Testing, Testing 123.........

So something extraordinary has happened - I've picked up a needle and thread again after a long hiatus.  Even stranger is that since April, I've started a HAED, a Mirabilia AND uploaded not one but two videos to YouTube - three things I never thought I'd hear myself say again!

Blogging seems to be on the decline, but I see the hardcore stitching bloggers are still in action!  Being short on time, I find Instagram a faster way to chart my progress and to connect with stitchy friends, but I thought for old times' sake I would attempt a blogpost as an update to what I am stitching on currently.

Band Sampler by Susan Haverson, taken from SANQ:

I'm currently working on the penultimate band of the final part on this one, stitched on 40ct linen using the recommended DMCs.

Elle Brode des Lettres Carmin by Reflets de Soie taken from The Gift of Stitching Magazine:

I've actually completed the bands started in the above photo, I just don't have an up to date photo, but this one is stitched on 40ct flax linen using AVAS Soie d'Alger and Soie de Paris and some silk ribbon.

HAED Mini Tears of Yesterday, artwork by Zindy Nielsen:

I was after an easy mindless stitch to take my mind off things, so I opted to start a HAED of all things!  Love stitching on her though and she is currently a few rows further along as she is the piece I have out at the moment.  Stitched on 28ct evenweave 2 over 1 in continental tent stitch subbing out the kreinik in favour of PTB.

Miss Cherry Blossom by Mirabilia:

Stitched 2 over 2 (skin will be 1 over 1) on 28ct Brittney Opal in The Milkybar Kid by Jodyri Designs using the recommended threads and beads, except the kreinik has been subbed for PTB.  I checked out any new releases I'd "missed" during my hiatus and this one immediately jumped out at me, so I bought my first stash in over a year and started her straight away!

Alice by Aury TM:

My first finish since OCTOBER 2016!!!  Stitched on 40ct pearl grey linen using my choice of silks mainly and sparkly threads.  I don't think this chart is available anymore, but I loved stitching on her and thanks to Wimbledon managed to finish her after leaving her languishing for a long time!

Although I don't have anywhere near the time I used to for stitching, I've enjoyed picking up my stitching regularly, even if that has only been once or twice a week for a few hours.  It's a battle now between books and stitching, quite often books win.  I've read over 50 so far this year which is hilarious considering that I probably haven't read a total of 50 book in the last 10 years combined!

I will try and update the blog with these current WIPs and any new starts, so I'll be checking in every so often.  Progress is slow, but although neglected, my blog is a good way of looking back on what I've stitched and I'd like to keep it up to date for my own records.

Happy Stitching!

Hard Habit To Break......

Every year for the previous 6 years I have always had a New Year's New Start.  With me currently stitching next to nothing, I thought that 2017 might be the end to that little tradition.  I've put a few stitches in Band Sampler over the past month, but I haven't looked at any of my stitchy accounts/groups on FB or IG for weeks and have just been enjoying the hour or two I have spent stitching for me.

Current progress on Band Samper - another band bites the dust!

So 1st January rolls around and at about 7pm I decided that yes, I will have a new start please and that it doesn't matter that I probably won't finish it until the end of the year if that!  It's a design I've had kitted up in preparation for 1st January and one I have had in my stash for five years so it deserved to see the light of day:

 

It is Elle Brode des Lettres Carmin by Reflets de Soie and I have this pattern spread across several issues of GOSM from 2010, but I think it has been recently re-released by Isabelle.  I love samplers, I love anything French, I love fonts and lettering and I love red silk and flax linen so this is pure joy to stitch for me.  Despite using AVAS Soie D'Alger on quite a few pieces, this will be my first time using Soie de Paris so I am looking forward to seeing how it compares to other filament silks I've used in the past.

 

The stitch count is 250 x 400 and I'm using 40ct, so as it is stitched using only 2 colours of silk (and a bit of ribbon work) it is perfect for me to pick up sporadically as and when the mood takes me - especially as it is an alphabet sampler band sampler.  Here is what I managed to do for a couple of hours on 1st January:

 

 

 

 

 It is a strange feeling to love a piece very much but not feel the need to stitch on it for hours on end taking up all my spare time as I have on other pieces prior to this.  I'm not complaining at all - I feel much more balanced than I have for a while.  Rather than stitching taking up all my free time, it now occupies a fraction of it, leaving me time for reading (currently reading Julian Fellowes' latest, Belgravia) and other interests that I have never really talked about "publicly" such as diet, nutrition and wellbeing.

 

 So the blog may be quiet for a while, I will post when I have some more substantial progress to show.  Keep your eyes peeled for a destash post soon as I have threads and fabrics that really need to find a new home instead of just sitting in my stash when they could be better put to use in yours :)!

