Stitching Stuff

Tree Of Stitches

2012-01-25T04:08:00.002Z

Yeah, well, I started another one. This one is Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden. Stitched on a piece of fabric from Kate's Kloths in Threadworx Bradley's Balloons.

Tempest

2012-01-05T01:59:00.000Z

Well, finally - I have finished one of my oldest WIP's. I started this in May 2001 and finished it last night.

So I pulled out Mystical Light to take with me to swimming lessons to work on, but I think I'm going to have to find another one as the lighting made the dark fabric harder to work on than it needed to be. Maybe A Hundred Thousand Welcomes - that should be an easy stitch and is another that's almost a UFO so it would be good to have it finished too.

Some more quilting

2012-01-01T05:17:00.000Z

See - I said there would be fewer posts.

Although I didn't really stitch much in December I've made really good progress on my pilot piece and hope to finish it shortly which will mean a return to my ordinary stitching and hopefully more frequent blog posts (cos it's really got nothing to do with my procrastination or laziness or anything like that - honest).

Anyhoo...

Quilting - I made this pillow...

... at another Jo-Ann's class, and over the Christmas break my parents were visiting and Mum and I went to a class together and made these table runners:

Mine is the top one - it's a bit hard to tell in the photo but you can just tell that it's got stippling around the edges as well as around the candies which makes that one mine.

One other distraction (sort of) from stitching lately is that I've been making great strides in relieving myself of some of my many magazine pages that I've torn out and kept over the years. I've still got thousands, but I've also put into the recycling bin a very good number and it's such a good feeling to get rid of them even though I'm chucking charts. Gasp, how could I? Actually, very easily it turns out. It was harder when I was thinking that someone else might want them, but now I've cured myself of that notion I don't care anymore and I'm tossing with abandon and it feels great.

Hugs and Kisses

2011-11-30T18:45:00.001Z

So Monday night I didn't feel like stitching so I picked up this kit from i-bead.com called Hugs and Kisses and got to work. And here is the result:

Hmm, looking at that photo perhaps I should have chosen a different background colour - it distorts the green of the beads a bit and removes any blue tones - oh well, never mind.

Phaun

2011-11-20T21:24:00.001Z

My next update on Phaun:

Hopefully soon you'll also get to see a finish of Tempest - he's getting ever closer, I think I've finished half the backstitching now.

Phaun

2011-11-07T16:24:00.000Z

I signed up for another SAL with the HAED BB back in May or June. I've been saving the chart just waiting, and last night I finally started it. It's a long thin piece (like the other one I'm doing - Light of the World), but when I first chose it I decided I didn't want to stitch the cat's haunch as it seemed to dominate the picture due to the thin slice taken. Then when I was thinking about fabric - I knew I didn't want to do it on 25ct again, not that I have any left now - I decided I'd leave out the background too so a nice hand dyed would be good.

After rooting around in my stash I found a solitaire from Sparklies that would work. A very exaggerated mottled blue that I think will work well as the wall paper background. But it was 28ct and only 9x13". So I looked at my chart again and worked out the part I wanted to stitch (top two thirds), and how big that would be stitching over 2 on 28ct. 17". Oh. OK. Maybe not. But it was good fabric, and the next choice was a green fat quarter so I'd end up with a narrow bit of fabric left over, and I didn't want to do that either. So back to looking at the chart. I realised I could cut off about 30 rows from the top since I wasn't stitching the background, so that helped a bit. But it was still too long.

So I looked at the fabric again and started thinking that if I only had a 1" border at top and bottom I could get 11" in there of stitching, which would be 154 rows. So minus the first 30 rows of chart that would take me to about the middle and still be a decent amount of cat. YES, I can now do it.

Then I pulled all the thread, I started trying to just pull what I'd need, but that got difficult, so I pulled everything I had from the list (still got some gaps, but I'll worry about those later) and got stitching. In my eagerness to fit it on the small piece of fabric I left less than half an inch of margin. After finishing my first length of thread my brain caught up with me and I pulled it all out and restarted with an inch of margin.

So here is my first picture of not quite the first length of thread finished. I would have finished the thread again and kept going a bit more too, but we didn't realise that the clock in the living room had reset itself back to daylight savings time (it's one of those ones that gets its time by radio signal and we thought it wasn't working so we adjusted it manually in the morning), and so we thought it was an hour later than it was. Once we realised that we changed the clock to mountain time as we couldn't get it to stay on the correct time. Then this morning it decided to go back to ordinary time again, so now it was an hour fast. So back to the correct time zone it went. Stupid clock.

And the full fabric:

I'm hoping to work on this each week slowly to make progress. I really need to work on Light of the World too, but I really don't like doing over one on 25ct, it's just irritating.

While looking for the fabric for this I was also looking for a piece for Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden on the Stitch Specialists yahoo group. My original plan was to use overdyed threads and use a brown for the trunk, green for the leaves and pink for the blossoms - fairly standard really. But then I found the *perfect* bright pink fabric for it, and I'm not sure my colour scheme is going to work any more. So I'm now ruminating on thread colours to use for that. Perhaps I should go with a thread like the old Needle Necessities Calypso - although that might be too busy - I'll have to see.

And lastly - there are going to be fewer stitching updates than normal for a while as my main piece now is a pilot project that I can't share with you yet.

Serpentine

2011-11-01T16:21:00.000Z

Is finished:

Serpentine

2011-10-23T23:27:00.001+01:00

Here's the latest photo - all the basic stitching is finished. I'm now adding the stones and the double-fans-doubled over the top of them, then the beads and I think that's it. I actually finished this part a few days ago but didn't get the chance to post the photo so I'm halfway through the stones now. Next photo when it's finished completely :)

Long time, no pictures

2011-09-29T18:27:00.000+01:00

Sorry about that. I kept meaning to do a couple of updates but just never got there. Though that means that the good news is that I get to share a finish instead of just WIP pictures :)

This is my latest quilting class (well, actually two as we did the piecing and layering in one and the binding was another class). I'm not showing the back as, well, let's put it this way, it's a learning piece, and one thing I learnt was I need to get a walking foot for my machine (or a whole new machine, but that's another debate I'm having with myself *). I'm also thinking a 1/4" foot would be good too as I make my seams too narrow resulting in squares being bigger than they should be and then points get cut off. So having the quarter inch marking above and below might be beneficial. My current machine is metric so has no inch markings at all.

Anyhoo... the pictures, that's what you really want isn't it?

The finished product:

The squares before I sewed them together:

And just because I'm feeling generous - my latest progress on the pirate quilt - not much more than last time, but I have only stitched one more session on it due to various things (including the above quilt), and now that my machine is in the shop for three weeks and the Friday morning quilting bees are having a break it might be a few weeks before it gets any further either.

