Stitching Stuff

Well, I guess since it's now been around a month since I finished my hoop box I should post about it. This was a project through my local EGA chapter on fifth Saturdays. The dragonfly was a design by Zoe in the UK when she was teaching us how to do stumpwork.

And I finished a panel on the first rotation of a round robin that I'm doing.

Almost forgot - I did these earrings for my friend:

I also made a second beaded Holiday Bauble Pendant (but didn't take a picture - just look at the last one and correct the mistake) for our local EGA Christmas party, which thankfully found a new home. I say thankfully, because we donate the ornaments to the guild who then sells tickets (to raise money for the scholarship fund) that you can use to vote for your favourite ornament. Once the votes are counted up the ornaments are then won by one of the voters for that ornament. So by someone winning my ornament, that means that someone voted for it :)

I won an ornament this way too, but I packed it safely away from the cats before without taking a photo of it (they pretty much killed the Christmas tree this year - and it wasn't even living to start with). So we'll just pause a minute while I go find it and take a photo...

I also received this beautiful ornament in our gift exchange at our local ANG Christmas party.

In going to get those ornaments out to take photos I decided that perhaps I should take photos of all the ornaments that have been given to me over the years and post them and see if I can get names attached to them all. So below are the ornaments with the names I know or think I know - if I have doubt there will be a question mark by the name. If you recognise any of them as being your work could you please let me know - thanks :)

Mum

Sally (UK)

Sally (UK)

Marion (Amsterdam)

Terry (US)

?Zoe (UK)?

?Paula (UK)?

?Fiona (UK)? - or at least I sent to Fiona in the same exchange - I remember that because I stitched TW's beginner whitework ornament as well.

??

??

??

Terry (US)

??

??

??

Just to round off the post - our two gorgeous cats :)

Today I received my fob from Lucy for the scissor fob exchange. It's lovely, and the card with it is beautifully done too.

Okay it's been received so here are the pictures.

The first one is the one I sent out and the bottom one is the one I've kept. Turned out it was a good thing that I made two as I did have a number of finishing 'issues' on one of them - luckily they were all on the same one so I had a nice one to send out.

I think if I was doing it again I'd use cord instead of ribbon for the hanger, and I'd (hopefully) think about stitching on the back as well *before* I sewed it up instead of after.

The pattern came from an old magazine - (UK) Cross Stitcher in 1995 I think it was. Course I've buried the pattern back in my big pile again so I can't check, but I think that's what it was.

I've finished the stitching on my scissor fob exchange and a spare. Now I just have to make them up and post one.

I finished my owl for the group wall hanging we're doing, and I've delivered it. I only just remembered to take a photo of it before I put it in my bag, so here it is:

I'm now halfway through my scissor fob for this months exchange and I'm enjoying it so much I might even make a second for myself. This would also have the advantage of having two chances of getting the finishing right.

I really like the first colour on it that I used, and am toying with the idea that I will use it for the Glitzy Accessories - but I need to check how much of it I'd need as I only have one skein and I'm pretty sure it was a one-off colour (it's a 'hand-dyed original' from the Hand-Dyed Threads line from Textile Art Studio of Wellington, NZ).

Ok - skip that - while I was typing I just had a sudden thought and checked the instructions, and not only do I need two skeins, but it's watercolours, not waterlilies like I had in my head. So my nice 12 ply silk that I like is the wrong type of thread anyway.

Ah well, that just means that I get to have a rummage through my threads to see what I've got.

I've also realised in the last couple of days that it's time for the Cyberpointers chapter of the ANG to have their next meeting, which means that the first part of Diamond Iris (by Dorothy Lesher) is happening and I haven't done a THING about threads for that. So one of my big tasks for this week (cos I haven't got anything else to do - honest :lol) is to get my drawers of threads out of DD's room before she goes to bed (I always forget until too late in the evening) so that I can sort these two projects out and find out if I have to buy anything else - I'm hoping not much, although I know I will need some as I won't have more than one skein of anything.

Another good thing to do would be to find the instructions for Diamond Iris too. I know I received them, and then put them somewhere safe, I've just got to find where that somewhere safe was. I'm pretty sure I know, but we'll see - I've been wrong about things like that before.

