Cross Stitch – Page 26 – Feather Stitching

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Friends & Family, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Lavender, pinkeeps, stitching pals, taupo, Travel, Travel - New Zealand

Napier/Hastings … part 1

19 December, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

We had a lovely drive to Napier/Hastings in the Hawkes Bay. It normally takes 5-6 hours driving time from Auckland (not including stops along the way), and the weather was great for driving. We drove via Matamata to Taupo, where we had a wee break and a wee wander – and just a general “wee” at Taupo’s “Super Loo” ;P

View from the shores of Lake Taupo

After we had a cake and coffee at a Robert Harris Cafe, we called up my good pal Katrina to let her know we were on our way to visit … I’ve been very lucky in that every blogger I’ve met to date has been truly lovely, and Katrina is no exception – she’s one of the loveliest ladies you could meet! When I was flying over to NZ I’d already decided it would be nice to get away for a couple of nights to have a mini-break, and Mum agreed it was a good idea – I’d already decided where I wanted to go … Napier to visit the gannet colony again, and double bonus because Katrina is just a short hop further south, and I really wanted to catch up with her again (you may remember we met for the first time in Melbourne a while ago now) 🙂

As we were driving into Napier, we came across Whitebay Lavender Farm on the main road into Napier, and I just had to stop and take a photo or two … I just loved all the rows of lavender growing – just beautiful 🙂

Whitebay Lavender Farm

Unfortunately it took us a while to find a motel in Hastings, but once we found a nice one (Omahu Motor Lodge – we can definitely recommend it) we grabbed the keys and high-tailed it back into the car without unpacking so we could not waste any more time before visiting Katrina. We also had a lovely treat in store, as we had an additional guest visitor of Kath! What a lovely surprise … and yet another lovely blogger! Hopefully we’ll see Kath gracing our shores across the ditch for an Aussie get-together … the sofa bed’s always free for you, Kath and Katrina – you’re welcome any time!

Katrina, me, Kath and Hannah

As well as catching up with my stitching pals, we did of course get to meet in person the lovely Glenn, and the adorable Hannah … who was immediately monopolised by the Dragon haha. We also got to see some of Katrina’s beautiful stitching in real life, and Kath’s latest Christmas tree creation which is gorgeous (check out her blog to see a photo). Thanks again ladies for a lovely visit – I’m just sorry I wasn’t as lively and chatty as normal due to a bit of over-tiredness … let’s just say we didn’t take any rocking to sleep when we got back to the motel – a quick bite to eat and we were both out like a light!

While I was visiting Katrina I gave her a Christmas ornie that I’d managed to finish just in time before travelling, as well as a very belated birthday present (I’m just dreadful at meeting my commitments of late hmmm). Katrina’s photos are much better than mine, so feel free to wander over and have a gander.

I was also spoilt by receiving an ornie made by Katrina – I’d drooled over these when I saw them on her blog recently, not knowing I was going to be one of the recipients. As with all my hand-made gifts, I’ll treasure this one dearly, and may even leave this one out year-round – thanks so much Katrina, I love it! Unfortunately, though, I just realised I haven’t taken a photo yet – I’ll remedy that as soon as I finish my unpacking and will add to a later post! 😀

Calico Crossroads, Cross Stitch, Finishes

Summer Grace

2 December, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Just a quick note to show my latest finish – the final stitches went into this piece on Sunday night, but I haven’t been able to take a good photo of it yet … so these photos will just have to suffice. It doesn’t do the colours justice, as the green fabric is a lot richer. Oh well, crappy photos are better than no photos at all … and it’s possibly going to be the final photo (if not post) before I head off on holiday.

