The Girl that Stitches

I won't write "a novel" for part 2... I'll just cut straight to the reveal and bombard you all with photos! Here she is finally framed: This one I took with the camera flash turned on: Different angle: I choose a silver coloured frame because it was much more complementary than the darker frames I was initially looking at. I felt like I wanted some metallic element in there from the start. Blacks were just too dark and wood didn’t look right. I think the lighter color really brings her out and that’s where the attention should rightly go! Frame moulding up close:   I went with the conservation clear glass (cuts out UV) to hopefully prevent any potential fading from exposure to light. Unfortunately this shot ended up a bit blurry it gives an idea of the size anyway! I am quite tall for the record!: I think it turned out well after the long process to get to this point.  Now, back to stitching my wips!

Washing Umbrella Sky: It took me about five months to get the courage to wash Umbrella Sky. Besides I wanted to enjoy looking at it for at least that long in case something went wrong (I was concerned about the reds running).  Thankfully it went well and no thread ran! She was washed in cold water with a tablespoon of Orvus Soap (also called Quilt Soap).  I washed and rinsed her twice because she was extra dirty and needed it!  After that I rolled the stitching between two towels to squeeze out the excess water. She was ironed (straight away) with a plain color tea towel over the top. Usually you iron the piece face down, but I found this was not as effective at getting wrinkles out. It worked much better ironing face up (with tea towel over top). Then she was left to dry on a flat surface. I stitched my name and years worked on into the border: Framing Dilemmas: Different framers had different ideas on the best way to frame a work like this.  This...

The Butterfly has finally made it onto the cushion! It’s taken awhile to get round to it but here are the steps I went through to get there! 1. I washed the stitching with quilt soap. This is also known as Orvus paste and is also used for washing horses! I brought this specially to wash Umbrella Sky with because it has no harsh chemicals and wont damage the stitching. 2. After washing I ironed it face down with a tea towel over the top to sort out any wrinkles. It was still a bit damp so I left it to dry. 3. Here I did all the measuring for the cushion cover and pinned the seams. I chopped off the excess fabric on the butterfly and sealed the edges with the fray stop. 4. More pinning and measuring to get everything centered! 5. I needed to sew on the ribbon and butterfly to the fabric before sewing up the side seams of the cushion. I hand sewed all the ribbon and it took me about five hours! 6. I sewed up the seams on the sewing machi...

I have finished the butterfly! Well the stitching part anyway… Now I just need to make it into a cushion cover! As a thank you to everyone who is following my blog I would like to share the chart I made as a free download.  If you are interested in stitching this design please feel free to download it and make your own butterfly.   I would love to see pictures of your stitching if you do stitch it! Feel free to leave a link to your piece in the comments section. Click on the picture below to download the chart:)

I have been working on a small side project (small compared to the HAED’s anyway). I’ve stitched an 8x6 inch butterfly I intend to finish as a cushion. Stitched on 22 count Hardanger, tented 3 over 1: Outline: I have started filling in the colors and have really enjoyed stitching this. As you can see I’ve brought some purple/grape fabric and two tones of ribbon for making the cushion cover.   I couldn't decide between the green and magenta ribbon... It then occurred to me I could use them both:)  The tone of the green is not really coming across properly in the photo though. Work in progress: As far as the HAED’s go I found some pictures of Iris and Spirit of Flight partly stitched. Reflecting upon this I don't think I will go ahead with Spirit of Flight. The pattern has translated a quite bit darker and I’m just feeling unsure on it now in general. I also think I might go insane trying to stitch two Josephine Wall pieces! So while I contemplate ...

It's finished!!! It was the best feeling ever when I filled in the last stitch :D The stitched area is 18 inches by 24 inches. It still needs a wash (feeling a bit anxious about doing that though) and I will get it framed... The picture is taken outside in the sun/natural light:) Umbrella Sky by Marta Dahlig Stitched on 22 count hardanger, 2 over 1 full cross Started January 2010, finished August 2014

I'm getting sooooo close to a finish on this! All the confetti has really slowed the process down.

I’ve almost finished stitching another two pages of Umbrella Sky. I know it doesn't look like much.... Just scroll down the page to last months update and spot the difference ;) This is getting closer to the finish now with about three pages left! I’ve also updated Treasure Hunt Bookshelf with a new progress picture. Welcome to all the followers that have signed up to the blog. Also thanks to everyone for all the lovely comments! Megan

This months page is taking me longer than normal due to all the knitting I've been doing!   I knitted a scarf for my mum for Mothers Day (see picture on knitting page).   I also won a chart giveaway!   I have been following Karen Mendoza from FT FT FT Stitch who is also stitching Nocturne.   In celebration of her blogs 4th Anniversary she had a giveaway.   You can check out her stitching blog here .   I’m sending out a big thanks to Karen for the patience and kindness she has shown:)  After much humming and arring I decided on Josephine Wall’s “Spirit of Flight” (see stitching stash page for picture).   I have been wanting to brave one of her charts for awhile now but the prospect of that much confetti had me considering it carefully!   I am really excited about the new charts I have lined up to start!   I have also just recently started the crop of Aimee Stuarts Treasure Hunt Bookshelf and will post some pictures of this soon.  ...

Here is page 28 (I'm not going in order :) There are five pages left till the finish! It's 90.60% complete. I have done 200,061 stitches, but there are still 20,739 stitches left.... 

Here is page 33 completed. Still another six pages to go...  Here is what the whole piece looks like!

Here is page 27 completed. I am enjoying stitching the fabric of her dress. There are still another seven pages until the finish! Two of those are not very big, so fingers crossed won’t take long. I have been very tempted to start a new Dahlig pattern!  

Here is page 32!  Happy New Year :) 

Here is page 31... I've skipped ahead a few pages to start the bottom row!  This means I am down to 9 pages till the finish!  Wishing everyone a safe and happy Christmas and Holidays with family & friends :)

Here is page 26 completed! For some reason the colors in the close up look all washed out.   The original photo doesn't look washed out :(   Gives you an idea anyway... It does look a bit abstract.  So just in case you were wondering what you were looking at, this section is of a fish jumping out of the water.   On that subject, I recently brought a goldfish and named him Rembrandt.  He is a very lively creature :)