February 8th, 2010
Sun Kissed 7th Feb
After two weeks of feeling that I’ve been making quick progress on my sewings it all seems to have slowed down this week. But I’ve finished the main sunflower and stitched most of one of the leaves a nice colour change to greens from all those reds and oranges. I have a feeling that it’s because I haven’t put in all of the background red yet and so it looks like there are lots of big gaps. There is another daisy to go into the bottom left corner of the picture so I’m getting to the point where I can easily count my way over to it and get the daisy stitched before filling in the background. If I can get all of the little splashes of colour in then I can just go through and fill in the background and not have to refer to the pattern. Not having to keep counting and checking the pattern really speeds up stitching. You can’t see the other daisies at the moment as I’ve scrolled the fabric on the frame to work on the bottom of the picture.
Sunkissed now gets put away for a week so I can carry on with Fairy Tales. I start on page four of the pattern tonight and this time I have more gridding lines to help with counting and finding my place so I’m looking forward to seeing how much that helps. I’ve also ordered the fabric for Train of Dreams, someone suggested stitching these large Heaven and Earth Design projects on a cream or ivory fabric as any little spots of background colour do not show through so much so I’m giving ivory a try. At the same time I ordered the fabric for a couple of other projects so my next task is going to be sorting out storage and labelling my fabric so I know what picture I’ve bought it for.
January 31st, 2010
It’s been a tough week this week not only laid low by a cold but also very impatient to get started on Train of Dreams. But I will not give in I must finish one of the current sewings before starting a new one. That doesn’t mean that I can’t get everything together though and so I’ve made a list of fabric and extra threads that I need so that when I do finish one I’m ready to go on the next.
Fairy Tales 31st Jan
This week it was the turn of Fairy Tales on the rotation and I am now a quarter of the way through having completed page 3 of 12. Page 3 was a small page and quicker to get done but this was mostly background and there’s only so many rows of the same colour I can do before getting bored. So I broke it up with browsing on the internet, doing some writing and looking forward to next week when I pick up Sun Kissed again. I have been thinking about adding some more gridding lines to this one to make it easier to count across to all the little individual stitches that are dotted about. I think there should be time to get some in before the end of the evening.
January 24th, 2010
Very often with sewing I have found that it’s difficult to tell how fast a picture is progressing. Sometimes I can spend most of the day working on something and feel like I haven’t made any progress at all. Other times I feel like I only have a moment here and there and as if by magic a large chunk of the picture appears under my fingers.
Sun Kissed 24th Jan
The last time I worked on the sunflowers picture, which I have checked and it’s called Sun Kissed, I had managed to complete the centre of the sunflower. I picked it up again on Monday as part of the rotation and in the week I’ve managed to get lots done and that’s with time taken in the week to get some writing organised.
I really love the daisies in this picture, they really stand out against the dark background. Sometimes when stitching light colours in bright areas the thread picks up fibres from the darker colours so I had to plan ahead and get the daisies stitched first before putting the reds, browns and oranges in around them. There are more groups of daisies in the bottom portion of the picture so I’ll be doing the same then, I have to check my counting carefully but I’d like to keep the white and creams as fibre free as possible.
Back to Fairy Tales next week and I’m looking forward to getting back to it.
January 17th, 2010
The trouble with plans is that they can be difficult to stick to. This week’s rotation was Fairy Tales and I’ve completed page one and I’m about halfway through page two.
Fairy Tales 17th Jan
The trouble is that it’s now the end of the week and tomorrow it’s time to go back to the sunflowers but I really want to carry on with Fairy Tales. But I’m going to swap, I want to do the sunflowers just as much and it will be good to get back to larger stitches.
I tried to park the threads, that is to leave the thread where it will next be used but I got a bit confused with the similar colours and it didn’t really work for me. Instead I worked on doing the confetti stitches first and not worrying about trailing the thread along the back, when I went back and stitched the main colours all the trailing threads were secured safely and I didn’t have such a messy back where I had been fastening on and off the confetti stitches.
