A Finish for June WIPocalypse

I feel like a finishing MACHINE!!  I was so used to working on big projects where finishes were rare. Now I'm working on all these smaller projects and the finishes just won't quit rolling in!

Just in time for this month's WIPocalypse report, I've finished Tribal Butterfly by Sparklies.

It's stitched on 16 ct aida in Whimsy from PTP using HDF silk thread from Vicki Clayton. That's 10 of 31 UCJC starts that are now completed. Woohoo!

Still papercrafting!

My poor little crafting corner with all of my paper, stamps, inks, punches, etc has been horribly neglected so far this year. I have made a handful of last minute cards that I didn't remember to take pictures of, so I made sure to remember this time around.  I've been trying to figure out what my personal style is and I think it is primarily clean and simple. It's difficult to leave so much white space, but I'm learning tricks to make my cards look more polished.

I fussy cut the kangaroo (from Paper Smooches) and paper pieced the inside of the ear. I also added Glossy Accents to the heart to give it a little shine and dimension (though it's impossible to see it in the picture).

Side note: I live about 2 1/2 hours away from my parents and my mom is my best friend, so I tend to make a lot of "I love you" or "I miss you" cards so I can pop them in the mail every so often. My mom is also crazy about butterflies, so they show up on a lot of my cards too.

I punched out the three butterflies (a Martha Stewart punch) then applied a script stamp (Kaisercraft maybe?) using Black Tuxedo Memento ink. Then I used some Distress Inks to add a little colour. (Top butterfly is Worn Lipstick and Barn Door, middle one is Shaded Lilac and Dusty Concord, and the bottom one is Peacock Feathers and Frayed Burlap.) Finally I added a little bling to the butterfly bodies and popped them up on dimensional foam.

I haven't spent a lot of time using my Distress Inks, so it was fun to get inky today!

IHSW (finally!)

For the first time in 2012, I managed to sign up for IHSW (International Hermit & Stitch Weekend) AND I did some stitching as well. :)

I worked on Tribal Butterfly (one of my UCJC pieces) and got a fair chunk completed. Mostly mindless monochrome stitching is about all I can handle lately.

I think I might be able to finish it the next time I pick it up.

April WIPocalypse

I knew I'd done a fair bit of stitching in the last few weeks, but I didn't realize how much I'd done until I started writing this post. OMG -- 2 small finishes, and substantial progress on 4 other projects!!

Time for a quick recap ...

Two finishes from my UCJC list ... Carolyn's Garden Poppy and For Beauty Kimono. (I'm aiming to finish 12 smalls this year as part of WIPocalypse, and I have 4 done already.)

Progress on 3 medium to large sized UCJC projects ... Tribal Butterfly, Metamorphosis, and Oh Bugger Subversive Sampler.

And just in the last few days, I've managed to complete another stitch section on my Tree of Stitches (also on my WIPocalypse list). I will admit I enjoyed working on the Rhodes squares very much.

On this project, I think all of my favourite stitches have been the square ones ... cushion stitch, Norwich stitch, and the Rhodes squares.

Tribal Butterfly Update 2

I've been stitching like a madwoman lately -- I figure sleep is a fair trade for stitching time. :)

Made some great progress on my Tribal Butterfly by Sparklies. I'd like to have it finished and framed before October, which should not be a problem at all. I am really enjoying stitching this!

The fabric is a much more obvious pinky purple in real life, but the camera doesn't ever seem to do it justice.

2012 UCJC - Day 27

I really liked today's project, even though the stitches started off a little funky.

Today I started a new HAED - QS Blue Butterfly by Ching Chou Kuik. I'm stitching this on 25 ct Night Magic lugana by Sassy's Fabbys, 1 over 1. The picture doesn't do the fabric justice AT ALL. It's not grey, it's actually a very deep, dark teal. It's gorgeous.