“Summer Grace” by Calico Crossroads
stitched on a 32ct hand-dyed linen by Silkweaver
(whose name escapes me right now – Summer Meadow maybe??)
with recommended threads and MH Treasure (sheep)

I may try and scan this one later, or use my Nikon camera and see if I can get a more accurate result – my Lumix does a fantastic job of the close-ups, which is why I bought it, but the colour representation leaves a lot to be desired most of the time for these types of photos 😦

Cross Stitch, Finishes, The Drawn Thread

Autumn Arbor

24 November, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Just a really quick post before I jump in the shower and head off to work, to show my biggest recent finish – yet again I found the colours more ‘drab’ than I expected, and these photos actually don’t show the true colours well at all, but here it is in all its glory:

“Autumn Arbor” by The Drawn Thread
stitched on 32ct Summer Khaki Belfast linen
using recommended threads and beads (kit)

Here are close-ups of some of my favourite parts of the design – it was really fun doing the various stitches:

Surprisingly I ran out of two of the silks in the kit, even with being a frugal stitcher – thankfully, though, I had those two colours in my stash for a Chatelaine, so I could continue to stitch. I was also disappointed with two of the Gloriana silks that came with the kit – the threads were so very very skinny you could hardly see them on the fabric, so I ended up stitching with two strands for the cross stitch – I continued to use 1 strand for the specialty stitches, and I guess they look OK … the queen stitches were OK anyway (my first attempt at this stitch) 🙂

While I’ve been offline I can’t say I’ve done much stitching at all apart from Autumn Arbor – I have finished the stitching on my In the Dark Needleroll, and just have to put beads on, plus I’ve finish-finished two ornies (one for Christmas and one belatedly for Halloween). By the end of this week I hope to have finished “Summer Grace” by Calico Crossroads. I’ve boo-boo’ed by one stitch on the tree on this piece, but I’ve decided I can’t be bothered unpicking 8 rows of smyrna crosses to fix it, so I’ll be adjusting it where necessary and it’ll just be one stitch too close to the border on the right … no biggie, as it’s for me. It’s really pretty colours, and I’m looking forward to getting that one finished – I won’t bother taking photos until it’s 100% finished 🙂

Rightio, time to jump in the shower and get ready for another thrilling day in the office! 😉

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Halloween, Just Nan, Stash

Frightful Finish

26 October, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I stitched my little heart out yesterday and didn’t leave my stitching ‘chair’ except for toilet, food and drink breaks … and this is the result of the weekend’s stitching – a new finish, just in time for Halloween 🙂

“Frightful” by Just Nan
stitched on a mystery linen
with DMC & Just Nan’s embellishment kit

I just LOVE the colours on this one … it was great fun to stitch, although at times I wondered if I’d ever get through all the backstitching …

While I was uploading the photos I also came across one that I’d forgotten to post – this was my recent stash haul from the US … I put all the various packets of MH Treasures into one container to save space – and it means I now have all the Treasures needed to complete Mirabilia’s Enchanted Mermaid (once I make a fabric decision of course).

Cross Stitch, Halloween, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Update on Frightful

24 October, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Slowly but surely my Just Nan Halloween piece is getting stitched … the frog hasn’t reared its little head since I threw him back into the witches’ cauldron where he belongs …

… and I managed to get a few more stitches into block #2 last night. Fingers crossed I’ll get more chance of getting this closer to finished over the weekend, as I intend being a lazy slob just watching DVD’s and stitching (thanks to Katie who has just loaned me Season 3 of Supernatural to watch – woohoo!! Although it’s hard to stitch and drool over Jensen Ackles at the same time! LOL). Anyway, here’s the current update of Frightful as we lead into the weekend (yet again a crappy photo, as it doesn’t show the vibrant colours off very well – will have to take a photo outside on Sunday):

And the BEST news is that I’ve heard from Karen at The Stitching Post, and apparently Mirabilia’s new mermaid is probably due to arrive next Tuesday … which means I should have her in my hot little hands in a week’s time – woohoo! 😀

Which reminds me, I haven’t been to the post box for a week – perhaps I’d better do that on the way to work this morning to see what bills are awaiting my attention … oops …

Canvaswork, Cross Stitch, Stash, Wishlist

My 25 Project Challenge is Doomed already!

22 October, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I have barely got a finish under my belt and I’ve broken my vow of chastity stash dieting … but I couldn’t resist!! And two of them are rarely available for sale, so it was a case of “now or never” … as for the third one, it is just a case of ordering it quickly before I salivated myself to death in a pile of drool 😉

What am I talking about? Well, to start with I’d already been drooling BIG time seeing the latest Mirabilia mermaid on a few blogs … this one is just to DIE FOR! I was happy to add it to my wishlist, then The Stitching Post had a pre-order option in today’s email newsletter … my fingers worked to quickly on the keyboard and before I knew it and time to think, the chart was ordered and paid for … oops … LOL. Now I just have to wait for a while before I can justify getting the MH Treasures and CC Waterlilies threads. But I’m also thinking if I don’t end up using my Fathom fabric for Enchanted Mermaid, the colouring of this one could be perfect!

As for the other two splurges – Gay Ann Rogers has an e-merchandise week only once a year, and offers some of her previous class projects for sale. These two projects are ones that I fell in love with a while ago, but figured they’d be forever out of my grasp, but sure enough I was lucky enough to see them up for sale last week (although my credit card is now feeling very UNlucky, and I guess I’ll be on bread and water rations for the next month … I know I’m going to kick myself for buying them, but I just couldn’t resist!). Anyway, here are the two canvaswork designs that I fell in love with, and with pages and pages of instructions, it’ll be great to stitch these up at some stage … I was borderline about getting the 2nd design, but it was discounted to buy both together, so I figured “in for a penny, in for a pound …” – I’m totally head over heels for the first design, though (probably more so because I love the colourway chosen for this model!).

As for actual stitching, I managed to get another 2 hours stitching done last night … 1 of them spent frogging and re-stitching, then the remaining hour getting some new stitches in. I’m over halfway through the 2nd corner box, so hopefully tomorrow night I’ll get chance to finish that off … no piccies for now though 🙂

And now it’s time to climb into my thermal undies for bed … the temperatures have totally plummeted today and it’s like being back in the middle of winter again (from 30+C to 15C in the space of two days hmmm) … time to bundle up in those winter PJ’s again!!

Cross Stitch, Halloween, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Halloween Frogs

21 October, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Personally I don’t think Frogs should be permitted during Halloween (or any time of the year for that matter) … I noticed last night when I sat and did an hour’s stitching before bed that I’ve miscounted in the border of my Halloween piece by one stitch, so I have to rip all the right-hand side borders out (from the green stitches out) … thankfully I hadn’t managed to stitch too much, so it won’t take long to re-stitch again. I only noticed last night when stitching the spider and ran out of room for the legs … and when I did notice my face was a really good mimic of the expression on that ghosts face!! LOL. The photo is dreadful sorry – the colours really ‘pop’ in real life, and are really bright – love it, and just what the doctored ordered, I’m really loving stitching this one! 😀

This is what it will look like ‘when it’s all grown up’ 😀

Thanks everyone for helping me out with the mermaid fabric – I have to admit my gut was also leaning towards Waterfall as well … I’ve asked Catherine at Countrystitch to send me a small ‘sample/ornie’ cut of each of the two colours (Waterfall and Ocean Blue) so I can do a true floss toss and see the colours in real life before making the ultimate decision. I’ll show piccies of the various fabrics when I do so you can see the differences.

Rightio, time to start getting ready for work – it’s been raining cats and dogs so I need to find my umbrella too hmmm. My intention was to go walking before work this week, but I took one look outside and went “nah” 😉

Cross Stitch, mermaids TO BE FIXED, Mirabilia

Over my head in the ocean

20 October, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Over my head in Ocean fabric, that is! I’ve got Mirabilia’s Enchanted Mermaid all kitted up ready to go … except I can’t decide on the fabric to use! I had bought a plain Belfast Smokey Pearl piece especially for it, which is supposedly close to the recommended Wichelt Twilight Blue … but then I spied a piece of “Fathom” by Picture This Plus at the recent Stitches & Craft Show and picked a piece up especially for this Mermaid … however when I lay the flosses out on it, the fabric is more tealy green coloured, so now I can’t decide. To top things off I’ve just found a couple of Country Stitch fabrics that might work nicely. As this project has cost an arm and a leg in MH Treasures I want to get this one right (and I want to start stitching it relatively quickly)! 😉

Anyway, I used the online pattern/fabric viewer, and this is what the screen shots are like:

Belfast Smokey Pearl (left) and Picture This Plus Fathom (right)
(these two fabrics I already have in my stash

Country Stitch – Waterfall (left) and Ocean Blue (right)

As a matter of interest, which do you think looks best? Obviously I’d need to pick up swatches of the actual fabrics before I make the ‘ultimate’ decision, I guess, but I’d be interested in your thoughts 🙂

I’ll do a proper floss toss when I get chance …

Country Cottage Needleworks, Cross Stitch, Finishes

Home Sweet Home

19 October, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

One pink house with its little pink roses is now all finished – and I have to admit I really like it! I’m almost tempted to keep this one! 😀

“Home Sweet Home” by Country Cottage Needleworks
Stitched on 28ct Ivory Annabelle
with recommended threads

As for what’s next … I’ve had my heart set on stitching a Halloween project before the end of the month, and I’ve got a massive urge to get some of my UFO’s finished after publishing all the photos recently, so I’m going to re-jig my rotation projects short-term … My focus piece will be Frightful by Just Nan, and my Large/BAP project will be Mirabilia’s Winter Queen – once my Halloween piece is finished I’ll move Winter Queen into the focus piece slot until it’s finished … then I’ll start on my CA Wells pieces for next year’s class 🙂

Cross Stitch

Merry Cox class online

19 October, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Just in case anyone’s interested the “Shining Needle Society” is offering an online class with Merry Cox – Here’s some of the information received, but you’ll need to sign up for membership with the Shining Needle Society (membership is free, it’s a Yahoo Group):

“It’s October 15, which means that registration is now open for Shining Needle Society’s first class offering specifically for linen, “Americana Sewing Case” with Merry Cox.

Important class dates are as follows:

October 15 through November 15 — registration open
November 15 — last day for registration
January 1 – February 15 — online class for the stitched portion of the sewing case
Feb. 16 – March 31 — online class on hiatus to allow for completion of the stitching — online “classroom” will still be accessible and open, but teacher availability will be very limited due to other commitments
April 1 – 30 — finishing portion of the online class. Sit back and admire your completed sewing case!

Class details:

“Americana Sewing Case” class description:
This charming patriotic sewing case measures 4″ x 2 3/4″ when closed and features a girl holding the flag, an alphabet, tree, birds, flower band and a verse Merry wrote. Most of the design is stitched ‘over 1’ using overdyed cotton and silk threads. Inside is a place to store scissors, a needle threader, needles and a bodkin.
Stitches include Montenegrin stitch, satin stitch, small rococo, closed herringbone, tent stitch ‘over 1’ and nun stitch on 32-count sandstone linen.
Kit includes linen, threads, buttons, ribbon, bodkin and all finishing materials.

To see a picture of the completed project, go to: http://www.frommerrysheart.com/
Click on “online class” in the left hand column.

(snipped)

Pricing:

$110 — Includes complete kit, online instruction emails, US domestic mailing and SNS administrative fee. International orders are $8 additional to most global destinations.

$35 — if you have already taken this class from Merry at another venue and thus do not need a second kit. This fee covers Merry’s teaching fee and the SNS administrative fee.

Merry is happy to accept both checks and PayPal.”