Still Stitching?

I haven't totally abandoned cross stitching. Really! I haven't!

I just haven't had the time or focus to work on anything, plus I've been a little in love with knitting. Thanks to my stitchy friends though I am occasionally forced to stitch, which reminds me how much I do love it!

Over the course of a weekend retreat in February and a stitchy night in April, I made a little progress on a few things.

I've made a fair bit of progress on Stitchin' Pretty Waffles by Pattie Bennett:

And a tiny bit of progrss on my Welcome sign by Kincavel Krosses:

Even though I have barely stitched in the last year, I certainly haven't let that stop me from adding to my stash. I blame this on my friend Caroline. (Check out her blog here. She's full of crafty goodness!) She's been working on the pattern Amtrak by Sampler Cove Designs for a while and it is LOVELY! So I finally bought it and the floss I want to use (some gorgeous Dinky Dyes silk). Still need to decide on fabric though ... and a start date.

Turtle Trot - June

It's Turtle Trot time! Turtle Trot is a slow SAL where participants chose 10 WIPs at the beginning of the year and each month we report on the progress made that month.

As usual, my progress is not huge. Stitching has not been at the forefront of my crafty time this year.

I did make a little progress on Welcome Sampler by Kincavel Krosses.

I realized I don't have enough of the silk I was using (Pizzazz by Carrie's Creations), so I thought I could add in some black and maybe remove a few elements from the design. However, I stopped pretty quickly as it is not working out like I had hoped. Not sure what to do with this piece right now.

I also spent a little more time with Ciara Blue from Blackwork Journey.

Slow progress, but very pretty!!

I keep hoping I'll find more time to stitch, but really it isn't about finding time. I can always find time to craft. My problem this year has been motivating myself to stitch.

Fixing my Mojo

I'm still trying to find a solution to my crafty mojo problem -- more specifically, my stitching mojo problem. A dear friend suggested that a new start might be just the kick in the butt my mojo needs. She also suggested that I start a project I've had kitted up and ready to go for over a year now.

So I did. :)

I finally started my first Chatelaine - Evening in the Park. I love, love, love this design, and it took a while but I found the perfect fabric for it from Under the Sea Fabrics. I ordered the painfully expensive, but achingly lovely threadpack of silks and beads from European Cross Stitch.

One day it should look like this:

For right now, my start looks like this:

It's stitched on Ice Princess 32 ct opalescent lugana. I'm not loving using all the metallics at the moment, but it's looking good so far.

For the first time I'm using a magnifier while I stitch, because the hand-dyed fabric has tiny holes and the opalescent nature of the fabric splits the threads and makes it doubly difficult to see the proper holes. The stitches look pretty big under the magnifier, but when I look at it without, I can't believe how tiny the stitches are!

This piece is going to take a very long time.

A start delayed

For the past few months I have not had my usual raging, all-consuming stitchy bug. It's been a struggle to motivate myself to stitch. Back in early February, I became insanely excited about a Facebook SAL I found that is being hosted by Northern Expression Needlework. It's a 24-part SAL with a part released at the beginning of each month. I joined 6 months into the SAL. It's called the Learning Sampler and is chock full of specialty stitches.

The designer recommended using The Silk Mill silks (which I'd never even heard of before) and I could not resist! I immediately picked out my colours and ordered the silks from Europe.

The orginial design suggests an ombre range of colours, but I decided to go bold with the bright blue for the letters and and the two greens for the alternating bands. The off-white/cream is for the borders.

The silks are gorgeous! The smoothest, sleekest, shiniest silk I've ever worked with (and I work with silk often). Thankfully someone on the FB page had warned me how slippery this stuff is, and it certainly is slippery. Craziness … but SO pretty!

I started this piece with gusto, but in my head it was nowhere near this huge. Even after buying the massive piece of fabric (stitched over 2 on 32 ct lugana) it didn't register with me. It wasn't until I started stitching that I realized that I'd signed up for a huge, huge project. That realization kind of killed my bug. And the piece got set aside for a while.

Finally, after the rejuvenation of last week's stitchy get together with some friends, my bug is partially back, and I tackled this piece again. I was determined to finish the letter A. (I still need to finish B, C, D, and E and the top border just to complete part 1.)

Now that I have the desire to work on this again, I don't have the time. Story of my life!