Now for those of you who think I have stopped stitching - IT'S NOT TRUE :) And here is proof.

I have been working hard on Serpentine, I was hoping to get it finished before the end of September, but I don't think that's quite going to happen. The reason(s) I wanted it done by then is I have a pilot class to stitch and I promised myself I'd start that at the beginning of October, and also because Serpentine is a class and I'd like to hit the assessment window for it (which is early October).

Now I'm also going to give you a little peek at Tempest since I have been slowly plodding away a few stitches at a time during swimming lessons. Suddenly he feels like he's actually getting somewhere.

I've been thinking about taking the squares in the bottom right corner out as I'm not sure I want them right around the border, I think I'd prefer to leave it with just the single line of stitching. However, they have been there so long I'm a bit afraid of what the fabric will look like if I do. So I'm leaving that decision until I really need to make it.

Oh and I mustn't forget St. Petersburg. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I've been taking this piece (and O' Jerusalem but you can't really see any change in that so I'm not bothering with a photo) to the first Friday stitch-ins at my LNS since it (they) are nice and portable. It does make me want to stitch more of it.

And lastly - I'm taking another finishing class on Saturday (before heading straight off to an overnight camp with the kids - I feel exhausted already) on stand-ups with Susan Cluck. I've gone through my finished pieces and there aren't really that many that fit the bill. So I'm going to take Charlie's First Landing and Twas the Night Before Christmas (although I think that would be better with the cube or flat method we did last time. I think Charlie is going to be it).

*I'm not thinking of a new machine just because I want the extra feet or the inch markings. It all started because I was making another dress for DD, this one with button holes down the front, and the button holes came out funky so I showed them to my tutor (who also teaches sewing and some other crafts) and she suggested I take the machine into the shop to get looked at. So I took it in and they went 'hmmm' and are assessing it at the moment. They did tell me the basic service will cost around $90, and if there is something that needs fixing it will be more. So I started wondering what a new machine would cost as mine is also a 220V machine which means that I can't take it to classes (I have to use a transformer) and so have to borrow a machine there. I started out looking at a Brother online for ~$150, but when I went back to the shop I think I now want to spend 10x that amount and get a Bernina lol At least I know I have no interest in machine embroidery so that cuts out a lot of the really expensive all singing, all dancing models.

Pirate Quilt

2011-09-03T02:42:00.000+01:00

Finally - some progress. I actually started putting blocks together today.

This is a kit for a cot quilt that I picked up at the International Quilt Show last November and have been getting extra material for so I can enlarge it. After much planning and fiddling and help from the nice tutor at Jo-Ann Fabrics I started cutting blocks towards the end of the school year. During the holidays I was unable to go to the weekly sessions so the quilt sat waiting on the windowsill. I hadn't been completely happy with my choice of fabric for the centre block, but I'd been unable to find what I wanted so did the best I could - that was until I visited a friend in June and she just happened to have the perfect fabric that she was willing to pass on to me.

So this week I laid all the blocks out and decided what I'd drawn on paper didn't please the eye (the colours ended up clumped together rather than dispersed throughout) and pretty much rearranged all the small blocks. The larger ones stayed as I'd planned, and then I moved things around until it was more balanced. I had help during this process, and today I put together the first column. I have hopes I may even complete it.

Serpentine

2011-08-24T02:02:00.003+01:00

Here's another couple of progress photos. I forgot to post the first one before, so I'm doing it now.

Stitching for Autism

2011-07-30T00:02:00.001+01:00

Finished!! I know I said it would wait until I'd finished Serpentine, but well, what can you do?

Stitching for Autism

2011-07-19T01:08:00.002+01:00

Since my last post I've been working hard on this as I wanted to have it finished for the guild meeting last weekend. I didn't quite make it, but I'm almost there. Unfortunately I'll now need to put it aside to do some pre-stitching on a pilot class I'm doing this weekend. But I'm still hoping to get it finished soon.

Before that I'd done a bit of work on Serpentine but for some reason I keep forgetting to take photos of that, so here you go while I remember.

And last of all, I leave you with a photo of a very blissful cat, who approves of the nice wide tops on the new lounge furniture.

Dress

2011-07-03T02:41:00.002+01:00

Today I made a dress for DD. It actually came out rather well, if a bit big and long. But hey, that just means it'll last a bit longer (hopefully). And at least it covers her butt which is more than most of the ones you can buy seem to do.

Daphne Reborn

2011-06-21T16:14:00.002+01:00

Well, what do you know - I finished it:

That must be the fastest I've ever actually finished a class piece.

Now I'm debating with myself whether to stitch it again, this time in the green colourway, cos in class that just looked so good. I mean, I like this colourway too, but the green was just spectacular and if I'd seen them in person before choosing the colour rather than just a slightly blurry picture I'd have gone for the green. Or the colours are really easy to change so I could choose my own colourway.

Daphne Reborn

2011-06-15T14:15:00.002+01:00

I've been stitching away on this as it's really quite quick, I think cos of all the little squares.

Daphne Reborn

2011-06-13T01:46:00.002+01:00

I've just finished my two days of class (and had a great time) on this and this is what I have to show for it:

Now for some photos of my new stitching station - Mum, this is why I wanted the chair with the centre console.

See how nicely my current canvas fits between the seats, and behind it is the project bag with the supplies. Then the drink holders make a nice place to put a pin cushion and an ort pot (as well as providing somewhere safe for a drink). Just to the right you can see a bit of the upright to my light.

Then you lift up the cushion and find all my stitching supplies - they're all nicely tucked away in their bag at the moment as I haven't used them since getting home from the class, but normally the scissors and needles and things would be on top of their bag for easy access. Under the bag I've got the thread for the bookmarks and the round roll of banding is there at the front so I can just do one whenever that's all I can handle. Then hopefully they'll be ready when I need them. DD has also decided she needs some stitching tools like Mummy so that's her pink bag in there too.

Then across the other side of the lounge is the coffee table with all my current(ish) project bags and other supplies, mounted canvases down one side, a stand at the other end, and underneath are stretcher bars and another stand. It's all working rather well so far. Oh and the puzzle is supposed to be the next one we are working on, as at one point we decided that table would be a good puzzle table where we could just leave one out to be worked on. It did work for one puzzle, then it kind of fizzled out.

Serpentine

2011-06-09T23:31:00.000+01:00

Progress:

Daphne Reborn

2011-05-25T13:59:00.003+01:00

I've finished the pre-stitching - not that there was much to do, but now it gets put aside until the class next month.

I think there will be a trip to Gingers tomorrow - I was looking for the last little bit of banding to make more bookmarks for the teachers and couldn't find it - found the thread and I thought the two would be together, but obviously not. Ah well, I'm sure I'll cope with a trip to the LNS.

