A fabulous summer of stitching

I can't believe how beautiful our summer has been so far. I've been in such a good mood. I have, inevitably, spent more time outside and ergo less time stitching, but I have been making great progress regardess. Plus the gorgeous weather means I could take some shots outside.

A few weeks ago I spent Sunday doing some actual finishing. I think I've shared all of the pieces on here in their happy dance but not yet finished state.  I've just realised they are all Blackbird Designs. First up is a group of pillows, the larger one is Summer Stars from A Stitcher's Journey, but stitched with floss I had to hand. The three smaller pillows are Small Tokens from My Heart is True. Really fun quick stitches :)

Next up is a piece - Bird in Hand - I finished ages ago, but wanted to finish as a flat fold. Having looked it up via the tags on here I've realised I finished it in July 2011! It took me ages to find the right backing fabric, and even longer to find the desire to actually finish it, but it has turned out just how it wanted, and I found the perfect braid in my stash to complete the project. I took several photos of it hanging off my rose arch, so please indulge me in a few photos...

I've also got two happy dances to share. First up is Raven's Roost and Curse of the Raven by The Gude Huswife and Carriage House Samplings respectively. It was a bit windy out, so I had to find some props to stop it blowing away (the Lille such ions were less fortunate).

Finally, this is Celtic Wreath by The Sunflower Seed, from the 2009 JCS ornaments magazine. I used 28ct fabric, and ran out of the Crescent Colours Bandana - which I bought ages ago and had little hope of matching a dye lot. Knowing I only needed three lengths of thread to finish I dug put the suggested DMC, used it in three different places, and I honestly cannot spot it. I was so delighted!

Since finishing these two pieces I've been working on Peacock Majesty again - I'll post a photo once I've completed the peacock, which is getting ever closer ;)

I hope everyone else is having a lovely summer, and finding some stitching time.  

Happy stitching folks x

Birds in the garden, birds in the house

It seems appropriate that I've finished Backbird Designs' Spring Song while all the birds have been scoffing seeds and fat balls (they are especially greedy this year!) at our feeding station and as the coal tits nesting next door and the many house sparrows in the area started to fledge. I really enjoyed this design, and the photo really doesn't do it justice. My only alteration was to add two extra rows of the blue 'training fabric' threads. I'm delighted with the result.

My latest new start is The Curse of the Raven by Carriage House Samplings. I'm stitching it in the suggested floss, but instead of the called for 40 count camofudge I'm using a piece of 28ct echo that I picked up in a sale. My plan is to stitch The Raven's Roost by the Goode Huswife on the same piece of fabric. Annoyingly only half my order of floss came in. And I placed the order in late April. After a quick call to the company I found out it was a delay from a US supplier when sending to the UK. I've just reordered with a different company, I hope the have the right colours in stock.

So this makes me wonder, where do people buy their stash from? I try to use UK sellers(avoiding the dangers of import tax and associated fees), but find many only have partial listings in their web sites, so it's hard to know if you've looked at all of the charts by certain designers. I used to use sewandso all the time, but find their range of charts don't really match my current tastes, and their over dyed floss is expensive. I've used Wye needlecraft, often in person if I'm in Bakewell, but less often by post (no idea why, and I always get the JCS ornies issue from them). I've been using Thread Bear recently, but have had a few supply issues (did I mention my entire Christmas present from Eddy, which he placed in November, didn't come in until the end of Jan - no presents under the tree for me, I was not impressed). So this time I'm trying The Patchwork Rabbit, where I have often browsed but rarely bought. I'd love to hear where other people shop!

I'm off work this week, so have been busy in the garden and just generally chillaxing. Today's rain has designated it a crafting day. So far I've browse the internet a lot, but at least I finally posted my happy dance. Time for lunch, then a good stash dive I think. Or maybe some finishing. Or...

