Hi everyone,

Yippee, it’s finally off the frame! This is the largest, most complex, and by far the most fun piece of blackwork I have stitched to date (my sixth). Full credit goes to Liadain at Practical Blackwork for charting the design named Pentecost 2. Clicking the link will take you to Liadain’s blog where she explains the inspiration behind the design. It is so generous of her to share the chart with us. Thank you Liadain!

I stitched with one strand of Anchor shade 1029 on 16 count aida. The finished piece is 18.25 inches square and it is actually perfectly square. The camera lens has slightly distorted the shape.

I stitched along with Claire and you can see her version on her blog by clicking here. Claire created interest by introducing a second colour and the more I look at it, the more I keep finding secondary patterns. Hop over and see for yourself

It was good to have a stitching partner in crime. Claire certainly kept me ticking along at a reasonable pace. You may remember that we both tackled the penultimate border (working from the centre outwards) in a slightly different way as we decided to change the chart in a few places. One advantage in doing so is that we each have a unique version. As far as we know, even Liadain hasn’t stitched this chart yet. So there may only be two versions of Pentecost 2 in the entire universe, unless you know otherwise If you have stitched this design yourself, I would love to put a photo up here. Just email it to the address at the right of the page.

The next photos show the intricate details.

What next? Well, Claire and I have been swapping ideas about the kind of things we like to stitch since well before we started Pentecost 2. She mentioned the Ink Circles designs and I showed them to my other half. He logged the name of the company in the “Prezzie Ideas” section of his brain. He’s very good at that! Guess what Santa brought me….

Correct! I now have the Cirque des Cercles chart which Claire has had in her rainy day stash for ages. Isn’t it wonderful when someone remembers what you’d wished for months ago…..he knows how to keep me occupied

So our next project will be Cirque des Cercles which can be purchased via the Ink Circles web site. You are very welcome to stitch along with us if you wish. We are currently in the process of choosing fabrics and threads. I wonder whether I can be tempted away from my beloved purple this time…. Will I be stitching on black or white 16 count aida? I’d love to stitch on black and I’m going to try to sort out some lighting with a practice piece on royal blue aida this morning. If that works out well, I’m going to go for the black. Wish me luck!

There is a gallery of previously completed Cirque des Cercles here if you’d like to take a look. Any suggestions as to what thread I should choose would be gratefully received. Also, if you’ve already stitched this design, I’d love to hear from you.

That’s it for now,

Avis x