I've also started thinking about my first painted canvas - I'm going to start with the quilt canvas that I got at the auction last year. I've already decided that I'm only going to use DMC floss, so now I've just got to work on colours and patterns. I've got a while to think though as I don't intend to start it just yet - get some more finished first.

New starts

2011-05-20T21:20:00.004+01:00

Well, after getting my list down a little I've just started another corrospondence course, this time in a group with the Cyberpointers chapter. Serpentine by Ro Pace - here are my beginnings:

I've also started the pre-stitching for a class I'm taking in June - Daphne Reborn by Michael Boren.

And another project finished as well - my patchwork cushions:

And I also finally started cutting the squares for one of the quilts that I've been gathering supplies for. At my Monday class the tutor said there was a quilting bee I could attend on Friday mornings, so I figure if I do that I may actually get the quilts done (you know, before the kids are too old for pirates and princess castles).

An Open Heart

2011-05-19T18:28:00.004+01:00

Is finished...

Quilting classes

2011-05-18T16:07:00.005+01:00

OK - so I picked up a couple of quilt patterns/kits at the Houston show last year. I've been quietly organising them but never actually stitching them. So I thought if I took a basic introduction course at Jo-Anns I could figure out what all these fun bits and pieces I've been buying are actually for. So over the last week I've taken two classes and learnt a bit more about what I'm doing.

The first class was a big square which I immediately decided could be a new cushion to replace the one I made way back in the distant mists of time at intermediate school that is now mostly just the seams holding it together as the rest of the fabric has disintergrated under much use by DS. Of course this meant that DD felt left out so I had to make a second square when I got home and will now have two cushions so they can have one each.

The second class was coasters and so now I have two of those and a DD wanting to make more. Which is fine as I have heaps of the fabric.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

2011-05-07T23:06:00.002+01:00

...is finished:

My latest time-waster

2011-05-04T15:01:00.004+01:00

I got an iPad given to me recently and I put some games on it. One of these is called Disentanglement and is so far my favourite game. And yesterday I got one of the high scores. Since this isn't going to last long I took photos and am sharing them with you as proof :)

And the other two levels:

I should say this was given to me for my stitching as I'd mentioned it would be cool to be able to have the chart on the screen and blow it up as needed, and highlight it there too as I went along. So DH remembered this and then went out and surprised me. I have now found the right apps to let me do this easily, but I've still got to test it out - I want to finish Twas the Night and An Open Heart first - they are so close to finished that it's not worth fiddling to see if I can do it with them. Just think - no more having to print those pdf download charts, although I think I'll still print the colour key for easy reference. And hopefully no more losing the chart either - although it's usually the threads I lose and it's not going to help with that.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-04-29T03:41:00.002+01:00

I've finished the inside and the border. Just the heart panel to go and I'll be finished.

Finishing class

2011-04-24T17:11:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I went to Gingers and took their padded matboard finishing classes. Now I have a nametag (long overdue), and finally Teresa Wentzler's intermediate whitework ornament is finished too.

I took the decoration for the nametag from some of Cherry Parker's NZ patterns, the footprints are kiwi tracks, and I altered the colours on the sheep to suit me.

Scissor Pouch

2011-04-22T23:12:00.002+01:00

Finished!!

Stitching for Autism

2011-04-18T14:37:00.004+01:00

On Saturday our guild chapter had its Bluebonnet Daze and we had a class for the piece Stitching for Autism by Sue Reed. This is a piece being used to raise money for Autism Speaks - 100% of the net profits are going to Autism Speaks.

Here's how far I got on Saturday. After taking this photo I ripped out the heart and the herringbone border as I didn't leave enough space for one of the borders just before the herringbone. I very nearly left it as it was but decided I really couldn't be faffed with moving the sheaf stitches in the outer border around to compensate for the loss of the four squares.

The colours are all to do with Autism Speaks, and all the stitches were chosen to have a link with Autism and it was really interesting reading it all as we stitched the piece.

So that's another for my WIP pile, and I guess my PLAN is getting a bit disrupted (I've signed up for some other classes too). Ah well, at least I'm having fun and my PLAN has been doing well until now. I'm still going to try and sort of stick to the PLAN though - I'll continue with Twas the Night, and then An Open Heart and I guess I'll just see what happens after that.

And an update on Twas the Night Before Christmas. I'm now on the border so really getting closer now.

Scissor Pouch

2011-04-09T02:50:00.004+01:00

Today during swimming I finished the stitching. Well, apart from the two beads for the closure. But that's sort of finishing.

Oh and in case you're wondering why the fob has a 'Z' instead of an 'A' like the case, it's because I stitched the A and it looked really silly and lopsided in the diamond. So I decided to go with Z as it was far more symmetrical and would look better, I use it a lot online, and I just plain like Z. When I was stitching it I looked at the Y and thought I was glad I didn't have to try and fit that in - I'm not sure if it could even fit with it's big long curly tail and being drawn in the italic.

Friday Night Stitch In

2011-04-02T15:35:00.004+01:00

Last night I went to Gingers for their Friday night stitch in - and enjoyed myself, so I think I'll be going again.

And best of all - I've got progress, although I do have to admit that the Twas the Night progress is a couple of days worth, not just last night. I did realise when putting Santas staff in that I should have left his cuff the undone bit of French knots as now I've got to try and get them to at least look like they are under the staff when I get the new card of thread (it was out of stock so I have to wait for it). Hmm, just looking at my photo I can see all the carried thread in the snowflakes - it isn't that obvious in real life. Honest. Still perhaps it's a lesson in 'you should have been more careful when stitching them'.

Response to Cheryl

2011-03-30T03:20:00.002+01:00

I tried three times to answer your comment in the comments, but blogger is being silly again or something, so I'll answer here. I was going to list what I had left but then thought I'd see if I could find a picture. So I've found the class listing - the class is closed now, I registered in the last few days, but the information was still available when I did a search. Anyway - here it is.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-03-29T15:26:00.002+01:00

He's starting to look really good now. I did run out of the Santas Beard stuff thanks to all the bits I ripped out from not being happy with them, so I'll have to take a quick trip to the shop later so I can finish his hat.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-03-20T20:43:00.001Z

I made a bit more progress on this. The french knots aren't sitting very nicely, but that may be because I didn't notice the pattern only showed one loop knots and I did two loop knots. So I'm going to start from the other end and see if one loop looks better and then if it does I'll take out the two loop ones I've done. Also realised I missed a bit of his coat above his sleeve.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-03-09T21:19:00.003Z

Since I know everyone has been waiting with baited breath :p - here is the latest on Twas the Night :D

Psalm 104

2011-03-08T15:31:00.002Z

The birthday present has been received and inspected and approved of, so now I can share pictures of it with you.

