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?

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!!!

WIP Update as of 12 July

Good morning! Glad some of you are planning on trying hardanger. Something else I should have mentioned last posting is that hardanger embroidery works up quickly. So, if you're used to, and fed up of, the sheer amounts of time needed for cross stitch, then you'll enjoy the relative speed of hardanger.

Now, speaking of which, I actually did some on the cushion last night and here's progress so far. I counted every single element meticulously as I don't want a repeat performance of my first attempt with this piece, where getting one row of things one row of holes out caused me to have to take about 70% of the stitching I'd done out again! You can even see the old holes if you look closely at the pic (click on it for a full sized version).

This is the current status on the chaffinch piece. I'll probably be taking this one to Germany with me next week to work on/finish off there and the other day I ordered its companion 'Blue Tits and Seedheads' design. Hope that will come soon too.

Haven't done much on the dog beyond taking out the few remaining stitches from my first attempt at the eyes, (I made them too round), and re-drawing in the eye area on the fabric. Might just brave that later on this morning, but knowing me, I'll bottle out!!!!! I'm still getting zero done on old overdue work and not feeling any more comfy with it, so I'm just going to have to take myself in hand. I thought of bribing myself. Any other ideas?

My Current WIPs (in 3 Volumes) #1 Chaffinches and Blossom

Good morning! Well, a semi good morning as my throat has swollen up again and I fear a batch of tonsillitis..... Oh well, I wasn't going to do much today anyway as I got loads of work done yesterday, so apart from cancelling the shoe buying trip (which I hate anyway - I have awkward sized feet) I'm just going to slob out and stitch. So, maybe tomorrow I'll be OK.=)

This is the picture I've started for the bedroom. I'll be doing the 'blue tits and seedheads' design from the same series too for one either side of the bed. I love the colours in this one and the changes are very subtle with a lot of blending of colours together, (one strand each of two shades instead of the usual two of the same). Problem with both this photo and the next is that evenweave fabrics don't reproduce well on certain scales of photo, so both of these pix look 'liney' and the hardanger one looks loose!!!!!