Welcome!

Welcome to my Atelier!

The official Anchor thread old-to-new conversion list can be found by clicking here: Anchor Stranded Cotton numbers Old To New

Please feel free to check out my gallery of work – some for friends and family, some custom requests made to order, and some just for me!

I specialize in decorative embroidery of all types, from cross stitch and patchwork to garment embellishment and costume work. Help yourself to free charts here (more to be added soon!)

Do you need a unique, custom made greetings card or gift for a loved one? Do you need help perfecting some detailing on a costume or clothing? Do you want a logo or design embroidered onto a bag, shoes, or any other fabric based item?

Contact me with your request, no matter how vague, complex, unusual or downright bizarre and I can help you come up with the perfect handmade, one of a kind solution!

 

Please note that any content, trademark, character, logo, or other material remains the copyright of its respective owner(s), and I in no way seek to claim ownership of or responsibility for the above.

April 2017 Update

This month, I finished both the pieces I was working on! My Summer Sampler is now complete, but I’m going to wait to post any pictures until it’s framed. I was originally going to make it into a cushion but seeing the terrible state sofa pillows got into in my house, I changed my mind. I would be pretty sad if it got ruined before it had even made it to Summer!

I’ve also finished Pokemon Page 12:

And here’s how it’s looking so far altogether:

It’s hard to give a good sense of the size of it, but when it’s done it would be big enough to be a small blanket or a large wall hanging, which is what I want to do with it in the end!

I’ve moved on to papercraft for a while, and made a start on my Christmas cards for this year just for a complete change of pace and theme 🙂

Hopefully I’ll have a framed sampler for you soon!

March 2017 Update

My last post for March! I can’t believe it’s come around so fast! I haven’t had much time to work on my Pokemon picture this week, but I started the birds’ heads – that’s the orangey blobs towards the lower left. That will eventually be a Dodrio!

I spent most of my stitching time on the Summer Sampler:

It’s actually come along a little further than this now, I added a couple of butterflies and a fuzzy little bumble bee to finish off the lower middle cornflowers motif – but I guess I forgot to take a photo! I think there is a good chance that one or both of these will be finished by the end of next month.

In the meantime, we have a mother’s day walk in the park planned for tomorrow and good weather forecast! I hope you all have lovely mother’s days too, if that’s something you celebrate!

Spring is Here!

The daffodils are out, the sun is no longer hiding away behind rainclouds and the world seems like a happier place just now 🙂 Winter has its charms, but I’m so glad to be seeing the light at the end of a dreary tunnel. On the subject of seasons, here’s my latest update on my Summer sampler:

I’ve finished the band of white herringbone and roses, and started on the little birdhouse motif to the left. I’m hopeful to have this motif finished by the end of today. The camera has done some odd things with the rose band, so here’s a close up that looks a little less wonky:

I’ve also made a little progress on my Pokemon pattern, again mostly in white by coincidence!

The ghosts Gengar and Haunter are now complete, and the seal (Seel!) just needs a little more shading on his cute little face and fins 🙂

I’m still having a very good time stitching both of these, I know I completely lost the ‘stitchy bug’ a few months ago but it seems to be back with a vengeance now! The only thing that might stop me is the release of Mass Effect Andromeda this week – exciting!

Belated February 2017 Update

Yes, it is mid-March…I am aware…

February was a very exciting month for me. Spring is almost here, I’ve been offered trial period promotions at BOTH of my jobs, I blew up a TV, threw a surprise party and ate a TON of cake. Can’t wait to see what March has in store!

Even still, I found time for some stitching. I started the next whitework band of the Summer Sampler:

I realise now that the white doesn’t show up super well on the fabric I chose, but I love the fabric so much that I’m just going to accept that and try not to let it bother me.

Plenty more work has gone into the Pokemon project:

The outlining is probably 80% done now, you can see the cutest little seal face and the ghosts are almost finished now. I’m really enjoying working on both of these pictures, there’s so much colour and joy in them. I’m even happier now there’s light to stitch in the evenings after work.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring (in the Northern hemisphere at least!)

x

Summer Sampler Halfway Point

I’m back to (almost) full health now and have had plenty of energy to stitch my little heart out this week! I haven’t made much progress on Pokemon this week – 

I’ve fallen completely in love with the Summer Sampler, spending almost every day stitching it instead. i love how quickly each motif comes to life as I’m backstitching each one as I go along instead of leaving it till the end. The colours are so pretty and fresh, and it makes me feel so happy and optimistic for the Spring. Here’s where I’m at now:

