Moved!

And finally, after a month-long holiday back home with the family, I'm back in my student house down in Southampton, where it is absolutely freezing as ever, and not helped by the fact that our boiler was turned off while the workmen redid the kitchen (which, on a completely different note, looks fabulous). I'm sitting here at my nicely rearranged workstation-desk-thing-cum-stitching-space and freezing my tits off (I'd ask you to pardon the expression, but really, I'm so cold that my boobs *are* freezing, which gives you an idea of the kind of stuff that comes with studenthood :P)

There is some good, though. Over Easter, I left some stash down here, knowing I wouldn't touch it because I had a tonne of stuff waiting for me back at home, and plenty of stuff to take with me. Well, turns out I also had a bunch of thread waiting for me! Not only was there a stitchbow of thread that I'd left here by mistake, but, thanks to the pile of stuff my mother gave me, I now also have a load of excess threads from old Winnie the Pooh kits, and - even better - they're DMC so I can use them with pretty nearly anything I need to. I love it when that happens.

The piece on the left is entitled Swan Lake and will be made up into a card. The two on the right are called Eeyore's Butterfly Days and Piglet's Butterfly Days, which are the final two of the four-part Winnie the Pooh set from Designer Stitches I have - or at least, it's four-part as I'll make it, since they've gone out of print, so if there are more in the set, I don't really have much of a choice. I'm looking forward to having them all done.

Even better-er is the fact that my housemate is the best. Turns out he moved house over Easter, and, while his family were clearing out, they found some stitching books and he said I could have them! So now I have three more books I will likely not do anything from but instead ogle and think about doing things from.

Victorian Needlepoint by Beth Russell, Traditional Samplers by Brenda Keyes and Making Samplers from The Embroiderers' Guild, which will all be joining my library once I'm back home. I can't justify starting anything that's not already kitted out right now, because I have too many WIPs, so they'll likely remain untouched for a while.

Until then, though, I've put one of my secret projects into my Q Snaps - which I literally just got from my mother, who had them sitting around being unused in a cupboard - and I'm going to try my new stitching method with these, which is gridded, working in columns with parking. I'm not sure if I'll update until it's done and gifted, since this is the one that's destined to be a present for someone who might well read this blog. Either way, I look forward to showing you all the finished product, because I think it'll be amazing when it's done.

Happy stitching!

Heather x

Selena Fenech's H... FINALLY!

First things first, Emma is having a giveaway over here at her blog - she's giving away a copy of Twisted Stitches, which frankly, looks brilliant. So head over there to enter!

Now, I am very excited. I've been stitching on Selena Fenech's H for the past few days as part of the HAED BB weekly SAL (Freebies, Smalls and Minis) and I've made a huge amount of progress. Granted, it's only a small pattern, I'm doing it on aida and I've only been working on the black, but ya know :P

This is what it's going to look like...

 And this is my progress so far...

Selena Fenech's H

I've nearly finished the black on page 1 - I just have that column down the middle to go and then I can outline the rest of the piece - but already it's starting to look lovely, and as my first HAED, I'm very happy with this. I can't wait to do more, in fact! This will likely go to the side until the next mini SAL, though, because I have a lot of smaller WIPs to finish off to justify all the stash expansion that happened with the HAED sale, and the few patterns I've just bought over the past few days (which are hopefully on their way!)

Thanks for reading, and happy stitching! :)

Heather x

General Update

I appear to have got into a nice habit of posting every couple of days here, so it's about time I updated with my recent stitchings! Unfortunately I don't have anything to show because I'm waiting until the end of my current SAL to show my progress on Selena Fenech's H, and that's what I've more or less been working on since Monday, but there are a couple of things.

