Witches and Ghosts

I've started my next little cross stitch project - another one with a Halloween theme.  I had three on the list altogether.  Not sure if I will get to number three by the end of the month so that may end up waiting until next year.

Here is progress on number two so far.  It's a biscornu so this little design will now get repeated in each corner.

I wanted to keep roughly to the colour scheme of the original pattern which had purple background fabric.  As I didn't have any purple fabric lying around I took some cream linen I had and coloured it with my Inktense pencils.  I have no idea how colourfast the pencils are on fabric but since this is a project that won't get washed I figured it would be worth a go.  Seems to have worked just fine, only time will tell how much the colour will fade in the future.

Halloween Birdie is done

I managed to get my little Halloween Bird finished while watching the rugby over the weekend. 

Now I just have to figure out whether to just frame him as he is or make him in to a little wall hanging which was the original plan.  I think it will depend on what fabric I have hidden away.  I don't really want to buy anything but I have a suspicion that I have something that will match, it's just whether I have enough.

I really love this cute design though, my favourite parts are the way the lettering is done, the ghost and the little pumpkins.

Halloween Bird

Managed to get stitching on my first little Halloween project.  This a beautiful simple design that I admired on Kate's blog last year, and she gifted me the chart, treasure that she is :)

It's coming together so quickly and I love it so far.  I'm making a few changes to the original though.  First off I'm stitching it a lot larger as I have a plan to may be attempt to make this the centre piece of a mini patchwork wall hanging.  Also the original came in a kit with a little button, I don't have any Halloween buttons so I think I'm going to move around and maybe double up on some of the little motifs that surround the bird, haven't really though it through yet so we'll see where it goes.

Birds Eye View Update

I know it's not quite the end of the month yet, but with lots of things to do this weekend I don't think I will be getting anything else done on Birds Eye View this month. Picture above shows where it was at when I picked it up at the beginning of August and the one below shows where we are as of today.
I manged to get a fair bit done. The cat and bird are outlined and I've made good progress on the top of the bird house. Next time I'm hoping I'll get the bird house finished and maybe get to start on the next cheeky kitty. For September I've decided not to work on Lakeside Farm, even though it is so close to being finished, instead I love Halloween and I have a couple of smaller designs that I want to make up in time for this years celebrations so I'll be working on those instead.

Hope you all have a fabulous fun filled weekend. X

Lakeside Farm - July update

I didn't really feel that July was a great month for my cross stitch but actually putting the 'then' and 'now' photos up for this post I can see that I got more done than I though so am ok with the progress made for July.

So this is where we were last time.And this is the nowThe farm building are complete and I've made it down to the top of the Lake. There isn't really too much to go on this one now, but it might be a couple of months before it comes out again. It's time for Birds Eye View this month and in September I have a couple of little Halloween projects that I want to get stitched up.

Birds Eye View

I didn't get round to doing my usual cross stitch update before the month of June was out so here it is now.

Just a reminder this is what the new project looked like when I picked it up.And this is the now.Not quite as much progress as I had hoped considering I didn't have a sewing machine but I also had a generally busy month and a week off on my holiday so I guess I shouldn't beat myself up too much.

Introducing Birds Eye View

With Siberian Gold finished it was time to pick out a new cross stitch project from Mum's UFO box. I have to admit that looking through the box makes me so sad, but luckily my wonderful man noticed that it was weighing heavily on my mind and offered to have a look through and pick something out for me. This is what he came up with.It's another big one, and similarly to Siberian Gold Mum barely got it started. So this is where I'm starting from.Not a lot to go on huh? This one is likely to be with me for a good couple of years I reckon. There is quite a lot of back stitch too but I'm planning on doing bits at a time as I go along. Tune back in at the end of the month to see if I manage to make much progress!

Lakeside Farm Update

It's the last day of the month so it must be time for a cross stitch update. Siberian Gold still hasn't found it's way in to a frame but it will in time I'm sure. The bonus of getting it finished so early in the month was that I've had plenty of time to work on Lakeside Farm. This is where I left it last.And this is the now.A fair bit of progress but to be honest with no machine this last week or so I thought that I might have gotten a bit further but I haven't really had the energy for much. Still I'm not really complaining I'm happy with what I did. I'm off for a week in the Lakes in June so I should probably keep going on this, but I'm eager to start on the next of Mum's UFOs too so we'll see.

Lakeside Farm Update

So the end of last month was pretty hectic and I didn't get to post much so I'm just realising that I haven't done a cross stitch update. March was the turn of Lakeside Farm in the rotation. Here is where I left it in January.As this is what it looked like before I put it away again last week.I'm just a few rows short of being done with the first half of the pattern. I had hoped to get the page on the chart finished but it wasn't to be, and considering all of the other stuff I managed to get done last month I'm still really pleased with how this one is coming along.

Back to the Tigers this month? Will they get done? 8 days in to the months and not a stitch has been sewn yet, I'd best pull my socks up!!

Siberian Gold - February

Time to report on my cross stitch progress for this month.

You might remember that I had decided to work on a couple of projects on a monthly rotation. So it was back to the Tigers for February. This is where I left them.Taking these progress pictures never ceases to amaze me. In a month where I again thought that I'd barely gotten anything done I was really surprised and amazed at the comparison. This is the now.I am so so close to having this one done. Just a few more inches of cross stitch to fill in and then some back stitched detail. If it was just the cross stitching to finish I would be tempted to keep this one out and get it finished, but back stitching always takes longer than you think, and while it is only a few details I know it will take some time. So this one is going away again until April, time to start working on Lakeside Cottage again.

Lakeside Farm Progress

In all the excitement of finishing the kindle cover and the quilt I almost forgot to post a cross stitch up date. You might remember way back at the beginning of the month, me telling you about this new project that I would be working on in JanuaryI have to confess with all the hand stitching going on round here this month, kindle pouch, doodle stitch a long and sewing the quilt binding, the cross stitch hasn't seen the light of day for the last couple of weeks.

Thankfully at the beginning of the month it did get worked on for a while so fair progress has been made.This is probably about quarter of the picture done. If I hadn't gotten distracted by the other stuff I probably would have been half way through by now, lol. Anyhow I'm really pleased with how it's coming along and I'm enjoying working with the autumnal colours.

This one is going to be put away through February though as the tigers are coming back out. I'm looking forward to working on them again. I think this rotation thing will work well for me and it'll stop any one of these cross stitch projects from feeling like a long slog.

Lakeside Farm

I've already introduced you to my first new quilting project of 2011. Time for the new cross stitch to be introduced. The tigers will still be in the mix but as you know they are one of my Mum's UFOs and I figured it would be nice to start a brand new cross stitch too.I bought this kit, called Lakeside Farm, while on holiday last June and as yet it hasn't seen the light of day. I fell in love with the image as it really reminded me of a scene from my favourite Buttermere. We're hoping there is a chance that we might get back to the Lakes for maybe a week in May or June so it would be nice to have this well under way by then.

I think I'm going to work this in a monthly rotation with the tigers, so January will see the start of Lakeside Farm. I wonder how much progress I'll have to show you at the end of the month. January is traditionally quite a quiet month after the manic festivities of December so maybe that'll mean a good amount of stitching time. We'll see. In the meantime the first few stitches have been made.