Framed finishes and other stuff

See the Star and Baumchen are now framed -- yippee!  They aren't hanging on the wall yet but they're almost there.

I completed the border on my crazy Santa piece:

Stitched more on the January SAL (which is starting to look kinda cool):

And that's about it.  This weekend I plan to finish part 10 of Odds & Ends and the Brittercup Kitty ornament.  It's going to be another cold one but at least there won't be snow.  Another good stitching weekend.

2 crazy finishes, a couple SALs and help please

WooHoo!  I finished 2 of the crazy Christmas ornaments over the past weekend:

The sugar-shocked reindeer just needed the black to finish him while the Snow Bunnies needed lots of stitching.

I started a January Mystery SAL on Helen & Mahelia's blog.  It's mostly finished on the blog while I'm only starting -- so not much of a mystery for me:

I also started a new Sticklounge Project entitled Homage to Japan.  It's a pretty little sampler with a couple goldfish on it (I love goldfish -- especially the fat, fancy ones) and a Japanese proverb.  I didn't get much done on it because I wasn't happy with the original colors.  So after several starts and stops, I have finally decided on the colors for this first part:

Not much, I know, but I should be able to get this part finished now that all the tough decisions have been made.

I also picked a frame for the Baumchen.  Since I didn't want to spend a bundle here, I chose a standard size frame for it.  Unfortunately, there is lots of room on the longer side.  Hmmmm, perhaps I'll add a piece of lace here to fill in the empty frame space.  I found a nice piece of old lace but cannot decide how to assemble the whole thing.  Any suggestions?  Top, bottom or side?

It's hard to see the lace in these pics, the flash kind of blew it away, but even in real life, the lace is rather subtle.  At this point in time, my preference is the lace on the top .... but that could change.

Have a good one !

2010 finishes and 2011 new beginnings

I finished 2 of the Sticklounge projects over the weekend.  Yippee!!  The first is See the Star and the second is Baumchen  (I added the bunnies to represent my beagles).

Here's what I plan to stitch in the Crazy January 2011 challenge. Missing from the photo is a  piece from Rosewood Manor called Tulip Quilt Sampler.  I bought the pattern but I can't put my fingers on it right now.  I did find the fabric for it so the pattern can't be too far away.  Most of the patterns are smaller ones that I just never get around to starting, so I am taking this opportunity to do them.   Only 13 patterns are shown because I'm not sure what the 15th will be just yet.

I may be overly optismitic but I think this is do-able.  Wish me luck ....

Holiday stitching

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  Over the holiday, I finished a couple ornaments.  Both are freebies.  The crow & black cat (from Plum Pudding)  I changed a bit by adding the pumpkin with flowers and the top label, Autumn.  The hot legs are from My Nifty Needle (the link is no longer active for this one) and is called 'If the shoe fits'.   I'm thinking I may add some beads or something around the witchy legs to dress it up a bit.

My Little Tree is almost done!  Just one more part to stitch.  Since this is a weekend stitchy project, it will have to wait until then.

For the next couple days, I plan to stitch on Rose Wreath Santa by Libby Sturdy.  I'm not really happy with his bargello coat per the stitch instructions.  I did it in the dark and medium pinks and actully finished the bottom of the coat before tearing it all out.  Two reasons I didn't like it:

  1) The bargello let too much white show through, making the coat look too flimsy and cold.  Now it's okay for Santa to wear a pink coat (he is, after all, very comfortable with his masculinity), but it must be a warm coat.

  2) The bargello pattern was too busy for my taste. 

I also tried a diagonally striped coat using long stitches.  The coat looked warmer but it was still too busy.  Rats!

Rip-rip-rip. 

And last, but not least, I tried a simple scotch stitch with dark and medium pink threads blended together.  I like it!  This coat looks cozy and warm -- it'll keep Santa toasty on those cold winter days.

See the Star is almost finished - yippee!  Two more sections to go and it'll be done.  I love this piece.  The colors are so warm and autumn-ish.  This is the piece that introduced me to the Sticklounge yahoo group.  I saw it on someone's blog, fell in love with it, then hunted it down so I could stitch it.

Happy December 1st!  It's snowing here!


Call me crazy  ....  but count me in.  Check out the  2011 Stitching Challenge - I can think of 10 things I've never got around to stitching ....  5 more should be easy enough to find.  Wish me luck!

Getting ready for Christmas

My Baumchen piece from the Sticklounge is coming along.  I changed out the white in the corners for the overdyed floss and stitched over the white flowers with satin stitches.  I'm holding off on the lower left corner until I get the tree trunk in -- this way I won't make a mistake lining everything up ..... hopefully.  I really like this piece -- the pattern is so pretty.

Well, I finally realized Thanksgiving is approaching -- which means Christmas will be here soon.  Yikes!  I need to get some holiday stitching done!  I have finished 3 ornaments and still need to do at least 2 more.  Don't you love the reindeer -- he's been eating way too much sugar.  I used polyester thread for his eyes -- so they have that glazed, shiny look of a sugar high.  He's going to a nephew.  The reindeer is from the 2010 Christmas ornament edition of Just Cross Stitch and the snow men are from the German magazine Hardanger.  I love them both and want to stitch one each for myself also.

