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.

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.

Revised List for Crazy January Challenge 2011

Made a couple of changes (changes or additional info in bold) so provided I get my new stash in time this is it now, I have until Day 9 before I need any of the supplies though so it should be fine.
Starting with item 3 today, my mother’s wall hanging. Will give you an update at the end of the day. Now it’s bed time though, so nighty, night!

1. ‘Jungle Scamp’ by Maria Diaz from Cross Stitch Collection February 2010)

2. KISS cushion by Emily Peacock

3. A cross stitched wall hanging mail organizer (is there a better name for them?) My mom wanted one so I’ve found an alphabet I liked along with some motifs.

4. Blackwork Lady from WOXS Summer 2010

5. Baby Panda by Pollyanna Pickering from Cross Stitch Collection June 2010

6. Wedding sampler
Stitching this freebie (scroll down a bit for Coeur), and adding the names and date inside the heart.

7. All you Need Is Love by Lizzie*Kate

8. Snowflake biscornu by Faby Reilly – Decided I want to do a Basket of Biscornus this year so it’s a good a time as an to get started.

9. 2011 Christmas Ornament – I’m planning on doing one a month so a great time to kick start this
The Sampler Girl – Christmas Eve Flight Freebie

10. Tranquil Valley by PINN Stitch

11. Sleepy Hollow by Raise the Roof Designs

12. 2011 Birthday Cards – will try and do better this year with cards out at the right time etc.
First up, hubby’s birthday I’m thinking this one, but over one on evenweave to make it smaller

13. Time for God by Lizzie*Kate

14. Hot water bottle cover – will be stitching this straight on to fleece using waste canvas. Going to use a few different monochrome motifs, winter themed.

15. En attendant l’été by Solo Brode
This is a SAL I signed up to Summer 2010, I ended up not having the time to stitch it then so though this would be a great time to stitch it. Plus my list needed something summery.

Crazy January Challenge 2011

In a fit of madness I’ve signed up to the Crazy January Challenge 2011, masterminded by Minna.

The rules of the challenge are as follows:

1. Start stitching a new design every day, from January 1st to January 15th. So by January 15th you have 15 new WIPs to stitch!

2. Finish everything you started stitching during the year 2011.

3. Show photos in your blog if you have one, in January and during the whole year while you stitch.

4. Have fun stitching!

I have a few projects I want to start so this is the perfect excuse, I haven’t quite put 15 together yet though, but I’m sure I’ll have it sorted before it’s time to stitch it. Will just stitch the sorted and kitted out ones first.

So here is my almost complete list:

1. ‘Jungle Scamp’ by Maria Diaz from Cross Stitch Collection February 2010)

2. KISS cushion by Emily Peacock

3. A cross stitched wall hanging mail organizer (is there a better name for them?) My mom wanted one so I’ve found an alphabet I liked along with some motifs.

4. Blackwork Lady from WOXS Summer 2010

5. Baby Panda by Pollyanna Pickering from Cross Stitch Collection June 2010

6. Wedding sampler
Stitching this freebie (scroll down a bit for Coeur), and adding the names and date inside the heart.

7. HAED A Favour by Edmund Blair Leighton

8. Snowflake biscornu by Faby Reilly – Decided I want to do a Basket of Biscornus this year so it’s a good a time as an to get started.

9. 2011 Christmas Ornament – I’m planning on doing one a month so a great time to kick start this

10. Tranquil Valley by PINN Stitch

11. Sleepy Hollow by Raise the Roof Designs

12. 2011 Birthday Cards – will try and do better this year with cards out at the right time etc.
First up, hubby’s birthday I’m thinking xbox related.

13. Time for God by Lizzie*Kate

14. Hot water bottle cover – will be stitching this straight on to fleece using waste canvas. Just need to decide on motif

15. Undecided

Birthday card for a good friend

It was a friends birthday on Thursday so I had to stitch a card 🙂 I found it hard choosing a motif though and in the end settled on a little rose from one of the latest Crossstitch Collection magazines.
As usual I left it quite late and was speed-stitching so she could actually receive it on her birthday. My cross stitch stash is quite limited so it was lucky that I had the necessary floss colours, well it’s because of Rose Dreaming really as that project has about 50 shades of pink if not more. I wasn’t quite as lucky with the greens so I went with a different green, avocado green instead of whatever the charted one was. It turned out rather well if I do say so myself, I used the pearl-flecked white 28-count brittney evenweave for it, just to add some extra bling.

