A WIP and a finish

First up is my “In the Dark needleroll” – if I were to do this again (which I wouldn’t do) I would definitely make some changes!  Firstly I think I would squish the wording up closer together and have it more centred, then I’d bring in the stars closer to the moon.  The way this is designed when it is turned into a needleroll you won’t see the full wording and definitely won’t get to see the sparkly stars, which seems such a waste as they’re so lovely!  Unfortunately by the time I worked that out I was too far into the stitching to be bothered unpicking everything.  I think it would be much prettier that way, though (mind you, I haven’t done the finishing yet, so I could be wrong). 

One change I did make, however, was to leave off the ‘smiley faces’ on the stars so it didn’t look quite so ‘juvenile’, and because of that I left off the bead ‘nose’ on the stars and just used the metallic braid.  All-in-all not my most favourite piece to stitch, but I do like the finished product – the colours and the sparklies do look very very pretty in real life … my Mum kept ooh-ing and aah-ing over it throughout the stitching process 😉

It still isn’t finished, though – I need to find some beads to substitute for those listed in the chart, and I’ve decided to do the bargello and buttonstitch bands for the top and bottom hems … yesterday I’d decided to leave it and finish it with a normal hemstitched band, but today I’ve had a change of heart, so back on the Q-snaps it goes …

When I opted to leave the bead selection for the needleroll until today, I couldn’t just sit and do nothing, so here is a very quick ornie stitch that I managed to stitch up in a couple of hours last night.

“Christmas Peace” by Heart in Hand Needleart
stitched with recommended threads (GAST)
on 32ct opalescent Lugana by Silkweaver (the colour escapes me right now!)

This fabric is one of the worst fabrics I’ve ever stitched on in my life – I truly detest this fabric, both the colour and the feel of it. I bought this originally to stitch Chatelaine’s Egyptian Garden Mandala on it, and hated it, so unpicked what I’d done and started again on a hand-dyed linen instead. Unfortunately I was left with all this revolting fabric and I didn’t know what to do with it … my idea to use for ornies instead – truth is I still hate it, and think perhaps I should try dyeing it myself. The photo gives no idea of what the colour is actually like – it is almost peachy/apricot in colour, yuk!!

I have no idea what will be stitched next … nothing is screaming at me right now …  I had the day off yesterday due to feeling crappy, so Mum and I sat in my bedroom and stitched all day – today I woke up with my mind turning about work issues, so perhaps I’ll go in tomorrow and try to get some work done, as obviously it’s preying on my mind under the surface hmmm.  I’ll see how I feel when I wake up in the morning … in the meantime it’s time to go stash diving for a new project I guess … or perhaps I should have a day at the sewing machine … or perhaps I should just have a day off … oh, so many choices 😉