Graduation card in cross stitch

Just a quickie today to share the cute owl card I made for my hubby who recently passed his PhD and, although he hasn't had his graduation ceremony as yet (January, we think), is now known as Dr Sir (aka Doc Martin!!)  He had his first piece of mail addressed to him as Dr the other day, which made us both chuckle.  It was from the Uni, of course.  He hasn't changed his title anywhere yet.  We're saving that for when we move and can take care of both changes in one go.

Anyway, hope you  like this wise owl (not that either of us is daft enough to believe that higher education gives wisdom!).  Sir took him to work and put him on his desk to show off.  Awww!  Even though his desk is in a corner and no-one really passes it, it was nice to do that anyway. =)

The fabric was stabilised by ironing Bondaweb to the back and then cutting the design out.  I've done that once before, but I think that either this type of fabric doesn't work too well with it - too soft, or I didn't remember how to do it properly.  I need to look at the book I got it from again next time I'm near the central library...

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Anniversary gifts

Here are two other things that I've stitched recently. It's our 12th wedding anniversary tomorrow and, as we haven't any money to spare for regular gifts, I finally got around to making up the keyring I'd been planning for Sir for a couple of years. I bought the 'frame' two or three years ago!

This is the traced initials outline:


Then we have the filling in with directional satin stitch, which, as directional stitching is anything but my forté, I pulled out a few times during the whole process. I was getting annoyed with it....


Then I outlined it in Kreinik cord with stem stitch. Stem stitch is great when you're able to work from the outside in (as you should), but that's not easy when you have an inside curve to cope with! Especially if you need to change direction.


And here's the finished item:


I think it worked quite well, it's just a shame that the keyring itself got a bit scratched. If I ever buy another, I'll make sure it's as scratch free as I can. As Sir himself says, 'You live, you learn.'

Here's the anniversary card I made for him. It's from one of those Jeanette Crews 'One Nighter' chart leaflets, the 'Tropical Birds' one. Cute, or what?


I hadn't made a small cross stitch item for ages and, I must say I really enjoyed it! There's more to show you soon too, as soon as one of the items is finished up. Look out on Monday, all being well.

Stitching for Men - Part 2

Hello again and welcome on board for the cross stitch collection of things stitched for men! We start off with two pictures, one done as a leaving gift for a young bloke we were pally with, then a piece I did for kid bro's first flat (doubt he ever framed or used it though!!!). After that come a few bookmarks and cards. Enjoy and hope there's some useful inspiration if you're looking for an idea of what to stitch for a bloke in your life.=)

'Oriental Dress' progress and some childhood UFOs

I've been doing a little stitching again and have got the cross stitching on the Anchor 'Oriental Dress' cross stitch kit done. As this one relies quite a lot on back-stitching for definition, it's really been a lot of just 'blocking in', esp in that green and white sidebar. The design is interesting here as it's clearly a Chinese dress, but the whole colour scheme is rather more Japanese with it's subtle shades and lack of red! Not to say that Chinese clothes don't come in these shades, (they do as I have a lovely light pink jacket to prove it), but it's not what you would expect. If my memory serves me correctly though, I think the whole series this belongs to is done in the same sort of colour scheme. When the stitching is done, I'm going to make it into a small gift cushion/pillow to send to the couple who kindly put us up near the airport when we went to Frankfurt and had to fly into 'Frankfurt' Hahn (which is about 90 mins drive away from the city!!) It's a bit late, but as I started it at their place and I know she likes stitchery, it should go down OK. I can't quite get enthusiastic about this one as, well, I'm not even sure I like it that much! I only bought as a desk decoration for my old job, (should I have ever got a desk, which now looks most unlikely to have happened!!), but I thought I may as well have a short and simple project on the go at the same time as all the college stuff.

My mum's been clearing out her attic (with DH's help getting stuff down to start with) and came across some childhood UFOs of mine! Well, there were three UFOs and one piece that needs some re-doing in part. Here are three of them, a pair of needlepoint kits:

Just look at the back of the completed one! What a mess! I'm going to match up the needed colours, (probably just use cheap stranded cotton for the background needed on the 2nd one), and finish them ASAP. They've been washed as they were rather grubby from hanging around - I even had one on my wall at one point, but I now wonder how I dared - there are small patches where I have tent stitch going in the opposite direction!


