Cross Stitch – Page 10 – Feather Stitching

Bent Creek, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Summer Snapperland

Summer Snapperland – finally finito!

21 November, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

After waiting for 9 months to finally receive the little buttons needed to finish off Bent Creek’s Summer Snapperland, I then kept forgetting to blow off the dust and put the finishing touches into this little beauty. I finally pulled my finger out today and stitched on the 4 little sand-dollar and seashell buttons and this piece is now finish-finished. I’m totally thrilled with this piece – I adore the fabric I chose (a hand-dyed lugana), and the colours of the project itself … it won’t be long before I get this one framed, I think, after Christmas 😀

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Great Pumpkin Challenge 2010, Halloween, Just Nan

More Just Nan finishes

21 November, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

I managed to get a whole heap of stitching done yesterday – I put the finishing touches into Scream Girls, then started and finished Pretty Wicked, also by Just Nan.

“Scream Girls” by Just Nan
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch – Kiwi Illusions colour ‘Pipi’
with recommended DMC threads

“Pretty Wicked!” by Just Nan
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch – Kiwi Illusions colour ‘Butterfly Dance’
stitched with recommended DMC threads

This afternoon I intend having another lazy afternoon stitching, as I’m still trying to catch up on a month’s TV viewing from when I was on holidays – hopefully by the end of today I’ll be relatively caught up!

And while I’m catching up, I just may pick up one of my old WIPs to try and get one finished (only only has buttons left to be sewn onto it!)

Cross Stitch, Heartstrings, Just Nan, Works in Progress

As slow as a wet week …

19 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

That’s how my stitching has been going this week … very VERY slowly. Last weekend I only had a couple of hours stitching left on Scream Girls, and it STILL isn’t finished an entire working week later … pffft! Oh well, it’s the weekend, and I just cashed in some “time off work” certificates so I could leave an hour earlier than usual, so it’s time for some self-indulgent time spent in the lounge with stitching in one hand, and a glass of sparkling Shiraz in the other, and some not-necessarily-quality TV on the gogglebox 😛

The piece being worked on tonight, though, won’t be Scream Girls just yet, as I’m still working on Bittersweet Season as my lounge stitching project … by the time I finish this pumpkin my threads just may have arrived hahaha 😛 (Sorry about the fuzziness of the photo, in particular with the bottom section … and that’s even BEFORE the sparkling Shiraz!!)

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Needlerolls, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Travel - New Zealand

Photo Hunt – Stripes (9 October)

18 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

The theme on 9 October was ”Stripes” and here are some stripes on the skirts of a Maori cultural group in Rotorua, New Zealand. The Maori name for the skirt is “piupiu”, and it is a traditional item of clothing made from flax leaves. I love the swishing sound it makes when it swirls and the dried flax hit each other. If you want to see some traditional piupiu, you can find some here on the Te Papa Museum website.

And in keeping with trying to find stitching/needlework examples of the weekly themes, here is the unmade needleroll that I stitched for an exchange years ago – it was a self-made design by using some elements from other designs and making some parts up … I was quite pleased with the end result.

Cross Stitch, Entertainment & Activities, Mirabilia, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Winter Queen

Photo Hunt – Sparkle(s) (5 June)

17 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

On 5 June the theme was ”Sparkle(s)” and this ‘lady’ sure was covered in them!! He/she was part of the evening’s entertainment at a work Christmas party that had a “Carnival” theme.

Then of course there is always those lovely stitching projects that have lots of sparkly beads and metallic braids offering extra sparkle 🙂

Cross Stitch, Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Uncategorized

Photo Hunt – Miniature (16 October)

14 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

The theme for 16 October was ”Miniature” and here’s one of the smallest pieces of stitching I’ve completed – and most definitely the smallest I’ve ever had framed (and the smallest the framer had ever completed, they found it quite a challenge!). The stitching is just over an inch tall and just under 2 inches wide 🙂 (The bottom photo is the closest to the actual colour of the fabric etc.)

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Great Pumpkin Challenge 2010, Halloween, Just Nan

More pumpkins

14 November, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Yesterday I had a productive day that started off with planting up some parsley, thyme and chives into pots, along with a stunning velvety red pelargonium, followed by 3 loads of laundry, and finishing with a few hours of quality stitching time while sitting in front of the goggle-box clearing out some taped movies and TV shows. This is the end result of my stitching efforts last night (plus the final 15 minutes of backstitching this morning):

“Horrified!” by Just Nan
Stitched on 32ct Pipi hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch
with recommended DMC threads
(but used B5200 instead of Blanc)

Then this morning I started another Just Nan ornament, which I forgot to take a photo of … it will probably only take me a couple more hours to finish it off, so I might as well wait until it’s finished now before taking piccies. That one is called “Scream Girls” – just perfect for my Sunday Halloween SAL with Shelleen 🙂

And on that note, I’m heading off to put the electric fan on, and put my feet up in bed and stitch for a couple more hours 🙂

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Halloween, Stash, Stitching Smalls, The Drawn Thread

Awesome squishy mail day!!

10 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Today I braved the surface flash flooding and pelting rain of a late afternoon storm and cleared out the PO Box, and was thrilled to see a little card in the box – ‘cos that means there’s squishy mail waiting for me inside the building. Sure enough, I was absolutely THRILLED to open the parcel sent from Marnie, as it contained my prize winnings from her recent prize draw. Unfortunately the photos don’t do this little beauty justice – this little vampire stitching case is seriously awesome! The finishing is absolutely stunning, and there is even the most perfect little pincushion and scissor fob tassel inside! All I need to do now is decide on the perfect pair of scissors to live in this beauty permanently, and it’s going to be on display all year round … I mean, seriously, could you put this away until next Halloween? I definitely can’t! 😀

Not only did Marnie provide the stitching case itself, but she also added a little vampire Pez dispenser (so I am no longer a “Pez virgin”) – alas, the pieces inside the dispenser didn’t survive the drive home, which was a marathon due to the surface flooding, as I scoffed the lot during the drive! Also in the parcel was a few really cool Halloween freebies, that I can’t wait to stitch up. I’ll be cutting up fabrics for them this weekend, and adding them to my Halloween “to-do-pile” for the coming weeks. Thanks again Marnie for an AWESOME parcel of treats – I love, love, LOVE everything! 😀

The other mail was compliments of Ann in Scotland having a stash sale – I’m now the proud owner of 4 Drawn Thread charts (Toccata 1, 2, 3, and Chatelaine and Scissors Keeper), along with some of the threads needed (plus the chatelaine fabric). I’m looking forward to starting at least one of these soon, once I’ve procured the remaining threads. They look like they’ll be really fun stitching a motif or two each night/weekend 🙂

And on that note it’s time to switch off the “fun” side of the computer, and switch on to the “work mode” side … things are beyond hectic at work thanks to someone’s oversight in another department at the 11th hour, and having an unstable test system … I’m days behind in my own work, so I’ve brought it all home with me tonight to try and get at least 1-2 hours done at home. I just have to force myself to keep away from the fun stuff on here, which is really really hard … 😛

Cross Stitch, Heartstrings, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Stitching update

8 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

So much for my fantastic stitching day yesterday – after pottering around and wasting most of the morning and early afternoon, I gave in to my body’s whims and ended up having a 3-hour nanna nap … which felt great at the time, as I obviously really needed it, but it wasn’t exactly conducive to sleeping when it was eventually bedtime! So, at 10pm I pulled over the stitching frame and started a new little Halloween piece. I didn’t get too far along with it, but at least it’s a start – even if it currently looks like a funky bright flower, not the four pumpkins that it will eventually be 🙂

Shelleen invited me to join her for a Halloween SAL on Sundays, and I have so many Halloween projects that I’d like to stitch, so it’s likely that most Sundays I’ll do just that. So this is my Sunday Halloween SAL progress for the first week (although I don’t know how I’m going to stop myself from not stitching on them again until next Sunday – I’m kinda getting used to being a ‘one project stitcher’ … kinda … LOL).

I’m still stitching occasionally on my Heartstrings project in the lounge, with the odd row stitched here and there during the week. I’m looking forward to getting the missing threads, though, so I can get further along with the embellishments on each row. It’s an interesting stitch, this one, and it’s nice to be able to complete one little section of rows each stitching session.