The first 100 or so stitches in this piece looked funny to me, and I was worried that the hand dyed fabric was responsible for the weirdness. Although, as I put more stitches in, it seems to be working itself out.

It's very strange to be stitching with so much pink (this is the second project this week that has been nothing but pink so far), but I'm kind of enjoying the happy, bright, bold colours. I think this piece is going to look amazing on the dark background.

To be honest, it shocked me when I printed out the chart ... only 2 full pages and 2 itsy bitsy partial pages. For a HAED, even a quick stitch, it's tiny! This might just be finished this year after all!

4 more starts to go. :)

Edited to add a slightly better photo:

2012 UCJC - Day 4

In case you haven't noticed or didn't know, I LOVE LOVE LOVE stitching with silks. This is my fourth project in my UCJC and it's the second one using silks! There are 7 more in the line up as well. I'm seriously addicted to them. Love them!

Today's start uses Vicki Clayton's HDF 2125 on some hand-dyed 16 ct aida (Whimsy it's called) from Picture This Plus. I'm stitching the Tribal Butterfly by Sparklies.

In person the silk is much brighter and shinier; I am already in love with this piece. It looks great and is stitching up pretty fast. Plus, it's such a simple straightforward stitch -- a very welcome change from what I commonly stitch. It kills me to put this one down!

A DQ Milestone

I've been working pretty steadily on Drama Queen for the last little while, and this morning I hit a milestone -- 20,000 stitches done (or 25.89%).

The stitch count:

This coming weekend is an IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) and I think I might just pull out my Tree of Stitches and finally work on part 3 (the dreaded French Knots).

Also -- I need to give a huge shout-out THANK YOU to Rachael of TimRachael's Blog for being so incredibly generous! She had a giveaway last week, and I won! So in my email yesterday, I received a chart from HAED. It's gorgeous!! It'll be yet another present for my mom ... eventually. I'm not sure when I'll have time to sneak it into my rotation. (Perhaps CJC 2012 will have to expand to 16 days!) It's QS Blue Butterfly by Ching-Chou Kuik.

Spur of the Moment Stitching

I saw a few people on CrossStitchForum.com stitch up this freebie pattern called Brushstroke Butterfly, and I just couldn't resist! (I will admit that I altered the pattern just a smidge.) I'll be framing it myself (maybe tomorrow) and sending it off as a surprise for my mom. This was the first time I used a DMC varigated floss, and I really liked using it. I think it stitched up really well.

And now it's framed by me:

Butterfly Forest - Framed

Here it is ... all framed and ready to go.

Butterfly Forest -- FINISHED

I did it!! I did it!! It felt like this day would never come, but finally it did!! The butterflies are over and done with!!

All it needs now is a quick ironing, then it's off to the framers! Huzzah!!

I don't know what I'll stitch next, but it definitely won't be a butterfly.

The Dreaded Purple Flowers ...

Work on my Butterfly Forest project had slowed significantly over the last few months because I was dreading the copious amounts of backstitch that needed to be done. In particular, the intricate purple flower bunches were not a section of the project that I was looking forward to. But the good news is that they are finally finished!!

Now all I have to do is stitch the leaves, do a few french knots, complete the gold border, and then the piece is finished. A final update is close at hand!!

Butterflies, Blackwork, & Birthday Cards

I have lots of updates!!

First of all, my third go at making a card. I even splurged and got sparkly letters. (It was for my mom, so it was worth it!)

Next, it's an update on the Butterfly Forest. The full and half cross stitches are all done, and about 2/3 of the backstitching is complete. All that's left is the last of the backstitch and the couched border. Then it's off for a wash, an iron, and framing!! It's nice to see this one be so close to done, but the last little bit is a real struggle to do. The motivation is hard to come by. Knowing how much my mom will love it is all that keeps me going.

