Framing day.... and other stuff

I started the day by searching for threads. The little market shop had my favourite DMC 4045 green variation thread, but was out of 931 and 5283. So I had to buy stuff in Hobbycraft later.

I found 2 frames in the market. It was amazing to find a long frame for the sampler. Soooo much easier than a bellpull, especially since I have no special top thingy or anything...

Finishing the border on Garden Girl was a nightmare, but a puzzling one. We could play "spot the differences" on that project, as there are mistakes a bit everywhere. So the 2 ends of the border shouldn't join... Except I cheated a little.

Before that I worked on my website. Again. First, I wanted something more "News about crafts" compared to my blog. Then I wanted to translate in French.

So the works are not totally done yet, but you can get the idea...

I also bought CrossStitcher and World of CrossStitcher this morning, and made a review of WOCS (CS will come later). So that's why Joan Elliott's new Stitching Angel is on my sidebar now. Just started. 34 different colours. Now that's a challenge...

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J'ai commence ma journee par une chasse aux fils. Le marche avait mon fil DMC 4045 prefere pour le vert varie, mais pas DMC931, donc j'ai du aller a Hobbycraft.

Mais le marche avait des cadres interessant, et comme j'ai trouve un cadre qui convenait pour le sampler, je l'ai encadre au lieu de faire un bellpull. Ce qui a facilite ma tache, surtout que je n'ai pas de trucs pour pendre et faire vraiment un bellpull ;)

Garden Girl a ete une sorte de cauchemar: rien ne correspond, et on peut jouer au jeu des 7 erreurs avec. Et bien sur j'ai du tricher pour que la bordure se rejoigne correctement.

Avant la seance d'encadrement, j'ai bosse sur mon site. Encore. Je voudrais arriver a un site cible sur "Actualites et critiques de la broderie", avec mon blog gardant les trucs plus perso.

Et je voulais le traduire en francais. Le systeme a encore des bugs, mais les pages, les tutos par exemple, sont toutes traduites. Et j'ai aussi fait ma premiere critique de magazine en francais avec le nouveau World of CrossStitching.

Et c'est de la que vient mon nouveau projet, l'ange de la broderie de Joan Elliott qui est dans la barre de gauche. 34 couleurs... c'est un challenge !

Bee Harmony finished

Well... all is said in the title... Let's just look at the picture. I will be sewing something like a bellpull this week end...

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Bee Harmony est fini, ce qui veut dire couture ce week end pour le transformer en quelque chose a mettre sur le mur....

A blast from the past

On Saturday, after a bit of gardening because I didn't feel like stitching, I decided to sort out my "papers" (books, magazines, charts...) in my craftroom. That's how I came across the Flying owl, an old chart from Maria Diaz from the great area when Quick and Easy had 2-3 charts I wanted to stitch each month. This one is from the July 2004.

This project is the essence of UFO... I looked into my blog archives, and I apparently started it that very July 2004, as an easy project to change from "Angel of CrossStitching". Easy it was not: dark fabric, colours very close together in the whitish range... I finally gave up.
But on Saturday I felt it was a shame it's not finished, and anyway in 4 years I became a more experienced stitched, and my daylight lamp would help anyway...

Stitching wise, I'm also in the last band of the sampler ( the one similar to the first, with bees and stuff). The bellpull idea is interesting, and I might use it, but... it's still too close to framing in the sense that it ends up on the wall ;) And no Jenn, I don't have anything against bellpulls...

Lili, the sampler is about 15x30 cm. It's a big piece. And no, I'm not afraid the stitches would get damaged... I belong to a family who has quite a few embroided pieces, doilies and table tops... All that is used and reused, and machine washed, ironed, etc... and it remains in good condition. Plus I don't have pets that would damage stuff... so... I could make a cushion out of the sampler and it would remain intact.

Yesterday I made these 2 little beaded critters. The cat's eyes are a little too big, I sould make it again with different eyes. But I love my little turtle. I displayed it on my decoration tree on the mantle piece.

Patternnuts, I sense a need of stitching reading... that I lost a while ago. I agree that there are "gossip" articles in UK magazines missing from the US ones, but I'm not a gossip kind of girl. I'm fed up of "well done" words in the letters, and of the charity stitchers, or slimming stitchers, or budgie stitchers... The magazines are a bit too expensive for just gossip...