Happy stitching folks x

Beautiful birdie

I wanted a change from Peacock Majesty (NB: it is the TW petite, NOT the full peacock tapestry). So I decided to work on some Blackbird Designs pieces. After doing the simple Quaker pin cushion in my last post I decided to work on Spring's Song from the Mary Ann Blackburn booklet. I love that every tenth row, a length of thread is pulled put of the linen and replaced with blue, to mimic the 'training linen' in the original sampler. I decided to do this 8 times, not just 6 as in the model, so the pattern extends to the edge of the piece. It's been quite a quick stitch, and I kept forgetting to post pics. This is where I am up to, just the top border to go:

Sorry for the crumpled linen, I'm stitching this one in-hand!

I've also finished-finished Rose Garden (a while back, but failed to share), here's a quick photo. It's resting on the fabric I used for the backing.

I've just got back from an epic shopping trip to buy myself a new (slightly larger) ball gown. My friend Julia helped me pick one that's outside of my comfort zone but stunning. Can't wait for Friday now. Of course I'm now shattered so it's time to put my feet up, have a cuppa and do some stitching!

Happy stitching folks x

Night Happy Dance

I've been busy travelling with work again, hence the lack of posts. After the trip to Slovenia and Croatia I've been to a conference in York, a meeting in London, a PhD viva in Copenhagen and two conferences in Canada. Good job I love to travel!

I've been taking Peacock Majesty along as my travelling piece, but as you can imagine progress has been slow.  I have now finished the bottom half of the project though:

When I've been at home I've been focussing on Maria Sharrenberg's Night, which I finished just before the trips to Copenhagen and Calgary. I was so busy travelling I nearly forgot to happy dance!

I got back at 10pm Monday, delayed by 13 hours due to a cancelled flight. I did not expect to eat my dinner in Amtserdam on Monday! (London to Amsterdam to Leeds in neither logical nor fun, but it was that or spend the night at Heathrow).

I was back in work the following morning, but luckily the long day on Monday was a great way to get over the jet lag quickly! We get Friday, Monday and Tuesday off for Easter at the University. Friday I mostly slept, and Saturday I had a headache, but on Sunday I was sufficiently relaxed to start a new project - which I finished this morning. This is Summer Stars Pincushion from A Stitcher's Journey by Blackbird Designs. I substituted the pink from Woodrose to Antique Rose, as I didn't have the former in my stash. Caramel Corn was too close in colour to the fabric, so I switched that with Aged Pewter. I'm really pleased with the result. It's stitched on 30ct Sheep's Staw by R&R Reproductions.

I hope everyone is havinga lovely Easter break, and managed to find some stitching time :)

Happy Dancing

Last weekend I finished and washed Gaelic Banner, and I pressed it in the week. I wanted to wait to take a photo until I could use natural light, and here it is:

Edited to add: Terri of Rosy Stitches rightly asked who the designer of Gaelic Banner is - it's a Dracolair design.

If you remember I was worried that it had been stretched out of shape on my scroll frame, but washing it allowed it to spring back - so much so that I needed to take out and then tighten the long stitches outlining the tip of the sword. I am really chuffed with this piece, and thrilled to bits that it's my first happy dance of 2014.

Once I finished it I felt like a complete change, and a quick stitch - digging through my stash I decided on Rose Garden by Blackbird Designs - all stitched in the lovely muted pink 'Jakey Brown'. I decided to use my mum's initials and date on this piece, and I hope to finish finish it tomorrow (along with a few other things - my finishing pile is rather huge!). It's stitched on a piece of us identified hand dyed fabric - I did finally check the thread count, and it's 38 count. No wonder some late evenings my eyes found it difficult!

This weekend I have very little planned. I need to pop into town as two books I ordered have come into the book store - I've decided to re-read the musketeers saga, after starting to watch the (frankly OK but not fabulous) BBC adaptation of the three musketeers. I was amazed to realise that I don't own a copy of Twenty Years After or Louise de la Valliere. But I will by this evening!

Other than that all I have planned is stitching in front of the TV - probably a mixture of rugby, the Winter Olympics and some Scandi-noir. I hope you all have a fun weekend planned.

Happy stitching folks xx

New Toys...

This week has been extremely busy, but is has also involved a few new toys :)

First of all, my Christmas present from Eddy finally arrived ( he ordered from Thread Bear at the start of December, but I think he must have missed their before Christmas order from America). Anyway, my late Christmas present included A Stitcher's Journey, Christmas Garden and Buttons and Pins by Blackbird Designs, Celtic Summer by Lavender and Lace and 1814 Butterfly Collection by Carriage House Samplimgs. I was delighted with my present, even if it was a little late!!

