When I did my first two Brick stitch squares, my canvas looked like this:

I had drawn my 25 squares and the surrounding borders and, other than leaving the center and one corner squares for last (per Ms. Slater's directions), my canvas was open to me.  It was also still flat.

My wrinkled canvas now looks like this:

I've filled in 14 of the 25 squares and I'm having to plan where I place my stitch samples and what colours I use.  My next stitch is the Hungarian Ground stitch so I want to make sure the three squares don't end up next to the Hungarian Point squares.  I also need a least one multiple colour square in the lower half to balance out the 3 in the upper half, but I also don't want to put a multi-colour square next to a multi-colour square.  If you count from left-to-right top-to-bottom, I think I'll be do multi-colour in square 18.  Stay tuned to how I work it out.

As part of my burst of energy for needlepoint, I completed all three squares of split gobelin on Sunday.  My wrist was a little sore by the time I finished, but it was worth it.

My first square, done according to directions, is kind of dull.  I don't particularly like this stitch.

Adding additional colours in my second square made this stitch a little more interesting.  Ms. Slater says in the book that this is a good stitch for the gradations in a sunset.

I decided to get adventurous with my third square.  It's colourful and full of movement.  This stitch really shows if one messes it up and if one doesn't catch it right away, it's nearly impossible to fix.  You can see in the far right column, 4th from bottom (dark orange) where I didn't split a stitch with the dark green above it.  By the time I realized how obvious this was, I would have had to remove a few rows.  With this stitch, one can't just cut a thread or two around the error and restitch, everything above must be pulled out.  Not wanting to remove the entire far right column, I decided to leave it as-is.

Overall, as I stated above, I don't really like this stitch.  I will use it on a few more samplers to see if it grows on me.  Maybe if I try a sunset.

I had a burst of energy this weekend and finished six squares.  I did the Hungarian Point squares on Friday and Saturday.  I really like this stitch.

My first block, following directions, makes me think of Renaissance details:

My second square was an attempt to show how the stitch works for a background.  I didn't want it to be just one colour so I added the cross.

My third square is my favorite for the sense of movement in the different coloured diagonals.  I don't know where I would use this many colours together... maybe in a purse flap?  Any suggestions?  As you can probably tell, this square was done vertically rather than horizontally.

I look forward to using this stitch as a background in a design someday.

I finished my 3 squares of Parisian stitch.  The first one came out pretty good:

I turned it a quarter-turn to work and spent a lot of time pulling each thread in the 3-thread strand after making each stitch so the threads would lay flat and even.

My second square is my own design based on various samples I saw:

I really like how this one came out.  I centered it exactly and had to do fill-in stitches on each edge.  I think it came out great.

My third square is a copy of one of the samples in the book done in my own colors:

This is George's favorite.  I like it too.  I finished the square and then noticed that I had mixed up  some of the colors on stitches in the ribbon so I had to cut it out and re-do in the correct colors for the pattern.  The front looks great, but I won't be showing off the back of this square to anyone.

I now have 8 of the 25 squares filled in and have to start paying closer attention to the overall appearance of the sampler.   I also need to decide how I'm going to fill in the lines between the squares - one color, multiple colors in patterns, etc.

I've been working on my sampler very slowly.  Here's the first block I did in Old Florentine Stitch following the directions in Ms. Slater's book:

My edges are very messy and some of my contrast color (dark orange) is pulled too tight and looks buried in the main color (dark green).

My second attempt was only slightly better:

I'm having real trouble getting my fill in stitches on the left side looking as full as the regular stitches.  I put off doing the third block for quite awhile because I was disappointed with my efforts on the first two blocks.

My third, however, went like a dream when I finally worked it:

I moved the canvas a quarter-turn so I was still doing the stitching horizontally, but having it appear vertical on the canvas.  I paid more attention to keeping my 3 strands of wool flat and my stitching smooth.  I'm still having some trouble with my fill in stitches as seen at the top of this photo, but I'll keep working at it.

I'm now starting the first of 3 blocks done in Parisian stitch.  I'll update when I have them completed.

Updated 20070227: Replaced 2nd photo with a better one.

I started on a sampler using this book, The New York Times Book of Needlepoint by Elaine Slater.  Ms. Slater teaches the new needlepointer 10 different stitches.  She includes lots of diagrams of the wrong as well as right way to do the stitiches.

So far I've marked my 10-mesh canvas for 25 square blocks, picked out 5 colours from the DMC 3-ply Persian wool (3 oranges and 2 greens), and I've done my two squares of brick stitch.  I followed the directions for the first block:

And then looked at Ms. Slater's various examples and did the second block in my own simple design:

I turned the canvas a quarter-turn to work the block as Ms. Slater advised rather than trying to work it vertically.

I'm finding it harder to work with 3-ply persian wool then it was to work with the Appleton tapestry wool I used on the Plums canvas.  Ms. Slater has the learner use 3 strands for all vertical/horizantal stitches so I have to keep the 3 strands as flat as possible for the stitch.  I guess I'll get better with time - practice, practice, practice.

Back in November 2006, I finally did something I've been wanting to do on and off for years - I took a class on Needlepoint.  The only class I could find was at Churchmouse Yarn & Teas on Bainbridge Island.  I missed the first of the 3 classes, but was able to meet with the teacher an hour before the 2nd class so she could show me what they had done.  With the teacher's help, I picked out a pillow kit for my first project.  I was unemployed in November so I had plenty of time to work on the canvas.  In 3 weeks, I completed this:

This kit is Cleopatra's Needle's Herb Pillow Tapestry Kit : Fruits of the Forest Collection - Damsons.  Dimensions: 10" x 10", Wool: Appleton Tapestry Wool

I started working the canvas and thought I would probably grow bored with the stitching.  Instead, I was fascinated by the way the wool brought the canvas to life.  I couldn't stop stitching. 

I'm now working on a couple of other projects.  I feel as if needlepoint is allowing me to open up creatively.  I have ideas for color combinations and stitches beyond the tent stitch.  See what I've got:

This is DMC 3-ply Persian Wool in 29 colors.  I'm going to have lots of fun.