The Crafty Writer

Archive for July, 2009

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.

The ‘Other’ Stash

I think it’s perfectly normal for stitchers to have a large pile of kits and patterns that ‘they’ll get around to doing soon’ otherwise it wouldn’t have been given the name of ‘stash’.  But this weekend I was thinking about the few pieces that I need to get framed and all the while I was remembering other completed pieces that were also ‘put away carefully’ waiting to be framed.  It was then that I realised that I have a different stash pile, pictures that are sitting there waiting to be framed and hung on the wall.  For now I’ve created gallery page 3 and put them all on there so they’re no longer out of sight but I have to admit I’ve just thought of a couple more that are also just sitting there waiting.  The plan now is to get one or two of them framed each month, apart from those that are waiting me to complete the set before I get them framed.

Work in progress update

Weather has been too hot recently for spending any significant time in front of the computer, so I’ve been making the most of it and getting some stitching done instead.  Time for a latest picture of Woodland Enchantress.  

I’ve been having a few problems with it, mostly on the background where it’s half-cross stitch with 4 strands of thread; one of the shades does not handle it very well at all and has been fraying and snapping it’s always just one strand of the four.  I’ve gotten around it so far by using only half a length of the thread – I usually like to use long lengths of thread so I don’t usually half them anyway – but instead of cutting them in half I’ve been taking two strands off and then threading both ends through the needle.  The bonus with doing this is that it makes a nice handy loop so you don’t have to catch the end under on the back.  I also went back to a smaller piece that I started before the sampler, I had been having problems with counting the stitches and getting two areas to link together.  The good news is that the break from it seems to have made it all suddenly clearer and I’ve got it all sorted out now.

Had a trip out on Tuesday, holiday from work this week, and spent a good afternoon getting some writing done in an air-conditioned hotel bar before going to see Spinal Tap.  Otherwise the writing has not been going too well because most of the house is too hot and stuffy and outside is worse - I’m not one for hot weather, I like sunny weather I just prefer it to be sunny cool weather than lethargy inducing heat.