This is another needlepoint kit that I'd almost done. I plan to get them all finished up and then framed, but I really don't know who to give this one to. I daresay it'll find a home though.=) In fact, I have an idea, I think I know a very sweet teenager who would enjoy this made into a little cushion for her room....


The last piece is a part-sewn lion from the 'Friendly Stuffed Zoo' pattern collection that I started when I was in the Girl Guides. I didn't get very far with it, but all the necessaries are there, so I can soon finish it off with the machine and either add it to our stuffed toy collection, (which probably needs giving away, esp as we are moving!), or turned into a gift. Will post that one when there's something recognisable to see on it. Anyway, these date back about 25 years to my pre-teen days!

I've also done another line on the band sampler and decided to miss out one that I didn't like. There's an unfinished line near to the top that I also didn't like much and missed out so far as it needs beads attaching and I'm leaving that 'til last. So, now I'm looking for something to fit in the 7 threads space there is left there.....

Goldfinch happy dance!

Yippee! I finally finished something! First 'proper' stitching finish of the year. Actually, I don't think I finished any C&G pieces yet, did I? Can't remember. Suppose I might have.... Yes! I did one on 2 Jan, according to previous posts. Anyway, here are the goldfinches. Started 24 March 2008 in Amstersdam airport and finished last night at about 11pm 18 February 2009. It was the least 'important' of all the things on the go at the moment, in that it's for us rather than an either overdue gift or an overdue C&G sample, but it feels good to have something finished. I plan to have a go at washing out both it and four other XS pieces that have got browned around where the frame was, or have got funny marks on. There's a really yacky, oily looking mark on the bluetits pieces.=( Anyway, let's see how well Ecover's hand washing liquid deals with those.=) Pattern etc has gone into my 'For Sale or Trade' folder on Webshots, if anyone's interested. 'Bluetits' is still there too, although I sold 'Chaffinches' on E-bay a while back.

Nothing done really on the C&G front. I meant to put in full days on in Monday and Tuesday of this week, but ended up under the weather again, (a colleague asked yesterday what the weather had done for me to be under it, but I suppose we all are, in purely logistical terms, aren't we?) Anyway, feel better now and should be able to get on today and press further forward tomorrow as well as next Monday and Tuesday. The substitute teacher we have at college at the mo, (ours had an accident on the ice, poor thing!), recommended that both I and another student whose just come back from 7 weeks in New Zealand where her daughter lives (and has recently had a baby!) and is as behind as I am on balance, just get on as quickly as we can, work small and simple and start to enjoy it again when we're caught up. I certainly agree with her small and relatively simple idea, but I do want to enjoy it as far as I can, even though I'm pretty clueless on most of what I'm doing, so I might take it a bit slower, but it won't matter greatly if I do. So, I want to get the bits of bobs of the old line and colour modules finished ASAP, do the sample from last week's class (today is half term, so no class - phew!), and finish the project I started last week by the time we go back next Thursday. It's quite a lot of work, but it may be possible - IF I get on with it!!!

Had a funny experience the other night. I was wasting time answering silly questions on Yahoo Answers. Later on I found one had been selected as the Best Answer, so I went back to look at it. The poser of the question had been really insulting and stupid in his response saying something like, 'I'm only doing this for the points anyway' and then putting some insulting quote, (that made him look a far bigger prat than he intended me to look!!) as his reason for why what I said was dumb. What cracked me up was that he said he only wanted the 3 points he got from selecting a best answer, but he had to pay 5 to ask the question in the first place. I earned 2 from answering and 10 for being voted as best. So, he ended up with egg on his face both by publicly proving himself narrow- and small-minded and by losing an overall 2 points whereas I gained 12!! HA-HA-HA!!! In yer face, pal!ROTFL! Hope he realises too..... I'm not at all a vindictive type, but I enjoyed this one!!! Tee-hee!=)

Postzusammenfassung in Deutsch:

So, mein Kreuzstich Distelfinken sind endlich fertig. Ich hab' diesen Projekt am 24. März 2008 angefangen (im Flughafen Amsterdam!) und gestern hab' ich es fertig gemacht.=) Schön, nö? Es ist auch schon gewascht und wartet jetzt auf einen Rahmen.

