Stitching Stuff

I have finished the Easter basket. Well, ok, technically it still needs stiffening on the handle, but I need to figure out how to do that.

After a break from stitching - partly caused by moving, partly caused by general blahs - I think I'm back to wanting to stitch again. Note: this doesn't mean there will be lots of finishes to show - there's far more likely to be lots of starts :D

But there is at least one finish to show you - DD's jumper (along with reluctant model). And due to my misreading the pattern I made it a size bigger than I intended - this is probably a good thing as I took two years to knit it. On the other hand she is on the smaller side, so it's still too big on her - but at least it will last until next winter, especially since we managed to miss most of this winter (I only finished it a couple of weeks ago). In some photos you can almost tell the sleeves and hood are a different wool to the body - that's because, once again, I failed to read the pattern properly and didn't see the listing for the number of balls of wool to buy until I'd finished knitting. And of course, when I went back to get more wool after finishing up the body and running out of my initial purchase, that wool was no longer available. Oh well, I managed to get fairly close and you mostly can't tell unless you're looking close.

Then I suppose I should give an update of where I'm up to on the wedding sampler (don't think this will be making the first anniversary either):

I think that was all I was in the (active) middle of doing.

So now some new stuff.

First an Easter basket (designed by Cindy Hambrick):

Halloween Treat (an ANG chapter book project by Marilyn Owen) started 2 weeks ago:

And the ANG class I did just this weekend - Austin Postcard by Denise Derusha:

Now do I correct the spelling of weird or do I keep it wierd?

I also got the Texas postcard so hopefully that will show up sometime soon.

I've also signed up for a number of other classes - somehow the buying bug didn't disappear along with the stitchy one, so who knows, maybe some of them will show up here sometime soon too :) And of course as I unpack my stash boxes (almost got some shelves) I might find other things...

I think I've missed recording some finishes here. I think (hope) I got photos of everything - I think I at least have everything I remember.

First there were the two biscornus for a seminar opportunity basket - I stitched these using the pattern from Kathrin of Gittas blog:

Before putting them together:

Then there are two beaded bracelets - the first I did earlier this year at our EGA beading satellite - the pattern is from the February issue of Bead and Button magazine. I did the first one with the dark purple crystals for my daughter. Then I thought about the fact she had a birthday coming up and her best friend has a birthday the day after and perhaps it would be nice to give each of them matching bracelets. Only I did want to be able to tell whose was whose - so I chose fuchsia for second lot of crystals:

I'm not sure if you can tell in the photos, but on the purple one I followed the instructions for the beginning of the row adding the crystals and they wanted extra silver beads added at each end - I found this was pushing the main part out of the way and I think it looks messy so on the fuchsia one I didn't add the extra beads and instead wove through the beads already there to the exit point - I think it lays much nicer.

This is a picture of a key fob in process - this was another EGA project and I have a second kit in a different colour way as well.

Next up I have to do some more teacher bookmarks before school runs out in 8 (school) days. Both the main teachers are retiring this year so I'm going to do a Sue Hawkins bookmarker for them, and the flat ones for other teachers - I think I have enough of these done already, do need to check that though.

Then comes my fathers 60th birthday. I'm designing a canvas for him that says 'Shalom' in English and Hebrew - I'm hoping I got the Hebrew right - I spent a while trying to figure out what makes a letter a letter - ie, how do you know the difference between a, u, d, o etc - what is it that makes that basic shape different? Only I was doing it for the Hebrew letters so that hopefully when I drew them out in my script style I didn't suddenly make a different letter and change the word. (If you know Hebrew please let me know if I've got it wrong). I'm planning on having the Hebrew smaller and lighter than the English to keep the English as the focal point.

A while back I started to write a post about a new project I was starting. But then I got sidetracked and what do you know - now it's finished. Here is a little amulet bag called 'Southwest' from i-bead.com:

I did learn a lot about tension while beading it.

To bead this I was using a bead mat on my lap while sitting on the sofa - bit dangerous that lol. So I came up with a solution that didn't involve me spending lots of money on a good beading tray. I picked up a TV meal tray at HEB for $1, then a packet of Solo bathroom cups (~$2.50 for 150 cups) and then a sheet of felt (25c). I lined the big section of the tray with the felt (this part I may change and cut up a bead mat to line it instead), then in the little bowls I put cut down solo cups (although they still feel a bit high when beading, so they may get cut down even more) with the different types of beads in. I feel much safer now :)

And just to prove how safe:

I also created these fobs for a Secret Stitching Santa exchange with some friends:

So like I mentioned last month, I've started going to the beading satellite of our EGA guild. This month we were making earrings - here is my first pair:

I also finally got around to removing the bead clasp and changing it to a magnetic clasp on the bracelet from iBead that I did a while back.

I'm going to use some of the spare beads from this bracelet to make a second pair of earrings.

There are another couple of projects I'm working on too, but they are Secret Santa gifts, so you won't see them for a while.

I've finally been stitching again in the last couple of weeks or so and have some progress to show.

First are a couple of ASG (Austin Stitchery Guild) projects that I started and finished at the meetings - a beaded Christmas Bell, and a patch for the crazy quilt project.

At the Antique Sampler satellite meeting you get a pin for every project you finish and bring for show and tell, so since I finished the bell at that meeting I got my first pin (they provide the pin cushion too):

Now for some progress pictures.

Tree of Stitches:

Happily Ever After (not so happily lagging in progress):

And Stained Glass Sampler:

So Monday night I didn't feel like stitching so I picked up this kit from i-bead.com called Hugs and Kisses and got to work. And here is the result:



Hmm, looking at that photo perhaps I should have chosen a different background colour - it distorts the green of the beads a bit and removes any blue tones - oh well, never mind.