FFO-frenzy June!

Even though I took a week of vacation in June, I didn't actually get much stitching done because I DID ALL THE FFOs!! Well, not ALL, but a whole lot of them. That 'bin of shame' that's been sitting under my bed for a while now finally got to me and I watched all of Vonna Pfeiffer's tutorials (re-watched, in some cases) and got cracking on finally doing something with all of those stitched projects. So most of my 'haul' for the month was stuff to help with finishing, such as a cord-maker, fine-tip glue bottles, a little bit of backing fabric (because I somehow managed to not have what I needed in my stash!), etc. You get the idea. I've only framed two of the projects that I want to finish that way, but I've mounted 4 or 5 more on foam core boards that are odd sizes, so I'll probably order some custom frames for those over the next year or two (they often aren't cheap!). Once I get the frames, I'll lace the needlework and post pictures of them as FFOs.

WIP

I'm going to put off the progress photos of the 'start-itis' projects from the end of May, but I did want to go ahead and post a photo of Temperature Tree through the end of June though so here's that update (still haven't made it into the hottest few colors! - yay!):



FFOs

Alrighty - let's get into all the FFOs!

These first few are re-finishes of old pillow ornaments that I wasn't too happy with - you can find the first versions in old posts. I'm much happier with how they came out this time!





And this one was a partial re-finish - I took off the ribbon hanger and added my very first handmade cording instead.



The rest of these are in roughly reverse order of when the sttiching was finished:

I finally got the charms through Etsy for the little fairy cottage that I finished stitching last year (after a failed attempt to get them all from Ali Express last fall... never got them so I had to get refunds). I was struggling over how to FFO this one but then I looked at it in a hoop frame and that seemed the best fit. At first I just had it in the bare wood hoop but I realized that it would look really good if I painted the hoop black, so that's what I did. I was happy to find that my hand was still pretty steady for painting the front edge, although my wrist was screaming by the end (thanks carpal tunnel!!). I just had a few flecks of paint on the fabric edge that I was able to scratch off with a pin when it was dry.



And this little owl was also stitched last year. I had fun picking the backing fabric for this one!



Now here's where we start getting into some much older finishes!

I finished the stitching on this one back in November 2013. I think part of the reason I stalled on the FFO for this one was trying to figure out what to do with it. I ended up with a pillow, which allowed me to try to scrape a little rust off my sewing machine skills and try doing some curves and irregular shapes. It's not perfect, but I'm still pretty happy with how it came out!



Next up is this adorable witch kitty that I finished the stitching on back in May 2012. This was a early finish in this FFO frenzy so I just mounted it on cardboard with batting and did a felt backing.



Then we have to go back to September 2011 for the next one! I'm not 100% happy with the corners on this one, but I'm not unhappy enough to pull it apart and re-do it.



And this one from August 2011 - my first harganger finish! (I did a test stitch of some hardanger before, but this is the first that has become an FFO). This was just a simple pillow with a beaded hanger. The one thing I did do a little differently was to make the slit for stuffing through the middle of the backing fabric instead of along the edge to give that technique a try. (For some reason I didn't bother taking a photo though!)



Now back to July 2011 - this is a finish I'm really pleased with. This was my first attempt at 2-color homemade cording and although I wish I had made it slightly tighter, I'm still quite happy with it.



A framing finish! This is one of the few things that I could mount onto a board for a standard frame size and I happened to have a frame in my stash that I liked for it. The stitching was finished on this one in August 2010.



Now we go back to September 2009 for this finish! I just did a pillow for this, but I'm thinking about adding a pom-pom trim to it. If I do, I'll post an update photo.



And we've reached 2008 for a few more finishes! This cute little pumpkin was stitched in August 2008 and is another that I'm quite happy wih the backing fabric that I chose for it. I think it came out really good!



Another framed finish! This colorful dragon was from a Heritage Stitchcraft kit and I finished it in May 2008. It appropriately lives on a shelf with my Welsh history books.



This cute little cottage was stitched in April 2008. This was another that I had fun picking out a backing fabric for. The cording gave me more trouble, but then I found this one at Joann's and I think it came together well.



This is my first full-on Vonna Pfeiffer style flat fold! Stitching on this one was also from April 2008. I found the perfect backing fabric for it from a batch of Halloween-themed 10" quilt squares.




And finally, the oldest of this round of finishes - this freebie from Teresa Wentzler that I finished stitching in December 2007. This is another that I struggled with for a while and ended up just doing a pillow finish with a beaded hanger.