Just the stitching:

This is actually my second try at this. The first time I was simply working the full pattern over one, but it really wasn't turning out well, and there was no way I'd be finishing it this side of the next millennium, so I changed plans and came up with this version, which works much better.

And now finished into a bible cover:

My original thought was that I would also use the brown fabric to make little triangles on the corners, but I was having trouble figuring out how to secure them neatly, especially as I wanted to make the cover as versatile as possible in case I'd got the measurements wrong. So I ended up leaving them off, but I'm sure they could be added later if wanted.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-02-21T17:38:00.002Z

Here's a bit more progress. I'm going slower than I like, seem to spend more time staring at it than actually stitching. Oh well, I think once I get past the tent stitch outlines I'll do better - I'm having a bit of a problem sometimes figuring out where the outlines are.

Birthday present

2011-02-11T17:52:00.002Z

Well I've almost finished the birthday present. It wasn't in time for my MIL to take it home with her, but it's still before her birthday. Which is pretty good going for me considering the last present I started for her (O Jerusalem) will be 10 years late this birthday.

I'm not going to put a picture up (yet) as I think she should see it first, but I think I've finished the stitching portion (I'm just getting some second opinions on it) and then I've just got to do the finishing portion.

My MIL when she was here made up the shorts for me too, so that's another item off my list as well.

I am really tempted to finish An Open Heart next, but I know I should do Twas the Night. I do want to do Twas the Night, it's just that An Open Heart is so close to finished. Guess I'll see which way it goes when I next sit down to stitch.

An Open Heart update

2011-01-26T23:07:00.002Z

I thought about the border most of yesterday and came to the conclusion that there was no way I was going to frog it. So last night I finished off the last triangle and now the inner border is complete.

I guess once the outer border is done if it's really obvious that the gap at the bottom is one thread smaller (which I can't see that it will be unless it's only 2 or 3 threads to start with) I can take another look at frogging - but I really don't want to.

An Open Heart

2011-01-25T16:09:00.003Z

On Saturday I met up with three other stitchers (Melissa, Michelle and Michelle) at Gingers and we stitched the day away while talking lots and generally having a good time. I made really good progress on the inner border of An Open Heart.

Last night I (almost) finished the inner border. I was going to finish it completely before going onto the next project on my list but well, it didn't quite work out that way.

As I finished that final triangle I discovered I was one thread out, I undid half the triangle cos I was sure I'd counted the gap as being right before I'd started it. But after counting numerous times I finally came to the conclusion that I was getting more wrong answers than right answers. So I started examining the rest of the piece, and found that there was one extra thread between the middle section and the border at the bottom meaning I had a mistake on the first side of the border. I found it where the needle is resting. One extra thread in the gap.

I'm thinking that given it took me so long to find it no-one else is going to do so, and also undoing the border may not be good for the ends of the rewoven threads that I secured in the stitching and have now cut off. And of course, if I undo it it's highly unlikely to ever get finished. So I'm leaning towards leaving it as is - but I'm going to make the final decision after I've stitched the outer border.

So An Open Heart has now been put aside to work on the next item of my new PLAN.

The PLAN is to work on the things that really should be finished soon, mostly because they are for other people or some such reason like that. So I made a list - it goes something like this:

- finish the inner border on An Open Heart. (I'm counting this as done for now)
- finish my MIL's birthday present, preferably on time, even better if it's before they go home.
- finish Twas the Night Before Christmas so I can send it off for evaluation.
- Sew up the quilts for the kids - I think I have all the fabric now.
- make some shorts.
- finish An Open Heart
- finish O Jerusalem as it's now 10 years late
- do the finishing on Bug Collector so it can hang in my sons room before he leaves home.
- finish Light of the World Storykeep, again so DD can enjoy it sooner rather than later
- do height charts for them both (I have started the first one)
- do stockings for everyone (not started at all, although I have chosen at least one of the designs)
- I'd like to give out lots of ornaments this Christmas, but that means that I need to stitch them this year.
- and if I manage all that then I want to get St. Petersburg finished as well.

And as DD says 'That's the plan'.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-01-08T01:18:00.003Z

I worked some more on the outlines today:

I got myself into a bit of trouble with the tent stitch when starting with the whisper by starting at the wrong end of the stitch. When I managed to untangle myself the difference was noticeable. I think when I get back around to the start I may undo the first stitches and redo them.

An Open Heart

2011-01-08T01:08:00.004Z

Progress on the first border:

Class updates

2010-12-20T21:06:00.001Z

Here are updates on the two classes I'm currently working on:

Twas the Night Before Christmas:

Desert Diamonds:

Applique Dog

2010-12-20T20:59:00.002Z

I finished up putting together the pin cushion for the little needleturn applique piece that I started in Houston.

My little appliqué dog pincushion - all finished:

Progress updates

2010-12-20T20:44:00.006Z

Since I've been lax in posting my updates recently here's a whole load all at once.

Scissor Pouch - back being stitched on as my swimming project:

Mystical Light - I have stopped doing the UFO nights as I wasn't getting much stitching time and didn't want to waste it on UFO's:

An Open Heart - as you can (hopefully) see I've finished the inside and have (just) started the first border:

And lastly a surprise addition to the roster - Tempest:

I also had an update on O' Jerusalem, but I forgot to take a photo so it will just have to wait until next time.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2010-12-07T15:20:00.003Z

I finally started the stitching on this class piece last night. I was supposed to be doing the tent stitch outline on the various bits of him, but after I'd done the first couple of stitches on what I thought was the outline of his sleeve I realised that it was actually compensating stitches, so I just kept stitching the sleeve proper like that was what I meant to do all along. And I've just looked at the stitch diagram and realised that I did my stitches backwards, but I don't think you can tell so I'll just keep going.

I have decided that I'm definitely not joining in on the Crazy January thing, it did sound interesting, but I know I wouldn't get far - I doubt I'd even finish the starts - last time I tried to start a bunch together there were three that didn't get started within my time frame, one I still haven't started. And I can't choose 15 projects - I either have not enough or too many. I also don't really want to just jump into something that doesn't suit what I want to achieve. And at this point in time I'm still looking to clear some of my WIP's, a couple of which are getting close (I must update you on An Open Heart - I've started on the border now - not that it shows up very well being white on white).

So I think I'll just watch and cheer on those who do want to try a crazy challenge, and try and meander towards my own random wishy-washy goals. Although they aren't really called goals or anything like that that makes it sound like work. Cos I know from experience that I'm not too good at meeting targets etc. when I'm supposed to be having fun, I just end up doing nothing, which really gets me nowhere. So maybe I'll call them vague likes.

