In WAY Over My Head!

No pictures today. Just the rambling of a stitching addict. I can report that I finished stitching the panda for my cupcake and I'm almost done with page 13 of my sampler. Woo hoo!! This afternoon while Z was at gymnastics I started the new LHN piece that I had kitted up and put together. I tea dyed a piece of material and it came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

As I said in my last post I ordered the HAED panda design that I saw over the weekend. I have been anxiously tracking it ever since I got the e-mail that it was shipped. MJ called me from work this morning to let me know that it would most probably be delivered today. He was right.

OMG!!!! It's 69 pages!!!!! And the floss list is two and a half pages long!! And the instructions say to do it on 25 count fabric over 1. I've never done anything over 1 in my life! I took one look the chart and the first thing that came to my mind was, "I'm NEVER going to be able to do this." I'll be stitching this 'till I'm a little old lady

Anyone have any advice for a first time HAED stitcher? Do you really do it over one? And if you do, do you use one strand of floss or two? What happens if you have to frog and you're stitching over 1? Isn't it hard to pull out?? HELP!!!!

Comments

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri ~ Boog) said…
Hi Pam! I have no advice on HAED but please go check out Diane's blog - she's famous for doing them and I'd bet she can give you loads of good advice. Tell her I sent you!!!!

http://whysleepwhenucanstitch.blogspot.com/

I have stitched over one on 32 count so I don't think 25 would be too bad at all but you're right.... frogging over one isn't easy but it is doable. Not sure if you're supposed to use one thread or two but I'll be Diane can answer all your questions! Those designs are waaaaaay too much for me but I so admire anyone for doing them! Good luck!
June 11, 2009 at 2:45 PM
Gabi said…
Hi Pam,

I started not too long ago my first HAED. They do have a yuku board, which is a good place to go and see all sort of fabrics being stitched on - and there is a SAL group for HAED. Most stitch it over one on 25ct, but there are also people who stitch it on 18ct Aida, and some stitch even on 14ct or over 2 on 28ct.

Then there are people who do use tent stitches with 2 threads.
Personally I LOVE stitching over one which was quite a surprise for me. But then again, I wasn't a stranger to stitching over one.

If I was you, I would grab a small piece of Lugana and try to put some stitches in. But basically you can use whatever makes you happy.

Ohh...one last tip. Just concentrate on one page at the time. Finishing one page is a FINISH...lol. I don't think about how much more of these many many pages I'll have to do. That would make me only scream and run...lol
June 11, 2009 at 5:55 PM
Diane (di) said…
Hi Pam!! I'm the 'Diane' Terri told you about. :) (She's a sweetie!) Now trust me you can *definitely* stitch a HAED. I always stitch them on 25 count fabbie and I use one strand of floss. It works for me, but as Gabi said if you go to the Yuku board you will see where other stitchers have used different fabric counts... basically whatever they were comfortable with. BTW, don't let the 'over-one' thing scare you... it's just one strand of floss over one thread. Once you get going, I bet you'll love it, too. :)

My St Nick in his Study and A Peacock and Doves are HUGE and both have a bajillion pages, but here's the thing. It really is one stitch at a time. Someone posted on my blog that my HEAD is a labour of love and I couldn't agree more. These designs truly are a work of art. I can't wait to see your WIPs and if you want to contact me, I hope you will. My email addy is in my sidebar. You really can do this. Stitch happy! ((hugs)) di
June 12, 2009 at 3:25 AM
tkdquintmom said…
Hey Pam...guess what? YOU'RE NOT ALONE CUZ I'M IN THE SAME SHOES RIGHT NOW! lolol...I started mine! My Pirate is 70 something pages too! We can do this!!!! I started it and doing it over one isn't that bad really. Email me and we can talk....I haven't gotten far but I'm going to post some pictures at the end of the week.
June 12, 2009 at 3:05 PM
LoriRay said…
Holy smokes! I've never stitched a HAED and I don't even own one to try and scope things out. But I just know you can do this! Go for it...go put that first stitch in...you know you want to...
June 14, 2009 at 9:44 AM
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