The Crafty Writer

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Fairy Update

It’s taken just over a week but I managed to finish page 2 and stitch the small page 3 on Faces of Faery #70.  Once I had got her hair done it was time to move onto those lovely feathery wings.  I’m not sure that the photograph picks it up but the highlights in the wings are sparkly thread, I’m using the Rainbow Galleries Petite Treasure Braid and using some Thread Heaven on it to help it through the fabric.  The top row of my faery is now complete so there are only 3 smaller pages to go and as I can’t resist I’m already kitting up for my next project.  The plan now is to start another Heaven and Earth Designs chart Whispers by Nene Thomas.  It’s a huge project and I think it will take me about five years to complete, I should say longer than that as I know what I’m like for getting side tracked.  So far I have the fabric and I’ve ordered my threads, I’m getting them all together especially where multiple skeins are needed so that I don’t have any problems with dye lots.  In stitching I’ve found nothing more demoralising than a change in dye lots midway through a picture so I’m minimising the risk.  Faery Face will be finished before I start the new one (possibly), but I’ll try to remember to post pictures of how I prepare my fabric and gridding.

Next it’s time to move back to the Train of Dreams to stitch page 4, although it will be interrupted for the Sunny StoryKeep stitch along that I’m taking part in.

Too Hot…

I really don’t like the hot weather and it’s been hot and stuffy here for quite long enough, which although it’s only been a week or two is still long enough for me.  It’s so stuffy and it’s putting me off my sewing so last week I didn’t get much done on the train at all.  I can’t blame it all on the weather though, I’ve had a few columns now where there’s been a lot of colour changes.  Suddenly there’s a lot of detail in the books at the back, part of which is the steam which is just beginning to form into the head of a dragon but it might be the next column before you can really see it.  Then there’s the jewelled trinket box at the bottom and the fuel cart, lots of colour changes and lots of colour changes when my head is running on slow.

I’ve also tweaked the rotation (again) I had switched to a Saturday start day but I’ve switched to a Friday because of the storykeep stitch-a-long on the heaven and earth designs forum.  I’m stitching Sunny, appropriately enough for the weather, and I got started on Friday.  I was going to take a picture of prepared fabric, sorted threads and final picture but I forgot so here’s a picture of what I’ve done so far and some of the floss bags I’m using.  I started with the flower on her hat I thought I’d get the challenging part done first, not sure I’d do the same if I started again but it’s mostly done now and I’m onto the main part of her hat which will help to fill in some of the areas around the flower.  When I’m bored with blocks I’ll go back and fill in the centre of the flower.

Four pages complete

Yes I’m about 25% of the way through the Train of Dreams, this week was week 9 and I now have 4 pages complete so only 12 pages left.  If you say it quickly it doesn’t seem quite so much and I’m ignoring the tiny pages at the end which is probably just a columns worth of stitching so it’s about 14 pages really.  At last the dragon is making an appearance but you might need to squint to see him.  I think he looks excited riding on the train, I was excited to see his face emerge as I stitched.

I have lots of available stitching time at the weekend and next week and I’m going to spend most of it working on the train, it’ll be good to see more of the dragon appear.  Lots of confetti stitches dotted around I imagine because I’ll be stitching more of his nightcap.  I’ve tried to take some picture of the details in the sewing and I’ll post them up as soon as I have them sorted out and sized.

Sun Kissed Update

The main thing I notice when I switch back to the sunflowers is how big the stitches are.  This is done on regular 14 count aida and after the tiny stitches of 25 count these feel so big.  Most of the week was spent on finishing the leaf and getting a daisy and a big patch of the background filled in.  After all of those reds I was glad to get a few more daisies in over the weekend and begin work on some more background.  I think I’m nearly at the halfway point now but there’s lots of background to be done so I’m saving the remaining daisies and the sunflower at the top to break that up.

I’ve spent a lot of time stitching this weekend so I finished early this evening to give myself a break.  Tomorrow is back to Fairy Tales on the rotation.  I’m finding that the three week rotation feels a bit too long between projects so once I’ve finished Sun Kissed I’m planning not to start anything else until I’ve finished Fairy Tales.  I’m full of good intentions until I see something new I want to start.

Colds and stitches

I really don’t like having colds, they make you feel rotten and bunged up you can’t think straight and you’re constantly sniffing.  The common cold, the one thing that can bring stitching to a complete halt and that’s another reason to dislike them.  I like to think that I can stitch my way through a cold but invariably it results in a session of unpicking stitching after following the wrong symbol through a cold-fogged brain.  So I haven’t been able to spend much time on my stitching this past week, I’ve tried to make up for it a little today and I’ll try to get a picture done in the next dayor two; there really isn’t much left to do now, the end, well the backstitch, is in sight and I can get around to finishing the poor enchanter who has been languishing for far too long.