And finally, I've joined a blackwork stitch-along (SAL) at my LNS. It's a ton of fun! It's just a pleasure to sit around and stitch with others who love stitching like I do. The fact that we are all working on the same pattern but with a dozen variations in colour, fabric, and size just makes it more exciting. The design is called Interlocking Wheel by Elizabeth Almond. It's found on her site Blackwork Journey. This is what it will look like when finished:

Mine is going to be quite small. I'm stitching it 1 over 1 on 25 ct antique white lugana evenweave using Vivki Clayton's Hand-dyed silk in Ocean Breeze. It is one of the most amazing blues I've ever seen. To date I've finished the cross stitch border, but have yet to attempt any actual blackwork. (Blackwork embroidery is a counted-thread embroidery technique traditionally done in either black or gold. The simplest of all the embroidery stitches, the straight stitch, is used to make up the complex and intricate designs that can often be seen. When these straight stitches are sewn in a combination, they make lines or geometric patterns. These geometric patterns are the main basis for the Blackwork embroidery technique.)

Butterfly Update 9

I was enjoying working on the tree a lot, and I was dreading working on this piece again. There is SO MUCH backstitching left to do, plus a good chunk of background. I think I'm simply tired of the design. It's tough because it's a gift and I feel the pressure of the looming deadline.

It is coming along though. It's kind of amazing how much I have done already. I so want it finished and framed. I can't wait to see the look on my Mom's face. :)

End of Summer Updates

After a break from stitching because of my injury (I burnt my hand while on vacation), I hopped back on the stitching bandwagon for the last week of my vacation. School starts tomorrow (officially), so my stitching time will drop dramatically from now on. Thankfully I did manage to get quite a bit done this week.

The background on my butterfly forest has grown significantly, and I plan to do some backstitching on the big butterfly next time I get a chance to sit down and work on it.

My pixie has all the flowers and vines on her dress finished with just the backstitch left to do. (Well, she needs beads too, but that'll wait till the rest of her is done.) Once the backstitch is done, I'll give her a top half.

Butterfly Update 8

Another butterfly update - though not as much progress as I'd hoped. I got distracted with finishing my angel and working on my pixie, so the butterflies kind of took a back seat during the cottage stitch-a-thon. Still, more background did get done.

Butterfly Update 7

Still working on the background. It's coming along and I think I'm finally getting faster at it. It feels like there is still tons to do, but I think once I get past the big butterfly it'll go quicker. It'll be nice to hit the heavily stitched portion of the piece. :)

I'm headed off to the cottage soon for some serious rest, relaxation, and stitching, so there will be another progress update when I get back.

Butterfly Update 6

It feels like I haven't posted an update on this project in ages, and yet I feel like I've been working on it like a maniac. The half stitch background is taking much longer than I had anticipated, but it's coming along. You can even kind of tell it's a forest now.

Since I intensely dislike doing backstitch, I decided I should do it as I go instead of waiting to do all of it at the end. I think I'd never finish it if I left it all. (That's what happened to my angel which is sitting and collecting dust at the moment. Stupid backstitching with metallic threads!) Anyway, no matter how much I hate doing backstitch, it certainly makes a profound difference on the piece. Look how much more the butterflies pop!

And close up:

Butterfly Update 5

The end may be drawing near!! Okay not really, but significant progress has been made. I've finished all of the full cross stitches on my butterfly forest project.

The final butterfly was probably my favourite to stitch so far. I just love the colours in it and think it looks fantastic.

I've had the piece all rolled up on my scroll frame for so long, that I kind of forgot about the size of it. I thought the half cross stitch background would be a snap to do, but I have a lot of fabric to cover!! This might take a while ...

Butterfly Update 4

I love progress!! Five butterflies done and only one more to go, then it's background and backstitch time! I'm so excited at how quickly this project is moving along. I have so many other projects I want to start, but finishing this present for my mom is very important to me.

I finished the final flowers and leaves ...

and the fifth butterfly ...

and the overall progress ...

As much as I love doing this piece, I can't wait to have progress pictures of other projects to put up here. I'm almost sick of butterflies. :P