Today I received my colour exchange piece. I love it. Here is what Lindsay stitched for me:

Here is a photo of the finished colour exchange that I did (courtesy of Rachael as I forgot to take one before I posted it). Rachael loved it and I'm pleased with how it turned out too.

I decided to finish it as a notebook cover and I think it came out ok. The hardest part was figuring out how to hem the edges without making too many layers or without showing them (as they would be seen when the cover was removed to put on a new notebook). I finally settled on putting bias binding around the fabric.

Then it was a simple matter of lining it up and sewing four little seams to create the sleeves. Unfortunately I did end up with a bit of bulk in the corners there, but I'm not sure there is a way to avoid that. I suppose putting some padding in would bulk up the rest of the cover so the corners wouldn't be as noticeable - might have to try that next time. Then cover it with lining and it would solve the hemming problem too.

Here is a picture of the pattern I started out with (from an old magazine called Needlepoint Gold):

Quite a difference in the end. I knew from the start there would be changes as I wanted a different colour (forest green) and I would be doing it in stranded cotton on 28ct fabric, rather than wool on 14 count monocanvas. As it was mostly satin stitch type stitches I was hoping I wouldn't have to alter too much but would just be able to add extra lines in for the extra holes. I was also going to continue the triangles on the edges to turn them into diamonds and create flaps to close up on the back. But mostly it looked wrong, so apart from the very centre stitch and the two diamonds everything else changed, including the finishing.

I have almost finished the stitching. I know what I'm doing now and it's nothing like the original plan, but I think it will look good.

So I've just got a few more stitches and then I can do the finishing, then post it and finally show you a picture once it's received.

The wall hanging square is coming along nicely too, it's starting to look like something now. I think I started in the wrong place though - where I started was a mess of fractionals and it made it hard on the counting and never got into a nice flow. I think if I'd started with more whole stitches then I could have laid an easy count base to build on with the fractionals and it would have made the counting a whole lot easier.

It's not coming along as easily as I expected. So far about the only bit that looks the same as the original are two diagonal boxes (and they look good so I'm not changing them). I've tried three different filling patterns before settling on one (with the help of DH to choose), and what I've done in the centre I think I'll change again - but I'm going to leave it for a bit to see if it makes more sense once I've done more around it.

At times I wonder too if a perle cotton would have worked better for some bits instead of the stranded cotton. But as I didn't have any in the right colours it's a bit of a mute point so I'll keep working with what I've got.

And I'm beginning to think I won't be doing the stitching right around the back either - but then I need a new way of finishing it. I guess that is the last thing to worry about right at the moment.

So I'm keeping my options open as it could all change again. I wish I could show you what I was talking about, and perhaps get opinions, but as it's an exchange I can't do that. So I'll just have to mutter away and then when you see the final product you'll have to guess what I was talking about (or just ignore my ramblings and tell me the final version turned out fine :lol)

I've also signed up for the next exchange of a scissor fob. I'd just found a quick little scissor fob pattern I wanted to try the day the exchange was announced so I signed up immediately. I've already got it down to about 5 threads to choose from, and I think I've found some fabric, and I'm not expecting to deviate from the pattern, so it should be straight forward when I get up to that.

I'm hoping to have made some serious headway on the first exchange this weekend, as it has to be posted by the end of April (and hopefully received). I also need my wall hanging square finished by then too, so I really need to get my skates on, or is that just find those smoking needles that some people use?

I'm currently working on a couple of exchanges, so there are no pictures for you until they are finished and received.

The first though is quite interesting. The original pattern was from Needlepoint Gold, and done in Wool on 14ct mono canvas. I've changed it to stranded cotton on 28ct, but I'm still keeping the 14ct dimensions, so I'm having to add in extra stitches in places. But others I'm leaving the fabric showing through. It's going quite well, but I think I'm going to have to make changes to some of the stitches too to make it look good. I'll see what happens.

I'm also going to continue the pattern around to form a bigger square so I can fold it over to the back and just sew up up the cross where the edges meet.

The other thing I've been working on is my owl for the wall hanging. I'm not going to show that one until it's finished either.

I have just signed up with a new group (http://exchangeheaven.blogspot.com/) that's aimed at doing exchanges every month. You don't have to join every exchange (thank goodness - I'd fail miserably at that), but I'm hoping that I'll manage to do a few a year and improve my finishing skills as they will mostly be small items. It will also be nice having a reason to stitch small things when I've got so many big things on the go.

