April WIPocalypse

I’ve been such a bad WIPocalypser, totally MIA since the first check-in in January. And I don’t even have a lot of work to show from my long absence, my stitchy bug went away on holiday as well.

However I do have a few WIPs to show you, I even managed a few finishes but I can’t show them yet.

My first progress picture is of my Joan Elliott design, which I first show you back in January, and then again a few days ago. I’ve managed to work on it a little bit more since then.

Joan Elliott – Victorian Christmas Lady
stitched on 32-count white linen using DMC

Back in January I started Abi Gurden’s The Great Escape, I’m still umm-ing and ahh-ing over where I will stitch the whole design. I’ll definitely finish the owl, but I’m not sure about the rest of it. I’m finding these stitches a bit harder too do than the specialty stitches for The Tree of Stitches (which reminds me, I should probably show you my finished tree), although not really because they are hard in themselves but because their placement is so important. I am enjoying it though and have recently finished Part III, which means the stitches I’ve learned so far are Montenegrin stitch, Feather stitch, Basque stitch, Sorbello stitch and Cretan Catch.

Abi Gurden – The Great Escape
stitched on 35-count Sparklies Shades of Autumn
using Nina’s Threads Eggplant

My last progress picture is a small design I picked up at a charity shop. It’s quite an old design, from 1986 by Chloe Designs, and it doesn’t have a name just a number (I think) 0-18. The kit came with aida, but I prefer evenweave and used a piece which was teadyed at the same time as the one I used for LHN’s Two Sheep.

Chloe Design – 0-18
stitched with 28-count teadyed evenweave
unknown floss

Crossstitch WiPs – Little House Needleworks Two Sheep

Way back in April I made a start on a Little House Needleworks freebie called Two Sheep. I was given it along with probably 50 or more charts from a friend of mine. Lots of LHN, CCN, LK, Bent Creek and SB charts, I wanna stitch them all, and have managed to stitch a couple so far.

But back to Two Sheep, I’m stitching it over one on 28-count evenweave which I tea dyed, and when it’s finished I’ll have a go at mounting it on an altoid box 🙂 I’m using threads from my stash, a mix of WDW, GAST and DMC.

This was one of the pieces l left behind in Liverpool, but I have it here in Basingstoke now and will try and finish it in the next month. Here is a picture of it as I left it back in April

HAED QS Rose Dreaming – Another Update

With our A/C misbehaving I haven’t managed a lot of stitching this month, my HAED for example has been left untouched since the last update and until Wednesday. But then I felt the need to stitch on it again, and did the whole background for Page 1. I’m so in love with the evenweave, it’s so soft and really easy to stitch on. I was really worried before I tried it, having read other peoples accounts of working with evenweave. Next I guess I’ll have to try linen, but with it being uneven-weave I’m even more scared of it.

Anyway here is my update picture, next update should have some of the full cross stitches of the face 🙂

HAED QS Rose Dreaming – First WIP Picture

Well I’ve started my first HAED (Heaven and Earth designs), QS Rose Dreaming by Brigid Ashwood. I started from the top left corner since I had sort of gridded it and have been working it by colour in that section.

I’ve decided to do the design in both tent stitch and full crosses, the background, which is what I’m currently stitching, is being stitched in tent stitch, 2 over 1. And the figure is being stitched in full crosses 1 over 1.

I’m stitching on 25-count white Lugana, which is my first experience with evenweave. So far I’m loving it, the fabric is nice and soft, and the stitches look so small and delicate.

My only problem came when I wasn’t paying enough attention and ended up using the wrong thread colour with the wrong symbol. I finished stitching the colour in that section before I realized what I had done. In fact, I made a mistake while stitching the colour, frogged it and restitched and then had to frog again because of my stupid mistake.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a frogless day, but until then here is a picture of today’s progress.

Can you guess what I want NOW? Yup, death to ALL frogs

Starting a NEW stitching project

Today, erm, I guess that would in fact be yesterday I got a load of stash in the post, there were grab bags from Polstitches, Dragonfloss, waste canvas, gridding pen and so on, but the most exciting addition to my stash must have been the evenweave. I got some 28-count pearl flecked white Brittney for a Christmas Round Robin, and a huge piece of 25-count white Lugana for my new stitchy project – My very first HAED.

It’s called QS Rose Dreaming, and I can’t wait to start it.