Ginny, don't worry, you won't miss anything by reading in English only. I'm well aware most of the people can't read French !

Sandra, for drawn thread work, I would use at least 28 count linen or evenweave. Linen would give a more natural/old fashioned look, but evenweave might be easier to count the trheads, and might look more regular. I would mostly think of the scissors (very very fine!) you will use for cutting the threads. For a first time, I would not use a higher count than 28, so that you can cut each thread individually easily.

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Samedi, je n'avais pas le coeur a broder, donc j'ai jardine, puis range mes "papiers" (livres, grilles, magazines...) and ma craftroom. C'est ainsi que je suis tombee sur le hibou que j'avais commence en juillet 2004. c'est un modele de Maria Diaz dans Quick and Easy Juillet 04, en pleine epoque glorieuse ou chaque numero avait 2-3 projets que je brodais.

Au depart, le hibou devait etre un projet facile pour me reposer de "Angel of CrossStitching", mais il s'est avere encore plus dur: toile foncee, couleurs proches dans le blanc... je l'ai donc laisse tomber. Jusqu'a present. Je trouve que c'est dommage qu'il soit laisse en plan, car j'aime toujours le design, et je me suis dit que comme j'ai 4 ans d'experience en plus, et une lampe "lumiere du jour"... il etait temps de m'y remettre.

Sinon, je suis a la derniere bande du sampler, celle qui est comme la premiere, avec les abeilles et les fleurs. L'idee du bellpull est interessante, mais trop proche de l'encadrement. Mais bon, je sens que le sampler va finir comme ca....

Lili, le sampler fait 15x30cm. C'est un grand projet. Mais je n'ai pas peur de l'abimer en le manipulant. Dans ma famille on a toujours utilise des nappes et napperons brodes, et ca passe meme en machine, donc... pas de probleme. Je sens que certaines s'evanouissent deja...

Sandra, pour le travail a fils tires, je recommande du 28 count ou plus gros. Ca devrait aider a couper les fils plus facilement. Lin ou unifil, c'est une question de "look", les deux sont faciles a utiliser. L'unifil donnera un travail plus regulier, et le lin un rendu plus naturel. C'est surtout les sciseaux qui sont importants, ils doivent etre hyper fins pour pouvoir couper les fils un a la fois.
Hier j'ai aussi fait 2 petits animaux en perles. Je trouve que le chat a de trop gros yeux, faudra que je le refasse, mais j'adore ma tortue, elle est trop mimi !!! Je l'ai d'ailleurs mise sur mon arbre a decoration, sur la cheminee.

Patternnuts, je n'aime pas les articles "sensation" (perruche brodeuse?) ou "people" des magazines anglais, donc comme je n'aime pas les grilles proposees... je n'achete plus ces mags !

Bees buzzing.. or needle buzzing?

This time I'm only showing the bottom of the design so we can see the stitches closer...

Winter is back in beautiful England, and I have to switch the light on even in the morning, so of course my pictures are crappy. I had to do 2 extra rows of four sided stitches this morning, it's hell. Still one to go in the design...

The thing is the fabric thread on top of those stitches shows, separate from the rest... So I don't have nice holes. But at this point, I don't care, the overall design doesn't suffer, so....

I have a very important question to you all: how should finish this design?

I don't feel like framing it. I was thinking to make a cushion similar to the chickadees, but it might be too big ! So I'm looking for original ideas.... come on, even things you feels are a bit so so...

Chiloe, "De Fil en Aiguille" is the only French magazine I look at usually. And I buy it sometimes, but only if there are stuff I want to stitch. Mind you, I never stitched anything from those magazines... But their finishings are inspiring.

I don't know if I write my blog for me or for others. I think it's more for others. If it was only for me, I would only keep my Picassa album, with technical details about my projects, end of story. I like to read other people's blogs. And usually the way I write is what I like in other's blogs. So yes, I guess this whole thing is very complex...

A note for French people reading in English: I don't translate things litterally. I re-write in French, to say about the same thing. It's part of my French/English switch brain. But it means that I often write different things in both languages... Especially when it's specific to French people ;)

So it's worth skimming through the French version too...

