The Girl that Stitches

The Queen of Spades Sends Her Regards I’ve come back to the Alice in Wonderland inspired chart I’m stitching by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. This one is a bit of fun and funnily enough I am stitching it sideways… It makes me think of Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole and it’s kind of appropriate to not stitch this one the “right way up” or the “normal” way! Here is start on the next page: Previous Progress: Current Progress: The Curious thing about Stitching Sideways: I stitch landscape orientation charts sideways because they fit better on the q-snap frame that way. It means I don't have the snaps digging into the stitching as much (which I feel can damage the stitching to a certain extent, even with fabric between the snaps and stitches). Sideways... Here is a tutorial on Sideways Stitching for everyone who is unsure about how to approach it and interested in trying it out!  For future reference I’ll make the pdf file permanently available on my downloads page. Tut...

Diagonal Challenge #1 There are six challenges to be posted on the Official HAED Facebook page this year. The first challenge involved stitching 1000 stitches in 10x10 diagonal blocks. I pulled out Rainbow Girl for this and it was nice to change things up and work differently to normal! A Game of Chess! I don't usually park but it made sense to do so when working in blocks.   Even though lines are not meant to form working diagonally, I still felt slightly apprehensive about the possibly of this happening.  I figured parking may lessen the risk by helping to even out the tension between squares. Before:  After: Although I kind of like the checkerboard effect, overall I didn’t take to this way of stitching and found it more time consuming than my usual preferred cross country method.  I didn’t enjoy being confined to working in blocks...  Having to stay in the box drove me crazy lol!  I did like the fact I wasn’t reaching for floss b...

Robber Bridegroom Progress Here is page 4 of Robber Bridegroom completed. My man now has his ear and hearing intact! ;) Previous Progress: Current Progress, Page 4 Completed: This is the first page I’ve used the Light Effects e310 on. I’m very happy with the effect it’s created on the hair! It’s very difficult to capture the effect in a photo so I made a short clip. Apologies as the camera on my phone is not great quality… Still it gives a better idea of the sparkle effect than the photo.  Light Effects e310 on Robber Bridegroom: The total percentage complete on this is now at about 13 percent and the top row is almost complete. Happy Stitching!xxx

Goals Challenge In 2015, I completed the Bulletin Board Half Yearly Goals Challenge. There were 8 stitchers who won prizes in both the half yearly and yearly challenges.  I was randomly selected as the second place winner for the Half Yearly Challenge!  For the prize I was allowed to select two small charts and decided on: The Enchanted Snowman by Donna Gelsinger: QS Lancelot & Guinevere by Aimee Stewart: 2015 was my first year participating in the challenge and it was really enjoyable!  Sending out a big thanks to HAED for allowing the challenge to run and to all the admin on the BB who organized the challenge! Metallic Thread Calculator Addition to Floss Organizer: I’ve had several people mention about making calculations for how much metallic thread a project needs.  The current skein estimator formulas are based on the 8.7 yard DMC skein.  This means the estimator only works for DMC, not any other yardages or types/brands of thread. So...

Framing Flowers & Birds I hope you all had wonderful Christmas and New Year celebrations.  Happy New Year! My Parents liked “Flowers & Birds.” I can finally share pictures of it framed.  Finish, Ready for framing: First it was washed and ironed!: Birds & Flowers Framed:   The frame was modified. Originally the pattern was much more solid looking, but I brushed some white acrylic over the top to soften the effect. A second matt was cut using really thick card which had a pearlescent sheen to it. The second matt ended up having to be wider than anticipated because I stitched out to a template but didn't factor shrinkage in… and the piece did shrink slightly when washed and ironed. An Enchanting Surprise I woke up Christmas morning to find a RAK (random act of kindness) from the lovely Sandra Popek! She is such a generous lady and it was an awesome Christmas surprise! She sent me Josephine Wall’s Enchanted Manor. I am...

Here is a reminder of where the Mystery Chart left off at!: And now...  Drumroll...  Well… Here we go… ta da!!! Mystery Chart Finish: Tented using 3 to 4 strands (colour dependent) on 20 count Mint Green Bellana/Lugana Started March 19th 2015, Completed December 18th 2015 Completion time: 9 months (whilst jugging other wips!) This is my second ever stitchy finish!  It's such a good feeling to put that last stitch in! It's also such a relief to finish the piece in time for Christmas so it can be gifted.  Since it’s not so mysterious anymore I can reveal the source.  The chart is appropriately called Flowers and Birds and is available as a freebie from the Free Cross Stitch online website .  It is a very complex pattern to stitch… If you check it out you will see the confetti battle within and understand!  Improvising You may notice the pattern has been made wider.  It has been stitched out an additional 1-2 centimeters...

Spirit of Flight has been somewhat unintentionally neglected! So I picked it up again for the Facebook challenge that Michele set in The Official HAED group. The challenge was to complete a minimum of 400 stitches but I hoped to finish the page!  I’ve been working the Mystery Chart alongside this, which has slowed the process down.   I’ve also been having issues with pain in my hands and arms making stitching difficult.  Still I managed to persevere and almost get the page finished... but  I was missing one floss colour… argh!  So here is most of page 19, minus 3781!  It's now 4080 stitches down and 2.67 percent done. Progress:   Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating it (we don't here in Australia).  May you all have a wonderful day with your families!  Best wishes! xxx