Finishes – Page 15 – Feather Stitching

Finishes, Halloween, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Happy Dance

22 May, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Yay, I finally have a happy dance with my finish of Just Nan’s Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls. It’s taken me a while to finish this one, but it was fun stitching – and I ADORE the little coffin charm that opens up to show a little skeleton inside … too COOL 😀

“Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls” by Just Nan
stitched on 28ct Cashel linen tea-dyed by myself
with DMC threads and Just Nan coffin embellishment

Seeing as we still had the double-banger finale of Dawson’s Creek to watch last night while I’d reached the happy dance part of my stitching, I ran into my room and grabbed a kitted up ornie that was within arm’s reach, so I made a small start into this one as well. This is being stitched on a hand-dyed sparkly Lugana I got in a grab-bag from somewhere (had to be either Silkweaver or Countrystitch). I may be anti-social in my bedroom today and catch up on a bit of ‘Anne TV’ (ie that Katie doesn’t watch), and get this one finished. Then I need to finish off my scissor pocket exchange ready for posting this week.

I need to remember to try and take some decent photos of Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club this weekend so I can roll it away until I turn it into a quilted wallhanging. I don’t have any fabric that’s suitable (Halloween fabric over here is pretty impossible to find in good prints), so that might take a while. I may end up just giving in and using some complementary plain fabrics, but there’s no hurry for this one to be finished for a while yet.

The rest of the weekend will be spent taking Katie shopping to buy a TV and TiVo for her room, and just generally being lazy. Work is so exhausting during the week I almost need boring mindless weekends to keep my sanity in check!

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Freebies, Just Nan, Lizzie Kate, Works in Progress

Where did the weekend go?

16 May, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Well, I guess I know where … I spent the entire day in my PJ’s on Saturday ‘cos I was just too tired to do anything else – I sat up in bed most of the day and watched DVDs while doing a teeny bit of stitching. After playing in my stash for a little while (dragging out all the kitted up projects in my drawers) I managed to start and finish this little project (but couldn’t face leaving the American spelling of “favorite” so I added a little “U” to Aussie-fy it):

“My Favorite Time” by Lizzie*Kate
stitched on 28ct mystery Cashel linen (probably Clay or something similar)
with recommended GAST threads except Oatmeal where I subbed with DMC B5200

Then I started on a freebie by Plum Pudding Needleart – which will only take one more bedroom stitching session to totally complete it. In fact, I reckon about 2 hours of stitching will likely see it completed … but seeing as it’s now my ‘bedroom project’, and I don’t often stitch in my room, this may not see the finishing pile until next weekend again.

This morning Katie and I wandered over to the restaurant on ‘our’ beach where we had a leisurely brunch – I had the Eggs Benedict with a side of mushrooms, pineapple juice, and two skim cappuccinos … we were in heaven for a wee while. On the way home we picked up a couple of bags each of groceries from the local supermarket, then came in to vege out in front of the gogglebox for a few hours watching Flash Forward and The Amazing Race while I did a bit of stitching. After that Katie deserted me to go to her bedroom to read a book, while I cleaned up another episode of Good News Week, Fringe and Medium.

Thanks to our TV viewing session, the result is that Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls now looks like this:

I have to say I think the colour choices in particular for the two small pumpkins seem rather “odd” … but they’ll be staying as they are …

And now I’m going to open up Audible Manager and pop on an audiobook for an hour or two while I do some tidying up in my room, which is currently like a pigsty! 🙂

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Lizzie Kate

30th birthday gift

3 May, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Obviously the 30th birthday gift isn’t one I’ve received, as I’m an old coot now … but tonight I managed to put the final stitches into one of the gifts I’m giving Katie for her 30th birthday on Wednesday. I still have to get it framed while she’s away, or turn it into a flatfold, but she’ll hopefully come home to it in some sort of finished version anyway!

“Cinderella is Proof” by Lizzie*Kate
stitched on 32ct Limestone hand-dyed Lugana by Countrystitch
with DMC threads

I hope she likes it … she’s crazy about shoes, so as soon as I saw this one I knew I had to stitch it at some stage for her. Anyway, even if it’s not her ‘cup of tea’, she also has a $30 voucher for JB Hi-Fi and a lovely green glass pendant that I bought at the recent craft show with Alison and Amanda, so I’m sure she’ll be happy 😀

Boo Club, Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Little House Needleworks, Lizzie Kate, pinkeeps, Prairie Schooler, Stitching Smalls, Works in Progress

A very productive start to the weekend

25 April, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

During the week I managed a little more stitching on Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club – I’m definitely much happier with the project with the border on it. I’ve now halted progression as I can’t find (so what’s new these days???) the little while buttons I bought weeks ago for it. As soon as I find the little buttons I’ll pick it up again. I’m being difficult to myself and wanting to finish-finish each section as I roll it up the scrollbars … yes, I can be quirky and pedantic when I have my heart set on something! So this has been deleted to the corner basket while I continue my search for the little white buttons 😉

This weekend is a long weekend for us in Sydney (and most of Australia) – and with Katie gone all weekend, I’ve had my heart set on doing some finishing this weekend while I’m free to make as much mess as I want and be able to concentrate on what I’m doing, and so far those plans have come to fruition.

On Friday night I managed to finally finish 10 Christmas ornies that Mum had stitched for me – these have been in various states of finishing for the last few weeks, and it’s really lovely to see them finally finished 😀

I also managed to finally finish-finish my Blueberries by LHN into a pinkeep – this has actually been finished for a couple of months now, but I was never happy with the trim I used – finally I decided to rip it apart and used a plain ribbon that matched the thread colours instead … while it’s a lot plainer than the fancy trim I originally used, I’m much happier with it now 🙂

Yesterday pretty much my entire day was spent doing this …

… doing hemstitching on 4 x Shepherd’s Bush needlerolls (and the rest of the finishing). I really hate doing hemstitching because my left hand cramps up when I’m holding onto the fabric – I enjoy doing the stitching itself, though, as you get into quite a good rhythm once you’ve done the first few stitches … I just hate having to hold it in hand and having to de-cramp my hand every 10 stitches! Anyway, at least I have another 4 items out of the finishing box. I’ll add the photos to a separate post as this one is quite picture-heavy already!

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Finishes, Lizzie Kate, Victoria Sampler, Works in Progress

A project returns as a WIP

20 April, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Last year I finished all of the stitching on Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club, but I was given the used charts on loan and had to find my own buttons – I’ve eventually narrowed the search down and found suitable substitutes, and thought I’d start stitching them on tonight instead of doing some actual stitching … I’d just finished attaching ribbon hangers onto about 10 Prairie Schooler ornies that Mum gave me to be finished, and couldn’t find my felt for the backings, but wasn’t really in the mood to ‘stitch’ …

Well, I was never entirely sure whether to stitch the border on this piece and instead thought I’d use a ribbon stitched down … tonight I decided it really would look much nicer with the border stitched in place, so back it went onto some scrollbars and I’ve decided to stitching the border at the same time as adding the buttons … what was originally going to be about an hour’s worth of ‘finishing’ to complete this piece has now turned into a week (or more) worth of stitching. I think I’ll be much happier with it now, though 😀

As you can see from the photo, I didn’t get too far with the border stitching tonight, although not too bad considering … and 2 buttons down, 22 left to go …

I managed to snap a better photo yesterday of the Pin Pillow Exchange that I received (a HUGE yay for finding my little elusive Lumix), so I could finally do justice to the beautiful stitching and finishing.

I hadn’t noticed before how perfectly DMC 927 matches my bedroom duvet cover … I’m thinking a lovely sampler in this colour (along with the beige) just might look ever so lovely in my bedroom and now my mind is starting to work overtime and think of potential candidates! I’m thinking perhaps a nice Quaker design maybe … hmmmm …

While I had the camera out I also managed to take a better close-up shot of my finished heart from the Beyond Cross Stitch series by The Victoria Sampler – here is a nicer photo of my finish, and the beautiful specialty stitches on this piece. Sorry scanner, but your scans just can’t compare to the clarity of my little Lumix, even in crappy lighting!

Thank you to everyone who has voted to date for whether or not I should continue to combine both my loves of stitching and photography in this blog – it seems the majority agree with my gut feeling, which is to leave things as they are … apologies to those of you who prefer to see stitching only, but I’ve decided to leave things “as is” for the time being. I really appreciate you all taking the time to complete the poll, though!

Have a wonderful rest of the week everyone 😀

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Freebies, scissor fobs, Stitching Smalls

Roberta’s Flowers Fob

18 April, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Here’s my latest finish – and even completed immediately into an actual scissor fob … I think I may need to lay down for a while LOL.

“Roberta’s Flowers Fob” freebie by Sharon Manspeaker
www.xstitchhappy.com
stitched on 32ct Flax Belfast linen
with DMC threads

Unfortunately the lighting is dreadful again tonight, so crappy snaps of the finished fob follow.