Getting Behind

A catchup with the picture, this is a few weeks ago and I have done some more since so I’ll do another picture soon.  After I rolled the picture on the frame the sewing kicked on a bit and I’ve now taken the right hand side up to the top of the picture.  You can now make out where the top of her body is going to fit in as well as the block of stitching that needs to be done, it makes me feel like I’m beginning to get to the end.  So now I’m beginning to think about what I want to do next which I always seem to do about the midway point; it doesn’t help that I had an e-mail with a new Mirabillia design on it, Shakespeare’s Fairies has now made it’s way firmly onto my ‘what I’d like for Christmas’ list.  You never know I might have finished this picture by then.  I’ll have some other pictures to show soon as well, my Michael Powell bookmark has reached the point of just needing the backstitch.

Ready to roll

A quick update for the end of August.  Progress with Woodland Enchantress continues this picture was taken just as I was ready to roll it up on the frame, the bottom is done so now it’s back to the top for the rest of the stitching. 

Now I’m halfway through it’s beginning to feel like there isn’t much left and it will be done soon, I always seem to hit this point but I know that in a week or two it will begin to feel that it’s taking forever so I have to keep reminding myself that there’s still a long way to go.  Must resist starting something else.

It’s about this time that the big manufacturers start to bring out their new catalogues this does not help me with my plan to resist starting something new especially when there’s lots of new kits and patterns on the market.  I can always add things to my christmas wish list though.

Writing is progressing slowly at the moment, distractions are distracting me, but I’m doing lots of background reading and I keep coming up with ideas and imaginings which as long as I write them down I can’t lose them.

New Pictures

Update with a couple of pictures tonight, first we have the completed TeamWork,part of the Cats Rule series by Peter Underhill.  I like this one because it has a black and white cat in it although he’s not as grumpy as the one in the middle, I would have completed this a while ago but it took a back seat while I completed the birth sampler and because I had made a counting mistake that I just could not find.  After putting it aside for a little while it was easier to find the mistake and fix it, so now it joins the ‘waiting to be framed’ pile.

And secondly a new updated picture of Woodland Enchantress now with most of her bottom half done, the next step is to do some of the background and roll the picture up again so I won’t see this bit for a while once I’ve done that.  This one really does seem to be coming on very quickly there’s a few colour changes and confetti areas in the background, they usually slow me down a bit.  The actual finishing of this one is the bit I am dreading the most it has lots of french knots to be put on which isn’t really my favourite stitch so I’ll have to do lots of practice with those.

Once I’ve done this?  I’m not halfway through (yet) and I’m thinking about the next project, which is mostly because I’m feeling very guilty about a UFO (Unfinished Object, for the non-stitchers reading this).  It’s The Enchanter by Teresa Wentzler and it’s ridiculous that this one has slipped onto the unfinished pile, I think it only happened because Iwas doing it just before I took a break from stitching.  I really only have the border to complete and I think I’ve done about half of that; the main picture is stitched, backstitched and complete but I’ve got about half of the outside frame to do, more backstitch and beads.  I really, really should get it finished.

Quick Update

It’s been a little while since my last update, and although I would like to say that I have been busy with stitching and writing I’m afraid that I haven’t.  And yet as I say that I think back and remember that I’ve finished a smaller sewing that was put to one side after a miscount I hadn’t been able to spot, yesterday I put the finishing touches onto the front of the dress of the Woodland Enchantress – I shall get pictures taken as soon as possible .  I also have a growing pile of notes and ideas for a story or two.  I do enjoy spending the whole evening just writing down stories as they come into my head the thing is that as soon as Grumpy Cat sees that I have a pen in my hand and a pad of paper on my knee (whenever I’m working on ideas I tend to not work at a desk) he thinks that he would like a cuddle and will sit on the pad of paper and demand fussing.  I could get so much more done but I couldn’t possibly force him off.

Back to the creativity though and I am already looking at a small project to start next I’ve got all of the threads together and I’m just about to measure out my fabric but I also treated myself to one of the Michael Powell Bookmark kits so I think I shall do that one first, it’s only little it shouldn’t take long.

And stitching on

Time for an update to the work in progress, thanks to some time off work and a couple of weekends I’ve managed to make a lot of progress on the woodland enchantress.  I think it’s about a quarter complete now and I’ve taken the bottom along to it’s full size.  It might just be me but I always seem to have a little panic that the fabric isn’t going to be big enough to get the whole picture in, but this one is fitting so far.

Most of the stitches I’m doing at the moment are half cross stitches so I’m quite looking forward to getting back to some full cross stitch done on the front part of her skirt.  If I did have to do this one again I would be tempted to wash the fabric first it seems to be rather startchy and because of the number of strands being used in places I think it would have been better to have the fabric a little softer.

I have also been spending the odd moments on the smaller picture I have on the go, since I got the miscount sorted out it’s had a bit of a second wind and most of the stitching is almost done.  The only trouble with that is I keep find my mind drifting to what to stitch next.  Must resist, must get this one done first.