Life gets in the way

Seriously, I had such high hopes for blogging this month. I even took my camera and cords with me when I went travelling for two weeks. But nothing happened ... I stitched, that almost always happens, but the blogging thing got pushed to the side. Sorry about that.

I also missed posting for IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend), even though I did hermit quite a bit last weekend. I'm hoping the structure and schedules of September will help me keep on top of things. Again -- sorry!

There will be lots of update photos coming in the next week, but today I have a framed finished for you!

After much bitching, whining, and grumbling, I finished stitching the all-white hardanger piece Frozen Flower by Mabel Figworthy's Fancies.

This piece was stitched as a gift for a dear friend who defended her PhD dissertation earlier this week. I am happy to say she was successful and is now a doctor!! I chose this design for her because she writes a blog called White Cabana -- unsurprisingly it's about all things white, including interior design, decor, art, and architecture. Over the years I have sent her links to stitching and cardmaking sites featuring all-white projects. Every year I make her birthday and/or Christmas cards in all-white. (Not as easy as it sounds!) So I could do nothing less than an all-white piece of stitching to mark this great occasion.

I knew I had to choose a design with style, elegance, and texture. This piece had it all. (Though it was a much more challenging stitch then I had expected. Not that the stitching was particularly difficult, but the tedium of all those woven bars (approximately 280 of them) made my mind melt. It was a challenge to stick with this piece. However, the look on my friend's face when she unwrapped it made all of those hours so worthwhile.) I can't wait to visit her in her new house and see it in all its glory!

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. :)

Bits of progress and a finish too!

My attention has been kind of scattered this week -- very busy with school, so I don't have big chunks of time to stitch. That tends to make me project hop!

First up, is my newest project Birds of a Feather by Nancy's Needle. I am really loving working on this piece, and the progress attests to that. I've managed to finish the inner octagon already!

I can't bring myself to work on Cirque des Carreaux again quite yet, so I pulled out another piece that is a simple, mindless stitch - Rules for Life by Kincavel Krosses. I think I made some great progress on this piece too. (Maybe doing a quick rotation is the way to go for me ... who knows?)

And finally, I started and finished the April design for the Song of the Weather hardanger SAL hosted by Mabel Figworthy's Fancies.

And the first pillowfront for my nieces is fully stitched. Now I just need to find the time, fabric, and motivation to make the actual pillow.

March was a Nightmare!

So I've been trying to keep up with the Song of the Weather hardanger SAL over at Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. Over a week ago, I put my fabric onto my new 12" millenium frame and away I went. It started out okay ...

(See the pretty new squissors I got? They are wonderful for snips in close quarters!)

However, once I got past the cutting and wrapping, I encountered the basque knots (the outer double border). Well, I couldn't get them right to save my life! I cut them out 3 times before I finally got them done. They aren't that pretty, but they're done. I hope I never have to stitch another one.

The French knots went smoothly (thank goodness) and they look nice and plump done in a perle #5. I think this design has all of my least favourite stitches -- basque knot, Queen's stitch and wrapped bars.

I did the first two designs with my fabric on a q-snap and now that I've put it on the millenium frame, the fabric doesn't seem to be behaving the same way. Not sure whether it's a result of the extra tension or the crappy stitching I did.

Back to Drama Queen for a bit I think. I've been missing it!

Stash, beautiful stash!

I've been rather naughty lately. I went on a bit of a stash buying spree online, and it's all finally arrived!

I ordered a couple patterns from 123stitch.com. I generally dislike Joan Elliot designs -- her fairies and goddesses do nothing for me. However, I stumbled across her Geishas, and I was in love! I have no idea when I'll get around to stitching them, but I just had to have them in my hot little hands! My mom and I both spent several years learning to speak Japanese (for fun), so I bought Red Geisha for her (the colours are so my mom) and I bought Blue Geisha for me. They'll make a lovely set one day I think.

I also ordered some squissors from Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. I joined the year-long hardanger SAL that she's hosting, and thought that if I'm going to be doing so much hardanger, I should have better tools. Aren't they pretty?

Even though I sometimes dye my own fabric (and as a result I have oodles of dyed fabric in my stash), I just couldn't resist buying a few pieces from Sparklies in the UK.

These four are all 18x13 pieces of 28 ct lugana - from left to right, Oceans Depth, Aries, Rain, Basically Bonkers. They're nice, but not quite as vibrant as shown on the website. I chose these ones as potential backgrounds for the dragon charts I have from Fire Wing Designs.