Last Sunday Steff offered some old Country Cross Stitch magazines for sale over the TW Facebook group - I snapped up 4 magazines, with a total of 10 TW charts - she posted them in Australia on Monday and they made it to Yorkshire on Saturday! I can't believe how quickly they got here and I am very happy with these new additions to my stash.

Then I made a major new purchase. I'm writing this on my new iPad Air :) I'm busy kidding myself this was a necessary expenditure for work (and it will certainly be very useful), but I'm loving using it to surf the web and blog while sat on the sofa! I also bought a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard (for work), and a pretty case I picked up in the Sales...

I took this photo quickly last night using my iPhone, sorry it's so rubbish! The others are all taken with my iPad - it's starting to get dark now, so I'm quite chuffed with the quality.

I have been busy stitching - I finished Gaelic Banner last weekend, but it needs washing and pressing before I share it. I decided I wanted to do a quick project, so started Rose Garden by Blackbird Designs. This is where I am up to so far:

I can't remember what fabric this is (unlabelled from stash), but it is a very fine count!

Finally I forgot to post the TUSAL on Thursday, so here are my orts. Lots of green and gold from Gaelic Banner, and some pink on top from Rose Garden.

I think that's it for now. I hope the iPad will mean that I blog a bit more - it's certainly more fun than using my laptop. I've read a few blogs and have started commenting again - it's lovely to see what everyone else is up to!

Happy stitching folks xxx

A week in stitches

Last week I was off work - we had plenty of holiday to take, and so we decided it would be lovely to spend some time pottering at home. We did spend lots of time in the garden, and took the opportunity to catch up with good friends, but it also meant I could focus on my stitching. I had 4 things that I wanted to do in my head: finish a quilt top that I'd started the previous weekend, start the quilt top made from the other half of the jelly roll (two quilts from one jelly roll - brilliant idea for a book!), finish the BBD Summer / Autumn / Winter and pull out fruit bellpull again - I think I managed 3.5 out of 4!!

This is the quilt top: 'Strip the Willow' made using half a jelly roll of French General's 'Papillion'. I have planned the colours and cutting for the other quilt (clues are in my last TUSAL post), but I didn't start cutting or stitching yet.

I finished BBD's Summer / Autumn / Winter, the Loose Feathers pattern from 2011. I had some 'fun' re-charting it to say 2013, and then somehow managed to screw up the placement of my initials and the date and motifs, despite lots of counting, charting and double checking. I moved the motif between the Z and the J twice - the second time only by 1 square, but it does look better where it ended up!!

I pulled out TW's fruit bellpull on Sunday afternoon, this is a before photo of the grapes block - I've stitched a bit more green since then.

And finally, a progress so far photo. I'd love to get this finished before I start teaching again in late September. Always the optimist ;)

Don't forget to comment on my last blog post if you'd like to be entered into my 300th post giveaway. Now, where did I leave that needle...

Happy stitching folks x

300th post!!!

Wow, I just logged on to do a run of the mill stitching post, and noticed my last post was number 299 - which makes this one number 300!! That erased my dilemma over what to call this post! I can't believe I have 90 followers, and have had 26,397 page views to date. I *think* I managed to turn myself off the tracking ;) That probably isn't much in blogger land, but for me it's huge, and I am amazed and humbled that people want to read my ramblings and look at my photos. So thank you all, lovely readers.

 So what have I been working on? The 2011 loose feathers design has been my main focus - I did frog and restitch the big white flower, and I am much happier with it now:

I then made a counting error in the alphabet, and had to frog and restitch 3 letters. But it's all sorted now.

I've just got the bottom row of letters to go. I need to figure out how to fit my wide initials into the available spaces, and change the 1 in 2011 to a 3 (I have worked out a 3, just need to think about the spacing). I'm not sure if it would be better to squeeze it all together, or to skip the half motif in the bottom right corner and have more space. Decisions decisions...