Crazy January Challenge 2011

2010-12-01T01:52:00.002Z

Well this sounds interesting and part of me is very tempted. The other more rational part is saying 'no, you've already got over 30 WIP's that you're trying (not very successfully) to get rid of, and you've got another few pieces that you're supposed to be starting'.

Of course I could start my count of 15 with those pieces. But really - I should be sensible, shouldn't I?

The other problem with the idea is that I'm never very good at playing by the rules. I don't do well with goals. I'm sort of surprised that I've managed to keep up with stitching even just a few stitches every week on my/a UFO project for more than two years now (note, however that this has not produced any finishes of said UFO's).

And really, if you were going to do this challenge, shouldn't it be starting a new project for every day in January?

I guess I could start loads and then put them away in a bag or box like most of the rest of my WIP's and only work on one or two. Seems a bit pointless though. And I'd have to buy more project bags.

So have I talked myself in or out? Well, I think whichever I think now, come January it'll be a bad case of not having a round tuit, and not getting one either. So perhaps knowing that I'm safe in making up all the rules for myself that I want and dreaming dreams.

Maybe also I have an ulterior motive in posting this - maybe I really want to sucker in all you other people out there who have bigger eyes than needles (or whatever the stitchy equivalent of that phrase is) so that you can all join me in my indecision, or just join the challenge. :)

An Open Heart

2010-11-15T03:49:00.002Z

The other thing I did last weekend was work on An Open Heart. I am almost so nearly almost to the end of the central stitching - I'm about 2 motifs off finishing.

Houston Quilt Festival part 2

2010-11-15T02:54:00.003Z

While we were at the festival Melissa taught us how to do needle turn appliqué, and Annette taught us how to add a button trim to a piece of lace using a simple crochet stitch.

Here is the result of my appliqué so far. It still needs the glue washed off (the white spots) and to be sewn up into a pincushion, but otherwise all the appliqué is done.

And now the other bit - what I acquired at the show:

Now remember - I don't quilt rofl

Houston Quilt Festival

2010-11-15T01:22:00.003Z

Last weekend I met up with some friends at the Houston International Quilt Festival. I haven't got any photos of my friends, but I do have a lot of quilt photos. There were sections of quilts that we weren't allowed to take photos of (which included some I really liked), but there were still hundreds that we could photograph. I did notice that I took less and less photos the further round I got as it all just got too much - there were so many it was almost overwhelming - and more prosaically, my feet hurt so I started going faster so that I could get to the sitting down part (and lunch) lol. I think I also managed to miss some as I've seen some of my friends photos and I just don't remember those quilts at all.

Anyway - here are some of my favourites:

An Open Heart

2010-10-17T16:00:00.001+01:00

I went to a stitching day last Sunday and did a reasonable amount of work on An Open Heart. And a lot of talking and listening and browsing the shop...

Anyway, here's my progress now. Only the last section to go now and then I can start on the borders.

Light of the World Storykeep and Scissor Pouch

2010-10-10T04:04:00.000+01:00

My latest progress on Light of the World Storykeep, still slowly getting somewhere:

And the progress I've made on this while waiting through dental and vision appointments - I don't know how they manage to make them take so long.

O' Jerusalem

2010-09-30T16:40:00.001+01:00

Finally, some real progress to report. I've finished the second page - well, except for the bit of Jesus that I'll do later.

Mystical Light

2010-09-18T03:01:00.003+01:00

Thought I'd just give a quick update on the progress of Mystical Light during UFO nights.

The contest for the Christmas Humbug finished, and as expected I didn't win, but I did come third equal and a photo of the top ones will be on the Victoria Sampler website, so I'm really pleased with the result, especially given that was the first time I've entered anything I've stitched in a competition.

Christmas Humbug

2010-09-08T14:34:00.002+01:00

The first stage of the competition is over and I made it through to the final :) I didn't get the most votes, so it's unlikely that I'll win, but I'm still pleased to have got that far.

Christmas Humbug

2010-09-01T21:59:00.005+01:00

I decided at almost the last minute to enter the Victoria Samplers Yahoo Group competition for the Christmas Humbug. Thea provided the chart and we got to stitch it in our own colours and make changes if we wanted. I hadn't really had any idea of what colours to stitch it in until about a week before the competition closed when I suddenly decided that silver, white and blue would be nice and wintery and hopefully Christmassy too with all the sparkle.

Anyway, here it is:

I pulled everything from my stash. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I mean, it's good because I didn't buy anything, but it's not good because it means I've got a bit of stuff. The only thing that I might have brought if I'd had time would have been ribbon, as it turned out the only thing that I had in anywhere near the right colour was Flair. So Flair is what the flowers are made of. I'm not entirely happy with how the centre flower turned out, but I couldn't think how else to do it, so that's how it's stayed, and it does look perfectly alright, so I think it's just me being fussy.

Passing the lego on

2010-08-22T21:12:00.002+01:00

I decided it was time to pass on some of my toys to the children. So first I assembled the Lego and Knex planes I had, took photos and then added it to the kids collections. And just because I'm feeling sentimental about the planes I thought I'd share the photos.

All of them:

Fokker DR1:

Knex biplane:

Small Lego biplane:

New stash

2010-08-22T14:49:00.008+01:00

Yesterday I went to the annual auction for my local ANG chapter. I managed to spend only $9 so I was really pleased with myself (although I did bid more on a piece I would love to have but I didn't win). My aim was to get a painted canvas that I could practice on before I think about spending lots of money on one as I haven't done a painted canvas before.

I came home with two painted canvases, a partly started class piece, and a handful of charts*. I'm not going to put the class piece in my WIP list until I actually start working on it - I've got another couple sitting around too that I got part started off someone else but am waiting till I work on them to add them to the list. It's long enough without putting other peoples work in. As soon as I saw the hot air balloons I knew that was the canvas for me.

Speaking of hot air balloons, here's a piece I started a while back using Angelina fibres - Hot Air Balloons by Audlem Mill. I brought the kit at the Alexandra Palace stitching show last year. The lady was trialling these kits and so wanted feedback on what people thought of them. I had even started it by the next time I saw her a month or so later at the Harrogate show. For some reason I just never got around to taking a photo of it. One day I might even finish it.

And lastly I'm just going to sneak in a new start that I did the other night - Scissor Pouch from Stitching Treasures. I've had this one waiting in my stitching bag since I got it for Christmas but I kept thinking I ought to do other things instead. This week I decided to ignore all those thoughts and start it anyway. Haven't got very far yet, but I think it should be a quick stitch.

