Diamond to a Square

Another stitchy day with my friend Caroline means progress on my counted canvas project - Birds of a Feather. (It also means more crafty addictions, but that's another story for another day.)

I love the symmetry of this design, and I can't leave it in a non-symmetrical state (which means I have to keeping stitching each part until it's done). As a result, the inner diamond is now a square:

Only the 5 borders left to go!

I know the Rules ...

That is, I know the Rules For Life because I've stitched them all! I finally finished this piece by Kincavel Krosses that I started as part of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge in 2012.

Stitched on 18 ct Royal Purple aida by Sassy's Fabbys using white HDF silk by Vikki Clayton.

Now I just need to iron it and take it to the framer's tomorrow.

I'm Hooking Again

For the first time in a long time, I picked up my crochet hook again. I blame this on my dear friend Caroline, who introduced me to Knitpicks.com. I fell head over heels in love and promptly ordered some yarn.

Because I'm a bit daft and like to challenge myself, I decided to crochet a Granny Square lapghan for my mom in her favourite colour - green. I've never crocheted a granny square before, never crocheted in the round before. It was all brand new! After watching half a dozen YouTube tutorials and close scrutiny of the patttern, I gave it a go.

The first two rounds are made from Swish Tonal Yarn in Canopy.

After a little fumbling and more YouTube videos, I managed to change colours and do 4 rounds of Swish Worsted Yarn in Jade.

Next step - add 6 rounds of Swish Worsted Yarn in White.

This has been a lot of fun to work on so far, and I already have a few colourways planned in my head for the next granny square lapghan I'll make.

A little needle work

After not stitching for almost 5 whole days while I was away at a conference, I took my counted canvas project with me to visit my parents and gave it a little love.

It's a smidge blurry, sorry!

I have loved every stitch of this project and I wish I could spend more time with it. It's fun and easy and fast and fabulous!

IHSW Long Weekend

I finally managed to participate in IHSW again!! (IHSW = International Hermit & Stitch Weekend)

I sadly haven't been keeping up with my goal to stitch 1/2 a page of DQ every month (April was a bust), but I did manage to finish 1/2 a page in 2 months! It was a happy coincidence that finishing the half page happened during IHSW.

Here she is ... 38,180 stitches or 49.42% complete. :)

Dribs and drabs of progress

I have not been stitching as much as I would like to lately, so progress is minimal. However, I've been trying to stifle my urge to jump around from project to project too much and I'm hoping that will help me get a finish sooner rather than later.

Today I have progress on two projects.

First, Rules For Life by Kincavel Krosses:

Second, Birds of a Feather by From Nancy's Needle:

Fingers crossed I can squeeze a little more stitchy time into my schedule soon.

Evolution of a Flower

Back in February, during the stitching retreat, I started on a white-on-white version of Just Nan's Ice Blossom. Unfortunately, It just was not working for me. I didn't like the conversions I'd done and I kept wanting to add in some silver, blue, or purple (which defeats the purpose of a white-on-white piece).

So I went looking for an alternative, and finally found Frozen Flower by Mabel Figworthy's Fancies.

This is what it will look like (but all in white) when I'm done:

Here are my progress pics so far (it's only 5"x5"):

It took a couple petals before I got the technique for the woven picots down pat. (You can barely see the goofy first few tries!)

Evolution of the cutwork:

I know ... it's a crazy amount of cutting, and I have a kazillion woven bars to do. :)