Each year I stitch a Santa for my collection.  Unfortunately, I haven't taken the time to stitch my Santa for 2010 yet.  Soooo, the marathon stitch is on!  This year's Santa is Rose Wreath Santa by Libby Sturdy.  I bought him last year at the EGA Nationals in Pittsburgh, PA.  He has eyes, a nose and some skin as of yesterday .....

Here's hoping I can get him finished before Christmas.

I hope everyone has a peaceful Thanksgiving.  In my family, we have a lot to be thankful for this year.  My stepmother was in a bad car accident and has recovered beautifully!  Take care and enjoy!

White flower fix



Revised flower with satin stitches



Original cross stitch flower



I stitched over the far left flower with 2 strands of floss.  I picked the flower that was the hardest to see and I'm happy with the results -- 1 down, 8 to go . . . .

Slowy Stitching

I don't have much stitching to show for the last couple weeks.  The dogs and I have been busy with classes and an agility trial this past Sunday.  Willow and I had a totally awesome jumpers run.  After 7 years, I think she and I are finally becoming a team.  Beagles are such independent creatures.  It seems to take them longer to get the concept of  "team".  My first beagle, Daisy, didn't get it until she was 10, so I'm thrilled that Willow is a quick learner.

Ok, on to stitching ......

My Little Tree is up to date.  I need to do something about the white flowers -- they don't show up well on this fabric.  I'm thinking I will add satin stitches over the white cross stitches of the flowers to see if that will make the white pop out more.  And on the white in the borders, maybe pink (or the red from the overdyed thread??) french knots.

The Golden Cat is starting to actually look like a kitty.  This thread is such fun to stitch.  I love watching the way the colors unfold.  It may be one of my all time favorites.  Unfortunately, the picture isn't accurate.  I haven't given him eyes yet.  I want them to stand out and plan on using a solid green for them -- perhaps something with a little glitter to it.

And last but not least, I spent time on Toccata while watching John Wayne movies and doing the laundry on Saturday.   It was a fun time!

It was a stitching weekend!

 I got lots of stitching time in over the weekend - hurray!  My Sticklounge SAL's are up to date:

I restarted When Stars Collide on black congress cloth.  It seems easier on my eyes than the original (black 28 evenweave) -- I hope I can get caught up with this SAL.

 My original attempt.   It's beautiful but too tough on my eyes.

I also started a new pattern, Golden Cat by Patricia Emlet of Cross Stitch Art .  I bought this a few years ago and am finally getting to it.  My original plan was to put the golden kitty on 28 ct Victorian Christmas evenweave over 2.  But after using the dark Threadworx  #1070  on Something Wicked, I thought it might look nice on the red fabric.  And though you can't tell from the picture, it really does.  Plus, I'm stitching over 1 (I love my magnifying glass!)  So instead of a golden kitty, mine will be a black kitty, in honor of my black cat, Matthew, who died several years ago.

And last but not least, I finished the Halloween ornaments for my nephews.  Both are from Just Cross Stitch, the Halloween editions -- the skull is from 2010 and Frankie is from 2009.

Happy Halloween!

Two do-overs

I picked up Toccata 3 a couple weekends ago and decided I did NOT LIKE it.  Furthermore, by the time I went to bed, I decided I was NOT going to finish the d**n thing.  If I wasn't having fun stitching it, I was DONE with it.  (In fact, I so disliked the original version that the next day I ripped it apart, washed and ironed the fabric, and set the linen aside for another project.)  After a night's rest, I thought I would just start it over again with stuff from my stash.   After all, it's a lovely pattern and I really wanted to stitch it.  However, I have now fallen so far behind, I will never catch up with the other ladies from my EGA group.  Sooo, I decided to change the pattern a little by just making a sampler of squares and border lines from the original pattern.

Here's my original start.  It's on linen (which shredded the thread for the pulled areas).  The big square in the middle houses an alphabet which is surrounded by the different  blocks and borders.

Here's my do-over.  It's on grey evenweave with an overdyed Needle Necessities thread for the non-pulled sections and a polyester Sulky thread for the pulled areas.  Already I like it better.  The plan is to stitch the blocks and rows from Toccata 3.  Nothing fancy -- just make everything fit.

The above pic is what I did last week.  It looks nicer than the picture and I'm much happier with it.


Another problem piece is When Stars Collide. 

I decided to do it on black evenweave using sparkly threads and beads.  It looks lovely -- I love it but ...... and it's a big BUT ..... it is killing my eyes.  Whatever posessed me to stitch on black material again?  After stitching The Castle by Teresa Wentzler on black aida about 20 years ago, I vowed to never ever ever stitch on black again.  But after seeing so many beautiful things stitched on black, I thought I would give it a go.  Bad idea!

So the plan is to abandon my original plan and restitch When Stars Collide on black canvas and instead of backstitching each star, I plan to lay the sparkly threads.  Hopefully, the larger holes and changing the stitch-type will make it easier on my eyes.  Since I haven't started this yet, I don't know if this will work or not .... will keep you posted.


I also spent part of the weekend stitching  part 2 of the lovely little SAL 'Baumchen' from the Stick Lounge group ...... no problems here :) .....

and the sampler I'm making for a Habitat for Humanity soon-to-be new homeowner.

The letters are from an old pattern (below) in Cross Stitch & Country Crafts magazine (I think that's the name) and the border is Wessex Embroidery.  So except for the letters, it's kind of an original design.

Good Stitching!