Musikstudium geht ein bißchen besser. Der Bach ist ein bißchen besser geworden (ich lerne Bratsche zu spielen) und die verbunden gespielte Tonleiter auch. Aber die Theorieprüfung ist am 5. März und hab' ich noch nicht genug studiert. Morgen, morgen!!=)

Hab' kürzlich überhaupt keine mehr Berufschularbeit gemacht und momentlich interessiere ich mich nicht so viel für das. Ich liebe Stickerei, aber wenn ich malen und sticken muss, dann ist das ein andere Sache!!

中文：

刺绣课程最近作得不好。因为最近常常生病了，所以没办法画画，设计和绣等。
我把金翅雀十字绣绣完了。我已经把全3个这个系列的飞鸟十字绣洗好了，等买框锯。

刺繡課程最近作得不好。因為最近常常生病了，所以沒辦法畫畫，設計和繡等。
我把金翅雀十字繡繡完了。我已經把全3個這個系列的飛鳥十字繡洗好了，等買框鋸。

Finished the bluetits - AT LAST!

Just when you thought I was never going to stitch anything again, I finished the bluetits piece! I just need to wash it now as there are a couple of marks on it, one of which would definitely show.

After laundering it can join the Chaffinches, awaiting completion of the Goldfinches and they can all be framed together. The remains of the kit is now in my 'For Sale or Trade' album on my Webshots

I hope to get the backing fabric for the CoS cushion/pillow this coming week and get that finished up and finally done too. Look out for that by the end of this month, all being well.

Back to stitching. It's now time to begin on the first of the 4 big annivesary pressies that I plan to stitch for this July - Sept. I'm thinking of doing this Helen M Stevens design on either black or v dark blue poly-cotton and stitching it in stranded cottons etc and not silks, then making it up as a cushion/pillow cover for DH's mum and step-father for their 20th this July. I could do it as a picture, in which case the sky's the limit with thread types, but they have so many up already that, every time I go to their place, I just can't imagine where they'd fit anything new in!! So, I think an item of soft-furnishing would be best. What do you all think of it? It's from 'Embroidered Gardens' and probably wouldn't take as long it looks like it would. Freestyle is often much faster than cross stitch anyway.=)

Mmmmmmmmm, nice day at home.

=)

Oh, how nice it is just to have a day at home! Got the place cleaned, did the washing, made out a proper shopping list (instead of a quick brainstorm on the hoof), read for a while, had a nice lunch as well as a homemade carrot, apple and lime juice this morning and did some needlework this afternoon whilst listening to parts of 'Wives and Daughters' and 'Anne of Green Gables' on tape. Lovely! A clean home, no dirty dishes, no ironing (I did it last Friday) and some stitching done. Some might say that I'm wasting myself, someone with an education like mine just being a stay at home, but, sorry, I'm quite content! There'll be more going on later on when I get a bit stronger, but I intend to enjoy the 'taking it easy' phase and, when I have to go and lay down, I'll be doing lots of reading I wouldn't normally have that much chance for. Looking forward to that too! That's the one thing I hold against stitching, I can't read at the same time!!! Glad we have so many classic novels on tape and CD.=)

First I took the dark red fabric off the 'Child of Spring' piece that I'd sewn on (badly) in Hamburg back in October. I didn't feel that the dark shade went well enough with the design anyway and I'd put one of the pieces on wonky. Don't seem to have enough bright red to do for the whole job now, so must wait to get some until Wednesday. I was rather pleased about that as I didn't fancy that job this afternoon! Will post a pic of that another time as it was badly creased and light's fading now.

Over the last couple of days I've been doing some more on the half stitching on the bluetits piece. Seems mad to be getting on with the background, but the third and largest bird of the three in this pic isn't joined to any of the other cross stitching, so I needed to put some background in so that I didn't put him in the wrong place! It's too easy to get the count wrong at the best of times and with the easiest of fabrics, (ie. Aida), but this is 28ct Jobelan, so I could even get him half a block out!! You can even see a little of the outline of where he will be at the bottom right of the block I've done.

<-Here's how they're looking just now.

Back from Scotland with some stitching progress - WOW!

We got home last night at 10:30 after deciding not to travel back today and lose most of the day on the road. Felt nice to be home, although we had a nice time with friends who looked after us very well.=) (Hi Pauline!!!) Back to the regular run of things now though, but at least work finishes for me on 6 Dec until late January and even then some things will be done by someone else - HURRAH!

