It’s been a while

I haven’t updated my stitching blog for a long time. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been stitching. I did take a small break from cross stitch and have been painting and needle felting a lot lately. 

My cross stitch projects have changed too, I will update pics of the ones I’m currently working on. I have only 3 active WIPs at the moment. I got a bit burned out on multiple projects. I don’t have all that much time for stitching anymore, as I spend a lot of it painting, so I have tried to pick stitching projects that I really enjoy and would like to see finished too someday. I discovered I actually enjoy working one over one on 28 ct fabric, so my previous projects that are on bigger counts don’t appeal that much to me anymore. The only exception is blackwork, which doesn’t look good 1 x 1.

I have one blackwork project, one sampler and one HAED in my rotation. That pretty much sums up my preferances! I have a Golden Kite project which I’m going to continue when time allows, the progress on that one is so slow due to the blended needles. The effect is lovely though. Right now I’m trying not to start anything more, with the exception of the SK freebie SAL on the HAED board, the SAL starts in January 2010.

I hope to upload some photos soon, just need to get some batteries for my camera first.

one more sampler

Here’s the second antique sampler I recently treated myself to:

It’s a beauty… even my husband showed some appreciation.

I haven’t been able to stitch at all. I’m having a pretty intensive cramping on my neck muscles, and not just the back of my neck but front too. It’s my own fault, I thought I was well enough to go and help my husband in building our new house. The idea was that I would only do the “light” stuff but apparently what’s light to him isn’t light for me. Now I’m just waiting for things to improve so I could stitch again. I’m so bored when I can’t stitch! I’ve been watching some silly movies I borrowed from my neighbour and reading scary books. The one I’m reading now is called “The most evil men and women in history”, there’s some pretty horrible stuff there…

What I’d like to do when I’m able to stitch is to finish my How does your garden grow- design and start this one:

It’s the darning sampler I wrote about earlier, it’s from an american needlework magazine, I bought an old issue from the 90′s. Sorry about the blurry picture. It looks like it would be fun to stitch and the instructions seemed clear enough. I just need to get the threads for this, it calls for Anchor threads and I only have a few of those. I tried to convert them to dmc but the colours looked just wrong so I think I’ll stick with the ones it calls for. I will be boring and stitch it on a white fabric because I have a large piece of 32 ct jobelan and I’m trying to spend a little less money on my hobby.

a new addition to my collection

Here’s one of my recent purchases:

It’s an antique German sampler. The condition was better than I expected, there’s some colour bleeding and dirt but otherwise the fabric looks pretty ok. I just love those darning squares and the pretty ornate band under the large alphabet. I keep taking it out from the drawer and admiring it, then hiding it there again before my cats get too curious! They like to use all fabrics as a napping surface, leaving loads of fur behind.

I had to phone and ask about my blood test results, since I heard nothing back. The nurse I spoke with didn’t know what was what but one of the tests was above the limit and she said the doctor will send me a LETTER! How medieval! I guess he can’t afford to call me. What if I need to ask something, shall I write back? I’m waiting for the letter in horror, I seriously hope that test wasn’t one the rheumatoid ones.

the garden grows

I made some progress on my Papillon Creations mystery SAL from 2008, thanks to the sampler SAL on the HAED BB.

This has been a difficult piece for me, I had never done any specialty stitches before when I started this. I’ve spent a lot of time frogging and re-stitching. I’m on part 10 now and this has 12 parts in total, also some beading should be done sometime soon. I actually considered starting to bead the top parts but then I couldn’t decide on the bead colour…

I’m waiting for this book to arrive to the finnish cross stitch online shop Violarium. It was out of stock but there should be more coming in this week.

I just love these old schoolgirl samplers. I have bought two german ones and I’m waiting for them to arrive in my mailbox. They are from 1894 and 1890. I will share some pictures as soon as I get them here. I also bought a pattern for a darning sampler, I have never done any of that either so it should be interesting. I hope there are good instructions included. I saw some lovely reproduction samplers on the Reflets de Soie site but I was good and didn’t buy any…. yet.

I have some money left from my tax refunds but instead of getting stitching stuff I have spent the weekend online buying vintage clothes from the 60′s and 70′s. I have a hard time finding clothes that suit me, I have some serious bloating on my lower stomach because of the endometriosis so I bought some tunics etc. to hide my big belly. It bothers me a lot, people actually think I’m pregnant and it’s embarassing. I had so much fun while looking for those clothes, I actually phoned my mother to ask some questions about the materials used back then and she started to recall all the things she wore when she was young. It’s a shame she didn’t keep any of that stuff.

