Valentine’s Biscornu Exchange

I love participating in exchanges, this really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, so when a Valentine’s Biscornu exchange was arrange at CrossStitchForum I was obviously in. The sending date was at the beginning of February, and since I have receive mine and my recipient has received hers I can now show them off 🙂

Here is the lovely biscornu I received from Rachebabes. I love the tassels on it, it’s definitely something I’m gonna try on my February biscornu.

My biscornu went all the way to California and to Rowlesgirl. It wasn’t actually the biscornu I had planned on sending, I was stitching on a different one and suddenly realized I’d made a massive counting mistake, I just couldn’t face unpicking and it was too big a mistake to incorporate. So I started a new one, completely my own design, even trying out some specialty stitches like Rhodes hearts and satin stitch diamond. I’m really pleased with it and hope Rowlesgirl liked it as well.
I stitched it on my own hand dyed 16 count aida, using a few different variegated floss, I think (so forgetful) the letters are in a Dragonfloss shade, Rhodes hearts and satin stitch in a Anchor Variegated and cross stitched hearts in Pomme de Pin Pimprenelle. The buttons were ones I picked up in Bangkok last year. Really don’t get to use them enough.

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.

I Stitch Therefore I Stash Complete

Almost two months ago I promised you the pictures of my completed I Stitch Therefore… project, to be honest it’s been languishing in a bag waiting to be washed this whole time. But finisally I got it sorted and here it is. I’m still going to make some changes to it, add a lining inside or maybe just a removable pocket. Also I’m thinking about changing the straps so they are longer, I’ll have to find some funky fabric first.

But here is the stitched finish

And a closer look at the stitched area

As you may or may not have noticed, I love my close-ups so here we go

And here is the last one (I promise), doesn’t the bag look great with some stash in it?

The I Stitch Therefore I Stash pattern was in an issue of Cross Stitch Crazy, it was stitched onto a ready made bag I’d bought in Thailand using 14-count waste canvas. Mostly I used DMC cotton, however for the first ‘I’ and the border around I used Dragonfloss Seawitch, and for the flowers I used Pomme de Pin Pimprenelle (dark ones) and Dragonfloss Tea Rose (light ones)

While I would love to see other people stitch this I’m not able to pass along copies and my own copy has gone to a new home

Stitcher’s Sampler – 2nd Update

I haven’t been able to work on this project much, which is a shame as I love the design, but other projects must take precedence. It is especially the wedding project which is taking me away from this design, after all it has a deadline, a quickly approaching deadline.

Keeping that in mind I’ll show you the little progress I have made. Most of the border is done and since the first update I also finished the hearts in the inner most box. This project has not turned out as I had imagined, when I first got the chart from Rosemary I started planning the colours etc., but when I got my hand dyed floss from Polstitches I knew I had to included it. Then I won a giveaway with some other hand dyed cottons (Pomme de Pin) and knew I had to included them too. All of a sudden the sampler became not just a celebration of stitching, but also of colour.

So here is where I’m up to.

A closer look at the border colours.

The hearts in the inner box are stitched in Polstitches Dragonfloss – Seawitch and a bright yellow cotton, the inner border is stitched in Pomme de Pin Pimprenelle and the lighter outer border is Pomme de Pin Evanescence. I’m seriously loving hand dyes!

I Stitch Therefore I Stash Update – Finished Stitching

Actually I finished the whole thing last week, but haven’t been on a ‘real’ computer since the last update so couldn’t resize pictures etc.
These pictures are all pre pulling the canvas out, but with the beading and everything. I’m really happy with it, it was definitely worth the sore fingers. The only thing I have left to do now is wash it (carefully, since i have used a few hand-dyed cottons on it) and iron it (again, carefully since I decided beads were the way to go), think it should be ok though if I iron on the back with it on a thick towel. Fingers Crossed.

The first picture is with all the cross stitches and border done, as well as the back-stitch on the flowers

And here we are with the swirly backstitch and beading done, both of which were a pain, but it looks quite good once the canvas was pulled (you’ll get pictures of that next week).

And some close-ups

This is definitely where my beading was at its neatest

I’m still not sure I got the yellows quite right, the brightest should probably have been one shade paler

But I love the floss I used for the flower petals, the small flowers are Dragonfloss Tea Rose and the big one is Pomme de Pin Pimprenelle, both hand-dyed cottons. The Pomme de Pin is one of three skeins I recently won in a blog giveaway (thank you, Claire93), and this is the first time I’ve used it. I have more projects lined up to try them out on though, the Pimprenelle was great to stitch with.

Next week (or maybe in a few days if i have the time) I’ll unveil it without the canvas, it looks great, if a bit creased right now.