Patternnuts, I'm glad you entered a phase of "I speak my mind" (yes, I do read your blog... ;)) Do you still subscribe to the magazines? You know, CrossStitcher's blog is now presenting the issues, with pictures of the projects... It's a way of knowing what's coming. I hope you get back to your satin project, I'm kinda rubbish at that stitch for some reason...

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Ceci est une photo de juste le bas du projet, afin de le voir de plus pres... J'ai du faire encore 2 lignes de "pulled work", je deteste ca, surtout que le fil de la toile au dessus se desolidarise et est apparent. Je sais pas pourquoi. Mais bon, comme ca ne change pas grand chose au global... pas grave.

Par contre, j'ai une question importante. Je ne veux pas encadrer ce projet, donc je suis la recherche d'idees pour en faire quelque chose. Au depart je pensais faire un coussin comme les messages, mais ca ferait un peu grand. Alors... qui a des idees?

Chiloe, "De fil en aiguille" est le seul mag que je feuillette systematiquement quand je viens en France, et que j'achete parfois. Je n'ai encore rien fait de ces magazines, mais les "finishes" sont sympa et originaux.

Je ne sais pas si j'ecris mon blog pour moi ou pour les autres... Si c'etait uniquement pour moi, je ne graderais que mon album Picassa, avec les details techniques pour avoir une reference de mes projets. J'aime lire les autres blogs, donc j'ecris dans le style qui me plait. Je suppose que tout ca est en effet complexe...

Keep on buzzing

Ah ah... Could it be? a progress pic? Yes !

On Bank May week end I left it to the drawn thread herringbone purple line.

I spent a lot of time on those four sided square stitches, because it's what we call "pulled work". You have to pull your thread hard to produce holes, and, well... it's hard. With and without a frame. Over 2 threads gives you something quite invisible (bands 5 and 7), but it got better with the over 4 threads one (band 10).

The sort of white flowers on band 8 didn't come out nice at first, because of the tension difference between stitches, but I passed the needle underneath to pull back and forth and it gave that nice plump effect.

Leaves in backstitch are long to do, but this time I didn't have to frog most of it, so it's quite an achievement ! Otherwise, well... I'm in the middle of the design I think. I already have frights at the idea that I will have to do something so that the design would look straight... eeek !

I'm glad you enjoyed my little "variations comparison". I might do more little tips like that in the future.

Tip of the day: when your satin stitches don't look too good or even, stick the needle under the whole cluster and pull back and forth so that the threads get parallel to eachother.

Pink Canary, I thought "Broderie Inspiration" looked familiar... I bought some of the Australian version issues alerady. I still have to get the courage to try anything from them !

Now, a bit of blogging stuff, and the meme... BTW, feel free to take the questions and answer them on your blog, I took it from somewhere else myself.... ;)

Pink canary, I have to say I enjoy discovering new blogs as well, and at one point my main source was the comments. now, well... not so much. I guess it's hard to comment when you don't know what to say. Is "love the picture, well done" enough? And then there's that time effect... So many blogs, so little time, so we tend to visit like Speedy Gonzales, and I now realise that my posts these days are so long people will just give up anyway ;)

Lutine, I started reading your blog like 2 years ago because not only do we share the same tastes in stitching, but also movies and other stuff... and now we even have the same feeling about blogging ;) I think there are a lot of good blogs, quality blogs, I have like 200 on my bloglines !!! Or I don't see the defects... ;)

Patternnuts, Chiloe... we discussed the magazines issue. When I was writing the magazine reviews, I subscribed to most of them, because they were interesting, and had charts I was stitching. After the quality of the magazines went drastically down, I found myself skimming through the pages, not even reading. So I decided to unsubscribe.

Now, what would a review of a magazine with no design I'm interested in would look like? "I like nothing in this issue, it's all crap, don't buy it". Do I want to spend nearly 4 pounds (to buy the magazine) for that? 4 pounds I could buy crafty things with? Hum, not really....
Not to mention that magazines like CrossStitcher are more and more present on the web, and might not appreciate me hammering them systematically...

So me not writing reviews (and in doing so having an hour extra of stitching time) is a strong statement: The magazines are so bad they are not worth buying, and not worth spending time writing about them.

Now, I recently made some reviews on websites, and products, but they are on my website... the only thing is it takes time to find stuff to review and to make posts, on top of the regular posts... so it's hard to make it regular !

But I might concentrate on that sometime...

