Cross Stitch – Page 47 – Feather Stitching

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16 June, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

And it might be a few days or so before there’s another update after my stitching weekend marathon 🙂

Instead, today I finally contacted the NSW Embroiderers Guild to talk about signing up for membership. The headquarters is in Concord West, so it’s a wee drive away from here, but they have stitching groups that meet one Saturday or one Sunday a month, which could be nice to join up with. Even though I’m not currently doing any stitching other than XS, it’s nice to see other techniques being done – and might even spur me back into action to work on some of the EGA class projects I haven’t even started yet!

I’ve also been increasing my wishlist (yet again!!) – here are the latest ones that have taken my fancy (thank goodness I don’t often search for new designs so I only find a few at a time haha)

Here’s My Stitching Treasures Accessories by Jeannette Douglas (I also now might have to add the original My Stitching Treasures to the list too LOL):

New 2008 double flip-its from Lizzie*Kate – I LOVE these big time!!! I have a funny feeling my Mum might love these too … I don’t normally ‘go for’ Lizzie’s flip-its, but these ones are a given 😉

Talking about Lizzie*Kate, this one I have definitely got a soft spot for after seeing it on Dawn’s blog – gotta love those sentiments haha:

And I’ll finish off with Mirabilia’s Letters from Nora – the letter A is just perfection in itself for moi … what more could I want than a beautiful pretty blue angel? OK, so she doesn’t have a duck by her side, but it’s close enough to perfection for me 😉

The only thing I had to add is that I finally have a better typing set-up at home for my laptop … just before Mum left I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse, and I just LOVE it – especially the mouse! It’s amazing how much more quickly I’m getting things done on the computer.

I’m also starting to plough through my 3 months backlog of blog reading as from today – I’d love to get to the stage again when I just have ‘new’ feeds to check each day instead of the 1300+ I currently have to wade through! I’m tempted to ‘mark as read’ … sorely tempted … but I know I’ll regret missing out on news and stitching finishes, so I’ll keep going for a few days and see how I go 🙂

Chatelaine, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Stitching Leporello, Works in Progress

Stitching Leporello … part 8

15 June, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I managed to get part 8 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello finished today (the pincushion) – I’ve been a little hermit all weekend, and loved every minute of it. I’m all caught up with Supernatural season one, and now part-way through listening to The Kite Runner on audiobook … ah bliss 😉

I really should try to take a better photo in daylight as this one doesn’t show the colours very accurately at all …

Stitching Leporello 8 2

Chatelaine, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Prairie Schooler, Stitching Leporello, Works in Progress

Lazy day stitching

15 June, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

It was a perfect Saturday – sitting up on my bed all day stitching my little heart out. I started stitching The Prairie Schooler’s “Duck” last night, and put the final stitches into it today – I just love this little fella!! It’s intended to turn him into a tin topper, but I think he’d look nice in so many different finishes I’m now undecided!

After my Duck finish, I also polished off part 3 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello – this was just a small design, but it still took me a wee while to stitch. Thank goodness for Season 1 of Supernatural to keep me company all day (thanks to Katie at work for loaning it to me). I must say I think the colour choices for this one are quite “strange” … hmmm.

I also put a couple of stitches into part 8 of the Leporello, which will eventually be the pincushion – I might even get that one finished tomorrow, as it’s quite a small piece to stitch.

Christmas Ornaments, Mum's stitching

Lots of stitching to share

12 June, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

… but not a single thing stitched by me!

All the following stitching is what my Mum (aka June, aka The Dragon) has stitched so far this year – she’s crazy about Christmas ornaments, as you can tell – these are a mix of well known designers (namely Prairie Schooler), magazine designs and freebies 😀

Believe it or not, there’s also a similar sized pile of ornies that are almost finished – she’s an ornie machine!!

Also, here’s proof that Mum has stitched a bookmark kit that Sharon gifted her with as we were leaving Melbourne … it still has to be finished into the bookmark itself, but all the stitching has been done now.

It’s amazing how much Mum’s stitching has improved over the last 12 months – she has only been stitching since she turned 70, and her stitching is great (and I’m very proud to now have a pile of her Christmas ornies left here to grace my tree … although I’m not too sure about the fact I have to finish-finish them haha).

Mum flew home yesterday morning, so the flat is quiet once again … I’ve brought work home the last two nights so that’s taken my mind off being sad for too long. Fingers crossed we’ll get another chance to catch up before the end of the year 🙂

Now it’s time to get a few more things done before I hit the hay for the night … Don’t expect as much stitching from me for a while as work is frantic, and it will just continue to get worse between now and the end of June – ah, I miss the days when we got paid overtime back in the call centre for the extra hours {sigh} 😉

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Works in Progress

Part 2 of Stitching Leporello finished

9 June, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Mum and I spent the day out yesterday enjoying the sights of Mittagong, Bowral and Berrima, and had a great day out! Unfortunately it’s getting down to the last couple of days of Mum’s visit … it’ll be really quiet round here after she’s gone!! I haven’t had time to sort out our photos from yesterday yet, and seeing as it’s now just after midnight here I might leave those until a later time … I will, however, share the photos of my latest stitching finish …

Here is part 2 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello … I had a sneak look at the finishing instructions today and nearly had a heart attack … luckily I don’t have to think about it too much for a while yet as there is still loads of stitching to be done, and I only intend to stitch these inbetween other stitching such as Winter Queen. I must say, though, that I really love this block, and in particular those little flower urns! 😀