Happy Stitching!

Big Berthe!

Justine and a few other bloggers are committing to stitching on the same piece throughout April and it seems I have unwittingly joined in!

Here is what Berthe looked like on 1 April, exactly the same as where I left her mid way through January:

 

And here is what she looks like now:

 

 

 

All finished!

 

 

As a side note I just have to mention every time I say Berthe I think Bertha, which reminds me of the children's TV programme in the 80s which people of a certain age will remember and then I get the little song in my head..........anyway I digress..........

 

I absolutely adored stitching this one on 40ct 1 over 2 with beautiful AVAS d'Alger.  For the sake of anyone that has visited this page as a result of searching for info on this piece, I will say that some of the lettering on mine may be in a different colour than charted - only because I was short on one colour of silk (I think it went walk about) so I just used an excess I had of another colour that was in the chart's colour palette.  Also of note is that, as is the case with a lot of repro samplers, the border is not symmetrical :).  All those cross shapes that make up the border are identical, except for one which has a "leg" four stitches long instead of three - always worth examining the chart carefully!

 

I particularly enjoyed working the pattern darning sections, and a few darning samplers have been pinned to my wishlist for a rainy day so there will definitely be more in my future!

 

 



 

 

I have at least two other Reflets de Soie samplers in my stash which I am now very much looking forward to doing.  They are the perfect project for when stitching time is limited as the colours used are minimal and you can quickly see progress being made even if only a letter or two is completed per session.  Stitching with 1 strand on 40ct makes for much faster stitching too - no railroading required!  A few years ago I'd always thought that HAEDs would be my easy stitching projects, but the thought of stitching one now makes me feel almost claustrophobic - I need my stitches to be able to breathe lol!

 

No idea what I will be working on next, I had started LHN's Home of a Needleworker last month so I might carry on with that.  Still don't think I can face Cinders just yet, so maybe an entirely new project is in order!

A Weekend of WIPs and a Finish!

The advantage of starting the year with no WIPs is that you get to have new starts with abandon - well four new starts, which for me is my "rotation" maximum!

So here they are, with a few hours stitching in on each of them!

My New Year's New Start was Berthe Massiet, by Reflets de Soie, a pretty sizeable French sampler which is why I choose to stitch it 1 over 2 on 40ct using AVAS d'Alger.  It is mostly cross stitch with some pattern darning sections.  Here is where a couple of hours got me:

All  materials from stash

 

Next, surprise surprise is a HAED!  I haven't stitched one of these for over a year after I decided that their BAPs were not for me, though I have completed a few SKs, QS and Minis in my time.  Every so often I feel the pull of a few on my hard drive, but I know it's more the art than the stitching that I'm attracted to.  That being said, there was a nice easy design in my HAED stash (a chart I received in the rewards programme) that I love and would use up a piece of hand dyed fabric in my stash so I thought why not!  So here is HAED QS Ladybug by Ching-Chou Kuik, stitched on 28ct Brittney Opal LE Christmas Poinsettia by Jodyri Designs, 2 over 1 tent stitch with Anchor black as I prefer the coverage to DMC black:

 

 

All materials from stash

Next up I started a design that I've had in my stash since it was released in a magazine back in January 2012!!!  In fact it was probably one of the last times I purchased a UK cross stitch magazine and I only do so for this designer's charts - yes you've guessed it, it's a Joan Elliott design.  I have her Historical Ladies (Medieval Lady already complete) and Fairy Tale Princesses in my stash to stitch and I've been looking forward to stitching at least one of them this year.  So I've chosen Cinderella as I had suitable hand dyed fabric in my stash for her and the majority of the DMC, beads and metallics used, so just a small order to Sew and So was required :).  I've swapped the Kreinik metallics for Petite Treasure Braids as I usually do and she is stitched 2 over 2, except for skin - that will be stitched 1 over 1.  The fabric is 28ct Brittney Opal in Speckled Eggs by Jodyri Designs:

 

Majority of materials from stash, just some extra DMCs required

 

My final start was from the Fall 2003 issue of SANQ Magazine and is entitled Flowers of the Field by Eileen Bennett (#99 on this page) and contains 15 different sampler stitches in 10 shades of Anchor and one metallic (which again I subbed for PTB).  Initially I had thought to stitch this on 40ct, but when I looked at the pattern there seemed a fair bit of over 1 stitching so I opted for 32ct Belfast instead to save my eyes a bit!
 

