Cross Stitch – Page 21 – Feather Stitching

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Little House Needleworks

Home of a Needleworker Too

31 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

Yesterday I ended up coming home from work due to feeling nauseous and hypersensitive hearing – as it was a ‘theme day’ at work, there was much hilarity and it finally sent me over the edge and I ran screaming for the hills. I guess I’m still not 100% over these darned bugs, as it’s been a real struggle at work this week. Oh well, it’s the weekend again, thank goodness, so two more days to chill out and relax 🙂

Once I did start feeling a bit brighter yesterday afternoon in the peace and quiet of home, I managed to get some stitching done, and managed to finish off my Home of a Needleworker Too. I really like this one – I did change one thing, and replaced the Crescent Colours Old Blue Jeans thread with something lighter – the Old Blue Jeans skeins I have in my stash are just revolting, and I really didn’t want my house stitched in it. Rather than buy more threads, I just found something that would be suitable in my existing stash – I like it soooo much more than that manky Old Blue Jeans 😀

“Home of a Needleworker Too” by Little House Needleworks
Stitched on 28ct Vintage linen by Wichelt
using recommended Crescent Colours threads with one exception
– replaced Old Blue Jeans with Crescent Colours Blue Moon

That now means that I can use those scroll bars to start Mirabilia’s Enchanted Mermaid in the Large/BAP rotation slot … all I need to do now is to blow up a big working copy so I can highlight over the stitched sections easily – might take a run over to Officeworks tomorrow and organise that 🙂

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Just Nan

Winter in the Square

29 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

I finally managed to put the final stitches into Just Nan’s Winter in the Square tonight – and I am sooooo in love with this finish, it’s ever so pretty 😀

“Winter in the Square” by Just Nan
stitched on 28ct ‘mystery’ Cashel linen, tea-dyed
with recommended threads (DMC)

Even in the late hour of the night, the photos didn’t come out too badly – I’m so glad I decided to tea-dye the fabric, as it’s added just the right level of colour to the linen and makes the white thread stand out so much more.

The next slot in my rotation is supposed to be “Large/BAP Projects”, and I’m supposed to be started Mirabilia’s Enchanted Mermaid next, but I need to empty the scroll bars first, so I’m finishing up LHN’s Home of a Needleworker Too first up, as those are the scroll bars I need. I managed to finish up the little spool of thread, and most of the letter “H”, but that’s all so I didn’t bother taking a progress piccie. Fingers crossed this weekend I’ll be able to put a few more stitches into it and perhaps get that one finished off 😀

Cross Stitch, Ross Originals

RIP Graeme Ross

27 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

I was sorry to hear of the death of the designer and artist Graeme Ross this weekend – he was the creator of Ross Originals designs, and had an incredible designing talent. If you want to read more about him and his life, feel free to wander over to the Ross Originals website for more information. I personally adore his bird and wildlife designs.

One of my all-time favourite stitched pieces was a Ross Originals piece – this is one of my very first ever XS projects, stitched on 14ct Aida back in the days when I didn’t know anything called linen was in existence. Here is my Ross Originals’ “Tiger” in all its magnificent glory. Actually it looks like I scanned the piccie years ago, as I notice the right-hand side in particular is a bit cropped off – oops!

I’ve always wanted to get this piece framed, and have never managed to get it done (in fact I’ve never managed to get much framed at all … I can probably count on one hand the number of XS pieces I’ve had framed) – but now I have a real urge to finally pull my finger out and get him finished. I want to learn how to do my own framing, and this one will definitely be added high to the top of the pile to be done. I’ve had a mat-cutter for years now, that I bought in the US at the Heart of XS shopping mall way back in 1999 – and I just bought the beginning kit for the staples and frame straps to start framing at our recent craft show in Sydney, but just need to buy some cut up pieces of frame ready to give it a go … I really do need to do this soon and start building up my confidence!

Of course, I still have two pieces in particular by Ross Originals that I still have to stitch – one that is currently sitting in UFO status, that I was stitching as a SAL with Carina (who has since disappeared off the face of the earth), and one that is very very high up the list of wanting to stitch. Both of these are being stitched over-one … probably why the Macaw is currently sitting in UFO status! Of the two pieces, my absolute favourite is the Rainbow Lorikeets piece – but I started the Macaw first, as that was the choice of Carina for us to stitch together. Perhaps now that I’m not doing a SAL any longer I should just ditch the Macaw and get the Lorikeets done first – life’s too short … and I can always return to the Macaw again afterwards 🙂

Here’s the Macaw chart, along with my current pitiful progress where I left it a couple of years ago:

And here’s the beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets chart – I just adore this one!