1. I came downstairs to a surprise today. I was expecting a chart to arrive (it didn't, but it's coming from the US, so that's understandable), and so I heard the mail fall through the letterbox and rushed downstairs... to find my order from Sparklies had arrived! I am SO excited. I'd post a picture, but every picture I took the light wouldn't do it justice, and it looked a cloudy shade of grey (which is fine, but not what I've got :P). It's a BEAUTIFUL shade of purple, and I can't wait to get started on Transcendence, but I'm not allowed until I've finished some more stuff - specifically my Mission 101 stuff.
2. It's my anniversary on Saturday! I'll have been with my boyfriend (Alex, of WPShout) for a year! He's brilliant and I love him, and it might not seem a long time, but don't forget I'm only 19 so it's more of a big deal to me! We're going out for dinner, and we've decided to go with the "traditional anniversary symbols" thing for gifts, and because first is paper, I've gotta do something creative with that (I've obviously already got next year's cotton gift underway ;)).
3. The Doctor Who magazine, Doctor Who Monster Invasion, has finished! This is indirectly sewing related, in that I can now justify spending £5 a month on stitching magazines instead! I'm having a huge problem deciding which one to go for, or whether it's better to use that money on threads and fabrics instead. I'll certainly be buying the next The World of Cross Stitch, cos the second part of the HAED that was in last month's is in there and, apparently, I don't already have enough to stitch...
4. I won Ruth's giveaway! I posted the other day about a giveaway that Ruth of Ruth's Little Leprechauns/mysparemoments was having, and I won a £10 Amazon gift voucher! I'm currently dithering over how to spend it, but I think I'm gonna behave myself and not buy any more sewing patterns, at least. I'll let you know when I've chosen something.

So that's my stitching life at the moment! I've joined a couple of stitching boards on Yuku, which is great, and hopefully I'll have more to update with soon :)

Heather x

I should post my projects more often...

...because apparently, doing so is an incentive for me to finish EVERYTHING.

The finished notebook! Turns out beading isn't quite so hard after all!

It didn't take anywhere near as long as I'd envisaged, in the end, a thing of which I'm quite glad because otherwise I'd have given up. To the more advanced stitchers this may seem silly, but this is the first time I've ever beaded my stitching, so I'm still learning! I now, however, I have the pattern for this going spare, so if you'd like it, just leave me a comment and we can arrange something :)

In the spirit of this whole "let's power through things I've left sitting for waaaay too long" shebang, I've picked up Peter Rabbit again. I have pretty nearly no progress to show yet, though, because I did about 12 stitches and then went to play Lego Lord of the Rings for a couple of hours. However, I intend to make full use of the daylight hours in which I'm not panicking over my Year Abroad Research Project proposal to sew, then game/tidy in the evenings - at least for the remaining week or so of the holidays. I'm not sure what things will be like once I'm back in Saaaaafampton, especially with exam season coming up. We'll just have to wait and see!

More updates soon! :)

Heather x

WIPs and a finish!

I figured it's about time that I start to update this page with some of my WIPs, and I've got quite a few things that're unfinished - some are in the Naughty Pile and my not get done for a while, while others I absolutely love.

First up is a Tatty Teddy design by Anchor entitled Shower of Hearts. Stitched on 14ct Aida using Anchor threads. This was one of the first kits I bought, along with another two Tatty Teddies. I'm not entirely sure whether this is in my Naughty Pile or not, though - I hate doing the backstitch on Tatty Teddy, and the threads keep snapping, so I'm working on it veeeeeery sloooooowly. I mostly just want it to be done.

This is one of my more recent starts. I was absolutely desperate to start an HAED and I finally chose one of the free patterns, the Flower Bride SK. I really loved the colours and the soft tone of it, more than anything. Stitched on 28ct evenweave, 1 over 1, this is one of the first two projects I've ever done on an evenweave fabric, so it's kinda experimental, but so far I'm finding that I like the look a lot more than Aida. Fingers crossed that I might actually get this one completed some time in the future.

This one's been knocking around in my collection for a while, and before that, in my mother's collection. This is Textile Heritage's Scottish Thistle Needlecase kit, so it's very similar to the Textile Heritage needlecase I stitched for myself, except mine's lavender-y. 14ct Aida, some of it's three strands but mostly it's in one or two. I really love the pallate on this - it's all soft and pastel-y. This project's kinda on the back burner at the moment, since it's quite small and could probably be done in a couple of evenings, while I've got a significant amount of other projects that I actually have to get done, for whatever reason, so it could be a while before I get this one done.

This is another fairly recent start, and the actual first pattern I started on an evenweave fabric. I sorta stumbled across the pattern by accident while on Pinterest (as often happens) and I fell in love with the idea of it it immediately. It's by Hancock's House of Happy, and when finished, it should say "Mae Govannen", in Elvish, which roughly translates as "welcome". The original pattern called for greens, but I'm doing it in pinks and purples because fuck the system. 1 over 1, 28ct evenweave, etc.