On my spending spree I also got The Who live in Toronto ’82 DVD for my ever growing music DVD collection. It was second hand too and I got it dirt cheap. The only downside to online shopping is that I have to wait to get my stuff…

2009 SALs

New year, new stitch-alongs. I am being good and not starting every single one I see over the internet. I couldn’t resist this one though:

It’s the first part of Dancing Cherubins sal, by Wal D’Champs. I had to change some colours, the light blue got lost in the fabric so I changed it to grey.

I also joined Basket of Biscornu, the idea is to stitch one biscornu per month during 2009. I finihsed my January biscornu today:

Those are meant to be turtles but I admit they look more like green beetles. The chart was a freebie from somewhere but I’ve made some additions. There’s green metallic thread and some beads too. I should have stuffed it a bit more but otherwise I think it’s quite OK, considering my non-existant finishing skills… I stitched this on yellow Cashel linen.

I should start Fiona for the HAED sal next. I don’t have all the threads yet but I think I might have enough to make a start.

a finish and a new start

Here’s my first finish for 2009!

I used two DMC variegated threads and one of my new rayon threads, which was a metallic  black/red variegated. This was so much fun to stitch and it looks absolutely creepy, lol! I think I will try to frame this myself, it’s small enough so I should be able to find a frame for it.

I started Star Spangle Fantasy by Sampler Cove and I’m very happy with the way it’s turning out.

The fabric is a light yellow more than beige but you all know my camera stinks. Again, I’m using one of those rayon threads, that’s the multicoloured one. The two coloured one is 1991 by Needle Necessities, called “Autumn in Vermont”. I have never been to Vermont so I don’t know how correct that shade is, but I love it! I have been taking a break from HAEDs and it’s nice to stitch something where you can actually see some progress for a change.

Basia tagged me to reveal 7 things about myself, so here goes:

1. I have dyscalculia (number blindness). I remember my own phone number and address and date of birth but that’s about it. I often order wrong threads for my projects simply because I can’t tell the numbers apart. I’m so bad at math you don’t want to know.

2. I wish I had a horse. I took riding lessons as a kid but I’m not sure I could handle all the other stuff. I’m not sure if I can even ride anymore.

3. I tried to grow frogs in a bucket on our porch when I was about 10 years old. They were endangered in Finland back then and I was trying to save the species. Well, it didn’t work out so well. Also, my mum didn’t appreciate my efforts.

4. I can draw and paint but can’t be bothered. It would take up so much of my stitching time.

5. I watch very little TV. If I was single I wouldn’t even have a TV, the one we have is my husband’s. I might watch a movie or a documentary if they are interesting but I’m not into series or anything else.

6. I’m easily annoyed by some sounds. I don’t buy squeking toys to our dogs, for example. I HATE mobile phone ring tones etc. My late dad used to tease me that I’m autistic. My hearing was tested when I was 14 and it turned out to be way better than normal. I can’t sleep in the same room with my husband because he snores. When he doesn’t he breathes and that keeps me awake too. I have tried ear plugs but I can hear through them.

7. I spent two years in a university studying English and gave up because I got tired of analyzing poetry.

bugs and a christmas present

I just noticed I haven’t written much lately, that’s beacuse I’ve been unable to stitch for the last week or so. My odd muscle pains moved to my neck and shoulders. No results from the blood tests yet but I’ve been feeling a little better and even managed to do some stitching yesterday and  today.

I received a small packet a few days ago from England. My husband asked what stitching stuff I had ordered now and I had to say I had no idea. It turned out to be some variegated rayon threads I bought off Ebay before the holidays. I guess they got stuck in the post somewhere. I wanted to test them so I started a small chart from My Aunts Attic. It should be finished soon:

That’s a lousy picture, it looks so much better in real life. The green thread is a DMC variegated. I will try to take a better pic when it’s finished. I LOVE my new threads, they are in big skeins, the thread is easy to work with (compared to many other rayons) and I think one strand will cover quite nicely on 32 ct fabric too. This one is done on 36 ct.

I got a scary Christmas present from my grandmother:

It’s a hardanger tablecloth. I have never done hardanger or any other cutwork ever and the thought of cutting the fabric threads makes me VERY nervous. This is a complete kit with 22 ct hardanger fabric and perle threads. I’m not good at stitching tablecloths, I never finish them because I get bored of the repeated motifs… but it is pretty…

a new mirabilia chart came out!