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Halloween, Heartstrings, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Wishlist, Works in Progress

Humble apologies

3 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

The humble apologies in the subject line is for Clare, who sent me an absolutely exceptional package in the mail an entire year ago, and it seems it was never acknowledged. I feel absolutely mortified about this, as I’m usually really good about sending an email of thanks and posting piccies immediately on the blog. I do remember around that time that we were having computer problems at home, and I’d been really sick, but somehow I’d managed to convince myself that I’d sent the email etc and all I had to do now was to sit back and look lovingly at my gifts for the next 12 months (the gorgeous little Loon sits pride of place in my bedroom so I can see it every day, and the exquisitely stitched and finished hedgehog ornie sits on top of my basket of smalls in the lounge). So my sincerest apologies again to Clare, and I can now share the wonderful goodies that she sent me.

Well, it appears Halloween has been and gone, and alas, even with good intentions of lots of Halloween stitching being done this year, my Halloween table display has been pitiful. Thrown together really quickly late on Saturday night, this is the sum total of my Halloween decorations this year. One whole pinkeep completed, and what is destined to become a flat-fold on display with just it’s laced section propped up {sigh} (the backing sections all have their spooky cobweb fabric coverings, I just didn’t get as far as gluing or stitching the various sections together!). Alas I’ve been too tired after work the last week and a half to do much of anything – much less stitching, and even less finishing. I think I need to take a week off work just to focus on some finishing!!

Do you see my little Halloween tree that is just all bare branches above? It lights up with teeny tiny dark purple twinkly lights, it’s really cute! Of course the plan was to have it covered with teeny tiny stitched ornies, but that also didn’t happen! But hey, there’s another 12 months before Halloween 2011 so I’ve got time to change all that 😛

Even though Halloween is now technically over, I still have the urge to stitch Halloween designs … I don’t have the urge to stitch much at all these days, so I figure I should just stitch what interests me. Of course, even when I haven’t been stitching, I have been tempted big-time with some new designs out this year, so I’ve been filling my wishlist even higher even though the needles haven’t been flying … here are the latest trifles that are taking my interest and causing a little bit of drool here and there (as you can see Halloween is definitely still high in my sights!) 😛

Blackberry Lane Designs – Rest Ye Pins-The Pinkeeper

Just Nan – Hagatha’s Purple Hat

Just Nan – Hagatha’s Orange Hat

Just Nan – Spooky Spirits of Tombstone Hill

Just Nan – Tricky Tweets

The Victoria Sampler – Bargello Biscornu

The Victoria Sampler – Winter Box Finishing

I have some more stash coming through the mail, thanks to Ann having a de-stash sale containing some to-die-for items, so I’ll be fondling some more stash soon (I know, as if I NEED any more stash!).

I was also exceptionally lucky enough to win Marnie’s prize draw for a little halloween coffin (Vampire stitching case), which should be arriving shortly. Even if I don’t manage to get any of my own stitching finished next year, this already shows that my Halloween display is already greatly improved with Marnie’s stitching and finishing, and I just adore it already without even receiving it! If you haven’t seen it yet, pop over here and check it out – while you’re there make sure you take the time to admire her wonderfully exquisite stumpwork blog header, it’s superb!

And on that note I’d better sign off and get my A into G to get ready for work, then tonight I need to force myself to watch a bit more of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo … loved the book, but I hate subtitled movies so it’s been a real drag for me focusing on it (in all honesty if I’d known it was subtitled I wouldn’t have bothered hiring it from Quickflix) – even though I don’t have any particularly big desire to stitch, the biggest drag with subtitled movies is that you can’t stitch to them!

Actually, I forgot, I do have one final thing to share … the sum total of my stitching endeavours for the last two weeks … I started stitching this only to find straightaway that yet again I’m missing two of the key threads (GAST Forest Glade and Kreinik #4 braid in 027) … pfffft 😦 Probably not helping my urge to stitch this week, as I had my heart set on finishing this one quickly … which obviously now isn’t actually going to happen – see ya stitching mojo, please come back soon!