Chiloe, even if there was a time I didn't post regularly, I don't see why people shouldn't come back. That's what Google reader is for ;) Things like moving, or being sick for a long time, got in the way of posting ;) BTW, I read your blog everyday too. In fact, all people who comment I visit you everyday.

Now I will stop talking and switch to French. This too, double the amount of time needed to post....

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Mon progres sur mon sampler... Je l'avais laisse a la bande de jours avec "herringbone". J'avoue avoir eu un passage a vide a cause des carres de fils tires (et pas enleves). Les bandes 5 et 7 semblent quasi invisible, il faut tirer for pour produire les trous, et ca fait mal aux mains. La bande 10 qui est le meme systeme, mais deux fois plus grand, etait plus facile.

Les fleurs blanches de la bande 8 m'ont aussi donne du fil a retordre, car elles avaient un aspect irregulier. Mais en passant mon aiguille sous les fils pour tirer et reajuster, ca a donne ce joli effet rebondi.

Sinon, je suis a peu pres a la moitie du design, avec le centre en backstitch, ce qui est toujours long avec les petites feuilles, mais ce coup-ci je n'ai pas fait d'erreurs, je suis fiere de moi !

Je suis contente que vous ayez apprecie mon petit truc sur les DMC variations. Si ca plait, il se pourrait que j'en fasse plus dans le futur...

L'astuce du jour: si vos blocs de point de satin ont l'air irreguliers, passez l'aiguille en dessous, tirez (doucement) pour remettre les fils en place.

Pink Canary, il me semblait bien que "Broderie Inspirations" me faisait penser au mag australien que j'achete quand je le trouve... Pour l'instant je n'ai aps encore ose broder les merveilles qui s'y trouvent !!!

Et maintenant, pour les commentaires du meme... Si vous voulez, reprennez le questionnaire sur votre blog, il commence a faire le tour en anglais, mais pourquoi ne pas le lancer en francais?

Pink canary, j'ai toujours adore decouvrir les blogs des commentatrices... c'est le fun principal d'avoir des commentaire ;) il faut dire que commenter peut etre si complique... On se demande quoi dire, vais-je ecrire un xieme "super, j'adore"... Sans parler du fait qu'on veut lire un max de blog en un minimum de temps, ce qui fait que commenter devient annexe !

Lutine, j'ai commence a lire ton blog il y a deux ans environ, car nous partagions les memes gouts en broderie, films et tant d'auters choses... et voila qu'on ressent la meme chose sur blogger !!! Je trouve qu'il y a beaucoup de blogs de qualite, j'en ai 200 sur mon Bloglines !!! Ahlala... trop de trucs a lire...

A propos des reviews de magazines... J'avais lance ca quand j'etais abonnee a la plupart d'enter eux, car ils etaient interessants et plein de projets que je voulais broder. Mais apres presque 1 an de magazines ou je ne trouvais rien d'interessant, je me suis desabonnee, et j'ai abandonne l'idee des reviews.

D'une part, ca prend du temps (environ 1h par review), et de l'argent (faut bien payer les mags, a presque 4 livres, ca fait mal pour quelque chose qu'on n'utilise pas). D'autre part, si mes reviews sont systematiquement negatifs, je vais avoir les magazines sur le dos.

Donc en fait, mon abandon des reviews de magazines est un message fort: les magazines sont si peu interessant que non seulement ils ne meritent pas d'etre achetes, mais ils ne meritent meme pas qu'on passe du temps a ecrire sur eux (et vous a lire). Donc voila, achetez d'autres trucs.
Par contre, j'ai recemment fait des reviews d'autres choses, mais c'est sur mon site, pas sur le blog.

Chiloe, je ne comprend pas, meme si j'ai eu un passage a vide, c'est pas une raison pour m'abandonner, c'est a ca que sert google reader, a voir quand je reviens ;) Il faut dire qu'avec mon demenagement, puis la grippe qui m'a tenue pres d'un mois, j'ai pas ete gatee cette annee !

Au fait, moi aussi je lis ton blog tous les jours, d'ailleurs, je lis les blogs des gens qui ont commente tous les jours !!!

3 days of crafting fun...

Loads of pictures today...

Instead of posting during the week end, I prefered to craft, and wait to post during the week. I know, don't ask. let's just say I had an urge to stitch and stitch some more.... It gave me great focus ! And that's how things are done...

