Finishing touches

I let my little dragon sit on the frame for a short bit and finally added a few finishing touches. They pale yellow I used for the claws and teeth was so light that they didn't show up, so I added a pink outline for contrast. The maroon I used for outline, didn't give the kind of contrast I wanted on his back, so I added some white as highlight. About halfway through the swirls I wished that I'd used the pink, but it was too late. I absolutely hate picking out stitches - especially wool! So, here he is, my ferocious little dragon is all finished up.

Stitch along dragon

Previously

• First post on stitch along
• Second post on stitch along

Here are some updates on my stitch along progress. Cute little dragon starts to come together

Technically, he is done here, but I will probably keep futzing about. I think that the maroon outline looses some of the detail and will need highlights. Also, I may add some detail highlights to the claws, because the yellow is so light that you can hardly see them.

Progress on stitch along dragon

Previous Post on Dragon stitch along

I'm really enjoying this stitch along. Bayeux stitch is one of those things that I've been meaning to do for quite some time. I think the hardest part of this project is staying patient with stitching progress. Fortunately, we had an SCA demo this weekend and I got a nice chunk of time to get some stitching in.

The outlining stitches always make such a difference! They are enormously satisfying, since you can begin to see the project really take shape. Stitch on!

Stitch along dragon

I'm a huge fan of the blog Opus Anglicanum. I really love her both her design work and her stitching. So, when she put together a stitch along for a Bayeux stitch dragon, I just couldn't resist. If you are interested, the materials kit is in this post and the stitch-along starts here.

I started my project off by trying a new design transfer method - quilter's mesh. I picked some up recently at a clearance store for very cheap and it seems like a neat option. Here is the mesh and the dragon template I downloaded.

I traced the template using a Sharpie permanent marker and it traced pretty easily.

Here is what the mesh looks like with our cute little dragon drawn on.

I have a nice Micron pen that I use for embroidery, but the tip is small and too stiff to work well with the mesh. The mesh holes have just enough depth to snag the pen tip a little, over and over. Instead I went with the Sharpie felt tip and it worked really well. When you lift the mesh up, you get a nice little dotted line to trace.

Here is the design with all the dots connected and the lines smoothed out a bit. My little dragon is ready for stitching!