This is one of the ones that I absolutely have to get done, because it's going to be a birthday present. However, it's not hugely complex, so I could finish it in a couple of evenings, but it is, in any case, a higher priority. Eventually it's going to say "Nobody Loves You", and it's going to my lil sis (and by the way you should go check out her deviantArt page because she's AMAZING). We sorta have this running joke where we insult each other with Portal-style insults, so this fit perfectly. This one's by nerdylittlestitcher over on Etsy, and I'm doing it on 14ct Aida. (Fiona, if you're reading this, hi!)


Now, this one, I'm not actually going to tell you what it is because that might spoil the fun. Over on Facebook, I've been gradually posting my updates to this and waiting for people to try and guess what it is, and so far, there've been some pretty good guesses. It's a wonderful design by Serenity Designs, though, for those who are interested, and if you like sewing, you should definitely go check them out, because there's some pretty cool stuff over there. This is on 18ct Aida, and I look forward to hearing people's guesses!

This one was a surprise find. I stumbled across it in a charity shop and immediately knew I'd have to do it. It's by Designer Stitches and entitled Blue Lagoon Dolphin, and consists of three panels like this (this is the middle of the three) with a different dolphin in each. The colours struck me as something that would go perfectly in our bathroom, which is sort of sea mist blues and greens. I put it to the side for a couple of months because it got a bit repetitive and the colours started to annoy me, but I might pick it up again soon, or at least get the frames of the three panels done because they're so easy on the eye and not too taxing to stitch (and all identical).

This one's quite a small one, worked on 14ct Aida. It was another charity shop find - I saw it while I was working at a charity shop and loved it immediately. It's part of a small magazine kit, and is designed to be finished as a notebook. The only part that remains to be done is the beading, but last time I tried to do them it went completely pear-shaped, so I gave up and it went into the naughty pile. Now I've dug it out of the box I might actually finish it off soon, but that depends entirely on whether I feel I can tolerate it - again, it's a case of once it's done, it'll be nice to have it done, but in order to get it to that stage, I actually have to do it. It's sat for a while, in any case, so maybe it's about time for it to come out of the shadows for a bit.

Next up is another kit that has been sitting sadly in the Naughty Pile for about a year now. Because I'm apparently completely incapable of counting, there are quite a few cock-ups in there that are small but will make a huge difference, so I needed to put it away before I either tore it up or smashed some poor child's head against a wall. This is part of a set of four Designer Stitches Winnie the Pooh kits I inherited from my mother (this one being, obviously, of Tigger), and it's stiched on 14ct. I aim to pick it up again soon, but every time I look at it I get angry again. Perhaps if I just unpick the mistakes, it won't be an issue.

I can't say much about this one yet, because it's a present for someone who may well read this blog, but it's a pattern by nichestitch over on Etsy that I'm doing on 18ct with one strand, a decision I'm supremely regretting. This is in the Naughty Pile because I'm angry at it for no good reason. I was originally aiming to get it done for last Christmas, but that's blatantly not happened, so who knows, I might get it done for Doomsday.


This is another one of a set that I adopted from my mother, and it's going to be Peter Rabbit, courtesy of Anchor. I love the way it's turned out, but the chart is a pain in the behind to follow because of the way the backstitch is indicated on it - it's not always obvious what colour goes under the backstitch because the lines are quite thick, and, depending on the colour, sometimes quite wavy. I think it might've sat in my Naughty Pile for quite long enough, though, so I'll aim to get this one finished before I become too angry at it to even look at it again, and it's quite small so it shouldn't take that long to get finished off.

This is yet another kit I've inherited from my mother's collection, and it's about a million years old, but I still like it... sorta. I suffered from Inability To Count Syndrome whilst getting started on this one, and whilst it's only small, this still pissed me off to no end so it's unofficially sat in the naughty pile for about a year or so. I think I'll try and finish it off soon because it's only small, and it has a half-brother kit that has fruits in it instead of roses, so once I've got them done, they'll at leat be done, and I don't have to think about them anymore. It's a Janlynn kit, but I don't know if it it's still being sold due to the age - in fact, I severely doubt it.