Here is a close up of the rose, should also add this is the first time I’ve stitched over two on evenweave and it was really confusing at first but then got easier.

Mother’s Day Cards

This year I stitched 4 Mother’s Day cards, one for my wonderful mummy for Norwegian Mother’s Day which was February 14th, and one each for hubby’s mum, grandma and nan for UK Mother’s Day which was March 14th. I forgot to take pictures once the cards were done so most of them you’ll see the stitching only.

This is the one I did for my mum. The design was in World of Crossstitching (WOXS) January issue I think. For anyone living in the uk it would have come as a free kit, but I just got the chart in the magazine. I stitched it on 16-count cream aida using the charted DMC floss. For the wording I used thr alphabet from a different design to write ‘Verdens Beste Mamma’ which is Norwegian for ‘World’s Best Mum’ which is what she is 🙂

This is the one I stitched for my MIL. It’s from the Norton Diary which was a freebie with the December issue (I think) of WOXS. It’s the smallest in size of the MD stitching, but it took the longest to complete, and it’s the most challenging of them, due to the many, many fractional. It’s stitched on 16-count white Aida using the recommended DMC floss.

This lovely Blue Tit was stitched for hubby’s Grandma, I just love how colourful he is, especially with the pink flowers in the background. The design is from CrossStitch Collection, January or February issue. I stitched him on 16-count white Aida, using the charted DMC floss.

Last, but not least I stitched this Victoriana silhuette of a gardening lady for hubby’s nan. The design is from Crossstitcher, January or February issue. The original was done on light green Aida, with the plants in two contrasting shades of green. Instead I decided to do it in yellow. I used 16-count Aida which I dyed yellow using Dylon Hand dye ‘Sunflower Yellow’. I then picked two shades of yellow from my stash and got stitching. It was a fun design to do and I’m already getting ready to stitch the remaining two cards, flower arranging lady and shopping lady. It looks really bright and cheerful in it’s yellow aperture card.

2009 Christmas Cards

What was that? Do I know it’s February? Of course I do, it’s not like I’m showcasing next years cards (if I do that before August you may have me commited).

The reason I’m putting these up so late is that I sent them out late and I wanted to be sure everyone had theirs before i put the pictures up.

Here we go then

This was made for MIL and FIL. They used to have the cutest westie in the world, so this is in memory of her. The design is adapted from a Joan Elliott design ‘Santa’s Helpers’ which appeared in WOXS – World of Cross Stitching ( I think), The original had several cute puppies surrounded by pressies and x-mas decorations, but I just stitched two of the pups seperately. So here is the Westie

The other pup was stitched for my mum, a Golden Lab I think it is. I was really looking for a rottweiler, but couldn’t find one. Maybe I’ll try and design one for next christmas

The third card was a freebie design from Crossstitcher issue 220, I made it for my big brother, SIL and nephew. It’s just soooo cute and perfect for kids. I changed the original text to say Merry Christmas in Norwegian instead of in English.

The next two cards are from the same design, from Crossstitch Collection if I remember correctly. I just love that cat, it’s so cheeky.
The one on the right is stitched in the colours given in the chart and was for my little brother and his girlfriend, and the one on the left is for my BIL and future SIL. The colours were changed to match their newest kitty Mogli.

This next one was from a X-mas card chart book from WOXS, and was for my dad. It looks so much nicer in real life, the purple metallic card really suits the design, but taking pics of metallic card is a b***h

I don’t have individual pic of the last three, and dad’s raindeer main it onto this card too 🙂 The two bird ones were from the same chartbook as the raindeer and were for DH’s Grandma and Nan, while the Happy Christmas one was from one of the magazines, Crossstitcher I think, and for DH’s aunt and uncle.

Well that was it, next year I’m aiming to do more cards. There were so many designs i never to around to and I’m sure the mags will have plenty of great designs this year as well.