Did some cross stitching whilst I was away and
<- here are the results so far. Finished the bottom bird and started putting in some of the background half-stitching. There's still one more bird to go in the big gap on the right hand side, but it's not joined to anything other than the background stuff, so I thought it was better to put some of that in (contrary to the normal procedure, huh?) so that I get the last main element in the right place!! I hope to get that done over the next couple of weeks. I want to get both that and the 'Branches' card done before the end of this calendar year and to take both the 3rd birds trio picture and some small, fun kits away with me when we have our hols in early January. We've settled on a cottage not too far from home rather than going abroad. Less fuss, expense and more relaxing. Less fuss about food too!

More leaves

<- Here's the current status on the bluetit picture. There are some advatages to being ill after all! It may not look like much progress from the day before, but, as most cross stitchers will know, these outlines can take time. Also, it's worked in one strand of regular DMC and one of stranded metallic. I think this one is meant to be the wintry one of the suite. The chaffinches was distinctly late spring/early summery with it's lovely pink blossoms.

Met my new viola teacher this morning and she's great! You can tell she was a young person in the sixties as there's something quite 'of that era' about her, but I liked her a lot and I know I can really work with her. She'd already prepared so much material for her teaching, esp. for violin. Why do I find that impressive? Well, she's a violist herself and has put that extra time into the more unfamiliar instrument and clef unlike my last teacher who didn't even sit down and look through my book properly. First proper lesson is next Tuesday (hurrah!) and she's given me some bow hand exercises to correct some slight problems there to be getting started with. We played a short piece together from one of the tutor books. I was only doing open strings, but it was great. SO much fun to play even something so simple with someone else.=)

Good progress on the birdies

As I've been ill either in bed or on the sofa since last Weds night, I've been able to really get on with my latest birds design.=) Here they are ->

The Stitchologist asked where the dog would end up hanging. Well, not at our place, sadly! He was meant to be for my Aunt and Uncle's ruby wedding gift, but I hang my head in shame to say, that was back on March '04! Still, better late than never and promises must be kept, so he'll soon get a new home on my dog loving aunt's wall. I'm sure she'll love him and I will quite miss him myself, although I cursed myself 40 times over for ever having started him. I characteristically bit off more than I could chew at that early stage in my embroidery career!!!

Can't wait to meet my new music teacher tomorrow, hurrah! We're having a new carpet put down in the hall at the same time, so that will be great too. Home is almost finished!=)

HUZZAH!

A finish! My first of the year and also the first of the 50 project challenge. Here he is, the completed blue tit in all his back-stitched glory!=)

Isn't he pretty?=) I just love him.

Blue tit and a rethink.....

So, here's what the rebel blue tit looks like at the mo. I haven't had time to do any of it today and it was taken in non-natural light and adjusted this evening, (in case it looks a bit odd in any way, i.e. rather yellow).

Today I was given a great illustration to think seriously about when it comes to stuff like getting that pesky mutt (the dog portrait) finished. I was told it was like 'sitting on a pin'. Suppose that just before you sat down, someone put a drawing pin on the chair and you sat right on it. You have 2 choices, you can either get up, remove the pin and sit back down in relative comfort, (supposing you haven't damaged your behind too grievously, that is!!!!), or you can stay on it, pretending the discomfort isn't there, you're not really squirming away from the pin and so on. When we put things off, knowing that they're bugging us, but we just won't get on with them anyway, it's like sitting on this pin and staying there. We know what to do to remove the discomfort, but we choose to say 'I don't mind' and keep on letting it jab at us. I suppose that we can get kinda used to the pricking sensation and even grow a bit numb to it over time.

So, I must get on with that dog, even if a little at a time and then I might actually begin to feel the tension I suffer from release a bit. Seems a bit too simple to be the root of the tension, but it's worth a try and, if it doesn't actually work to get rid of all of it, then it will at least be one irritation out of the way. I'll feel able to get on with other projects that I'm looking forward to without feeling that I shouldn't do them as I haven't finished the dog yet, and that's just got to be great. Von, what you said about taking care of one's sanity is just too true. It was pointed out to me that I needed to get this project that was bugging my big style off my mind and thus free up my hobby for genuine relaxation. This is what doggy looks like just now:

Not a frog, but a bird this time....

