Christmas ornament

I haven't been doing a whole lot of stitching lately, but I did manage to finish this design from the 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue. I've left the buttons off for now, but I might add them in when I do the finishing.

Halloween Fairy update

Not a whole lot of progress, but she's gotten some backstitching and some beads since the last image I posted.

Geez, a whole month since my last post...

And not much stitching has been going on. With my move and just being really tired at the end of a day, I haven't put a needle through thread in several weeks. Halloween Fairy is out and calling to me so maybe I'll get some work done on her tomorrow, (even though we're past Halloween now). Time to pull out last year's Just Cross Stitch ornament issue and start a small design too!

Latest pumpkin

The pumpkin theme continues... Another design from the Just Cross Stitch Halloween ornament issue:



I stitched it on a scrap of 22-ct fabric, over one, with DMC floss.

Yet another pumpkin

I'm beginning to think there is a 'pumpkin of the week' trend starting here.



This is the "Pumpkin on Gingham" design from the Halloween ornaments in Just Cross Stitch magazine. Obviously I didn't stitch it on gingham, but I did use up another little square from the 2 yards of that natural 28-ct evenweave I bought a while back. I've used it for a lot of designs since it can have a rustic or papyrus look to it, but there is still a lot left! I also haven't added the beads yet, since I need to head to the LNS and get them!

I'm working some more on Halloween Fairy - specifically the backstitching on her head and shoulders and doing some more of the metallics. Not much progress to show though.

Halloween ornament and Fairy progress

First up is the "Spooky Tree" ornament from Just Cross Stitch magazine:

I used DMC floss instead of the over-dyed the original was stitched with.

And here is the first photo of Halloween Fairy:



I'm using a hand-dyed Silkweaver 32-ct linen. I think this is the largest thing I've done on 32-ct linen, and it is going a little slower then my usual 28-ct evenweave projects!

Pumpkin from last week

This was the little project I worked on last week:



It's from a chart by Pamela Kellogg. There is a small goof in the vines above the pumpkin - I put an extra space in and only discovered it way too late to fix it. Since it didn't really mess up the design (other than making the vine slightly more egg-shaped instead of round), I didn't bother to rip everything out. I also left out the "harvest" lettering since I'm hoping to find a cute charm or button, perhaps of a crow, to put in there.

I started Halloween Fairy yesterday, but I'll wait until I get some more done before I post a picture.

Catching up with recent stitching

I haven't done a whole lot of stitching over the past week or so because I was sick but I did finish up this gingerbread house from the Just Cross Stitch 2007 Ornament issue. I should have used a different fabric so the roof didn't blend in as much, but it isn't quite as bad in reality as it is in the photo. The photo quality isn't too good either since we've actually had clouds and rain here and the light wasn't great. I substituted beads for the ornaments on the tree and for the eyes on the gingerbread man but I wish I had some smaller beads for the gingerbread man because those big black beads almost make him look stoned or something...



I'm almost finished with a pumpkin design and then I'll probably do some of the Halloween ornaments from this past issue of JCS. Halloween Fairy is also calling but I need to lay out the beads, metallics and threads with some of my fabrics and see if I like any of them for the design. I have a hand-dyed light purple linen in my stash that might work, but we'll see.

Summer is finished!

How I wish the actual season of summer was done... but I'll settle for this.



Three of four done!



I worked a little more on Catherine of Aragon's skirt, but I think I'll start something else in addition to working on her. I hear some Halloween designs calling me, but I have to decide which one is screaming the loudest.

Summer update #2

I've made a little more progress on Summer. Now I've got some of the backstitching done, which really brings the picture together nicely. I've also started into the flowers on the left hand side, although I'm saving the large pink ones for last.

"Summer" update

Here's a status photo of the "Summer" section of the four seasons design that I mentioned in the previous post. Since a lot of it is half cross stitches, it goes pretty quickly.

Latest small, with a big OOOPS!

I kicked this one out quickly a couple of evenings ago, but apparently a little TOO quickly, since there is a big ooops in it. I'm not sure how obvious it is if you aren't familiar with the chart or if it isn't pointed out, but the smile on the Jack o' Lantern is a little lopsided. Somehow I managed to make an extra stitch of the black on the right side! Oh well.

The chart is a freebie from Casey Buonaugurio's website.

In other stitching news, I decided to set Catherine of Aragon aside for a little while (I'm tired of looking at black, brown and yellow) and do the "Summer" design of the four seasons set I've been doing (pictures of fall and winter are here). I finally had an idea about how to finish them once all four are done, as a wall-hanging, maybe in a "stained glass" style with black borders around the designs. Of course, all of this is dependent on me being able to not jump right in and stitch Nora Corbett's "Halloween Fairy" in the newest Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine!

A little catching up

I don't have an update photo on Catherine, although I have made some progress on her. I also sewed the border on an old quilt top that has been in the making for over a decade, but I didn't take a photo of that either. But, I do have a couple of photos of some of the long weekend's work!

The first photo is probably the last of the old magazine cover kits. I did the quilting on it ages ago, but just now finished the bag up.



And the second is a little ornament from the 2007 Just Cross Stitch Magazine ornament issue. I didn't have a charm for the star, so I stitched it with the DMC gold floss and I stitched it on a scrap of 32 ct evenweave from a grab bag.

Catherine of Aragon update

I haven't done much stitching in the past couple of weeks, but I have managed some progress on Catherine. It goes fast when I do get time to work on it, although I think I might be stitching a little too fast since I've noticed some sloppy stitches in places. Oh well!

Catherine of Aragon - first photo

Here is the first progress photo of Catherine of Aragon originally from New Stitches magazine no. 7. The design can also be purchased at StitchDirect.com

I've stitched a bit more on it during the long weekend and will post another update this week. This one is coming along pretty quickly, especially compared to the Heritage Stitchcraft Dragon!

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.

Halloween freebie!

Here it is! I'm still not sure how I'm going to finish it (I'm leaning towards trying my first flat-fold). I stitched it on Silkweaver 32 ct. Opalescent Lugana (color "Glistening Heather") with DMC floss. I left off the "Boo"s and I substituted beads for the French knots for the eyes.

The pattern is available here.

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!