A little while ago (2 weeks?) I wanted to stitch a small, so I picked out this needle book by Little House Needleworks. I stitched it in DMC on a  scrap of unnamed overdyed fabric. I love the sheep - too cute :)

It's also TUSAL week - these are my orts. The white ones on top are from the recent frogging... And the background? Well that's something else I've been working on this week, which I will update you on later.

In honor of my 300th post I'm going to have a giveaway... No idea what, as I only realised this was post 300 about 20 mins ago - but it will be stitched by me. If you'd like to enter, please add a comment to this post. I'll draw the winner next weekend.

Happy stitching folks xx

Flowers and frogs

I'm still making great progress with the Summer, autumn, winter sampler by Blackbird Designs, but I think I've decided I need to be visited by some frogs...

The big white flower in the summer panel should be a lovely two tone thing:

BUT, due to the fabulous variation in hand dyed threads, mine is more of an amorphous blob:

I've had a good hunt through my stash, and I think I'll frog the middle of the flower (flax, on the right in this photo) and replace it with straw bonnet (left in this photo). The edges of the flower ate stitched in caramel corn (the floss in the middle) and I think the latter combination gives a much better contrast. So frogging it is...

Happy stitching folks xx

Summer weather, autumnal stitching,

I hope everyone (in the UK at least) is enjoying having a sunny summer for once. At times I find the weather a bit hot and oppressive, but I just have to think back to the last 2 summers and I immediately feel much happier! I just wish my office had air con...

I've been making great progress with the 2011 Loose Feathers charts - I've done about 1/2 of the final panel, autumn. I'm leaving the alphabet til last.

I hope everyone else is having a lovely stitchy weekend - if so, happy stitching xx

Birdies

I've been meaning to post some piccies of my current project for a while. In fact, I took this one (of the Autumn panel in the 2011 Loose Feathers series) absolutely ages ago:

So long ago that I've now stitched most of Autumn, and most of Summer! I'm planning on doing the alphabet in one go.

I'm on holiday in Skye this week, and brought this with me. The only issue is that I've almost run out of maple syrup - I'll have to stitch the final bird when I get home :)

Happy stitching folks xx

May Madness

Hello!!! It's been a while. Once again work has been busy, and I'd rather spend my spare time stitching than blogging (sorry guys, but I DO miss you all!).

I had a fabulous trip to Knoxville. I took along Conchiti Drummer (NP Designs), which I started on my trip to Pretoria last August. Aida and simple colours are prefect for planes!! When I got back I carried on stitching it, initially because I was jet lagged and the thought of a TW was terrifying, but after 2 days it was because I couldn't put it down, and then it was too close to finishing to put it down.... So I achieved an unexpected happy dance:

This piece was a gift from Avivah, to say thank you for posting her tea bags - isn't he cute?

I have also picked up that flipping green cardigan (aka, the bane of my life). I undid the sewing up and unpicked the left front AGAIN, and last night I finished knitting it for the third time. You will not believe how often I checked it against the right front! Anyway, the good news is that it actually matches now and I've almost finished reattaching it to the rest of the cardy. Initial trying on suggests it might have worked this time. I really dislike cardigans, I think I'll stick to knitting scarves....

Dani asked if I made it to the LNS in Knoxville - of course I did! I found a fellow stitcher at the conference and we bunked off for a morning. Luckily I phoned to double check their opening times and found they had recently moved to a new property. I'm so pleased I bothered to phone them, and that I skipped out on the conference to go - it's probably the nicest LNS I've ever been to. Everything was laid out so prettily, with lots of stitched pieces for inspirations - lots of smalls in baskets and displayed on shelves and dressers throughout the shop, as well as the usual walls of framed pieces. I took a billion photos, and I will share them in a follow up post.