* For the curious the list of things I got at the auction are Hot Air Balloons canvas with initials AHC in the corner, Quilt Top canvas with no identification, Sue Reed's Crossing the Spectrum class piece, 1992 Keepsake Calendar, Green Apple's Conch and Sand Dollar, Great Big Graphs Funtastic Borders for T's and Sweats, Leisure Arts Christmas Journey, Funk & Weber's The Neighbourhood, Leisure Arts The Legend of the Sand Dollar.

African Animals Needlebook

2010-08-15T18:55:00.003+01:00

I finished this last night. I think it came out quite well.

Light of the World Storykeep

2010-08-11T02:42:00.002+01:00

I did my second lot of stitching on this. Some people finished the first page in the first month - faint. A whole lot more finished during this months SAL. We get the next page for next month - there are 3 pages total given out 1 every two months. Needless to say, I highly doubt I will be finishing mine within the six months.

Mystical Light

2010-08-07T13:54:00.003+01:00

Another week of UFO stitching. Although I'm probably only doing the same amount per week as I did on Oh Jerusalem, this one seems to be going faster - probably because it's a lot smaller so the same number of stitches is a larger portion of the whole.

An Open Heart

2010-08-04T18:47:00.003+01:00

Ok - so here is the next latest photo with the Maltese Crosses row finished. Now that the furniture is mostly back in the right places I'm going to have no excuses for getting out O' Jerusalem again with it's stand, so it'll be back to working on that as my main piece I think, especially since I haven't worked on it at all this week and the whole point of swapping which UFO I worked on for UFO night was to work more on OJ. Tonight is supposed to be UFO night, but I might work on OJ instead, and then do Mystical Light tomorrow night. I'll see how it goes.

An Open Heart

2010-08-03T04:56:00.003+01:00

Here's some more on this. This photo is already out of date as I stitched all this morning waiting for the carpet fitters to come, and then while they were doing the work, so I've got the next band done too and I'm up to the Maltese Crosses - I love doing these, they look so cool, but they are so easy. I'll try and remember to take another photo soon.

Mystical Light and O' Jerusalem

2010-07-29T18:59:00.002+01:00

I have changed my UFO night piece from O' Jerusalem to Mystical Light so that I can work on O' Jerusalem more often in order to get it finished this year.

Here are updates on the two pieces.

I'm hoping to get a chance to start the Cityscapes Hearts that I signed up to do soon as the last class is getting closer and it would be nice to have actually made progress by then. Still, it won't be the end of the world if I don't manage to do so.

African Animals Needlebook

2010-07-19T20:13:00.004+01:00

I've now finished the basic stitching. I just have to block it and then I'll do all the edge stitching and sew it up.

Light of the World Storykeep

2010-07-16T22:46:00.005+01:00

I've started something else. I signed up for the Heaven and Earth Designs six month SAL and chose the Light of the World design by Dona Gelsinger. I'm doing it one over one on 25ct. Not sure if I'm enjoying it - think I prefer using a sewing motion. Still I'll see how it goes, it's only a small piece so I can use it for a test to see if I'm willing to work over one on 25ct for the larger designs I'd like to do.

An Open Heart

2010-06-28T04:35:00.002+01:00

I decided I couldn't wait for my stuff to arrive, so I went and brought a piece of art board to use as backing and tested the stretching of what I had already stitched.

I only pinned (well, I used needles as that is all I had) the fabric around the back, but it seemed fairly easy, although fiddly, to get the design to appear square on the front. So I think I will continue on this fabric and if it can't be stretched completely straight then it'll just have to be framed without a mat - I think if there is a wider expanse of fabric any left-over wonkiness won't be noticeable. But I think from my experiments that with patience it should be possible to frame it straight.

Still think I won't use the rest of the fabric though. Although I guess Christmas ornaments and things would be alright on it.

African Animals Needlebook

2010-06-28T04:33:00.001+01:00

More on the needlecase, I've done almost all the non-blended colours, just one left in the middle of the spots.

O Sweet Mortal

2010-06-28T04:30:00.002+01:00

A little more:

An Open Heart

2010-06-23T01:37:00.002+01:00

Here is the latest band, well - two bands really cos I did the words as well. Sorry the photo isn't brilliant, I didn't realise it wasn't that clear until I loaded it onto the computer.

Now, I need some advice on this. The fabric is woven crooked. I've known this from the beginning but I started stitching anyway thinking it could get stretched right when framed. But I'm beginning to have doubts. I really really don't want to start over, but I don't want it skewif at the end either.

So here are some photos to try and show the problem. The fabric is cut along a thread - I pull a thread out and then cut down resulting line. All my set squares are on the boat, so I've used a book to try and show the lack of square-ness instead. It also didn't help that I was photographing on a not-quite flat surface.

In this first one the edge of the book is lying flush with my basted outline of the stitching, so you can see how the top edge isn't square to the side.

This one I tried to get the book to be level with the selvedge to show another view of the angle.

The difference in the top and bottom - I can't remember if I cut the bottom or not, so don't know how straight that is. But still, the photo helps illustrate the problem.

This is the one that's really bothering me I think - I fold the edges up matching, so it should all be straight and this is what I get.

So after looking at those - what would you do? Do you think it can be stretched out?

Oh, and just to make matters worse, I've also done Victoria Samplers Heirloom Christmas Sampler on the same fabric, so the answers will apply to that as well I think. At least I'm pretty sure that if there is any left in my stash I'm not going to start anything else on it.

O Sweet Mortal

2010-06-21T01:29:00.001+01:00

I've also been working on O Sweet Mortal. Last night I got sick of tent stitch and cross stitch so picked up An Open Heart again - only to find I was up to a band that was all cross stitch, so I got to do cross stitch anyway. I'll show the picture of that when I finish the band - for now here's O Sweet Mortal.

African Animals Needlebook

2010-06-21T01:25:00.002+01:00

The latest on this:

There won't be another gecko on this case. But I do have the matching scissor case so there'll be another gecko there.

African Animals Needlebook

2010-06-14T01:59:00.002+01:00

I have beaded the gecko now and done a bit more of the stitching.

Beaded Zig-Zag Brooch

2010-06-10T16:04:00.003+01:00

Last night I finished the brooch that I started on the plane. The actual size of this brooch is just over 1 inch square. If I'd been brave enough to bead on the plane I could easily have finished this on the journey.

I think it came out really well, and it was very easy to make. And this finish brings my WIP number back down to what it was before I started these two kits.

Ta Da - they are finished

2010-06-09T03:32:00.003+01:00

The owls are finished:

They aren't washed or ironed so they are a bit wrinkly, as I don't have any of my stuff with me, so I'm going to send them to Mum as is (Dad is framing them for her).

Here's a picture of all the thread I had left over. The lengths on the left are the untouched lengths, so still the full 6 strands. I thought that was pretty generous thread allowances.

