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.

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

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.

I Stitch Therefore I SAL

When I got into cross stitching again and found the big online community I discovered a (for me) new thing, SALs. SAL stands for Stitch-A-Long and is used for when two or more stitchers get together and stitch one design.

Recently one of the members on CSF (Crossstitchforum) found a great SAL design in Cross Stitch Crazy, and arranged a SAL. I wasn’t originally going to join as they don’t sell Cross Stitch Crazy in AD, but Kell, who stitched her’s very quickly, was kind enough to send me the chart.

I decided to use some of the 14-count waste canvas I’d just bought and stitch it directly on to one of the bags I bought in Bangkok. It might not have been the best choice; the ready made bag is canvas so it’s hard to get the needle through the fabric, and it get’s very uneven for that reason. It’s also quite hard to stitch going in and out of the bag. First and last time methinks, at least with a design this size.

I haven’t managed to finish it yet, have to give my fingers a few days rest between each stitchy time, but here are a few pictures of my progress up to the beginning of June. Will post another update in a few days.

First two letters done and some border

Most of the words done

All the words done, most of the border with backstitch and some of the flowers in the corner. the yellow in the flowers were later frogged and replaced with two paler yellows.

I’m having a hard time stitching it because I want to get to the end and pull the waste canvas out, I have no patience what so ever.

Once I’ve finished this project I’ll let you know what colours i used, think the leaves might be the original ones, and the black but everything else has been changed.