All materials from stash

 

 Last but not least I had my first finish of the year courtesy of Mabel's Hardanger SAL Round in Circles.  Round One was released on Friday and was stitched up within a couple of hours.  I opted to go for the same colour scheme that I used for Confetti of Hardanger as it felt suitably January-ish, although I frogged the entire whipped backstitch border so that I could use (the very last of my) petite silk lame braid in white instead to tie in with the PTB pearl I'd used for some of the star stitches.  It is stitched on 25ct white lugana using DMC #5 in 211 and white, Jodyri Designs Alaskan Beauty #5 perle, DMC #8 perle, PTB10 and PSL02 and a delica bead in lavender:

 

 

All materials from stash

 

So there you have it, the results of my stitchy weekend!  I have no particular order in which I will work my four WIPs, just whatever I fancy at the time.  When one is finished I'll add another piece in from the list, or just keep whittling them down until I can have another four starts as I did in the Summer and Autumn/Winter last year.

 

I will be back at the end of the month to share any progress I have - I'm never very good at sharing WIP pics unless they have a definite point of closure e.g a page or part finish as I think if I just keep stitching there will always be more to show lol!

 

Happy Stitching!

Endless Eyelets!

The end is in sight though - only one more band of eyelets to go on A Flamestitch!  I had toyed with the idea of replacing some of the eyelets with other stitches (Rhodes and rice) but decided against it - it is a reproduction sampler after all.  Eyelets really aren't all that bad, here is where I got up to:

 

I'm still head over heels for this one, but will put it down for the month once that last band of eyelets is complete.  There are other pieces waiting patiently in the wings!

 

Speaking of which, last Saturday I finished off  Jane Austen & Me:

 

 

 

I adore the finish, Moose Drool and all!  The other advantage of 40ct is that with a smaller finish an "off the shelf" frame is a much more likely prospect, so I shall be keeping my eyes peeled..........

 

Changes may also be afoot in my stitching plans for next year, with an acronym (well at least the way I say it it is!) and an initialism featuring heavily in my plans :).

 

Happy Stitching!

A Much Anticipated New Start!

Any of you that have been following my needlework adventures since my YouTube days may remember a video I did last Summer on my top three wishlish charts for 2015 which I planned on stitching.  Red by Mirabilia was the first, Plum Pudding by Glendon Place was the second and now begins the journey of stitching the third :).

I'd never been one for reproduction samplers, that is until several years ago when I discovered Nicola's wonderful blog and exquisite stitching.  After following her stitching journey through several beautiful Scarlet Letter pieces, I knew one day I would have to stitch at least one of Marsha's samplers myself.  As I'd decided that in 2015 I would be stitching what I want when I want and not be tied down to my usual designers - this year seemed perfect timing to fit a Scarlet Letter sampler into my stitching schedule!

Being the type of person that I am, I read everything that I could on Scarlet Letter samplers, I've never been one to jump in feet first and panic later!  I'm so grateful to Nicola and Jo and all the contributing bloggers on the various Scarlet Letters Years blogs for taking the time to explain and photograph their work.

I had a few questions about fabric choice - Edinburgh or Floba?  Who better to ask than Nicola herself!  As Floba was a fabric I'd not tried before, Nicola very very kindly sent me a sample piece so that I could see its merits for myself.  I took the opportunity to give it a trial run and stitched up this little freebie by Blackbird Designs:

I loved stitching on Floba!  It's lack of slubs and fine appearance compared to 100% linen made it the perfect choice for me for whatever Scarlet Letter chart I decided upon.  It was a given that I would stitch the sampler in the charted AVAS d'Alger as I adore stitching with those silks.  I find by planning my projects early that I can work large 100% silk projects into my stitching budget and thereafter it encourages me to stitch from stash as much as I can :).
 

All that was left now was to decide on the sampler!  I have a real love of bargello/Florentine/flame stitch (call it what you will), so the solution was obvious and screamed at me from the Scarlet Letter catalogue - it had to be 🔥✖️!

 

 

35ct cream Floba and the recommended AVAS d'Alger

Now you can see why this start is much anticipated as after being in the pipeline for over a year I can FINALLY put silk to linen - well linen mix if we want to be 100% accurate :).
 

So here is my start!

 

 

 

It goes without saying that stitching on this one was well worth the wait - I absolutely adore it!  For someone who loves stitching fonts and lettering, it really is a wonder that it took me this long to stitch a reproduction sampler!

 

 

Now I really should put this down and work on my Operation Threadporn pieces for this month - including a freebie in commemoration of a much anticipated TV programme returning to UK TV screens for its final series:

 

 



 

But maybe I'll do just do one more row on Flamestitch...........

 

Happy Stitching!