January 10th, 2010
Since starting on the detailed and time consuming Heaven and Earth Design picture I decided that I would allow myself to have two sewings in progress at a time to keep the enthusiasm going. I got off to such a good start with Fairy Tales that I found I was spending most of my time on it, that isn’t a bad thing but I was worried that I would get fed up with it so I decided that I would try to work in rotations. This is my first attempt at it really, I used to only have one picture on the go at a time and then it got to one large picture with a small one on standby for when I didn’t have a lot of time to settle down and stitch; now I have stepped it up to two large projects.
Sunflowers on 10 Jan
Each Monday I change what project I’m working on, this week has been spent on a sunflower design by Nel Whatmore which was printed in Cross Stitch Crazy magazine. As soon as I saw this design I knew that I would have to stitch it, I really love the colours and the way it looks painted. So far I’ve done a few petals of the sunflower and yesterday completed the centre of it, I can spend a little more time on it today and then tomorrow I’m back with Fairy Tales.
It feels a bit strange at first to swap between the projects week on week, what I’m hoping will happen is that as I near the end of each week I’ll be looking forward to working with different colours and different size stitches the following week. Sunflowers is being stitched on 14 count aida whilst Fairy Tales is being done on 25 count evenweave, I think it’s been a little while since I’ve done any stitching on anything larger that 16 count so the stitches feel huge. Once I’ve done a couple of months with this rotation I’ll think about how it’s getting on; if it’s working well I’ll leave it as is but if a week doesn’t feel long enough I’ll consider doing a two week rotation.
January 3rd, 2010
It isn’t often that I start the new year by finishing a cross stitch but I managed it this year. I have finally finished The Enchanter by Teresa Wentzler.
Enchanter Finished 1st Jan 2010
I say finally because I started it roughly 10 years ago, so long that I can’t remember when but I’m pretty sure I started it not long after it was released. At first I think I set it aside for some reason or other and then mislaid the chart and the threads, once I had found them again I had gained grumpy cat and didn’t think that stitching was a good hobby to have with a cat. Since then I’ve found out that the two can get along very well indeed – although grumpy cat gets grumpier when stitching is being done and he wants fussing – and I’ve been making up for lost time by doing lots of other kits and charts. But all this time Enchanter has been there making me feel guilty for leaving him unfinished especially when there was only really the border to do. So in November I got started again and finished the stitching just before christmas. Then for Christmas I got a freedom frame and an aristo lapstand so in the days leading up to new year I was frantically backstitching and finally I attached the beads on New Years Day. Next job it to take him to be framed, I think after all this time he doesn’t really deserve to languish on the waiting to be framed pile.
December 27th, 2009
Fairy Tales QS 25 Dec 2009
I started this one back in early December after my last finish. The design is called Fairy Tales and is a freebie from Heaven and Earth Designs, just a pdf download from their website
I have attempted one in the past but I chose to stitch with one strand over one on 25ct linen fabric and it really wasn’t working; but I’m always looking at the website and getting tempted to try again so I thought I would do this quick stitch design. This time I decided to go with evenweave and two strands of thread, after a little while I was struggling to get the needle through so I decided to change to tent stitch (half cross). There was no way I was going to unpick the full stitches that I had already done; they’re only in the corner so it doesn’t notice too much. I’ve also done some token gridding on this piece, it isn’t something I usually do, I’ve marked out the outline of the pages of the pattern using some nylon thread which can be pulled out easily once the stitching is done. It’s a useful way of knowing where you are and allows you to start anywhere you want my first page is the top left corner. I’m really enjoying this at the moment so The Enchanter has once again taken a back seat all the stitching is done on that one so I just have to do the backstitch and the beading I think I shall see if I can get it done before new year.