That's it for this month! I have one more flat fold that isn't quite finished yet (I'm having issues with the decorative trim) but I'll post a photo of that next month. I'm sure I'll have some actual stitching too, beyond Temperature Tree.

Heritage Stitchcraft Dragon finished!

Above is with all of the cross stitch finished, but no backstitching and below is the final version with all of the backstitches.



It was nice to work something with all of those bright colors, although I wish now I had done the backstitching as I had gone along because it took quite a while to do it all.

Now I'm on to the first of the Six Wives of Henry VIII designs - Catherine of Aragon, originally from New Stitches magazine no. 7.

Updates

I didn't mean to go so long without posting an update, but Blogger and other things were conspiring against me!

First up is the Heritage Stitchcraft Dragon progress photo from about two weeks ago, after he gained a wing and a head:


And here is a photo of the dragon from a day or two ago, with a lot more filled in:


The flash went off on the second one, so it looks a little washed out. I don't know if I'll have a large amount of stitching time this weekend, but there is a chance I'll get the cross stitching finished. There is a fair amount of backstitching on the design, so that's going to take a little bit of time.



I also did this little cottage design during the past couple of weeks. It's originally from Needlecraft Magazine (Nov. 1996) as part of a set of six. I'm thinking about doing each of them separately on different fabrics and then framing them in little 2.5 inch square frames. The fabric I stitched this on was 30 or 32 ct. and was from a grab bag I bought a few years ago. I used DMC threads for this one, but I've been toying with the idea of doing it again with Anchor threads just to compare them, out of curiosity.

Quick update

I realized that I never got around to posting the latest progress on the Heritage Stitchcraft Dragon, or the first hardanger piece, so here they are!



I haven't stitched on this one in a week or so, since I decided to take a break and work on a Halloween freebie. I'm almost done with the freebie, so I'll post a photo when the stitching is all done.



And here is the first hardanger piece I've ever attempted. The pattern and instructions were from New Stitches magazine (Issue 5, I think... definitely one of the very early ones). I did it with the pearl cotton that I had on hand, so that's why it's done is rust colors instead of the traditional white-on-white. It's not great, and I definitely need some better scissors for doing the cut work (the ones I have are great for some stitching stuff, just not that!), but it was fun to try. I'll be trying some more in the future, that's for sure!

Dragon update

Here, finally, is the Heritage Stitchcraft Dragon after spring break and a little during the week stitching.



Very colorful, isn't it? I've actually finished almost all of the background stuff (one little bit on the right is going to wait until I do the dragon over there) and have started to work in the dragon head. I didn't really plan to end up with a dragon silhouette, that's just the way it worked out!

I might take a break from the dragon to do another small freebie or two for something a little different. Even through we're into spring at the moment, I have a bunch of autumn and Halloween freebies, so I figure I should stitch some now so there is an outside chance that I'll have some of them framed (or finished in some way) by the time that part of the year gets here!

This week's stitching

I took spring break off of work to relax and, as it turned out, recuperate from yet another cold. The down time gave me a chance to get some stitching done, and here are some of the results:

First is the Hedwig Four Patch freebie from The Sampler Girl. I stitched it on some of my Silkweaver purple sparkly fabric and used DMC variations thread on the border and letters.



The second small that I did was another freebie, this time from Cyberstitchers.com. Since I love penguins and Italian food, I decided that my kitchen needed this:



And finally, an update on the Heritage Stitchcraft dragon. This is actually from last week, so I'll have to post another picture with the progress that I made this week.



I also did my first hardanger piece this week, but I haven't taken a photo of it yet. It's not great, but it was a first attempt after all!

Dragons, framing and fabric

I actually did this framing over a week ago, so I'm a little behind. This piece has had the stitching finished on it for about 4 and a half years, and now it is finally in its frame. I didn't get the tension exactly right, so there is a slight bump visible, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with it. (And the bump doesn't show up as much as it does in the photo, since there was bright light to the side.) Right now it is sitting on the mantle in the living room since I haven't figured out where I want to hang it.



Next up is a progress photo of the Heritage Stitchcraft dragon, although it's a but out of date. I've actually done the top band now too, but no photo right now.



And last but not least, my first batch of Silkweaver "Fabric of the Month" fabric arrived! I'm on the rotating schedule, since I wanted a variety of counts, colors, types and sizes. I don't have anything in mind for the pink fabric, but I know just the thing for that sparkly light purple fabric! Stay tuned, since I'll probably stitch it up during Spring Break, when I'm planning on taking a lot of time of off work.