I found a pattern for a crocheted daffodil, and had to make it as this is my favourite flower. Me and crochet are not best friends at the moment, my hands get tired fast. Cramps and the like. I suppose that's how stitching took over...

As predicted, I finished the birds !!!! Half stitches background was finished Sunday morning, and I did a little bit of the backstitching, but it got boring, so I left it and took... Garden Girl !!! Why? It was a wip closeby... Yesterday morning I was motivated for it again and finished it, including the french knots on the flowers.

I was so motivated that I even made a cushion out of it. It's been a while since I wanted to try this type of cushion. And with this project, it was not only easy, but a must !

You might have noticed that the background made a rectangle, and so any attempt at framing would require lacing, or other techniques so that the borders ould be perfectly aligned. Here, I sewed the fabrics on the edge of the borders. Easy peasy. I've put the birds on my mantle piece, instead of the "Gingerbread Cottage", which is too "winterey".

So as I previously said, I worked on Garden Girl. I have a sort of love/hate relationship with this design. Most of the time I feel it's too naive and childish. But sometimes I find it cute, like right now. And it's nice to stitch it. Would it be the lovely weather we have?

I also started Bee Harmony from Patricia Ann. This is part of "I want to stitch a speciality stitches sampler". I had the choice between a few samplers, but my choice was directed by the fact that this one DBF likes. Well, I had to make a choice anyway....

I hear Lili saying "eek ! bees !" already, but I like them, so delicate in over one stitches... That's how I see i progressed as a stitcher: I didn't have problems with disappearing stitches this time...
Garden Girl and Bee Harmony being 2 very different projects, I will stitch them at the same time (well, switching from one to the other of course !!!).

patternnuts, I'm not really interested in food I can't eat, it defies the whole purpose of it. Of course if you add eyes to make cute amigurumies, well, they just become cute characters. Otherwise, real food is better ;)

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Beaucoup de photos aujourd'hui... J'ai simplement garde le week end pour bricoler loin de l'ordi, et donc me voila avec un message massif.

J'ai crochete une jonquille, car c'est ma fleur preferee. Celle-la ne se fanera pas ! Sinon, le crochet et moi ne sommes plus trop amis: j'attrape des crampes tres vite, et donc je ne peux pas crocheter longtemps. Du coup, la broderie reprend le dessus, car la, je peux broder 5 heures d'affilee sans probleme. Enfin, en brodant reellement 5 heures sans pause, je l'ai fait une fois par inadvertance, ca me donnerait des fourmis dans les doigts.

Ce week end j'ai ete tres motivee pour la broderie, donc. Les oiseaux sont non seulement termines (Lutine, j'ai reussi mes predictions!), mais meme devenus coussin !

Le fond en demi points a ete termine Dimanche, et apres un peu de points arriere, la toile m'est tombee des mains, et donc j'ai repris... Garden Girl. Pourquoi? Parce que c'etait l'encours le plus proche !!! Cette petite pause a fait que hier matin j'ai fini totalement les oiseaux, points de noeud compris. Et dans l'apres midi j'ai fait le coussin.

Ca faisait un bout de temps que je voulais essayer de faire ce style de coussin, et ya pas plus simple !! En plus, c'est totalement adapte a ce projet, vu qu'il a des bordures bien definies qui necessite d'etre totalement droit en suivant le modele. Simple avec une machine a coudre !
Maintenant le coussin trone sur ma cheminee. Un peu de Printemps, enfin !!!

Je ne sais pas si j'aime ou je deteste Garden Girl. Ca depend des jours. Parfois je le trouve trop naif et gamin, d'autres juste super mignon. En ce moment, je suis en phase "super mignon", et donc j'apprecie de le broder.

J'ai aussi commence "Bee Harmony" de Patricia Ann, que j'ai achete a K'thylda a Lille, car DBF a dit "c'et beau, prend celui-la". Je vois deja la grimace de Lili parce que ce sont des abeilles, mais je suis assez fiere de moi, car elles ne m'ont pas pose de problemes ce coup-ci, alors que il y a un an c'etait un grand challenge a cause des points qui disparaissaient sous la toile.

Donc en ce moment j'alterne entre Garden Girl et Bee Harmony car ce sont deux projets tres differents, et donc quand j'en ai marre de l'un, je passe a l'autre...