Thankful to be done

I did it! I gave up a little bit of sleep and ignored a few chores and I finished Metamorphosis 4.0. I think it looks smashing!

As a refresher -- this is stitched over 2 on 28 ct cornflower Jobelan using Carrie's Creations silk in Periwinkle. I think the tone-on-tone with just a hint of varigation looks fantastic. I do love blue!

It's already at the framers … I can't wait to see it all done up.

I am very thankful to be done this piece though. Four times is too much for one design, especially when you stitch the last two versions back-to-back. Ugh - won't do that again.

I'm trying very hard to resist a new start (goodness knows I have enough stash to have a dozen new starts at least). I did however pull out Elizabeth by Mirabilia and put her back on a Millenium frame. She got a few stitches Thursday night and I enjoyed them all! Pics of her next week. :)

Metamorphosis 4.0

I'd been doing so well all year -- blogging 6-7 times a month -- now I can barely scrape together one post a month. Sorry!

I travelled for two weeks at the end of October / beginning of November, and even though I brought some stitching with me, I didn't pick up my needle once. I just really have not had the desire to stitch. I have especially not wanted to work on Metamorphosis again.

However, I did manage to force myself to put in some time and stitches once I got back home. It's amazing what a few hours of concentrated stitching can do!

I must admit I'm getting pretty tired of this pattern. Thankfully blue is my favourite colour! Now that I'm past the halfway point, I am starting to love this piece again.

Only two more motifs to go!

Double the starts

So I did a little something silly for IHSW -- I started two new projects! (I know, I know. I already have a kajillion on the go, what the hell am I thinking starting more? Trust me, I squash that little voice often!)

So my little stitchy group got together on Friday night and most of us started an "A-maze-ing Dessert" from Glendon Place as a sort-of SAL. There's a Pumpkin Swirl, a Tiramisu, a moldy Plum Pudding (aka Plum Pudding done in greens instead of purples), and I started Baked Alaska.

This is my first time using Dinky Dyes silks and so far I am liking them very much! Others in the stitchy group have also found them a joy to stitch with. There's just something about quality silks!

The group hadn't really seen each other since before the summer, so more talking than stitching got done. I'll have an actual progress pic when there are more than 10 stitches to show off.

I also started another project -- can anyone guess what it might be?

Both of these projects are done in silk - I forgot how lovely stitching with silk is! I'm tempted to start a few more things now. LOL

Long time no start

This past weekend was International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW) and I didn't have the time or energy to work on any of my current projects. As I was tidying up Sunday night (and bemoaning the fact I had no progress to show for IHSW), I accidently on purpose prepped the fabric for something new.

It's been a while since I've had a new start on a project that isn't a gift. I've been wanting to start Ciara Blue by Blackwork Journey since last December, but just haven't been able to find the time (or make decisions about fabric and floss).

I finally decided to stitch it on 32 ct white lugana using HDF silk in black and Carrie's Creations silk in Marina.

I must admit I am loving it! The colours are very me and I love the rich boldness of the turquoise. It's a pretty fiddly chart, but only an hour or two in and it is stunning!

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.

Fabric and a floss toss

I've been a little lot naughty lately and new stash has been accumulating rapidly on my craft table.

I fell in love with Evening in the Park by Chatelaine almost two years ago, and last fall I caved and bought the pattern and floss pack for it. Since then I have been searching and searching for the perfect fabric to stitch it on. I accidentally stumbled upon a new hand-dyed fabric website, Under the Sea Fabrics, and, lo and behold, I found the PERFECT fabric. Of course, one can not simply order a single piece of fabric, so three pieces ended up in my shopping cart.

I waited (impatiently) and finally the package arrived! And I was heartbroken -- the one piece I most wanted wasn't in the bundle. I emailed the company immediately and Leslie responded within hours, apologizing profusely. She promised to ship it priority post the very next morning.

So the pieces I got in the first parcel were Sugar Plum Fairies (32 ct opalescent lugana):

and Cosmos (32 ct opalescent lugana):

I have never bought opalescent fabric before, and I'm not sure what drew me to it this time, but the fabrics are brilliant. Now to figure out what to put on these two!!

The precious fabric for Evening in the Park finally arrived (with a sweet card full of apologies and a bonus piece of fabric).