The world has lost an exceptionally talented designer and stitcher – but his name will continue in the finished works of those of us who adore his designs. RIP Graeme Ross!

Blue Monday, Cross Stitch, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Blue Monday & Just Nan Progress

26 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

First up is Sunday night’s progress on Just Nan’s Winter in the Square – this should be finished in another couple of nights, as the cross stitch is almost completed, then it just leaves the specialty stitches and backstitching to be done. As more and more stitches get added, I’m remembering just why I fell in love with this piece in the first place 🙂

Here is my choice for this week’s Blue Monday – this is a rustic-looking urn I found while walking around Timbertown, near Port Macquarie, NSW. Once again, I’m not sure whether I’ll continue doing this meme, but I’ll give it a go for a couple of weeks 🙂

Cross Stitch, Scenic Sunday, Works in Progress

Scenic Sunday & WIP progress

25 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

I managed a tiny bit of stitching tonight while catching up on a bit of recorded TV – after a couple of episodes of Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds and City Homicide (no girlie shows for me! LOL), here is the current progress on Just Nan’s Winter in the Square – at 1am, a crappy photo as usual … and oh boy, am I looking forward to the end of all that white stitching, pretty though it is!

j0439073

Here is my choice for this week’s “Scenic Sunday” – Ashcombe Lavender Gardens in Melbourne, Australia … with a little touch of spring in the air. I’m not sure how often I’ll continue with this photo meme, but I thought I’d give it a go and make a start anyway … and seeing as it’s technically Sunday, I’m posting early! 😀

Ackworth Friendship Book, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Quaker, Round Robin, Round Robins, With My Needle

Ackworth Friendship Books

24 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

I just realised that I haven’t shown a photo of the final round of our Ackworth Friendship Book/Quaker Friendship Round Robin. Here are the final photos of both Katrina’s and my pieces – I think they look really lovely 😀

Anne’s (my) Round Robin
“Ackworth Friendship Book” by With My Needle
Stitched on 35ct Lambswool linen by Wichelt
with Carrie’s Creation thread “Twinkle”

Katrina’s Round Robin

One thing that Katrina asked is for us all to provide a quote or two about Friendship – and I thought I’d share my choices here:

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.” – Anonymous

“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” – Aristotle

“Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.” – John Evelyn

As for me, for the first time yesterday in two whole weeks I felt closer to being back to normal healthwise, and even managed to get a fair bit of housework done during the day. I’ve continued to potter around today to try to get the lounge back to normal, so hopefully tomorrow I will just have to run around with the vacuum cleaner and mop, and finishing cleaning the bathroom. Then Monday it’s back to work – and unfortunately, being a week behind now, I will probably end up working late most nights – gotta love deadlines!

As you may have worked out by now, I opted for Mum not to come over – my first reaction to Mum’s suggestion was that I was worried she would catch this dratted flu bug, and comments received confirmed that that was the right decision to make. As much as I would have loved to have been pampered for a couple of days, I’m really not much company when I’m sick and prefer to be away from people, so it seemed a lot of money to spend for a couple of days being housemaid!

Anyway, time to walk away from the computer again and get a few more things tidied away while my washing is in the machine – I may even bake a batch of muffins tomorrow ready to start eating healthily next week! Hopefully next time I post I’ll have enough progress in my Just Nan piece to warrant a photo 🙂

Cross Stitch

Halloween Giveaway

20 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

As I’m a total sucker for Halloween, I just HAD to share the fun with a Halloween giveaway that’s being offered by Missy. If you’re a fan too, pop on over to visit the Deep Inside Missy blog, as there is a giveaway every day for the next 13 days up until Halloween. If you click on the “13 Days of Halloween” button above, it should take you directly to the information on how to enter for the giveaway 😀

Just thinking of Halloween makes me want to get out some more Halloween stitching – even though I’ve got Boo Club underway already, I’m itching to start another one as well … hmmm, perhaps I could put Just Nan’s Winter in the Square to one side until the next rotation … and scratch that Halloween stitching itch by starting a new Halloween one – but then the only problem is choosing which one to stitch!