The bad news is that my credit card had to be sent off to ICU after the visit, and it's still in recovery. They had a SALE on. Oh yes! There were about 8 boxes of charts for $2 each. What is a girl supposed to do??? I also picked up a BBD (Autumn) that I've wanted for a while, a few Stacy Nash Primitives, some lovely fabrics and some overdyed threads that I needed to complete some pieces in my stash. So what did I buy? Well here we go:


Autumn - Blackbird Designs
Blackbird sampler - Hand in Heart
Spring cottage - The Prairie Schooler
The fox and the grapes - The Prairie Schooler
Celtic Birds II - The Sunflower Seed
Tulip Tree Sewing Book - Stacy Nash Primitives
Peacock Sewing Roll - Stacy Nash Primitives
Birds of a Feather - Stacy Nash Primitives
Gem Show #1 6 - Courtney Collection
My Stitching Treasures Accessories - Jeanette Douglas Designs
Stitchers Accessories Rose Fantasy - Dessins DHC
Rune Sampler - Dracolair
Mackintosh Roses - Art - Stitch
An Emblem of Love - With Thy Needle
Bad Hare Day - Bent Creek
The Curse of the Raven - Carriage House Samplings
The Raven's Roost - Carriage House Samplings

Two large pieces of pale beige overdyed fabric, which I manged to loose the names of already...

And some offcuts of fabric:
36 x 11 of Angel Hair (30 ct) by Weeks
12 x 26 of a lovely un-named sage green (32 ct)
12 x 12 'echo' (28 ct)

And about 30 skeins of weeks / GAST / Crescent colours.

(Shown on the other bit of beige fabric, ready for my new start as soon as I have posted this and cooked our dinner!)


I was rather chuffed. Bank manager less so....

Right, I'm about to start Blackbird Designs Summer / Autumn / Winter, on one of the pieces of un-named beige fabric. I'll conveniently forget that I needed to order Summer and further threads online when I got home...

Happy stitching folks xx

First Finishes

On Friday I started and finished a new project - My Heart is True pincushion by Nicoletta Farraruto and Blackbird Designs (Eddu got me the My Heart is True book for Christmas). I stitched it on a scarp of linen and backed it with a scrap of lining fabric which matched each other perfectly. I stitched the project in DMC, but substituted the 3857 with 3859, a lovely dusky lilac. I gave the project to Sonia for her birthday:

While I had the machine out I finished Summer Iris into a little cushion, using a piece of duck-egg blue fabric left over from the Teacher's Pet quilt I finished last year - the colour matches perfectly, but you'll have to take my word for it, as I forgot to put a piece of the fabric in the background:

I finished the edges with button hole stitch - the recommended finishing technique for My Heart is True! I did spend a long time debating a natural cotton lacy edging I have in my stash, but decided on a simpler version:

Here's a photo of the two projects together, leaning against a lovely Morroccan lantern my cousin gave me for Christmas:

Yesterday I had a stitch and bitch and crafted pretty much all day, and had TWO MORE happy dances - but the projects aren't in a state for photographing yet! I'm back to work tomorrow, and I'm going to miss all this lovely crafting time. Ho hum....

Happy stitching everyone x

Photo catch up...

My lack of blogging last year meant I never posted photos of some projects, so here is a random mix of things I forgot to photograph and post about...

This is how far I got with the pears block on fruit bellpull... actually not too much to go to finish this block, at which point I'll have done 1/3 of the bellpull. It's weeks since I've stitched on this.

Fruit Bellpull (c) Teresa Wentzler

I started this on Christmas day - it's a birth sampler for one of my best friends niece's. The backstitching around the edges of the bear is horrific, and the chart is really dreadful - the lines are so think I have to guess where some should go. But it's looking fine, no indication some bits were fudged...

Tatty Teddy 'A New Baby', Anchor kit

I started this little BBD piece during the Olympics. I probably finished it then too... I actually have no idea (and I'd forgotten I'd stitched it until I saw the half done photograph when I was looking through them yesterday. So it's a very late happy dance! It's dark here now, and the camera has darkened the corners of the photo - but you get the general idea!

Summer Iris, (c) Blackbird Designs

Finally, here is my final ORT report for 2012... All of the orts I've created since the new year have been gathering on the arm of my sofa! The greys on top are from Tatty Teddy. There are lots of green in here - not surprising given this year I've focussed on Gaelic Banner and Fruit Bellpull!

And all ready for the new orts for 2013...

I started a new piece today (very small), which I want to finish finish before I post a picture, I never seem to finish anything properly. I should have made that a goal. Anyway, backing fabric has been chosen, so it's time to dig out the sewing machine.

Happy Stitching