Cross Stitch – Page 17 – Feather Stitching

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!

Cross Stitch

My thread is on its way!!!!!

31 March, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! I just decided on the spur of the moment to jump online and check my order status, and this is what was on the screen:

“Complete: Your order was shipped on 03/26/10 by Priority Mail International”

I had to shake my head and look back again to make sure I wasn’t still asleep and hallucinating! That means my Rainbow Gallery thread is ON ITS WAY HERE!!!! Which ALSO means that in approximately 2 weeks time I will have no excuse not to get Sapphire Star finished! I’m absolutely ecstatic 😀

Didn’t get any stitching done last night, ‘cos we went food shopping instead for a shared morning tea this morning, and by the time we got home it was quite late … I think I’ll finish the rest of the next colour in the border above the “birds” in Egyptian Garden Mandala, then I’ll swap over to something else, because at that point I’m getting too close to the edge of my Qsnaps and it’ll be time to move it onto scrollbars instead. I actually do have large Qsnaps to cater for it, but I’ve realised that I struggle to get underneath it. Hmmm, actually, I wonder if I should just make it long and narrow to start with and stitch all the centre section first, then come back and widen the top or bottom section … Ooh, I never thought of that (ignore the fact that I bought scrollbars especially for this project) … I MUCH prefer the lovely tight tension that I can get with Qsnaps … Of course that means that I have to take Winter Queen off the Qsnaps, as she’s currently on them to stop her from getting wrinkled and damaged – but if I pulled my finger out and got her framed she wouldn’t have any problems … LOL. Now all I need is some computer ink so I can print off those parts of the chart … I’m a bit chuffed with my little plan – and at least it’s here in print so it’ll remind me when I forget, ‘cos my little pea brain is VERY geriatric these days and I forget things a lot …

One thing I do want to stitch next is a scissor pocket – I’ve decided to sign up for Becky’s next exchange, as I really enjoyed stitching the last one. I’m not sure, though, which style of scissor pocket I want to do, and I’ve never made either of them before, so I’m thinking I could make a trial run of both of them, then when I know who my partner is I can check their likes and dislikes and try to suit the actual colour/design to their likes in whatever style I end up preferring.

Ah, so many things I want to do, and so little time …

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Finishes, Freebies, Piecework magazine, pincushions, Quaker

Pin Pillow Exchange part 1

29 March, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

I haven’t heard from my exchange partner directly, but I noticed on Becky’s blog today that the list shows that she’s received my pin pillow exchange for her. I hope she liked it 🙂

Anyway, I’ve decided to go ahead and show the pillow I made for her now I know it’s been received, ‘cos I’ve been champing at the bit wanting to share the piccies. My recipient was Jayne, and I read on her blog that she likes the colour purple, alphabets and quakers, so this was my choice for her (I personalised one side with both of our initials):

“Quaker Heart” freebie by Piecework magazine
Stitched on 28ct Lavender Bliss Cashel linen
with Carrie’s Threads “Lavender”
finished with a beaded edge

Now I’m considering joining up for Becky’s next exchange – a scissor pocket … I love it ‘cos it’s a “no extras” exchange again, which is really appealing to me, rather than sending extras than people may not want.

Canvaswork, Chatelaine, Cross Stitch, Egyptian Garden Mandala, Laura J Perin, Sapphire Star, Works in Progress

Resurfacing old U.F.O.

28 March, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

We spent the evening watching some TV and Supernatural episodes while I split my time between trying to resurrect my laptop (it keeps dying) and my stitching. I managed to stitch as far as I could on Sapphire Star, and realised I am missing yet another thread somehow … will have to check my stash to make sure I haven’t just forgotten to add it to the ‘kit’. Anyway, it’s looking great, if I say so myself!

Then I decided not to start anything new, but to pick up a very VERY old UFO that hasn’t been touched since … um … well … since April 2007 … yikes!!! I haven’t touched any of my old UFOs since I finished Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello last year, so I decided it was time to put a few stitches into it … I didn’t manage a great deal, but did manage to finish the stitching of the ‘bird band’ on the outside. I still hate the over-one section in the middle, and would dearly love someone to wave a magic wand over it to make it be “finished” … perhaps I’ll make myself do one strand of over-one stitching each time I pick it up before I stitch more on the fun parts – but then again that may put me off picking it up full stop – hmmm, maybe I should just leave it until the end, so it has to be done before the beading, that should be incentive enough! The “Before” picture shows the fabric colour more accurately.

