Jeweled Baubles

Many years for Christmas I make a lot of things for other people, but rarely do I keep anything for myself. This year I still made quite a few gifts for other people but I also bought a few things for myself.

Thanks to impulse purchases facilitated by posts on Facebook I purchased a couple charts from Shannon Christine Designs. I've been eyeing Jeweled Baubles forever and I also grabbed Christmas Joy.

Jeweled Baubles has a fairly extensive bead pack that goes with it as well.

I found a fabulous creamy/golden opalescent fabric at the local needlepoint store that I though would look amazing with the colors and got to it!

Just finished stitching

Gold Baubles Framed!

Since it was for me, I worked on it everywhere and my Mom saw it. She "put in her order" for one for Christmas too. Which was fine because it is a quick, fun stitch (at least until you get to the embellishments which take FOREVER) but I didn't have a second bead pack. 

So, back to the store I go. Except with the postal strike, their Mill Hill order is overdue by a month and stock likely won't be in in time to finish anything for Christmas. So what they have is it. I also decided I wanted to go with a Silver colorway instead of the Gold here. Should be an easy conversion, right? Famous last words!

Silver is stitched on opalescent white and just modified to silver Kreinik in place of the gold. However, the 3 "gold" ornaments are quite brown and had to be lightened up for the silver version (DMC 437, 738 and 739.) There isn't as much "depth" to the gold ornaments in the silver version, but I'm still satisfied with them. Outlining was done with a dark grey (3799) instead of a dark brown. I also had to improvise for some of the beading and decided to forgo the big crystal drops (that make framing so challenging.)

Finished stitching

I am over the moon happy with how this turned out and the finishing/framing of it =)

Silver and Gold

 Until next time, happy stitching!

Christmas Crafting 2016 - Cross Stitch

It's like a year late! The perfect time to post! Right?!

After the Christmas tree in red turned out so well last year, I started stitching the tree in green (like I planned to do for 2015 but never got around to!)

This one was a present for my sister E, and I love how it turned out. The green is a whole different look than the red. In person the opalescent lugana with the dark green silk is just stunning.

I have supplies, including 2 more hangers, stashed to do one more red and one more green, but I might be a little short on the fabric.

The question is (since sister K has asked if I could make her one as well) is, do I want to keep red or green!?

Happy stitching!

Glimpse Finish

In significantly less time than it's taken me to finish anything, my sister has finished stitching Enchanted Glimpse by Julie Fain (a Heaven and Earth Designs pattern.)

This was started May-2015 and then finished Aug-2016. She's stitched 2x1 tent stitch on 25 count magic guide linen.

Due to HAED's awesome chart reward program giving you a free chart when you finish a chart that you purchased, the next one she's stitching is:

Christmas Crafting 2015 - Cross Stitch

Since we're about 1/2 way through the year, I figured maybe it's time to post about last Christmas! 6 months late?! No problem!

The red stitching, in silk on opalescent lugana was transformed into this wall hanging for my Mom. She always was unhappy with her fireplace and lack of a center piece for it, so this should hopefully solve that issue.

I loved stitching the dark reds and think that it turned out rather well.

HAED Stitching Challenge #2

Challenge #2 consists of stitching an entire new page (7300-7800 stitches) of at least 5 colors as cross country. So you'd do all of a color on a page before changing to a new color.

I already stitch in a hybrid method of this (I usually cross country, then I park, then I go back to that cross country color when I have more anchor stitches around it.)

Happily, this challenge was allowed to be done with either full crosses or tenting. I chose to use Sorrow, since it would be "faster" than the full crosses on for The Book. I didn't even "cheap out" on the challenge and use one of the mostly black pages, I stitched page 10!

WiP Jan 2016 

Challenge complete, WiP 05-May-2016

I'm happy with how this one is progressing. I've completed 3 pages since Jan. The 4th page on the bottom row there is going to start the head of the woman that is the focus of this piece, so that is exciting as well!

I'm still trying to convince myself that I don't want to start another piece just to get some stitching in different colors going. I've got 3 HAED WiP on the go, as well as a non-HAED Christmas project. I REALLY don't need to start anything else - except I have fabric and the kit to start Treasure Hunt Bookshelf, and I'm thinking about it.

Guess we'll see how my self control holds up!

Until next time,
Happy Stitching!

HAED Stitching Challenge #1

On HAED's facebook page they decided to run some stitching challenges. Challenge 1 was to complete 1000 stitches, but the catch was they have to be in 10x10 squares in a checker board pattern.

So, I completed this while I was flying to Ottawa to get my puppy. However, what I didn't catch was the fact that this needed to be done as full crosses, not tenting.

So, I had less than a month to redo the challenge. Thankfully I'm stitching Once Upon A Time in full crosses.

They both look a little boring, either a ton of cream colors or basically all black! But progress is progress.

WiP 23-May-2016

After creating the checkerboard I decided I wanted to fill it in. Watching the writing start to come to life has been fun even if stitching in full crosses takes forever.

I do think this is the last project that I'm going to stitch on the linen though. Both this project and Lily are not square. They are taller than they are wide because of the fabric and it bothers me! Not enough that I'm going to redo 2 pages of work, but enough that I'm not using that fabric ever again.

Until next time,
Happy Stitching!

HAED 2016 Full Year Challenge

After participating in the last 1/2 year challenge on the HAED bulletin board, I found it helped keep me on track a little bit better. So I signed up again this year, to do the full year challenge.

This year my goal is small. I want to complete 6 pages on Sorrow.

Most likely this is going to be the top row of pages (lots of black, fast to stitch) and then page 8 as well. But we'll see. 6 pages is one page every 2 months, which I think might be challenging with the new puppy. The first 6 months with her I will be BUSY, so I think this is a fair challenge instead of something I know I can't commit the time to.

Sorrow - 2016 Challenge Start!

Right now page 1 and 2 are complete, and page 8 doesn't have a lot of work left.

HAED is also running a Facebook challenge. From 15-Jan to 15-Mar we are challenged to stitch 1000 stitches. The catch is that these need to be done in 10x10 blocks, with the corners touching. Like in the photo above. I signed up on 13-Jan, and then completed the challenge while flying to and from Ottawa (7.5 hours) on 14-Jan to pick up my new puppy.

From the start of my flight, to the end of it. While I was on the plane - I was stitching (thank god for lots of black!! Just for interests sake - these are the pictures of my progress!

13-Jan-2016 "Before"

14-Jan-2016 "Challenge Completed" (most of the way to Ottawa)

14-Jan-2016 "After" All the stitching I got done in the air!

Stitching without using a stand sure is slower, I'm so used to using both hands to stitch! I think I made good progress though. All that is left on page 4 (the one on the right) is to fill in the dark brown (bottom 1/3 of page) and the black (top 2/3) all the other colors are done.

Happy stitching!