Review of the stitching year 2015

Time for another stitching year in review.  Looking back through my blog I see that I've finished up 8 pieces and worked on a handful more that are still in progress (more on those tomorrow anon).  Here are 7 of the 8 (I wasn't very pleased with the other piece), in order of completion.

The first is a hardanger bookmark worked in matching Caron Watercolors and Wildflowers threads from a section of a larger chart, followed by my own charted hardanger design that I actually worked years ago and part finished up into the cushion you see here.  I got it completed earlier this year as a little wedding gift for an old friend.  (Wonder if she used it as a ring cushion?)  It was originally done with a view to being on the Pearl Sweets website as a model of how their threads could be used, but, sadly, that business didn't seem to get far off the ground. =(

Next up we have a cute little meerkat which I cross stitched for my hubby's anniversary pressie (as I'd already bought him what he wanted when it was needed) and the card was the piece I wasn't pleased with.

Next we move on to the 2015 Sheffield Fayre Horticultural Show entries.

First is the third project from Helen M Stevens' "Embroidered Butterflies" worked mostly in Anchor stranded cottons, but with some of the greens in DMC stranded and the metallic touches in two shades of Kreinik cord in two gauges.  I love this piece, but it was hard and intense to work, especially the butterflies.

This embroidery won best in category for 'One Item of Embroidery' in the Show, but that was no achievement given that it was this year's only entry and the arts and crafts section judges seem to give first prize to any sole entry!!!  I did win first prize fair and square last year with my cute bunny (which you can see in the blog header photo selection) and was hoping to make it a cool three wins in succession next August, but we're unavoidably away for the time the entries would need to be staged so, unless I can get someone to do it for me, I'm out of the Show next time. Sigh!

This bellpull made with GAST and WDW threads from a Lizzie*Kate pattern won second prize in the 'One Item of Cross Stitch - Commercial design' category.  Second of four isn't too bad.  Embroidery entries were down on the whole this year, but knitting, which was low last year, went up.  I really hope I can get to enter this coming year.....

Last up for the year we've got two cards.

The first was for my hubby on passing his PhD.  His graduation isn't actually until next month, but I wanted to mark the occasion at once.

Last up is a small sample from the Rowandean Make and Take table at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show in late November.  I finished it up at home with some of my own Anchor and DMC Coton à Broder threads and metallic trims from Kreinik Cable.

So, there you have the finishes for the year.

As regular readers will know, I also worked on three other projects which aren't yet finished, but, as I'm hoping to do something with at least one of them later today, I'll save current WIP status for tomorrow's 'stitching plans for the year ahead' post.

How did 2015 go for your needles??

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015