For fun, I also ordered a 1/2 yard grab bag of lugana. Basically I get a hodgepodge of fabric colours picked by Sparklies with a few big pieces and some ornament sized pieces.

The bigger pieces (from left to right) are Dark Goddess (25 ct, 18x13), Misty Morn (28 ct, 18x13), and Pisces (32 ct, 18x27).

There were also a few smaller pieces, but they weren't labelled with names, counts, or sizes. They are quite nice though!

I've also been kind of naughty on the HAED front - a few have landed in my shopping cart during the February sales.

Little Red Riding Hood:

Peacock in Full Bloom:

Rapunzel:

Sharla:

My First Retreat

Just got home from my very first stitching retreat. It. Was. Awesome.

It truly felt like Christmas - I stayed up late the first night talking, laughing, and stitching, then got up early the next day, stayed in my jammies, and went running out to the main room to stitch again. It was better than Christmas because it didn't end after one day!! Big shout out to my partners in crime - Caroline and Tracey!!

So much progress - oh my gooses!

The first night I worked like a madwoman and completed page 4 of Drama Queen. That's 6 pages completed now or 32, 582 stitches or 42.2%.

I stitched every day from 8am till 2am - barely stopping for meals. It was a blast! I will admit that my attention wavered a bit, so I changed projects frequently. Luckily I brought quite a few with me. The only one that didn't get any love while I was at the retreat was Elizabeth by Mirabilia. She'll come out to play once I have a few other WIPs finished.

Definitely made some progress on Cirque des Carreaux. I think I've finished about 2.5 pages of the 6.

I finally put a few more stitches into Rules For Life by Kincavel Krosses. I love this piece. I'm hoping to finish it sooner rather than later.

I had a few new starts as well.

I started Ice Blossom by Just Nan and it was a bit of a disaster. Not only was I stitching white on white which is challenging, but I was converting the recommended threads to HDF silk and DMC perles. I did quite a bit of frogging, and I still have more to frog because I stitched one part without the sparkly metallic it needs. *sigh* It looks okay though. I like the textural differences I've added.

I also started Sunflower Bee by HAED for my Dad (he doesn't know about this though). I gridded the first page and put in 100 stitches. It's 88,900 stitches in total, so bigger than Drama Queen, but I'm stitching it on 28 ct white lugana so it should be roughly the same size. No idea when I'll actually get this one done, but the chart is full of big blocks of colour for the first few pages. It should be an easy stitch for now.

I also managed another start/finish!! I worked on the February design in the SotW hardanger SAL from Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. I didn't follow the directions for colours and I changed the beads to French knots (I can just see the beads being ripped off by my nieces within hours of getting it), but I think it looks pretty good. I forgot how time consuming woven bars are to do! It felt neverending. I also found the bead edging stitch to be fairly difficult and quite annoying. I referred to it often as the "stupid stitch." It turned out all right in the end.

Overall, the retreat was amazing. I am dead tired, and yet I feel refreshed, re-energized, and more like a real person than I have in a long time. It was good to take a few days for me without any guilt and with little thought for school and my responsibilities there. I didn't even check email!! (I dread going to check it now though.)

I've already put in my deposit for the October retreat!!

Another new finish

I had every intention that this year I would work on my big pile of WIPs and get it down to a more manageable size. So far this year all I've really managed to do is start (and finish) new projects!! I'm ridiculous. This is the third start/finish of 2013.

I tried to resist, really I did, but in the end I caved and joined in on the year-long hardanger SAL over at Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. I'm a little behind because I joined late (almost the end of January) and had to wait to visit my LNS to kit up. There are 12 designs (one released on the first of every month) and I've decided to stitch them in groups of four and make them into pillows for three of my nieces for next Christmas using their favourite colours.

I have only tried hardanger once before in January 2012 as one of my starts in the Ultimate Crazy January Challenge. It took a bit to get used to but they really do stitch up pretty quickly. This one is stitched on 25 ct white lugana using DMC 797, 799, and white in perle #5, perle #8, and regular cotton floss. I started and finished January last night (I gave up a lot of sleep for this one).

I'm not a fan of the tulip or leaf-like satin stitch motifs, but I LOVED stitching the star in the center. I also tried colonial knots for the very first time (normally I just do French knots which I finally "mastered" a few years ago). I had a hard time making the colonial knots without staring at the diagram for wrapping the thread, but all eight of them went off without a hitch. I think they look pretty good! I loved doing the lazy daisy (also called detached chain) and herringbone stitches. Those flowers turned out really well. I think they might be my favourite part of this design.