Before

After

Today I’ve been struggling on and off all day with a nauseous migraine, so have been in bed most of the afternoon. I was getting restless so thought I’d tempt fate and sit up for a few minutes – but now I think it’s time to go back to bed again …

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Rosewood Manor

Last finish for a while

22 March, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

I think I may be at the end of my record-breaking run of wee finishes now … I stayed up late tonight to put the final beads onto my little ornie, making 4 finishes in as many days – woohoo! 😀

“Red Berries” by Rosewood Manor
from Issue 11, December 2006, Gift of Stitching magazine
with DMC 221 and Hand Dyed Fibers premium silk “Jewel Weed”
stitched on 28ct white Cashel linen

I really should learn to take photos in daylight, instead of 11.30pm under bright light globes! It really doesn’t do this piece justice, as the beads are a beautiful metallic red. I have to admit, though, if I were to do this piece again, I would probably forget about the ‘star/snowflake’ things in the corners, as it seems a bit overcrowded and overpowering to me … but all in all I’m relatively happy with it 🙂

Now I have the quandary of what to work on next … I’m pretty keen to work on a number of projects, and the main ones that are calling me are probably the following:

Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls – Just Nan
Hocus Pocus – Lizzie*Kate
Winter Snapperland – Bent Creek
Ladybug, Ladybug – Little House Needleworks
2008 Halloween Fairy – Mirabilia (magazine chart)
Halloween Needleroll – Shepherd’s Bush
Quaker Huswif – Sampler Cove

And the list goes on … and on … and on …

Ah, decisions, decisions … 😛

Cross Stitch, Finishes, The Drawn Thread, Works in Progress

Crikey!!!

21 March, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

The needles have been flying tonight – although to be honest there really wasn’t much stitching left to do on this one. Tonight I managed to put the final stitches into Boo! My absolute favourite part of this piece is the wee scissor fob – I love, love, love it!! I need to wait for my sewing machine before I can do the finishing on this one, but I’m taking an extra two days off work after Easter, so perhaps I can get my machine back before then and have a mini finishing frenzy 🙂

“Boo! Scissor Keeper and Fob” by The Drawn Thread
stitched on 36ct Sand Edinburgh linen
with recommended NPI Silk threads (with the exception of black,
which I substituted with a Hand Dyed Fibers silk)

Before I called it a night tonight, I also started a new ornie, only ‘cos it was sitting here all kitted up in my bedroom, laying on top of a pile of books … so I figure it was as good a time as any to finally get it stitched up and out of the way! It’s supposed to be stitched with 1 strand of DMC 501, but to be honest I wasn’t thrilled with the coverage whatsoever, so I went back into my bedroom and rummaged through my silk piles … and ended up using a skein of Premium Hand Dyed Fibers silk called “Jewel Weed” which is almost identical to 501 but much, much thicker … personally I think it was a great choice, and I’m enjoying seeing this come together – I guess this will take me a couple of nights to complete this week, then I need to start thinking of what project to start next.

I have to admit I’ve really been enjoying having a bunch of small finishes – after having a bit of a ‘dry spell’, it’s been great seeing that finishing pile start to build up again over the last two months 🙂

Of course there’s still one more finish to show you, but it still hasn’t been received by my recipient yet, so I can’t share yet … geez I wish the postman would hurry up, though, ‘cos I want to share! 😛

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Periwinkle Promises

One more for the finishing pile

21 March, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

I guess you can tell that I found the elusive little teeny packet of beads (they were hiding inside the chart in the stitching bag!) … which means all the stitching is now finished, and I just have to do put it all together … but that’s for another day …

“January Accent Sampler” by Periwinkle Promises
stitched with kit materials (Au Ver a Soie silk)
on 28ct natural Cashel linen

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, JBW Designs

Prancer

21 March, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Here’s my latest wee finish – I was able to complete the stitching last night after picking up the elusive DMC 368, then I put the beads on this morning. It was supposed to be stitched 1 over 1, but I wimped out and stitched it over-two on 28ct, then just increased the bead size from 40123 to 00123 instead.

“Prancer” by JBW Designs
from 2004 JCS Christmas Ornie issue
stitched on 28ct white Cashel linen
with recommended DMC and Mill Hill beads

Now I’m off to find the ever-elusive bag of beads that I’ve already lost once, then I found them last weekend and put them somewhere safe … I should have known I was in trouble at that point, as “somewhere safe” usually means the equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle … only I can lose something twice in as many weeks!!! … ho-hum

In fact, I might just hold off the search party and go and have some brunch across the road first, then I may even put together my bookcase … and then I’ll decide whether to start the search party again for my bead bag, or whether to sit in the lounge and finish off Boo! 🙂

Updated: Hmmmm, I’ve just decided to check out my camera settings to work out why all my photos seem to be washed out just lately … sure enough at some stage I’ve managed to change my exposure settings permanently … now I’ve put it back to “0” adjustment, the photos are coming out more more crisply, so I’ve re-uploaded the Prancer photos – slightly darker fabric, but definitely a lot clearer on the beading detail!

Cross Stitch

So much stitching I’m exhausted! :P

18 March, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

So much for the high hopes of completing my scissor fob stitching tonight … the sum total of my stitching entailed stitching the final 4 legs on my spider, and attaching the wee spider button body … um, and that’s it … kinda not worth taking a progress piccie really 😉

Tonight, though, was very productive from another perspective – I drove out straight from work to my old Chiropractor and FINALLY dropped off Boaz’s birth sampler gift, and as it turns out the girls are visiting Erin this weekend for Boaz’s … ahem … 1st birthday … ahem … To be fair, the fabric took a number of months to arrive, but I was also then very slow to actually get it stitched and framed, and it’s been sitting gathering dust in my bedroom for the last few months while working out how the heck I was going to drop it off! Oh well, it’s finally done and dusted, and one more ‘chore’ off the list 🙂

The 2nd stop was then to Officeworks where I picked up my little “slimline bookcase” – poor Katie had to resort to sitting in the back seat so I could fit the bookcase in my car, and I was clever enough to carry it into the apartment buiding, then took the box contents apart and brought them up in two trips up the stairs … a hernia is something I didn’t feel like tempting tonight!

Lucky last was a trip to Spotlight so Katie could pick up some cake decorating supplies, and I could pick up some ribbon and lining fabric for the With My Needle Quaker Friendship Book we did as a round robin last year. I must say, I think the fabric is VERY pretty … and while the ribbon isn’t a perfect match, it’s still very VERY scrummy … and blue, of course … “Lapis” to be exact! 😛

I also picked up one whole skein of DMC 368 that I couldn’t find at home for love nor money, which means I can now finish the latest ornie I got halfway through last weekend before having to throw in the towel. Maybe I’ll even get that finished this weekend too … although going by tonight’s stitching efforts, perhaps I should just keep quiet about my stitching goals LOL. I did manage to remember to pick up some plain white flannelette fabric that I use as lining on my metallic ornie forms, so that also means a couple more Christmas ornies can get finished soon … And finally I was able to buy 3 of the reels of sewing machine cotton that Mum wanted me to buy for her – sorry Mum, but they don’t sell the Molnycke thread any more 😦

As for now, it’s time for an early night … and fingers crossed my pin pillow exchange turns up soon, ‘cos I’m champing at the bit to post a piccie! 😛

Cross Stitch, The Drawn Thread, Works in Progress

A bit more Boo!

18 March, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I managed a tiny bit of stitching again last night, and was able to add one little ghostie to my scissors purse. I also managed to add a bit more to the fob by finishing the pumpkin vines and little black cat plus 2/3 of the wording – I’m hoping to have this one finished by the end of the weekend (stitching-wise anyway!).

Tonight I’d really like to see the scissor fob stitching finished – anything else is a bonus, although I should probably be able to get the back ‘panel’ finished on the purse as well … that just leaves the front panel to be stitched over the weekend … and the finishing – although I don’t know if I have any suitable fabric to use for the lining yet … will have to check the stash, but I’m pretty positive it’ll entail a trip to Spotlight or a quilting shop somewhere! Yep, I’m pretty sure this one will have to sit in the finishing basket for a wee while yet!