New starts

2010-06-05T02:42:00.005+01:00

I thought I'd be clever and just take a couple of little kits to work on on the plane. Cos I'm not a great traveller and tend not to be able to concentrate on things for very long while moving. And of course then there are the scissor restrictions and lack of space and lighting and so on. So if I took kits with precut threads then I could leave the ends hanging and just cut them off when we arrived. Good theory.

But, I forgot to think about beads. Both the kits I selected had beads in them, and I wasn't brave enough to try beading on an aeroplane - especially one where the seatbelt sign kept coming on due to turbulence. The kids loved the turbulence - coming in to land they were treating it like a roller coaster - arms in the air and squealing with delight every time the bottom fell out of our stomachs and wanting more. Not sure too many other passengers agreed with them.

Anyway - both kits I took were from Sue Hawkins. The first was a brooch - I did all the stitching up to the beading bit and then put it aside.

The second is a needlebook and I was supposed to bead the gecko first and then do the tent stitch. So I started on the tent stitch - didn't get too far though.

Of the two kits the better one to take was the brooch - partly because there were only two colours to deal with - the multicolour and the navy for attaching the beads. This meant there was very little colour sorting to start with, and once stitching I didn't have to think about changing colours.

The needlecase had a lot more colours to sort - somewhat a challenge in aeroplane lighting, and of course wanted me to bead first. The tent stitch also proved almost too small for me to easily do on the plane.

If I was going to do this again, I'd think first and not take anything with beads, but otherwise I'd stick with something small and few colours like the brooch. Sue Hawkins has a number of kits that would be suitable, so it wouldn't be hard to pick something.

Owls

2010-06-05T02:38:00.002+01:00

I had very much wanted to finish off the owls before we left the UK, as they are a present for my mother and my father will be framing them. So the plan was I'd leave them with them if I could. But I didn't quite make it, so hopefully I'll be able to post them off soon. They shouldn't take much longer to finish - I've just got to stay awake long enough and find some decent lighting to work in.

Owls

2010-05-23T19:56:00.001+01:00

And the third owl is done. On to the mother owl now.

Owls

2010-05-02T16:42:00.002+01:00

And about time - an update on the Owls.

I've just realised I've forgotten to do the backstitch around the beak, so I'll have to try and remember to do that next time I pick it up.

Just a bit of a ramble

2010-05-02T16:02:00.003+01:00

Well, our decorating is now finished, so some things are back in place, others I'm still trying to find. I've still got a lot to sort, and then it all gets packed in boxes for the big move. It's getting closer now and quite exciting. It would just be really good if we weren't leaving my family behind again when they only just got here.

Thank you to Karen for nominating me for both the Beautiful Blogger Award and the Sunshine Award. I think the Sunshine award came with it's own sunshine as during the three and a half weeks of decorating we just finished we had rain only once, and that was overnight. I know I'm supposed to pass these on, but I feel really uncomfortable doing so, so I'm just going to direct you to my blog reading list (I think you should be able to find it on my profile) if you're looking for more blogs to read. Most of them are stitching blogs, although I know some are no longer in use - I'm bad at cleaning up my list.

I also had a birthday recently and so took the opportunity to get some more Sue Hawkins kits. Well I had to didn't I? After all I was asked what I wanted for my birthday, and I'm not going to be in this country much longer so I thought something English (or anywhere in the UK really) while I was still here would be good. I might even start one of them soon.

I've also signed up for another class with the Shining Needle Society. This one is taught by Betty Chen Louis and is a pair of small cityscape hearts (currently to be seen on Gay Ann Rogers website, but I don't think they'll be there for much longer) with a whole lot of theory thrown in, which I think is going to be really interesting.

Decorating the House

2010-04-10T09:48:00.003+01:00

We've been having the house decorated in preparation for selling it when we move. The difference is stunning. So I thought I'd put up pictures of the first weeks work - the three bedrooms.

Here is the first bedroom - this one was originally not far different in paint colour, but it also had a floral border around the centre, and pink carpet. It looks much nicer now. In the second photo you can just see the orange carpet in the hall and stairs, just to give an idea of the colour combinations originally. If you squint you can also just about see a bit of the floral border that was around the whole top floor.

The inside of this cupboard was a pale green. The inside of the door was the same - most doors on the top floor were different colours on each side.

Now the next bedroom. This one was bright pink to start with (again with the floral border), with greyish carpet - there are a couple of photos further back on my blog from when I was making the curtain.

Lastly the master bedroom. Strangely I think this room looks smaller now - the others looked bigger. This one was blue cloudy wallpaper that was falling down, with blue threadbare carpet. The woodwork was bright aqua blue - including the wardrobe door and the inside of the bedroom door - the outside (which we saw the most often as it was usually open) was pink.

More bookmarks

2010-04-02T20:20:00.003+01:00

Here is the next batch of bookmarks - this time for the school teachers - colours chosen by the children.

I now only have enough of the banding left for 2 and a half more bookmarks. So I reckon that means that a 5m length does 30.5 bookmarks. Not bad going really.

Knotwork Garden

2010-03-28T20:20:00.004+01:00

My garden is now finished.

And for the curious - the process of giving it a haircut. The loops are done in turkey stitch, and I left all the tails hanging. So my first step was to cut off the tails. I actually quite like this overgrown look, but it does hide the other stitching.

So now the apprentice gardener sets to work.

Almost finished, just a few touch up bits now, and we get the result in the first photo.

Here's the pile of what was chopped off:

Not bad for the apprentices first try :)

Big hairy monster

2010-03-24T13:54:00.003Z

Well ok so it's not that big, or a monster - but it is hairy.

But I have finished all the stitching on it. My next step is to do the cutting, and then I'll have a finished garden.

Bookmarker

2010-03-16T11:08:00.003Z

Here is my bookmarker for the swimming teacher. I tried to choose watery colours and I think it came out very well. It's one of my favourite combinations so far.

Wedding Prayer

2010-03-08T17:37:00.002Z

Wedding Prayer has now been (happily) received so here are the pictures.

Here it is hot off the press:

And finished and ready for posting:

I didn't end up washing it as I put the interfacing on and then decided that washing it would take out some of the stiffness and cause more wrinkles to iron out. What I should have done was used the steam iron when I ironed it before putting the interfacing on, instead I just used a dry iron. Oh well, live and learn.

I also had to put two layers of white on the back as I'd used bright green thread to edge the fabric and you could see it through one layer. Oops.

Wedding Prayer

2010-03-02T11:07:00.005Z

I finished this last night. But I'm not going to put any pictures of it up until it's been received, just so that they get to see it first. So this week's task is to 'finish' finish it and get it in the post.

