Tips from Rhapsody Stitchers
f you are planning to stitch either Rhapsody or Romance, you should join Rhapsody Stitchers on Yahoo!Groups. This group was formed earlier this year when many stitchers were working on these pieces. While there aren’t many emails from the group, the archives are chock full of tips and ideas on stitching these pieces.
Here are some additional tips:Ruth Sherman wrote that “I put my initials and year in the lower right hand side boxes. I also put a border around the pieces because I felt a quilt always has a border of some kind. I did the border in two colors taken from the ‘quilt’ in a Satin Stitch to finish it off and I think it looks great.”
JoyceAnne Stevens has this advice: “The strongest recommendation that I would make is that anyone wishing to work either of the pieces, join this group and go back and read all of the letters from the beginning. Yes, I know that is a lot of letters and a lot of reading but there was a tremendous amount of information during the first 6 weeks that the group was together. I joined between Christmas and New Years and ordered Rhapsody at the same time. While waiting, I read and picked up many ideas that helped me select the colors, thread, etc. I also learned when Romance became available and ordered that. I am finished with both pieces except for the borders. The borders were something else I learned from the group-something I would never have thought of but when it was brought up it was like a light bulb going on. Also, consult the photo section. That was how I decided on the colors I wanted to use for Rhapsody. For Romance I decided to pick my own but I used one of the photos that had been posted for a starting point. While trying out the colors for Romance I used another idea from the group which was to stitch a small sample area to see how the colors worked together and ended up changing 2 or 3 colors.
A couple of other suggestions. It is very hard not to jump in and start doing the decorative stitches but I stuck it out and on both pieces worked all of the plain stitches first. Being a person who cannot walk and chew gum at the same time, I found it very easy to set up the initial pattern per the instructions, and then continue working plain stitches. The work went very fast because I was doing the same basic stitch over and over and I had no problem keeping my place because working the plain stitches took very little concentration. Once they were totally filled in, I went back and started filling in the decorative stitches and had no problem with their placement because the plain stitches cleared showed the trail I needed to follow.
I found the alternating of the stitch direction of the plain stitches in Rhapsody confusing but I followed the instructions and alternated the direction. When I started Romance I found that the instructions had the stitch direction the same. Later, someone commented in the group that they had kept the same stitch direction on all of the plain stitches for Rhapsody.
Both designs worked very quickly and I really enjoyed worked them and of all the pieces I have ever done, these are among the very few that I would like to work again and maybe even again, each time with different colors.”
Carla Hamilton adds this “One of the main tips I would suggest it that the size of the canvas be 18 X 13 instead of the smaller 16 X 10…too small to work on, and if you want to add a border, hardly any room left.
I truly enjoyed stitching this piece and found it to be very addictive and wanting to stitch on it any spare time I had…..
I also measured down like the directions suggested, found the center of the canvas, went over 60 threads to the right, and 60 threads from the center to the left, counting them in groups of 6, pencil marking that, and started with I believe it was the I thread.
Also strip the watercolors and roll into 3 balls before stitching. If using silks, it doesn’t apply.”
Thanks to everyone who wrote with advice and ideas!
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