As usual, this is a terrible quality photo, sorry! That’s another reason to be excited for Spring – I can actually stitch in daylight after work! So a little close up of the top centre to show off the Algerian eyes and the pretty colours:

I’m just over halfway now, as you can see. There are some lovely flowers and bumble bees to go in the bottom half as well as some cute birds and a few more speciality stitches, then a backstitched frame all the way round. I can’t wait 😀

Stitching While Sick

I’ve had the Annual Winter Plague this week, so I’ve spent a lot of time lying on the sofa binge watching Once Upon A Time and feeling sorry for myself. That also means I’ve had a lot of stitching time!

Progress continues on Pokemon:

The tubby little ghosty in the middle almost has a face and arms now.

And the Summer Sampler has a border and a flower wreath:

Disaster struck when I ran out of pink thread, but my very kind housemate took pity on me and make the trek into town to fetch some for me, despite having never stepped foot in the haberdashery before and not having the first clue what he was looking for – Crisis averted!

January 2017 Update

I tried to split my week evenly over both my projects, and made a little progress on each. Pokemon Page 12 is coming along nicely:

I’ve got a couple of spiky feathers in there now, and the top outline of another spooky ghost 🙂

I’ve finished the first motif of my summer sampler and started on the second:

The text is more or less the centre of the design so I can work outwards from here. I’m doing the backstitching as I go along with this one which is something I never normally do. Usually I leave it all till last but it seemed like the right thing to do in this case. All the motifs are so different and separate that I think it will be good to finish them off completely and watch the design grow in a different way this time.

I know some people hate backstitching, but i really enjoy it. It feels like putting the final touches in that really make a huge difference to the finished piece. On the other hand it can be a lot of pressure – one or two sloppy stitches can be the difference between a beautiful princess and a wonky-eyed madwoman in some cases!

New Start For January

I’ve moved on to page 12 of my Pokemon picture which is coming along nicely this week, here’s my progress since last Saturday:

The lighting is terrible as always, I only get time to stitch after dark these days! Roll on Summer and the shorter nights – and with that in mind, the new piece I’ve started is a Summer Sampler from the World of Cross Stitching magazine. I’ve got a beautiful piece of hand dyed evenweave from a Polstitches grab bag – why does Polstitches fabric always smell so amazing? – that looks like a summer sky, bright blue with just a hint of fluffy white clouds.

I’ve only stitched a couple of hours on this so far, but it’s cheering me right up!

Hurry up Spring, I believe in you! I remember a time when I could still feel my fingers and toes without thermals being required!

Magnum Opus – Update 7

I’ve finished the next page of my giant Pokemon wall hanging!

This one features some spooky ghosts and a couple of birds. I liked all the shades of purple in this section, but I admit to getting quite bored of brown before the end! The whole thing is almost halfway done now, we’ve reached the midpoint in terms of height.

I may yet finish it before I turn 30! These creases are going to be hell to get out though when the time eventually comes…

August 2016 Update

I didn’t put a single stitch into fabric at all during August. I’m very disappointed with myself! Instead, I’ve been trying out new crafts here and there, and making up some old finished cross stitches into cards and hangings.

Most of these weren’t stitched by me, but were done by my Nana before she lost her eyesight. I couldn’t bear the thought of her throwing them out, so I’ve tidied them up as best I can and we’ve together made them into cards for her to send to her friends or keep for herself. I’ve been trying out a die cutting machine, which is pretty new for me as well – that was a lot of fun!

Here’s some of mine and my Nana’s joint efforts from this month:

This is Mr. Christmas Teddy from a few months ago, made into a padded tree hanging.

This was my first go at die cutting. The choices of embellishments were my Nana’s, as was the embroidery. I just did the cutting and sticking and so on!

These cute little garden bird buddies were Nana’s embroideries too. I made them up into a sort of matching set of cards, because they were too small to really do much else with, but still too large for an aperture card.

I hate how this one came out. The card stock was too floppy for the weight of the tapestry wool, the aperture is off centre and the picture doesn’t quite fit at all. I’m going to take it out and mount it onto a make up bag instead – but it’s important to record my failures as well as my successes in craft and in life I think!

I hope September will see me get back into crafting a bit more, as I start a new job (yet again!) with more regular lunch breaks for extra stitching time!

I hope everyone else has had a fun and productive month too!