Ooooh, I just love this!

venetian opulence

I haven’t been into the new designs by Mirabilia, there hasn’t beeen anything for a while that I’d like to stitch but this is just stunning! I must have this. It’s also nice that it doesn’t call for an x amount of variegated silk threads which are expensive. I don’t mind paying for the beads, treasures and metallic threads but if you add silk threads it can get quite pricey. Now I must try to finish one of my Mirabilia wip’s so I can start a new one…

some wip’s

I have finished the first page of Running with the Wind and it’s starting to look quite nice. The colours are too bright on the pic, it’s just impossible to take good photos with my camera.

So far it’s all just background but soon there should be something else to see too. I’m looking forwars to getting to the sparkly areas of the chart since there was no sparkle on this page.

Here’s my longest ever wip, I have been working on this for 3 or 4 years now… it’s not difficult to stitch but it annoys me that it’s almost exclusively half cross stitch. What’s the point in that? I might as well be doing needlepoint. Well, there’s not much left anymore but I just can’t get it done as I don’t enjoy it.

And then some free stuff you can find on the internet, which I think is great. It’s so generous of the designers to offer free charts. This is my BOINK (Book of Ink Circles by Tracy Horner). All the parts are not released yet but I don’t think I can catch up anymore. Oops, the pic was a bit blurry. I have changed the colours on the block in the upper right corner, there was some black colour used and it looked too dark to me so I switched it to dark blue. This is on 28 ct Quaker.

I also started the Spanish Sampler by Reflets de Soie but I only work on it from time to time when I feel like doing something different. This is on white 36 ct linen and I’m using a Dinky Dyes silk thread called Whitsundays.

There is a part in the middle that you can personalize with a name or anything you like. Looking at the colour I chose this would make a pretty birth sampler but I’m not sure if any of my friends would appreciate this kind of stitching… I have done birth samplers with angels or cute teddy bears and stuff like that, those went down really well but I don’t know if anyone would like this. Oh well, maybe I will come up with other ideas along the way. This won’t be finished anytime soon.

I should do a birth sampler for a friend’s son, he is already 1 and half years old. I made one for his big brother so my friend is waiting for me to make another one too. When I made the first one I didn’t know that I won’t be able to have kids myself, now that I know it’s just painful to stitch designs with babies etc. I stitched Angel of the Sea by Lavender and Lace for the older boy, so I guess I should do something similar for the younger one too. I even thought of turning the Mirabilia’s Archangel into a birth sampler by adding names and dates etc. on the scroll that he’s holding, but I really want to keep that one for myself. I really wish I had chosen something smaller for his big brother but then again, I didn’t expect them to have another baby so soon. Now if I stitch a huge angel design again they will probably have a third one, LOL!

stitching secret pal exchange and my recent kit haul

I received a lovely package from Joanna (Maja71) in Poland. Thank you so much Joanna! I absolutely love everything you sent to me and the box is so beautiful too.

The magazine has lovely Christmas designs.  I’m going to try some ornaments on plastic canvas, they are so cute and would make lovely decorations for our tree next year. We won’t have a tree this year because our younger dog is just 7 months and he would be all over it. Here’ s a pic from the magazine:

I like the Christmas tree and the snowman. I’ve never stitched on plastic canvas before so it should be interesting. Here’s another lovely design I’d like to start soon, I have a dark blue fabric which I think would be perfect for this:

I haven’t sent my exchange package yet, I have finished stitching the small stitching, LOL but I still need to finish it into what it’ s going to be… sorry, no details.

I have been buying some cross stitch kits from ebay and from a finnish online auction site. Many of these are discontinued.

Yes, you can see my cat’s paws on the second pic.. I have one more kit on it’s way. I have started the cat, I had a piece of white 32 ct  linen which I’m using instead of the aida. The kit was made in 1991! It was unopened too. I love the things you can find on ebay, but was also shocked buy the amount of cheap chinese copies etc.

I have also started an owl design from a book by Jayne Netley Mayhew. I love the design but the chart is coloured and it’ s a bit difficult to follow, I usually make a working copy and mark off my stitches but this one doesn’t have symbols for all the colours so I can’t make a working copy. The first page of Running with the Wind by HAED is also done so I guess I did do some stitching while I was ill even though I thought I got nothing done.

I had to quit the hormonal medication, it was unsuitable for me and now I’m off to some blood tests on Monday. Hopefully things will improve soon.