Here's the progress on my bluetit so far. I have loads of bluetit designs, kits and so forth in both XS and freestyle and have been wondering what to do with them all. Today the idea came to me - make them into a quilt/throw to put around me when it's cool in the evenings and I don't want to put the heating on with electicity prices being stratospheric these days..... I'll put plain panels in between the stitched ones and fill it with some lightweight batting. Sounds good!

I've been having a very slobby day stitching today, but I think I'd better get on with something productive now. Sigh, how dull!!!

Two Finishes!

Yippee! Finally got the birds and the needlecase finished.=) The stitching show motivated me to get on with my WIPs (and at least one of the 2 chums I went with to get on with hers too....), and here are the results.

Here are the birdies: It's not at all a good photo as you can't really see the beading in the flowers at all. There are actually beads and long-stitches in there, which look fab in real life, but don't show well on here.=(

And here are the front and the back of the completed needlecase. I'm quite proud of it as the sewing is quite neat for a change and I managed to get the stitches that hold the 'leaf' in to be virtually invisible along the outer edge.=)

Stitched in 'Cotton Candy' Caron Watercolors and Wildflowers threads on pink Oslo fabric.

Nope, I'm not dead...=)

I'm still here, somewhere!!! Haven't been doing any stitching to speak of lately, so there wasn't anything to post here. Sorry to be so dull.

Anyway, I went to the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show in Manchester yesterday afternoon with a couple of girlie friends and got 5 pieces of fabby organza (2 whites, 2 greens and 1 aqua blue), great for leaves and insect wings in the stumpwork pieces I'll get around to one day. I also got Helen M Stevens' 'World of Embroidery' for half price and thus completed my collection of her books.

The show kinda spurred me on to do some stitching, so I almost completed the background on the chaffinches and will finish that off, plus the top-stitching on the birds today. That will just leave adding the beads and long-stitching on the flowers and it'll be done. Also want to finally get that needlecase sewn up. I did prepare a piece of bright pink fabric as a backing for it - spent hours hemming it up to size by hand, then realised that I just didn't like it as a backing and wanted white instead. I'm just going to use felt as it doesn't need edging up and will then sew the flannel leaf in, (which also needs some sort of trimming.....), and that's another project done. Planning for some progress this week.

Then it's back to the dog and the cushion cover. I will feel a LOT freer with my stitching once those are done, esp. That pesky mutt! (But I will, of course, be immensely proud of him when he's done.....)

New Chaffinches Shot

I haven't done any on this, or any other stitching project, for about a week now, so not much progress. Just a little half stitching in the background there.

Photo taken from far away this time....

Here's the current progress report on the Chaffinches and Blossom design. I put the frame on the floor then took the photo from standing, which is probably too far away, but at least it's a lot less liney that the last shot was. Still not stitched up the needlecase yet, so nothing to show on that one, nor have I done anything on the other 2 WIPs. No-one will die of suspense though, I guess!!

Progress on the Works in Progress

Here are the chaffinches as of 2am today! (I couldn't sleep!!!)

And here's the completed stitching on the hardanger needlecase. I just need to get some fabric to finish it up now (make the backing and the leaves to hold the needles) and then it can be sent over to my Mother-in-Law.



Still don't seem to be able to get rid of the lines on the photos and make the fabric look like it should. Anyone got any ideas?

Quick Update Before Hitting the Road

Just want to post a quick update on the current WIPs before I head off to Germany for the week, (would rather stay home though, I must confess.....)

Dog looks kinda surreal, doesn't he??? The left hand eye is a bit too round and needs elongating, but other than that, I'm quite pleased with them.

Watch the Birdie!

Here's how the chaffinch XS piece is looking right now. Coming on beautifully, I think. I won't be doing any more on it for a little while though, as I want to take it to Germany when we go on Monday so I can work on it there. My other 2 WIPs are either too large or too 'delicate' to take, so I'll work on those over the next 50 hours and post updates over the w/e.

I decided to do the hardanger needlecase for myself whilst on the long car journey from Deilingen to Leipzig.=)

Also, just seen the preview .pdf of the next issue of 'Inspirations' and there's one of those glorious Elizabethan sweetbag designs in there called 'Flowers for Elizabeth', so I think that must go on my 'stuff to stitch for self' list!!!