CJC – 7th finish of the challenge, a Christmas ornie and some WIP updates

Let’s start with the finish, really should have posted this last week, but just didn’t have the time. The Crazy January Challenge (CJC) finish is the cross stitched part of the wall hanging mail organizer I’m making for my mum. Now I just have to sew on to some fabric and make it into a wall hanging. Should have it in the mail for my mum next week (fingers crossed)

I also finished my Christmas ornament for March last week, it’s a Liz Almond design which was in the free Christmas design booklet which came with The World of Cross Stitch issue 170. I used Madeira Decora and Silk floss in green, red and gold, and some red Gütermann beads, and stitched it on plain old 16-count white aida. The pics aren’t great for this one, so I put in two (excellent logic, no?).

I’ve also been working on two WIPs.

Mostly it’s been my Sleepy Hollow Sampler by Raise the Roof. I really do love this one and can’t wait to finish it and frame it. There is still quite a bit to do, the story excerpt at the bottom and of course the border, but every single stitch is a joy!

This last one it’s been a while since I worked on, it’s the Stitcher’s Sampler. It’s a little slow going as I’m having trouble making the changes I want to it, but I’ll get there eventually. At least all the borders are done now.

CJC – Blackwork Lady Finished

First a warning, this will be picture heavy.

This weekend I finished another of my Crazy January Challenge(CJC) pieces, Lesley Teare’s Blackwork Lady which was in WOXS last year. I used a piece of hand dyed 28-count evenweave for her, which I had received in a grab bag from Polstitches. The fabric is beautiful, I think it might be Rustic Rhubarb, it seems to be the closes match. She is of course stitched entirely in black using DMC 310, and instead of french knots I used beads, as my French knots are really sub-standard and on a piece like this they would stick out. Over-all she was a lovely stitch, but I think my habit of sitting in dark rooms stitching made it harder for me to get her done. At least she is here not and just needs a frame before she can go up on the wall.

Here she is with the stitching complete

And here she is fully beaded

Here is a close up of her face, you can see the beads better and she looks so delicate. Think this is my favorite part of the design

These butterflies are pretty adorable, and I’m really please with how the beads complement the piece.

And a final look, this time from the bottom of the chart

Which means I’ve finished 6/15 of my CJC pieces. That’s an average of two a month, but of course most of the ones left are larger designs so will take longer. But I am well on my way to completing this challenge

March Biscornu, a couple of cards and an exchange

As I said on Saturday I have a couple more finishes to show you, today i had a picture taking session and got it all done. And I got permission to use a picture taken by the recipient of my exchange item, silly me had completely forgotten to take a picture before sending it off.

My Basket of Biscornus challenge, which I set myself, is going really well. For March I decided to honour St. Patrick and stitch up Faby Reilly’s Shamrock Biscornu, it used to be a freebie on her site, but she seems to have taken most of them off the site now. So if you don’t already have the chart, tough luck I’m afraid. I decided to stitch this one on 18-count cream aida (trying to use up my aida, really did buy a shed load when we lived in Abu Dhabi), I used 2 different types of floss, the dark green is Madeira Decora 1479 (satin thread), and the variegated is DMC Colour Variations 4045. For the gold I used Madeira Silk 2210, and the beads are gold Mill Hill ones. I love the button in the middle, it was part of a charm pack my dear friend Kim gave me. Originally it should have been for a Shephard’s Bush stocking but I use them for various other things (the silver heart charm in the January biscornu is from the same charm pack). I think this might be my favourite biscornu to date, it certain is hubby’s favourite. The best part of it is the blackwork in the two larger shamrocks, it just gives it lovely texture, it also helps that the satin floss is a little ticker than the cotton so it’s more raised.

Here it is from the top.

And here, a side view

Finally a closer look

I also stitched two cards for Mother’s Day this year, I never remember when the Norwegian Mother’s day is (at least not until after the fact) so I just send cards for the British one. I’m sure that makes me an even better daughter, my mum gets celebrated twice (once by me and once by my bro). This year I decided two free cover kits would do the trick. For my mum I’ve stitched a card from the same series as the one she received last year, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. I love these designs, timeless classics!

For MIL I stitched a Fizzy Moon freebie. These WOXS free kits are driving me crazy, they keep cutting the thread length very short and some of the colours are really hard to differentiate between. It stitch up really nicely though and I changed the words on the note to ‘MUM xx’.

Last, but certainly not least, we had an Easter-themed scissor fob exchange at CrossStitchForum. I decided to stitch a Penelopis freebie on mine, and stitched it up on some 28 count handdyed Polstitches fabric. I made the cord out of some variegated Anchor floss i had, it is infact the same colour as the one I included in the package, very Easter-y/Spring-y. Didn’t manage to take a picture myself, but Alice kindly let me use the one she took of the goodies I sent.

Stitchy Saturdays – Some ATCs etc.

I’m really unorganized this month, not only did I not find my camera for most of it but once I did I forgot to take pictures. I do have a couple of things to show though.
First we have a few ATC, these first two are from the February exchanges on two facebook groups I’m a member of.
For this one we had the choice of two charts designed by Kell, a cross stitch one and a blackwork one. Below is my interpretation of the blackwork chart.

