Jasper completed on Christmas Eve!

Jasper, a Toni Gerdes piece, was my last class at the seminar in Phoenix but the first one completed. I enjoyed stitching it and found that I learned quite a bit about compensating, especially in the sections with the diagonal lines. I did change both the stitches and threads for two blocks. One had a stitch and thread repeated and neither the stitch or the thread was a favorite of mine. It is the first block in the second row across. I found the bound cross stitch in the map of the U.S. directions for Minnesota. It was about the third try before I hit on one that worked.

The large block below that used the bouclê thread couched on the diagonal. I could NOT find the right hole for the couching and could not even count the laid threads accurately. My first try at altering the design was to change the thread to the Vineyard silk two strands, same troubles, but one strand was too thin. So on to a new diagonal stitch from the map of the states. This time I went with the soufflé variation, the stitch for Missouri, again after a number of test runs. (The state map is on congress cloth v.s. the 18 count here which had an impact.). Next step is adding the jasper beads–tiny polished stones.