I still need to do the February design, but I'll be taking that with me to the stitching retreat next weekend. I can't wait!! Weeeee!

Infintesimal Progress & Hardanger Stash

I put in a few hours on Drama Queen this past week, and while I didn't get loads done, progress was made! I'm hoping for a page finish before the end of February.

I tried to resist, but I failed ... I joined in on the Mystery Hardanger SAL over at Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. I've decided to split the 12 monthly designs up into groups of 4 and do them as pillows for my nieces in their favourite colours.

I just picked up the necessary stash for the first pillow (4 designs) - DMC 797, 799, and white.

Now to find time to do it! It's been a year since I last tried hardanger, and while I do enjoy it since it's so quick, it does take a little more concentration than regular cross stitching.

I also have two more unplanned new starts in the works. I'm hoping to start one of them tonight when I go for a stitchy evening at a friend's place. Updates will be forth coming. :)

Metamorphosis Progress

My stitchy time is severely limited this month, so progress is slow, but I do have a little bit to share. I've finished the first four motifs on mini Metamorphosis (Ink Circles).

I've actually finished a little bit more, but it's back on the q-snap and I'm too lazy to take it off for another picture.

Aren't the blues pretty?

Surprisingly, I'm getting bored working on such a simple pattern and I'm craving a little HAED confetti. But I really should finish this one sooner rather than later, so I'll keep at it for a little longer.

I've also done another stupid thing (stupid as in I don't need more things on my to do list, not that the thing I am talking about is stupid). I joined a hardanger SAL over at Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. A bunch of people on the forum I frequent (crossstitchforum.com) joined in (it started January 1st) and the progress pics I've been seeing have been just lovely! For an extremely reasonable £3, you get access to a new hardanger design on the 1st of every month for the entire year.

Long time readers of my blog might remember that I first tried hardanger a year ago as one of my starts for my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 2012. Mabel's designs are very pretty and the instructions are wonderful - even for a complete novice like me! That one turned out beautifully.

While I resisted as long as I could, it was inevitable that I'd cave and join. I don't know why I try to kid myself. Anywho, the January pattern is now in my hot little hands and I just need to pop over to my LNS and pick up some fabric and threads. This is another reason I want to finish Metamorphosis ASAP -- I want to work on some hardanger!

Another update might just be right around the corner!

Yet another UCJC Finish!

I became a little obsessed about finishing my first ever hardanger piece. It's Clover I by Mabel Figworthy's Fancies, stitched on 25 ct lugana using Caron Collection Watercolours and Wildflowers in Emerald.

As I said in my previous post, I had trouble with the Queen's Stitch and had to adapt them a bit to make myself happier. I had the same issue with bead placement too, and so they don't quite follow the pattern. I do rather like how it turned out though.

Look at those pretty dove's eye filling stitches and all the blingy beads!

While I am very glad I tried hardanger and learned some new stitches, I can honestly say that I much prefer cross stitch. Think I'll stick with what I know best for the foreseeable future.

This is finish 6 of 31 in my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge. :)

Learning Hardanger

My Day 3 UCJC project was a hardanger design by Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. I had a great time learning how to do kloster blocks and motifs. I'd never worked with Caron Collection Watercolours and Wildflowers before and it was a brand new adventure for me.

I finally got around to picking up the project again yesterday. I finished all of the kloster blocks, then spent an hour trying to figure out the Queen's Stitch. It just would not lay properly for me. I must have frogged it 6 or 7 times before I gave up and altered the stitch to suit me better. It looks fine, but I don't love it.

Then I moved on to the scariest part -- cutting.  With my lovely and sharp Stork scissors, I made a few cuts, then some more, and started pulling out bits of fabric. Holy cow! I was doing it! But I couldn't figure out how to tuck in the cut ends nicely. They just would not tuck. :( So I moved on to the double wrapped bars, which I think turned out swimmingly.

Thank goodness for crossstitchforum.com and the help of several fantastic stitchers (including Mabel herself), who gave me a few more pointers and set me straight on how to tuck in my ends.

Voila!  Look at those pretty little kloster blocks with no ends showing!

I must say that hardanger is fun, quick, and beautiful, but fiddly too! Tucking in the ends will be the death of me, I'm sure.

Here's the whole piece to date: