First cross stitch finishes of 2011

I have my first two finishes of 2011. The first one is a long time coming, I’ve spent almost exactly one year on it.

It is of course the Emily Peacock ‘HUG’ cushion.

It still needs to be made up into a cushion, but I’m leaving it until the hot water bottle cover and wall hanging is stitched so I can have a finishing day with Paul’s nan and get them all done. I haven’t actually bought fabric for it yet, in the instructions they use pale pink cotton, but I was thinking maybe a fuchsia silk fabric (I was eying some up at Abakhan the other day). I’m so relieved it’s done, it’s been hard going from start to finish really, the big stitches and the block colors really drove me crazy, it made it so boring to stitch. It looks great finished though, and once it’s a cushion it’ll look even better. Now I just need to finish ‘KISS’ so I have a match set, that thought is the only thing which will make me finish it. As mentioned before, this was stitched on 11-count aida using the charted DMC floss.

My second finish was far more fun, and quick. I started it as part of the Crazy January Challenge, it was my day 6 project I believe.
It’s a Lizzie*Kate design called Time for God, which I stitched over one on 32-count linen so it would be the perfect size for a bookmark. I had seen a fellow Crossstitchforum member do it, and was immediately inspired. It will be a gift for my SIL’s mum, who will be 60 in the next few weeks. She is the only person I know who is christian (not just Christmas and Easter), so I just knew I had to stitch this for her. I used the charted Weeks Dye Works with this design, and the fabric was DMC 32-count Raw Linen.

I have a couple of other finishes too, but the pictures for those will have to wait until they arrive at their new homes.

I’m off to do my Happy Dances

2011 WiP List

I thought it might be a good idea to list my current WiPs now that my 15 projects from the ‘Crazy January challenge have been started.

I’m listing my quick finishes first, once they are out of the way (most of them only need a day or two really)

1.Lizzie*Kate ‘Time for God’

2. Valentine’s Biscornu

3. Snowflake Biscornu

4. Christmas Ornament (Sampler Girl freebie)

5. Emily Peacock ‘HUG’ cushion

6. Wall hanging mail organizer

7. Lizzie*Kate ‘All You Need Is Love’

8. Blackwork Lady

9. Solo Brode SAL ‘En attendant l’été’

10. Hot Water Bottle Cover

11. Wedding Sampler

And here are the bigger projects:

12. Jungle Scamp

13. Sleepy Hollow Sampler

14. Emily Peacock ‘KISS cushion’

15. PINN Stitch ‘Tranquille Valley’

16. Panda Baby

17. HAED ‘QS Rose Dreaming’

18. Stitcher’s Sampler

I’m thinking week long rotations once I’ve finished the deadline ones, one of the big project a week plus one small one for distraction. Of course the Christmas Ornament and Snowflake biscornu will be replace with by a new biscornu for February and a new ornament as well.

For now I’m focusing on finishing the Time for God bookmark and biscornus.

What’s Your Goal?

You might have noticed I didn’t bother with New Years Resolutions this year. Last year’s were ok, I kept to most of them, but didn’t want to do it like that again this year. For 2011 I’ve decided I want to go with monthly goals. On the 1st of each month I’ll post my goals, some will be the same month after month, others will be month specific. On the 1st I’ll also post a summery of how I’ve done on the month just gone, just to keep score.

I realize we’re almost at the end of January, but I really think I should post the goal for this month, after all one should start as one means to go on.

Every Month:

1. Post on my blog at least once a week
2. Post picture of my TUSAL jar on each new moon
3. Stitch a biscornu for my Basket of Biscornus (I haven’t bothered joining the official blog, I’m just gonna do it on my lonesome)
4. Stitch a Christmas ornament
5. Plot 3 new stories/plotlines
6. Write 10,000 new words (either on existing novels or new stories)
7. Read 4 books a month, and write reviews for them

January Only:

1. Start and complete the first 15 days of the Crazy January Challenge 2011
2. Finish Emily Peacock ‘HUG’ cushion
3. Start and finish Lizzie*Kate ‘Time for God’ design as a bookmark
4. Start c25k (Couch 2 5k) training plan

I’m sure I had a few more, but those are the ones which came to mind. Please come back on the 1st to see February’s goals and so how I got on with this month’s list.

Do you have any goals for this month, or this year?
Tell us about them!

Crazy January Challenge – DAY 14 and 15

A bit late but here are my last two WiPs. On the 14th I started a freebie from Les tites’croix de Ludivine (if you scroll down it’s the one called Coeur), it’s being stitched on 32 count linen, one over one, using DMC 815 (or 816, can’t remember).
Didn’t get a lot done, and luckily I don’t have a deadline as the recipients don’t know they are getting it.

For Day 15 I finally got my water bottle started, although I wish I’d never started now. I went to buy fleece first of all, but fell for some lovely short haired fake fur fabric instead, it feels lovely and soft.
I tacked the waste canvas on and started stitching, got really into it as well and then put it down. When I picked it up again I realized it was all at a weird angle, so i had to rip it all out. Now the only thing on it is newly tacked waste canvas, waiting for me to start stitching again, but I’ve gone off it now.

Crazy January Challenge 2011 – Day 12 and 13

A little bit late in posting this, hubby has been hogging the mac lately (too be fair, it is his work computer). For day 12 I decided to start another Lizzie*Kate design, ‘All You Need Is Love’, I was somewhat spurred on by the arrival of my lovely new stash, and as I didn’t have the specialist threads needed i decided to pick ones from my stash. Mostly I’ve gone with Dragonfloss, although I’ve used some of my Madeira as well. For anyone interested, here is the floss I used.
Brown – Madeira Silk 2008, Cream on cupcake – Madeira Decora 1523, Flowers – Dragonfloss 201 Sweetheart, Leaves – Dragonfloss 2-6 Wood Elf, Variegated writing – Dragonfloss 115 Hugs with Stitches, Around the A – Dragonfloss 113 Greetings.
I stitched it on 25-count Fuchsia Lugana, 2 over 2. I think the Zweigart evenweaves must be my favorites to stitch on. I stitched most of this on the 12th, but picked it up again today to do some more. It’s just so much fun.

For my 13th project I made a change to my list. I had originally planned on stitching hubby a card, however I found a perfect one in the shop so didn’t need it. Instead I’ve decided to add another biscornu, I’ve signed up for an exchange so need to stitch it asap. It’s Valentine’s Day themed so I’ve gone really pink with this one. I’m stitching it on Polstitches Love and Kisses (I think) aida, and have so far used Pomme de Pin Pimprenelle and Pomme de Pin Evanescence. Didn’t get a lot of stitching done, just the middle part.

Crazy January Challenge 2011 – DAY 11

For day 11 I started my baby panda chart which was in Cross Stitch Collection(CSC), its by Pollyanna Pickering. I don’t have all the floss for this one yet so just had to start with a colour I had. Unfortunately this was quite close to the fabric colour, so you can’t really see it on the picture, not too bad in RL though to be honest.
I’m stitching this on pale green 25-count linen, with two threads over two, so this version will be slightly bigger than the CSC one as that was stitched on 14 count aida. The fabric is a bit weird, I bought it in Abu Dhabi and it was sold to me as evenweave. However, it quickly become apparent that this was linen, extremely uneven linen. I don’t mind too much though, as long as i keep it in a hoop the stitching will be even. No wonder it was so cheap, and I bought it in 4 colours (all the cuts 70 x 140 cm).

Here is the best picture I could manage

The Wedding by Lavender and Lace – Completed and Framed

While browsing another blog I can upon another finish of this and realised I’d forgotten to post the framed picture. So sorry, but I promise you will not have to wait any longer

The full view, have to say taking pictures without getting a reflection in the glass was hard

And a bit of a closer look at the frame, just love this

Stash, Glorious Stash

Polstitches had an ‘End of Year’ sale and I just had to buy something, after all my daddy had given me some money for Christmas and even after my SewandSo spree I had some left. I only got a Dragonfloss Grab bag and a fabric grab bag, large cuts. The package arrived at MILs last week, but I just haven’t had time to pick it up until today

Here is a good pic of it all together

I love Polstitches Dragonfloss and was not disappointed with my grab bag, 9 lovely skeins of colours I don’t already have.
A closer look at my glorious floss

The fabric of course is amazing too, got 4 big pieces of evenweave and 1 piece of aida, off to the Polstitches site now to try and identify them.
And the luscious fabrics

Stitching and Knitting Giveaway

Carol of ‘Carol’s Stitching and Stuff’ is having a very generous giveaway over on her blog, for both crossstitchers and knitters. Head on over there and join the fun, and while you are there take a look at her projects, there are some lovely finishes there.

Crazy Crossstitching Challenge 2011 – DAY 10

Today I decided to start En attendant l’été which was a SAL with Solo Brode in 2010, I never managed to start it then, but now I decided the time had come.
It’s summery so I picked some Lime green 25-count Lugana to stitch it on, using Lilac Madeira Silk for the solid colour and Dragonfloss Apples and Pears for the variegated. Unfortunately the picture doesn’t show the colours very well, will try and take a better one in daylight.