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Works in Progress

Ornie finish … and WIP

6 June, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Here’s my latest ‘small finish’ that I put the final stitches into yesterday (this was my holiday stitching piece that had an attack of the frogs the first night):

Twisted Oaks-Christmas Tree
“Christmas Tree” by Twisted Oaks Designs
from 2005 JCS Christmas Ornie magazine
Stitched on 28ct opalescent white Cashel linen
Some substituted threads – instead of NN Lemon Delight I used
Carrie’s Creation Gold Glow, and instead of DMC 349 for
the hearts I used Carrie’s Creation Scarlet

Also my progress from yesterday after finishing the ornament … I chose something already kitted up and ready to be picked up at a moment’s notice … this is the stitching of part 2 of the Stitching Leporello by Chatelaine … perhaps I will finish it today? Or perhaps not … 🙂 (sorry for the bad photo but I took it after midnight last night and can’t be bothered taking another one)

Stitching Leporello WIP 05Jun08

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Sydney Stitchers Get-Together

5 June, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

We’ve been out of town for a few days, and I didn’t take the laptop with me, so I’m only now catching up on the last week’s events.

Last Sunday (1 June) I held a get-together at my place for 6 lovely Sydney stitchers (8 including Mum and myself) – even though my place is only small, it was a lovely day catching up with everyone and seeing their finished works and those that are in progress. Some even managed to do some stitching, but I certainly wasn’t one of them 😉

Here’s a photo I took on the day … apologies to those that aren’t 100% perfect in this photo but it was the best of a bad bunch! Working round the room from left to right are Robyn, Margaret, Mum (June aka the Dragon), June (Alison’s Mum), Alison, Amanda, and Karen.

I’ve also stolen Alison’s photo from her blog (hope you don’t mind Alison), as her photo is much better than mine and of course the giggler in the pink T-shirt is me (I know, ME in PINK!!! LOL) 😉

There was plenty of chatter and plenty of eating happening, and the time just flew by. Thanks again ladies for making it a really enjoyable day! Now I can’t wait for the next one to be held! 😀

One thing I did do on the day was to dismantle my scroll bars on Winter Queen so I could take a quick photo of her – not the best photo, but nice to see her in all her current glory, even if she does look washed out! I might try to take a better photo before I roll her back up again.

The rest of the week has been spent driving to Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour, so I’ll document each day individually as there are quite a few piccies to share …

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Finishing, Stitching Smalls

Biscornu finish

31 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Did you hear a lot of muttering and cursing down under last night? If you did, it was likely to have been me!! I was all set to finish-finish my beautiful red tuffet/biscornu … and had the pieces freshly ironed ready to go, with the perle cotton and threads ready to start making wee tassels … Remember my joy in finally finishing this project??

Well, as soon as I started to thread needle through the backstitching on the sides, I thought to myself “hey, those fabrics feel totally different in hand” … and lo and behold on finer inspection and measuring they have been stitched on two different thread counts so the sides don’t match up!!! Lesson to self … do not take thread count on labels as gospel, always check before stitching!!! To say I was less than thrilled was a HUGE understatement last night – I was absolutely gutted … that means I have to either stitch the big piece again on the new fabric, which I have plenty of, or I have to try to find other fabric to match … considering I had such a bad run on stitching the main piece previously I have absolutely NO desire to stitch that again. Anyway, it’s been thrown in the corner to sit in disgrace until I decide I have the motivation to look at it again and decide what the heck to do … ho-hum 😦

Luckily I had another design ‘in reserve’ to finish as a biscornu for the Monthly Finishing Challenge that Becky has been organising … this one seemed to go relatively hitch-free, although I wish I’d left a bigger margin of “clear” fabric at the edge of the design before starting the backstitching for the whipstitch join, as it looks a little ‘busy/crowded’. Never mind, I still like it, nonetheless … So, here’s my attempt for this month, just in the nick of time! 😀

“Mystery Sampler” design by Debbie Draper
from Gift of Stitching Magazine (issues 6 and 7, 2006)
stitched with Carrie’s Creations threads
finished with seed beads from U Bead It (Sacramento, CA)

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED

Happy mail day

30 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Just a quick post to thank Ally for her kindness in sending me this wonderful chart off my wishlist – I’ve drooled over it big time already, so it’s a good job it’s in a plastic covering! LOL. The design is Maidens of the Sea by With My Needle – which comes with some very very cute little fish thread holders.

And I absolutely ADORE the Paris postcards – I’ve decided to put a couple of them up at my desk at work to give me a smile every day … Paris remains my favourite city in the world to date, so looking at those postcards will always evoke wonderful memories of my visits there. Thanks again Ally for your generous gift! 😀

Christmas Ornaments, Finishes

May’s Christmas Ornie

29 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Yesterday I started and finished my Christmas ornament for the monthly challenge on XSers Yahoo group. Unfortunately I chose to stitch on 32ct instead of 28ct, which means my teeny buttons look overpowering on it, so I’m not bothering to put them on … I may still add larger red ones to the corners when it’s eventually made up into an ornie though – in fact, I think I’m due to have a large ornie-finishing session soon! 🙂

“Spool Ornament” by Sue Hillis Design
from 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine
Stitched on 32ct white Belfast linen with DMC