Category: Finishes

Finished needlework

Autumn, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Halloween, JBW Designs, Waxing Moon Designs, Works in Progress

Autumn Harvest

Anne S

The last couple of weeks have been really stressful at work, so this weekend I made a special effort to chill out and relax – and spent most of the weekend with needle in hand, either catching up on recorded TV or watching DVDs in the lounge (including getting bored stiff watching the 2nd to last Harry Potter movie … yawn …).  The result is that I have one more finish from my Crazy January Challenge list, and decent headway into one more (plus a whole lot of frogging as I need to change one of the listed conversion threads to something much lighter).  Anyway, I’m a bit too tired to yap on any more, so I’ll just show the piccies … first up is my latest weekend finish:

JBW Designs-Autumn Harvest
“Autumn Harvest” by JBW Designs
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed linen in a mystery colour (perhaps Limestone)
with recommended Weeks Dye Works threads

Now on to my WIP (after frogging the outline of the ghost and cat) … I’m well about 2/3 through the stitching on this now, so it won’t be too much longer before it’s finished.

2360285950047689748cfpTOY_fs
“Halloween Short Stack” by Waxing Moon Designs

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Finishes, Quaker, Tokens and Trifles

Quaker Christmas Exchange

Anne S

I’ve heard from my very good friend Carol that she’s received the ornament that I sent, and likes it as much as I did … I really didn’t want to let this one leave home, so I’m definitely going to have to repeat stitch this one for myself.  I was really really nervous with the finishing of this one, but I just bit the bullet and stopped thinking it and just ‘did it’.  I just had enough thread in the skein to make some skinny cord and attach all the way around the ornie – and the end result is that it’s given me a bit of my finishing confidence back again, and hopefully that means that I’ll continue to push the envelope and tackle some more of those finishing jobs that I’ve been putting to one side because of losing confidence in myself!  Anyway, here’s the ornie in all it’s finished glory (the finishing isn’t perfect, but I’m still very pleased with it!):

Tokens & Trifles-Quaker Stocking
“Quaker Stocking” freebie by Tokens and Trifles
Stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Lugana by Countrystitch ~ colour Limestone
with Carrie’s Creation thread in Plymouth Red (stitching & cording)
(The chart is still available HERE)

Beading, Cross Stitch, Easter, Finishes, Freebies, Serendipity Designs

Beaded Easter Egg

Anne S

After doing some exciting housework (cleaning the shower grouting and scrubbing the bathtub) I decided to treat myself with a little stitching time … I don’t normally “do” pastels nor Easter designs, but for some strange reason this one screamed out to me to be stitched, and seeing as the fabric was already cut out ready for it, all it needed was for me to track down the Mill Hill beads and start stitching (alas I didn’t have two of the colours, and neither did my local Spotlight store, so I ended up substituting the green beads for some other seed beads that seemed similar in pastel shades – thankfully they worked out OK!). Anyway, here is my Easter stitching from today after I just put the finishing touches into it (sorry about the shadows, but it’s a dark autumn night here in Aussie and the photo is taken with the lamp to the side of it):

Serendipity Designs-Beaded Easter Egg freebie
“Beaded Easter Egg” freebie by Serendipity Designs
stitched on 28ct white Cashel linen
with Mill Hill beads (except for the green ones) and DMC

Unfortunately it seems the website this was originally from is no longer in business, so I can’t provide a link for this one, sorry.

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Mill Hill, Prairie Moon, The Drawn Thread, Works in Progress

Works in Progress and an Ornie finish

Anne S

Not much to say today … I struggled with a migraine all of last week, with two full days spent in bed, so my computer time has been limited last week and I’m way behind with emails etc – hopefully I’ll manage to catch up over Easter 🙂

While I’ve been away from the PC, I’ve also been away from the TV this week, so yesterday was spent curled up in bed catching up on taped programs … then today I’ve been curled up in bed once again but this time watching Seasons 1 and 2 of The Tudors – such hardship 😉

Following are the latest WIP progress piccies of projects that are “on the go” …

A very blurry progress piccie of Merry Xmas by Prairie Moon

Joyeux Noel by The Drawn Thread (I added the snowman and started the border today)

And finally a small victory today compliments of The Tudors – a start and finish in one day, with another ornie hitting the “to be finished into ornies” pile 🙂

Mill Hill-Poinsettia Tiny Treasured Diamond
“Poinsettia – Tiny Treasured Diamond” by Mill Hill
stitched as kitted, with recommended fabric, thread and beads

And of course there’s also some commitment stitching that I can’t show just yet, until it’s been received, so here’s just a little teaser … and on that note it’s time to switch off for the night as it’s going to be a huge week at work this week thanks to skeleton staffing levels and more project deadlines that need to be completed prior to the Easter break.

Canvaswork, Finishes, From Nancy's Needle

Crazy January Challenge #4

Anne S

I’ve been in a lot of physical pain with my leg this week, which has meant having to keep it elevated with an icepack on it … the perfect position being sat up in bed … which means the perfect position for stitching, and the chance to complete my canvaswork project.  This also means finish #4 for my Crazy January Challenge for the year.

From Nancy's Needle-Lavender Blue Celtic Knot Quilt
“Lavender Blue Celtic Knot Quilt” by From Nancy’s Needle
canvaswork stitched with recommended threads
(and the project uses almost ALL the thread skeins in total)

It also means plenty of TV viewing time so I’ve started watching season 1 of The Tudors today – along with a few other TV shows I’ve had taped from during the week … all-in-all a very lazy and relaxing couple of days! 😀

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Freebies, Heartstrings, Works in Progress

Stitching update

Anne S

I’ve managed a tiny bit of stitching over the last few nights, including finishing all the actual stitching on Bittersweet Seasons – all I need now is to buy some little gold embellishments for it (a tiny gold star and bell) then it’s totally finished.  It’s hard to pick up the little details such as the beads and metallics, but I’ve tried to capture it as well as I can in the below photos (although when I do compilations there is a lot of quality lost in the conversion).

Bittersweet-Season

Then, after a trip to Spotlight yesterday afternoon to pick up the DMC thread I have mislaid (so, what’s new??), I put the finishing stitches into the Autumn freebie that I started last year.

The Stitcherhood-Autumn freebie

“Autumn” freebie by The Stitcherhood LLC
Stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch ~ colour Merino
with recommended DMC threads
(the chart is still available here)

I’m not sure what happened to the photo of this one – the fabric is a beautiful mottled creamy fabric, not the putty-like colour that is showing in the above photo!!  I hope to turn this into a little pillow soon, which is timely considering we are now officially in the first week of Autumn here “down under” and it’ll be nice to have it on display (gee I’m so sorry to say farewell to Sydney’s summer … not …).

Now I guess it’s back to the Drawn Thread Joyeux Noel, although I have to admit I’m really not enjoying stitching that one in the slightest – which is disappointing, as I’ve had the urge to stitch this one for the longest time … I’m tempted, instead, to do an hour or so of one of my Crazy January Challenge projects, as unfortunately they’ve been taking a back seat just lately while I’ve been finishing up some older WIPs … I’m starting to think I have bitten off more than I can chew this year what with both the CJC and my personal challenge of two ornies per month ho-hum (not to mention some other commitment pieces that aren’t able to form part of my CJC!) 😦

Talking of which, I also need to kit up my two March Christmas ornies, and make a start on Katie’s Christmas gift from last year plus get cracking on my outstanding PIFs from last year.

In the meantime, though, it feels really good to finally get a couple of WIPs from last year into the finishing pile (even if one does still need its embellishments).

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Food, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Little House Needleworks, Works in Progress

Quick drive-by posting

Anne S

The last few weeks have been absolutely mental at work – another project that hasn’t gone as well as planned thanks to an unstable testing platform, code not delivered as planned, and another department totally not delivering their side of the requirements.  Testing is supposed to take 2 weeks, this time it took the entire month of February … and I’m sure I don’t need to say how much I was “over it” by the end!!  But thankfully March is now here, and testing is mostly behind me … except now I have to do more to help out the other department now they’re implementing their side of it … pfffft.

Alas that means there hasn’t been much motivation to do anything other than sleep in my spare time, and not much stitching.  Then when I did do some stitching both my camera batteries died … and I lost my Lumix charger.  The charger turned up a few days ago, then I lost my memory card … I decided to just buy a cheap replacement online (and found a store by doing so that offers really healthy discounts on top brand cards!!), then of course found the original one stuck in the front of the computer this morning … after I had checked there the other night!  Oh well, I needed a spare anyway, and now I have loads and loads of memory on the cards for my next holidays 😀

That also means I’ve managed to take a couple of quick snaps this morning – even if they’re not great quality in the overcast morning light, here is my current stitching update … one finish and one work in progress:

LHN-He's a Flake
“He’s a Flake” by Little House Needleworks
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch ~ colour Kina
with recommended threads (Crescent Colours and DMC)

2605948540047689748pszEZV_fs
WIP – “Joyeux Noel” by The Drawn Thread
(I’m using DMC 3865 instead of 739 for the snow etc for more contrast on the fabric)

I would have done more stitching on Wednesday night, but at 7pm I remembered I was supposed to bake for morning tea the next day, so chose something I’d never done before that was a bit of a challenge (including making my own pastry, which I haven’t done for years!).  Alas it took me all night (literally) and 1 1/2 hours the next morning to get everything finished, but I was just ‘in the mood’ for kitchen time, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  If I get chance, I’ll post the recipes later – the Orange Liqueur Chocolate Tartlets went down an absolute treat!  Anyway, here are the results:

Cheese-Crisps
Cheese Crisps (with Havarti & Basil filling)
(these are only about 1.5cm in diameter … like little cheesy burgers
for Ken and Barbie! LOL – and for me very more-ish!!)

Orange-Liqueur-Chocolate-Ta
Orange Liqueur Chocolate Tartlets (simply divine!)

On a health side, I’ve been going to Physio twice a week since last week, and had my first hydrotherapy session on Wednesday – hopefully it will help to loosen up my lower back and stop the knee pains … when it gets really bad, unfortunately the pain keeps me awake at night – and it’s been the worst lately when spending long hours in the office 😦

And on that note I really should get my A into G and get my carcass into that office – today I have a meeting with our Occupational Health & Safety assessor to find out if my employer will cough up for a new chair for me … otherwise I’m going shopping to buy myself one.  Not quite the most exciting of shopping, but a very worthwhile investment if I do have to do it myself! 🙂

Canvaswork, Finishes

UFO sighting and action

Anne S

As I mentioned earlier today, I went to my first Guild stitching group today.  It was a pleasant experience, and I love the fact that many of them do cross stitch or don’t actually FROWN on cross stitch!  I wasn’t entirely sure what to take with me today, but I figured I was soooo close to finishing Sapphire Star that I really should just pull my finger out and finish it off … and sure enough I managed to finish it while I was at my Guild meeting.  Unfortunately it’s very overcast here tonight, and the photo is taken directly under the bright daylight lamp, so the photo is far from the best (I’ll try to remember and take better ones next weekend) … but nevertheless it’s a finish, and I’m totally in love with it! 😀

Laura J Perin-Sapphire Star

“Sapphire Star” by Laura J Perin
using recommended threads, except substituted Pearl Cotton for
the pale blue Hi-Lights thread used in one of the borders
(I soooo have to take a better photo of this one!!!)

Alas, this wasn’t on the list of my Crazy January Challenge, so I can’t cross off another one of those projects, but it feels wonderful to get this piece finished finally after all this time.  And of course the Shepherd’s Bush needleroll from last night was on the list, so I’m sitting relatively comfortably at 3 out of 15 finishes for the year … and 2 out of 24 Christmas ornaments …

And on that note I need to go clear the mountain of rubbish that’s currently sitting on top of my bed so I can actually get in there tonight … then I just may put a few more stitches into Bittersweet Season, as that is the other ‘WIP/UFO’ that I was working on at the Guild today – a few more nights stitching and I think this one will be finished too 😀