I love, love, LOVE Halloween stitching – dunno what it is about it, but I just ADORE Halloween designs … just can’t get enough of them – even though we don’t really celebrate Halloween … I just love the designs 😀

HTR052

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Quaker, Round Robin, Round Robins, Stitch-alongs, With My Needle

Final round of Quaker Round Robin

20 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

Today saw me glued to the TV set just for a change – I’ve been stitching pretty much every hour of the day since yesterday afternoon inbetween looking up at seasons 6 and 7 of Buffy … I haven’t wept so much over a damned TV show in a long, long time, but I’ve been totally sucked into the characters (in particular Spike), and the last few days has been an emotional rollercoaster watching those DVD’s. In some ways I’m glad I haven’t seen any of the series before, as it’s been a real treasure watching one season after another, without worrying about viewing schedules or adverts! And it’s been super-conducive to my stitching, that’s for sure, particularly during my recuperation 🙂

And here’s the final piece of stitching that I’ll probably get done for a day or three – here’s the final round of our Friendship Quaker Round Robin, belonging to Katrina. I’m quite surprised at the colour of Milady’s Teal, as its a lot more grey than I would have imagined – but it looks really quite classy stitched up 🙂

Of course I now have to start putting all my pieces together now, but I think a trip to the fabric/ribbon store will be needed before I can start getting to work.

Before I started stitching this morning I finally got around to trying to tea-dye some linen fabric – this wee piece is for Just Nan’s Winter in the Square. The original linen (the same as I used for Autumn in the Square) was too pale, I felt, to really show up the white floss, so I opted to tea-dye it slightly. I didn’t want a particularly splotchy look, so I tried to move the fabric around a reasonable amount in the saucepan while it was stewing – the only sign of the original fabric is the odd splotch or two on the bottom edge, which is great as it’ll be hidden by the frame eventually. So that means that that will probably by my next project in my “small-medium projects” rotation slot, which I still have about 7 hours left of 🙂

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Lizzie Kate

One gift finished

18 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

I decided to use a few of my rotation hours for small-medium projects (my next/current rotation slot) to slay one of the gifts that has been outstanding for quite some time. I have had major problems getting the fabric from the US (the supplier will remain nameless at this time), but after having it on order for MONTHS, it finally arrived a wee while ago, and I’ve finally pulled my finger out and got it stitched up. Sorry, but at 1.30am the photography is appalling for a change, and doesn’t show up the lovely Graziano checked linen… This is a gift for my Chiropractor’s first child – all I have to do now is to frame it 😀

“Welcome Baby” by Lizzie*Kate
Stitched with a mix of WDW/GAST as recommended &
DMC for the two threads I didn’t have
on 28ct pale blue and white checked Graziano linen

The next gifts I need to stitch will take considerably more time to complete, but I think I’ll make a start on those next as both birthdays are next month yikes! There’s a good chance of getting one finished, but I’m not entirely sure about the second one…

Beading, Boo Club, Cross Stitch, Lizzie Kate, Works in Progress

Another round of Boo Club

17 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

My little needles have been turbo-charged over the last couple of days – and today is the first day that I’ve woken up and actually thought through all the housework that needs to be done etc … signs of this blasted bug finally getting out of my system. While I’m still quite wheezy and trundling through the tissues, I feel much brighter within myself, and ready to start getting out of my stitching chair for more than 5 minutes at a time – yippee 😀

In the meantime I’ll leave you with a latest photo of my progress on Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club – here are parts 1-4, which leaves me with just 9-12 to go (although in honesty I’ve almost finished part 9, with the exception of the broom handle).

Time to put my rotation to one side briefly, though, as the final round of our Friendship Quaker RR has arrived on my doorstep so I really need to get cracking and get that one finished soon! Mind you, I also have two little gifts that are well overdue being stitched, so those will have to be slotted in as well – oh so many things to stitch, so little time 😛

I’ll finish up with photos of a beaded fish that I made once at a class in Melbourne. I’ve never been able to take a good photo of it, but now my Panasonic Lumix has a fantastic macro setting, I thought I’d give it another shot while it was just sitting there! You probably can’t tell, but it’s hollow all the way through to the tail – I just adore this little fella …

I really need to get the instructions out again and brush up my beading skills so I can get these little guys out of the ‘filleted’ stage and into the finished stage, which will knock off another two UFOs! (UnFinished Objects for those of you who are searching for actual UFOs in this post) In this photo you can clearly see how the little fishies are constructed … I only hope I can work out how to do the beaded stitch once again, as it’s been quite some time since I took the class! 😀