More on the Celtic Hearts Blanket

I've been furiously stitching away on the Celtic Hearts Blanket and have reached a few major milestones. In this photo I've finished the tassels. These are worked in Colour Streams Ophir, Antique Ivory and it is a truly lovely thread. The bottom of the tassel is worked in stem stitch, with satin stitch for the band below the ball of the tassel.

The inside of the chain stitches is Double Pekinese Stitch, which is a figure eight stitch worked entirely on the surface of the blanket. Then the chain stitches are whipped. This is all worked in Colour Streams Exotic Lights, also Antique Ivory, and a fussier thread never existed! I have to keep the lengths short as it frays very easily, being a fairly loose silk thread, but look at the sheen, it's worth all the fussiness!

Here is the progress so far. I've finished the tassels, all of the outlined hearts, and filled in with the Double Pekinese and Whipped Chain stitch on the wool chains. Next up are the vines with leaves and buds.

What is really griping me about this project is that I just didn't have enough threads. I had to hunt down the DMC wool, luckily I found it only about 25 miles away from my house. Back in 2009 when I returned from Beating Around the Bush, I managed to find a supplier for the Colour Streams threads. I bought what I hoped would be enough to make four hearts in the corners of the blanket, but no such luck. I have less than one skein left of the Exotic Lights, which is used for the Double Pekinese and Whipped Chain Stitch. It takes just under one skein for each heart. The one and only supplier here in the US doesn't have Antique Ivory in stock, so that means ordering from Australia with huge shipping costs. So I have some decisions to make on the corners of the blanket. I do have two skeins of the Ophir left, but I don't need much of it. I'll have to think on this one quite a bit.

But not for a little while. Tomorrow is oral surgery day, ugh! I'll be completely out of commission for at least two days, then we'll see. My son will shop for some nice sharp Cheddar to make mac and cheese. At least that will be a comfort.