I've already decided that I won't join an exchange unless I've finished or almost finished the item (the idea is that there'll be a month's notice of each exchange) as otherwise I can see myself failing to complete and that wouldn't be fair to anyone.

Here are a couple of pictures of the ornaments that I sent out this year. I did three total, all the same, although one had to be a bit smaller than the other two as I didn't have enough fabric to do them all the same size. So the snowflakes are slightly different, but other than that they all look the same - as you can tell from the photos, the first being of a larger one, and the second being the smaller one.

I have been wanting to try an ornament of this shape ever since my mother gave me one a few Christmasses ago. I finally managed it.

I've received my first two ornaments in the exchanges. I have the third as well, but I'm not allowed to open it until Christmas day (and neither is my recipient which is why I can't put the photos of the ones I sent out up yet as they are all the same).

Here are the first two:

From Sally:

From Terry - Terry also made the one on the gold perforated paper sticking out the side in a previous years exchange:

And the row of ornaments that I've collected so far. I think I'll need more nails next year or another shelf as this year a bears foot was pressed into service holding one, and others are getting cramped too.

You may have also noticed that the photos started improving again - I had thought it was the lighting giving me funny photos (lack of sunlight and all that), but then I discovered a great big finger print on the lens. Cleaned it off and hey, presto, my photos are clear again.

I've finished my three exchange ornaments. They took longer than I expected, but I'm pretty happy with them. Pictures will come after Christmas.

Now it's back to bookmarks and then soon I might be able to get back to the SAL's - I've managed to sign myself up for two more starting in January. One of them I've got everything I think. The other I still need to get the chart and thread.

There are also some classes I want to sign up for as well but I can't do that yet, so I've got to wait until I can.

For the last couple of weeks I've been working on designing a Christmas ornament. I think I've finally come up with a design and I've started stitching. I can't show pictures as they are for exchanges, but Christmas is coming, and then I'll be able to.

I don't really like the thread I choose to stitch with - it's a imitation silk and it unravels almost faster than I can stitch. It's also hard to get out of the skein as it's very bouncy and tangles easily. So I had a brilliant idea that if I cut through the skein at one end I could just pull one piece at a time out and it might be easier. It was only after I'd done this that I thought about all the extra fraying time it would give all those new ends. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

In between the fun of the ornaments I've also been working on the Heirloom Christmas Sampler - I'm still on the tree, almost finished it though so I should soon be able to move onto the next fun bit - and the Winter Welcome, although as it's mid-term break there's been no swimming so again not so much work - and as always O' Jerusalem. I will put some more pictures of these up soon, I'm just always forgetting to take them.

I've also joined the Shining Needle Society as they do some lovely classes there and the work is stunning. So even if I never manage to stitch any of their projects I can still drool. I heard about the SNS in three different places almost the same day - I found it first when looking at information on an upcoming online class from Merry Cox, then on Gay Ann Rogers website, and finally the one that gave me the push to sign up - Laura J. Perin's blog, where she had the most beautiful piece of stitching that she'd finished from a class by Gay Ann Rogers at the SNS (Oct 24th's post).

I have ordered the challenge ornament from Gay Ann Rogers (look under small designs on her webpage) and I hope to start stitching that this year, but it will depend on the ornaments and SAL's that I'm already doing. It should be fun though as part of the challenge is choosing all your own colours and threads. There's also encouragement to add to the design or alter it to make it your own and learn as you go.

This ornament has now been received as well so I can show a picture of it too.

I had to stitch it for myself too and I'm just finishing it now. I'm doing ribbon around my one rather than the beads I used on the other, and I even remembered to put in a hanging loop which I forgot on the first one.

And this is the one I received in return:

My ornaments have been received now so I can post the pictures.

I chose to do the Needlecrafts Unlimited ornament from the Just Cross Stitch special ornament issue 2002. I decided I could fit 9 of the ornaments on my bit of fabric so here is a picture of the 9 backstitched outlines and the first ornament with it's next colour stitched:

Here are the first six finished stitching and cut up - I decided to do them as sets of three and keep one set for myself. So I've only finished the six so far.

And in the middle of stitching up the back of the first one - I had to stop to get the big knot that's visible out of the thread:

The finished back of one:

And all six finished ornaments and a set of three:

And just for good measure here are the two I received back in exchange: