DoLolly

Someone asked the question on one of my stitching groups, "Can anyone tell me how to fasten off neatly when you are stitching over-one on higher-count fabrics? I'm working on some 36 count linen with a single ply of silk floss, and my needle (a size 28) simply will not go through the back of the stitches to fasten off - at least not without distorting the stitches quite badly!" My reply straightway was, The Dololly.

What is a Dololly, you ask? In the South, 'Dololly' is slang for a thing you can't really describe by known terms, the same as 'thingamajig,' 'doohickey,' the really descriptive 'whachamacallit,' or the ever popular, 'You know...'.

But in stitchers' terms, it is a wonderful little two-piece tool to help hide away the ends of threads. On the back side of your work, slide the threader-type piece (bottom of three)through the stitches, take the hook piece to grab the 'tail' of thread through the threader, then pull the threader out of the stitches; Voila!

The actual needle threader that came with my set is pictured in the center above. For those really small stitches - like the ones asked about - you could use the threader since it is tiny.

I hadn't thought of it in a long time, but at Camp Stitchaway I made a mistake while learning hardanger stitches and was trying to fix it. Angel came to my rescue with her Dololly and fixed my mistake. As soon as I got home I went in search of mine, and now it is in my stitching toolkit, again!! While trying to find some evidence of the Dololly's existence, I found that someone else had this dilemma here.

Below is the set I got about five years ago. At the time I wasn't really doing much cross stitch, but a lot of embroidery on Crazy Quilts. Always being a fiber miser, this was just the ticket. It was an eBay item, and I even asked the seller if she sold the pieces separately, but she didn't. Am I ever glad now!! It came with the Dololly, a needle threader, the stitch pins, and the fob that I use for scissors. What a bargain! Someone just told me the last Dololly they saw on the rack in a LNS was $32.

I checked with my LNS yesterday, and she reiterated what's mentioned here. They are no longer in production. She did tell me that she has ordered a similar product to see if it is up to par, but had not received it yet. I think she called it a 'tail tucker' or something similar, but I can't find it.

ASAW Grid Done

I finished the grid that will contain each of the ASAW charts offered by Friendly Stitchers group. I can hardly believe it took a week to do it... but it did! Used Carolina Linen, 28 count evenweave in Sand with DMC 4050 Variations. I'm ready to do the center piece, then I'll press... not that it needs it!!

First Biscornu

I'm a member of the Friendly Stitchers yahoo group, and Abi gave us a friendly competition of the Serenity chart to "finish the chart 'your way'." I decided to make my first biscornu, and thus ... front



... and back


It is stitched on a leftover piece of nice soft, ivory using DMC 4200 Variations. As you can tell, it is far from perfect, but do like the way it turned out and plan to do it again - practice makes better next time.

From Friendly Stitchers there is also ASAW Stitch Along going on. It started before I joined, but I'm planning to catch up. It is an English Garden with a small motif for each week - you can see a sample here. I'm using Carolina Linen, 28 count evenweave in Sand. The outside grid will be DMC 4050 Variations. Maybe I'll get that started this weekend!

I'm still working on the Crazy Quilt piece, and it's so much fun!




And speaking of fun - do you ever start a piece that you loved, then decide it's not as much fun to stitch as you thought it would be? That's how I'm feeling with Quaker Blues. I've got a good bit done, but there is SO much more to do, and I'm simply not enjoying stitching it. My first thought was to just scrap it, but when I took this photo and remembered how much IS already done, I may finish and 'save' that part and scrap the rest... How do you cope with this situation? Would you ever stop something you've started, or do you just stitch on?

Thanks for dropping by today, and wishing for you a lovely and joy-filled weekend!

PS:
I finished reading Mariah Stewart's Dead Even. For me it was a little slow starting, but it went along better. I will try another to see if that's just this one, or her general style.