Way too long

It's been way too long (a month!) since I last posted, but unfortunately it has also been way too long since I did any stitching! I really need to start a couple of small projects that I can work on here and there, since the only two WIPs I currently have are quite big - Catherine of Aragon and Halloween Fairy. Time to start flipping through my patterns, I guess. I really want to start on the Book of Ink Circles, but that's another large design so it will need to wait until one of the other two is finished!

Catherine of Aragon update

These are the photos that were supposed to be up over a week ago!



I finished the brown around the left side of the skirt and began working on the black and brown parts of the right side. I'm hoping to get some more work done on her tomorrow but I might end up doing my taxes instead. The sad part is that I'm not even expecting a refund.

Finally, some stitching!

But no progress picture right now, gotta charge the camera batteries. But I did actually put needle and thread through fabric yesterday and will today too. I've been working on the dark part of Catherine of Aragon's skirt, which actually stitches pretty fast. The golden parts are going to take longer, I think, but I'm hoping to get her finished in the next month or two. I'm going to be very, very busy between now and mid-March, but I'm going to try to make a little time to stitch since it really helps keep me sane!

Happy New Year!

My stitching really fell off the pace at the end of the year, but I'm hoping I'll pick it back up in 2009. I think I've worked out a good space to stitch in my apartment, so that should help. My goal of working on some old kits didn't really happen, but I'll go ahead and set a goal for 2009 - finish the two relatively large designs I have going (Catherine of Aragon and Halloween Fairy) and try to finish ONE large kit project. We'll see if that happens!

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.