Now I think it will be on to more bookmarks - this time for the great swimming teacher the children have had since they started swimming in their first year, and for the teachers at school, all of whom we will be leaving behind in a few months when we move to the US. Hopefully those will take no more than a week, and then I'll move on to the Owls for my mother's birthday later this year, and possibly start a scissor pouch that's been calling my name recently.

This also means that I get to shrink my WIP list by one - well at least until I start on the bookmarks - although I'm hoping those will go fast enough that they won't need to appear on the WIP list. The scissor pouch should also go quite quickly that the list wouldn't grow for too long (says she hopefully). One day I will get it back down under 5 items, which is much more how I like it. It's just a pity there are so many nice things out there that I want to start - and so many people I want to stitch things for too :).

Wedding Prayer

2010-02-12T14:35:00.002Z

Wheehee. I've finished the outer border. Completely and utterly, French knots and backstitch.

Now I've just got the inner border, which is hardly anything as you can see from the little bit I've started - ok in the middle of each side it gets to three stitches wide, but it's nothing really. And fill in the words and hearts in the centre.

I may even finish it by the first anniversary.

Wedding Prayer

2010-01-31T10:02:00.000Z

I am now half way around with the backstitching and it's actually looking quite good I think. I'm liking it more and more as I go. Except that I've almost run out of 3371 so I think a run to the shop tomorrow might be in order, but I think the only place left only sells Anchor. Oh well, I'll see what the conversion looks like.

I'm now thinking about the finishing. I know basically what I'm going to do, but I'm wondering about washing it. I think I'm going to have to put iron on interfacing on the back so the backstitch doesn't come undone, as in a few places I've had to cut just one stitch and force the ends to the back as the wonderful chart confused me and I got it wrong. I'm thinking I'll need to put the interfacing on before I wash it as otherwise those ends might make a bid for freedom. Or I could just skip the washing.

Incidentally - I've turned on comment moderation for posts over 7 days old as I recently noticed I was getting a load of spam comments, and figured that moderating older posts comments might help without being noticed too much. If the spam continues I may go to full moderation, but I'll see how it goes. So if when you're trying to comment you get a message saying it will be moderated - it's not cos I think you're going to be horrible :D The other thing I could do if it keeps up is turn on the word verification, which I personally find really annoying, hence why I haven't turned it on yet.

Wedding Prayer

2010-01-21T12:29:00.003Z

And the backstitch started:

It still looks really dark even with 3371 instead of 310, but I'm not unpicking it. Maybe next time (not that I'm planning a next time) I'll go for a lighter shade again.

The other thing I've noticed with the backstitch is that it's highlighting where the stitches aren't sitting flat, usually where they have slipped one way or another with the fabric weave. I think I'm going to try and avoid doing cross stitch on 22ct hardanger again.

A milestone

2010-01-12T20:54:00.001Z

I have finished all the cross stitching in the border for Wedding Prayer. My next task is to backstitch it all. Then I'll start on the centre. I'm going to use DMC 3371 for the backstitching as the kit has black and I think that will be too harsh given that I've shrunk the design and am only stitching with one thread.

Anyway - here's a pic of my progress so far.

Wedding Prayer

2010-01-07T17:56:00.002Z

This is coming on really well at the moment, which is inspiring me to work on it more - kind of circular really.

Wedding Prayer

2009-12-29T22:11:00.001Z

Just thought I'd share my progress on this as well.

Sparkles

2009-12-29T11:49:00.002Z

Here are some photos of the sparkles - or at least attempts at photographing sparkles - it's actually quite hard to get the sparkles showing.

This is the wool - first the green that is still to be knitted, with a close up that hopefully shows how the metallic is woven in, and then the fringe of the autumn scarf to show off the colours better.

And just because I was already taking photos of sparkles - here is my latest haul from Sparklies. First a Solitaire (opal) on linen, then Moonlighting (silver metallic), Midnight (silver metallic) and Ink (silver metallic).

The colour of the Moonlighting isn't as bright as the photos show, it's really a bit darker.

The Midnight is a bit darker than this too.

And the same for the ink - the second photo is closer to the right colour.

I would have taken photos of some of my other sparklies fabrics too, but that involved too much effort so I didn't. I think my favourite is the Purple Dalmation Solitaire (can't remember whether it's an opal or not) which I have found a scan of on my computer, so here it is:

I have no idea what I'm going to use if for though. Those whitish spots on the upper left corner aren't as visible when just looking at the fabric - I hadn't even noticed them until I did the scan.

The knitting

2009-12-27T16:52:00.002Z

I guess as it's now after Christmas I can show you the scarves I knitted for presents. Well, I can show you one anyway, as I discovered I forgot to take a photo of the other. But I do have a photo of the one I did for myself which is the same, just slightly different colours.

Here is the one I made for my mother-in-law:

And the narrower one I made for me, the one for my friend was the same size as this one, but it was more pinks and reds and I think it had gold sparkles instead of silver:

I've still got a ball of green for another for me - I just love the wool and the colours.

Progress

2009-12-13T21:23:00.002Z

I have now finished my Christmas knitting (cos I ended up doing more than what I'd originally thought I would) and I have to say, it is nice to do when your brain is almost asleep and doesn't feel like it could cope with stitching.

Now it's on to try and get the Wedding Prayer finished. I was hoping to finish it this year, but I don't really think that will happen.

Charlie the Dragon

2009-12-06T20:16:00.002Z

I recently discovered that the designs from Millhouse Designs are now being produced by Crafts and Quilts. So if you are interested in getting the designs yourself, just go to their website and follow the links through Stitch Craft to Cross Stitch etc.

O Sweet Mortal

2009-11-28T15:27:00.002Z

I've finished the first page. Well technically it's the second as the first was blank. But then the first was about 3 rows deep, and the second isn't a full page either. Still it feels like an achievement anyway.

Wedding Prayer

2009-11-28T15:24:00.002Z

I've decided for this I'm going to work my way around filling in the colour completely on each section, rather than taking one colour all the way around. So here's the bottom a bit closer to completion.

Wedding Prayer

2009-11-19T03:25:00.001Z

I've finished all the knotwork around the border, so now I get to fill in the colour which hopefully will be a bit easier as it's all in blocks, and it will really start looking good.

O Sweet Mortal

2009-11-18T23:27:00.003Z

I've been working a little bit on this - just cos I wanted to. I'm actually starting to put some real colour in rather than just the inside of the cloak.

I'm going to take this with me to the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show to work on if I get a chance. I'm going to be helping on the Sparklies stand on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which I'm looking forward to. I chose this one to take partly because it's got it's own bag for carrying and partly because it's on Sparklies fabric. I'm probably going to regret choosing it later because of the size, but hey, at least it might get more stitched on it, even if only in the evenings.