The extra fabric was Cotton Candy (28 ct jobelan):

And here is Ice Princess (32 ct opalescent lugana) with the silks for Evening in the Park:

I love the soft purply blue with lots of sparkles! I think this piece will be a birthday start in August. I hate to wait so long, but I really must finish a few other things first.

A finish but no happy dance.

I did it. I finally finished Cirque des Carreaux by Ink Circles. This is stitched 1 over 1 on 25 ct Nightfall lugana by Sassy Fabby's using Epiphany silk by Carrie's Creations.

I adore the pattern. I love the fabric. I swoon for silks.

I hate the finish.

One of the skeins must of been from a different dye lot (my fault) and it is glaringly obvious to me. I do not have it in me to rip it out and restitch it. At least not at the moment. So it'll go away into the done pile and I'll look at it again in a few months. Maybe.

I'm glad I'm finished, but I wish I loved it.

Not up for a happy dance.

Stitchy Stash From Across the Ocean

Have you ever heard me talk about Stashmas? It's a "holiday" made up by members of a forum I visit frequently. It's celebrated on Dec 1 and members of the forum send stitchy gifts to each other, cause getting stitchy surprises in the mail is AWESOME.

Anywho ... this year my Stashmas present never arrived. I was pretty down about it - mostly because I had taken so much pride and joy in picking out and assembling a great gift for my recipient (which is half the fun!) and then not to experience the other side of the fun took the wind out of my sails. 

My gift recipient loved her gift and was quite upset that I hadn't gotten anything. I refused to let her buy me a Stashmas present - she'd already sent one out to someone else and done her part in the exchange. A few months passed and she just wouldn't let up!! She insisted she needed to send me a thank you gift, not a Stashmas present. Let's just say she's a difficult person to say no to. 

Today -- a package via Royal Mail turned up at my door! I literally *squealed* with glee. I tore off the outer wrapping and saw this:

Shiny purple prettiness with a hand-stitched card!!! LOVE. IT. 

It hurt me a little to rip the paper, but what was inside made me squeal again!

Cirque des Coeurs by Ink Circles and 2 pieces of hand-dyed fabric! So pretty!! I love blues and purples. They are gorgeous. I've been eyeing that pattern for months - it's the perfect complement to Cirque des Carreaux that I'm stitching now.

And then ... 8 spools of scrumptious HDF silk. Not only did she send me my favourite silk in my favourite colours, but she somehow managed to send me colours I don't already have!! (And I stockpiled a lot of silk when I first heard that Vikki Clayton was planning to discontinue her silk thread line.) I'm in heaven!

 

From left to right, top to bottom: Dragon Hoard, Acts of Violets, Isle Green 3209, Isle Green3213, Aquamarine 2431, Alpine, Carribean Evening, and Blackberry.

I'm so happy and spoiled and speechless. Thank you Vanessa!! You made my day, my week, and my month!! Thank you!!

Oodles of Pretties!

I did something silly. Something ridiculous. Something that makes no sense!!

I ordered the chart and floss/bead kit for my very first Chatelaine - Evening in the Park.

As if I don't already have enough on the go! But I've been humming and ha-ing over buying this for almost 18 months. It's the only Chatelaine I've ever really been drawn to (until recently, when I spotted the Sparkling Peacock Mandala being released in February). And I always worry that the charts I love will suddenly be discontinued or retired (like the Julie Fain charts over at HAED).

What has (mostly) been holding me back from buying is the extraordinary cost. Chatelaine's are designed to be stitched with sumptuous silks and tons of bling. While the chart itself is reasonably priced, the floss/bead pack is quite expensive! I finally caved and ordered the works from the European Crossstitch Company. I didn't order the fabric because I hate linen. However, now I'm having a devil of a time trying to decide if I want to use hand-dyed fabric, and if so, what colour I want to use.

When my package from ECC finally arrived, I must admit to being impressed! The packaging was gorgeous and really showcased a love of the items and a thoughtfulness of the customer's needs.

Each skein of silk and card of metallics is in its own floss-away bag and all of the bags are neatly attached to a metal ring. Even the tiny little vials of beads and crystals are neatly packed and include a tapestry needle and a beading needle. The beading need is HUGE though. I've never seen a beading needle that long before!

Metallics and beads:

Needlepoint Inc silks:

The Thread Gatherer silks:

Gloriana and Caron Collection silks:

Now I just need fabric and time ... hmm one will be easier to get then the other!