Cricket Collection, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Halloween, Lizzie Kate

Halloween & Acorns

17 April, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

My Lumix came out of hiding late last night, so after charging the battery up during the day I can finally take some decent photos of my stitching again – of course I have to take my photos in the evening in crappy light so they’re not ‘quite’ as good as they could be, but still a helluva lot better than my scanner! In saying that, here are my latest two finishes, hot off the press:

“Hocus Pocus” by Lizzie*Kate
stitched on 32ct Parkland hand-dyed linen by Silkweaver
with DMC threads (except the pumpkin “O” and purple in WDW)

“Isn’t it the Truth?” freebie by The Cricket Collection
stitched on 32ct Flax Belfast linen
with DMC threads

Followed by another small WIP I started today – and as seems to be the ‘norm’ of late, I need to pick out the remaining threads from other kitted up projects before I can finish it … I’ll give the design details etc once it’s finished.

Alas today I missed a catch-up with my favourite Sydney girls, due to another commitment – I spent the morning at ‘our’ hairdressers (Katie now comes with me to my hairdressers and we have a full-on girlie session every 6 weeks now), where we both had haircuts and I had a manicure and pedicure (gotta love the bright vamp red nail polish I’m now sporting!), while Katie had a pedicure and facial – we followed that by a $10 lunch at the local pub where we sat outside with a beer and watched the world go by on a stunningly beautiful Autumn day … we finished that off by picking up a bottle of wine (for me – beer for Katie) and came home to watch the first episode of the new season’s Flash Forward while sampling our purchases. All-in-all a really really lovely way to start the weekend … now I’m about to sit in front of the gogglebox in my bedroom with some stitching (not sure what yet, but possibly another needleroll or scissor fob freebie), and watch the latest two episodes of ER (LOVE ER), Cold Case, The Mentalist and House … heaven 😀

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Needlerolls, Shepherd's Bush

Needlerolls galore & Pin Pillow exchange

11 April, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Before I continue, let me apologise for the dreadful quality of all of these photos – I have mislaid my little Lumix camera, and have had to rely on my scanner to show my latest finishes … and because of the beads etc lifting the fabric off of the glass, the focus is terrible. As soon as I find my camera, I’ll upload a cleaner photo.

“Millennium Roll” by Shepherd’s Bush
stitched with kit contents

“Pine Needle Roll” by Shepherd’s Bush
stitched with kit contents

On Friday I received my Pin Pillow Exchange from Sandra – I absolutely ADORE it. She chose one of the designs from my wishlist, and turned into the most gorgeous pincushion … I love everything about it, and will definitely treasure it always! Alas the scanner really didn’t like scanning something ‘puffy’ so this is even worse photography – once again, I’ll take better photos just as soon as I can. Thanks again Sandra for a wonderful exchange experience! 😀

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Victoria Sampler

Beyond XS

7 April, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

I got halfway through this post when my PC screen fizzed and died completely … so I may be offline for a wee while until I can afford to buy a new screen. Unfortunately my laptop is totally temperamental and keeps shutting itself down (I think the hard drive is on its last legs), so I don’t know how stable it will be over the coming hours, never mind the coming weeks. Alas I’m down to the last $20 in my wallet after spending more than expected recently, so not sure how quickly I’ll get the money together (my recent stash splurges cleaned me out hmmm).

Anyway, I’d better quickly get this post finished before my laptop dies again … here is my latest finish, hot off the Qsnaps today – once again I’ve opted for a scan instead of a photo, as it’s quite dark in here. If I remember, I’ll take some ‘real’ photos later 🙂

“Beyond XS #3-1 – Whipped Spider Web Rose” by The Victoria Sampler
stitched on 25ct white Lugana with kit threads and charm

I’m not sure what I’ll pick up to work on next – I think I’ll try to continue having a small project or two on the go for when I’m stitching in my room, and perhaps leave my Mirabilia’s and Chatelaine’s for stitching in the lounge.

Now it’s time to jump on a website or two to price up screens so I know what I’m looking at pricewise (while my laptop is still working) – then I’ll be stash diving for a new project 🙂

Updated: Well, it appears that this morning my screen is working fine – I unplugged all the wires and put them all back in again, and it’s started up straightaway. Different to my laptop, which died in the middle of “publishing” my blog entry last night, so I couldn’t have priced up screens if I’d tried!! Fingers crossed this will keep working for a while yet – but in the meantime I’m going to print off my contacts list etc in case it does go out of action again!