This kit I found while doing a charity shop run down in Southampton. I live next to about 10 charity shops, so on the way back from class, I occasionally pop in and see if they have any Tatty Teddies or cross stitch kits lying around. This was found on one such occasion. It's a DMC kit entitled Day Trip, and I can't work out what it's actually of, but it reminded me a bit of Venice, despite the fact that there's no evidence of Venice or canals anywhere in the work. I haven't worked on it in a while, simply becuase I've just had other stuff to be doing, but now I've dug it out again, who knows? It might get a bit of love and attention.

Now, for the finish! I spent so long working on this last summer and pretty much got it completed in about a month or so, save a couple of little bits, the backstitching and the French knots. I finished the actual cross stitching back in January or February this year, but finally, a couple of days ago, I said to myself, "Sod it; I hate backstitching, but Pooh is so easy on the eye that why the hell not!" and I powered through it all in a few hours. The feeling of happiness and relief when I tied off the last stitch was overwhelming. This is the second in the series with Tigger, and I eventually hope to get them all framed and put them in my future children's nursery.

So those are my WIPs, and soon I'll be posting the items in my stash that I haven't touched, of which there are quite a few. There are some that I know I'll likely never work on, so I might even think about giving some away. We'll see :)

Heather x

New Stuff and a Giveaway!

You can now follow my blog! Wooo! There's a whatsit at the bottom of the page and you can click and follow! Pretty cool! (For someone who's fairly Internet savvy, Blogger confuses the bejeezus out of me, so bear with me while I add new features and whatnot.)

Also Ruth is having a birthday giveaway and you should go check it out! (Y)

Heather x

My Finishes So Far

 

Whilst this blog is new, I'm not exactly new to sewing - I've done bits and bobs since I was four, and starting cross stitching properly not long after my 18th birthday. So I figured I'd post some of my finishes so far - otherwise it looks like I'm a complete newbie - and then also some WIPs so you can see as I start to finish things off. So, I'm starting with the finishes.

Down the left of this post, you can see how it all began. I found these tiny kits in Hobbycraft and frankly, they're great bitesized little kits that you can more or less get done in an afternoon or so. They're fun and also function as a great stocking filler. I've done a couple more of these than are shown, but those have ended up as gifts to people, so aren't shown here.

I absolutely love Tatty Teddy, so when I was just getting started, the Tatty Teddy kits were the ones I looked for straight away. This wasn't my first finish, but it was the first thing I sewed that took me more than an afternoon to do. Not entirely sure how to finish it, though, so any suggestions, please let me know!

Next! This Lickle Ted kit came with a magazine, and it's very, very cute. I had originally intended to finish it as a card, but the card frame it came with was particularly flimsy, so I decided against it. I might see if I can get a small frame to hang it in instead, because it'd be a shame not to have it finished somehow.

This Eeyore kit arrived in my stocking Christmas 2011. The actual fabric in the kit was about 12 times the size of the actual finished piece, which is about a square inch and a half, but it's also very cute and a gorgeous range of colours. I have a few mini frames that would probably be the perfect size for this, so I'll probably finish it that way, but as always, any other suggestsions, let me know and I'll consider them!


The last two of my previous finishes are at the bottom of the post because Blogspot's image manoeuvering is a bastard to deal with. The first of these is the pride and joy of my finished stitching collection - a portrait of Richard Armitage. It took about two months to do in total, and despite only using about 14 colours or so, it came out perfectly. That said, by the time I finished it, I never wanted to see another shade of gray again... I'm still intensely proud of it, though, and hopefully I'll manage to get it signed by the man himself at some point.

The second  at the bottom is one of my most recent finishes - a needlecase from Textile Heritage's Victorian Lavender collection. It's simple yet beautiful, and was fairly easy to piece together in the end. I love the purples - they work so well together, and purple's my favourite colour ever, so it was fairly pleasant to work on as well, and not too big (though it took a lot longer than it looked like it should because the borders took a while considering, and I kept forgetting bits, so I kept having to go back and add bits that I'd forgotten... So that was fun. It's finished using cardboard to stiffen it and felt in the interior, with a tassel to look nice and tassel-y.

So that's my finishes so far, and I'll hopefully have more things to show off soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my blog and my sewing :)
Heather x