November 25th, 2009
It has been a little while since I finished the main stitching of Woodland Enchantress, I needed a bit of a break from her before I got to work on the actual finishing. It’s funny how I can happily spend weeks and months working on a cross stitch but as soon as I get to the backstitch all the patience I have goes out of the window and there is nothing left but the urge for it to be finished … NOW.
Completed Woodland Enchantress 26/11/2009
In my head I knew that this one was not going to be quick to finish so I deliberately left it until I had a bit of time off work so I could settle down and get it done with little in the way on interruptions. Four days it’s taken but finally I am there, tonight Woodland Enchantress joins the waiting to be framed pile. The backstitch wasn’t too bad, a little difficult to see in places which mostly made it annoying. Couching was something new for me and not difficult although I did adapt the pattern slightly leaving some bits out as they seemed too squashed in. Lots of french knots on the head-dress part – I don’t like french knots and there’s a couple of dodgy looking ones in there. There’s also some beads but I’ve done lots of beadwork before so I can get that done pretty quickly. I left out the french knots which are meant to be falling snow part of it may have been my dislike of french knots, or it may have been that I wanted to get it finished but the reason I’m sticking with is that I just didn’t like what they did to the picture; personally I think it looks better without them and it’s my wall the picture is going on – when I get it framed that is.
My next project is to finished the Enchanter, not much to go on him now I’m on the bottom part of the frame so when that’s done it’s a quick wash and then more backstitch and beads. I’m also getting everything prepared to start on a Heaven and Earth Designs quickstitch, that one is going to take some time to do but at least it doesn’t have any backstitch.
November 1st, 2009
Just the backstitch to go
Finally a picture of Woodland enchantress mostly done; just the finishing bits to do now, backstitch, beading, french knots and couching. I did give it a bit of a gentle wash which brought the stitches back to plumpness after being squashed on the frame for a while but it’s all dry now and waiting for me to have a bit of time that I can sit down and do as much of the finishing as possible on the one day. Got some time off work soon so I’ll save it for then.
Now though I’ve gone onto The Enchanter, well I should say gone back to, I don’t have too much to do on this one to get it finished as I’m about halfway through the border and I’ve already stitched and backstitched the main picture.
The Enchanter 1st Nov
The stitching itself got a bit dusty while it wasn’t being done but I’ve got my fingers crossed that a good soak once it’s finished will get it looking as good as new. This one has a lot of fractional stitches which I don’t mind when I’m working on evenweave, my only problem is not seeing them on the pattern properly and forgetting to put them in. I wonder if I’ll be able to get it finished by the end of the year?
October 26th, 2009
After a break from stitching to recover from my cold here’s a picture of it mostly done which is now out of date.
Woodland Enchantress 18th Oct 2009
Yes I have finally finished the main stitching for Woodland Enchantress, as you can see from the picture I was pretty close to getting the last few stitches in anyway. But it isn’t fully completed yet, just backstitch, couching (never done before), beading and the dreaded french knots to do; first though I’m going to take a break. A lot of the couching is done with metallic threads and I don’t like to wash my work once metallics have been put on, I’ve also got some time off work coming up so I’m planning to use a whole day of that to get the finishing touches done.
In the meantime I’ve gone back to my UFO (UnFinished Object) The Enchanter – bit of a magic theme going on here – he’s be sitting unfinished for a while and I’ve only got the border to do, well I’ve only got half the border to do. Lesson learnt over the weekend, make sure everything is put away, my poor enchanter has quite literally been gathering dust and either I used the wrong colours completely or the white and light grey have both morphed into a sort of peach colour. When I got back into stiching again I made myself some bags to put my sewing frames in – nothing spectacular just some curtain lining (very) roughly machine stitched along two sides and with some corded rope put in at the top so I can pull it closed. The lining is coated with something on one side, I think to keep the light out, because it isn’t regular fabric it’s very good at not attracting dust and cat hair so it makes a very good inside for the bag. I had an idea of decorating it with small pictures that you get on magazines but I’ve been spending most of my time on big pictures since then.
