TN

Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year

I am very happy to join all the stitchers in this Scarlet Letter year. Will this be the year I finally finish Rebecca Cullin? Probably not. I started her in 2005 and put a few stitches in every year. Then I get sidetracked. This year I will probably be sidetracked by starting even more SL projects. In fact, I started Spot Motif circa 1640 on December 1st just to celebrate this wonderful group!!
Here are the SL pieces I would like to focus on this year that are already started:
Rebecca Cullin 1801. I am not thrilled with the bird in the center and have already recharted it using a picture from the original sampler that I found online. Obviously I made a lot of changes in the top as well to add my initials and start year. I probably would not have done that if I were just starting, but what's done is done.

My work so far-

Polly Phillip 1792. I love the colors in this one, but admit my sister's name is Holly Phillips so I was drawn to it :)


And my newest Scarlet Letter start- Spot Motif circa 1640. This one is tent/continental stitched over one on 40 ct. Very fun!! I think I will work on outlining for the most part and filling in little bits as I go.


I have many more SL samplers in various stages- some kitted, some slightly started. If I could finish Rebecca Cullin it would really be a Red Letter Year for me!!!