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!

Finished Mini Sampler

I finished the sampler I started working on last week, and am generally pretty pleased with it. Here it is before mounting:

I’m just ever so slightly dissatisfied with the spacing of the words, I think they could have done with being one square to the right maybe? In any case, given the deadline for getting this done, I didn’t have time to mess around with changing it and then maybe changing it back and so on. I just had to mount it up and post it off, like so:

I was trying to go for a sort of rustic / folk art kind of feel to go with the fairly traditional sampler, but as usual I got carried away and had to add something sparkly. Never mind, I know the recipient likes sparkles too!

And with this done, I’m back to focusing 100% on the Pokemon picture. Hopefully I can finish Page 10 this week!

March 2016 Update

As I promised myself i would, I’ve gone back to work on my Pokemon picture, and it’s coming along quite quickly.

There are lots of largeish, solid areas of colour so i can really enjoy watching the picture appear as I stitch.

I’ve also started work on a tiny little sampler for a super secret wedding. I got the pattern from a World of Cross Stitching magazine, and tried various different thread and fabric combos out. I actually started and unpicked it three times before I decided that the designer’s choice was probably best! Here’s what I’ve done so far, it’s not much yet as I’ve only had one evening’s work on it:

I think my lazy daisies are really improving from my earlier attempts! I don’t know what it is about this stitch that my hands just don’t seem to want to do. I can French knot no problem, I genuinely enjoy backstitching, but my lazy daisies look a bit lopsided and wilted most of the time!

And, just because i can’t seem to help myself, I’ve made a few more papercraft Christmas cards 😛