This one had a Valentine’s theme, and I used a Liz Almond chart which was in the WOXS Design Library she designed.

And as my March ATCs have been received I can show them off as well.

For the Cross Stitch ATCs group the theme was Transport. I wanted to stitch a more unusual mode of transport and settled on a Penny-farthing. It’s my favorite ATC that I’ve stitched (with the possible exception of the silhouette one), I used a DMC colour variations and stitched on 18 count aida.

In the Addicted to Cross Stitch ATCs group our theme was Luck o’ the Irish, and I stitched my atc putting together elements from a couple of Kell’s Irish designs.

One of nexts month’s themes is AOY (All Our Yesterdays) so at the moment I’m trying to decide which design to go with, I have at least 12 thanks to the Mini diary which was a magazine freebie.

I also stitched a square for LoveQuiltsUK, using the Brushstroke Butterfly chart which is a freebie over at CyberStitchers. I used some varigated Anchor (1335 methinks), as I was stitching on 11 count I uded about a skein and a half. Now I’m trying to find some more charts to stitch up. There are no specific childrens quilts at the moment, instead there are 4 stitch-a-longs, the themes being Butterflies, Purple, Green and Disney Characters. If you have some time on your stitching hands and have a chart which would be suitable to one of the themes head on over and sign up 🙂

I have also finished my March biscornu and a Crazy January Challenge piece, but need to take some nicer pictures of them before letting you see them 🙂 And then there are some mother’s day cards and other cards. Maybe I’ll have to make it stitchy Saturdays and Sundays 🙂

Stitchy Saturdays – Some progress and a couple of finishes

Yes the weekend has come at last and I’ve saved my stitching progress for your Saturday viewing pleasure.

First up is the one I’ve spent the most time on, one of my CJC (Crazy January Challenge) pieces, Jungle Scamp by Maria Diaz. As I’ve said before I’m stitching this for hubby, so there is no deadline, and after stitching a lot in variegated floss or doing monochrome pieces it’s actually quite nice to have color changes, and in particular seeing the design come to life as you add new colors to it 🙂

Secondly we have the Blackwork Lady, which was in WOXS a while back. Haven’t bothered doing much on her to be honest. I love the design, but I need a lot of light while doing it and as I usually don’t start stitching till the afternoon there isn’t much time for her. I am determined to finish her in March though, so you should be seeing a few more updates in the near future.

Then there is Solo Brode’s ‘En attendant l’été’. Not a lot done on this either, just a few stitches here and there. The chart doesn’t seem like the easiest to follow and I’m glad i have the whole one not doing it piece by piece as i think the small adjustment I’ve made myself will have been inconsistent if I didn’t have the full picture.

 

And then for the two finishes.

 

First we have the February biscornu, where i used another of Faby Reilly’s freebie charts. I mostly used the pinks she had charted and added a heart button and some pale pink beads to the middle spiderweb stitches. I used some of my sparkly 28 count Brittney for this one, giving it some extra bling.

And then I finished the most recent Crossstitcher freebie, a mirror pouch. I didn’t use the design in the magazine, instead I chose to stitch a design my friend Kell of Kincavel Krosses designed for this freebie. I stitched it using Tentakulum Painter’s Threads in Van Gogh. Isn’t it lovely? Thank you so much to Kell for the lovely design.

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.

Crazy January Challenge 2011 – DAY 4

Sorry it’s a little late, but here is my Day 4 project for the challenge. Went into town yesterday and got back quite late so decided to start a small one, Snowflake biscornu by Faby Reilly. I’m stitching it on 16-count cream gold flecked aida, using two DMC variations and a pale blue Madeira Silk.

Today I got my goodies from sewandso.co.uk and decided to make a start of The Sleepy Hollow Sampler by Raise the Roof Designs. You’ll get an update of that later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Crazy January Challenge 2011 – DAY 3

Today I picked up the Blackwork Lady featured in WOXS Summer of 2010. I’ve been wanting to stitch her for a while and this one is just for me. I’m stitching her on a piece of hand dyed 28-count evenweave i got in a Polstitches grab bag, it’s sort of dusky pink and yellow.
Managed to finish most of the full cross stitches today, so quite pleased with that.
Hope you like her.

Crazy January Challenge 2011 – DAY 2

Yesterday I decided it was time to start hubby’s monkey, by the way, what is it with men and monkeys? They always seem to want one. Well hubby is not getting a real one, but to soften the blow I’m stitching him a really cute orangutan baby, ‘Jungle Scamp’ by Maria Diaz, which was in the February 2010 issue of Cross stitch Collection (issue 180 I think)
I’ve chosen to stitch him on 32-count cream linen, and because some of the colors are so similar I’ve decided to stitch color by color. Yesterday I managed to finish all of one color on one of the pages (the design is on two full pages and 2 half pages), so just have a little bit left of that color in the other three areas before i can stitch using a different shade. I have no time limit on this one, hubby knows I’m stitching it so he’s quite happy just to watch it grow:)

Hope everything is going well for your projects, now on to day 3.