Almost Finished…

Posted on

Autumn Leaves is about 3/4 of the way done, and I can’t wait to get started on one of the serveral UFOs I have laying around. I think I will work on the variegated heart next, not only because it is small and backstitch only, but because I just noticed who the designer is. It is none other than Janis Lockhart of Cross Point Designs! I had no idea it was designed by the same person that Autumn Leaves was. But it helps explain why I liked both projects!

XXX
Carrie


Too many projects

Posted on

In the last few days, numerous cross stitch magazines have come into my mailbox. The World of Cross Stitching is a wonderful British publication. It always has at least one free gift (usually a kit) and sometimes a free chart too. Just Cross Stitch is my favorite American magazine. I also subscribe to Cross Stitch & Needlework and Sampler & Antique Needlework. All of these came in the mail within a few days of each other, and I also received notice that the latest issue of Cross Stitch Crazy (which I subscribe to as an iPad edition) was ready to download. I LOVE my stitching magazines. I also receive hard copies of Cross Stitch Gold (British) and the  iPad edition of Cross Stitch Collection (also British). Then there are the hundreds of magazines I have picked up at garage sales, thrift stores, or eBay. And then of course, there are the leaflets and books… If I live to be 1,000 I will never be able to complete all of the projects that I have. But yet I can’t seem to part with any of them. You never know when you might need something! In this latest issue of Just Cross Stitch there is a gorgeous Christmas pattern that features three ornaments stitched in jewel tones, complete with metallic threads. They are shown hanging from an elegant black wrought iron hanger. This design immediately caught my attention, and I wanted to stitch it. But in the end I decided that my stash is taking over, and something has to be done. I am not going to get rid of any of my precious magazines or charts, but something has to be done about the projects I have started and not completed. My daughter is 3 and still doesn’t have her Christmas stocking done. I started a pretty picture of hummingbirds and flowers while on vacation a year and a half ago and it has sat in a drawer since I returned. Theresa Wentlzer’s Peacock Tapestry is so huge that it will probably never get finished. The woodland deer pattern was only started a few months ago, but I tired of all the drab colors and needed a break from it. And the backstitched vareigated heart was a magazine project that I started while on vacation this past summer. The chart ended up being too hard to follow, so I decided to photocopy it when I got home, so that I could mark it up as I went along and not ruin my magazine. But that never happened. I am going to take stock of all of my UFOs and as soon as Autumn Leaves is finished, start one one of them. My goal is to not start ANY new projects until they are all done (with the exception of the Peacock Tapestry, which could take years).  My goal is probably unrealistic, but we’ll see how it goes! At any rate, going through my stash to see what I have should be fun.

XXX
Carrie


Frogging

Posted on

I hate frogging. You know, when you make a mistake and you have to rip-it, rip-it, rip-it all out. I had a leaf to stitch on the Autumn Leaves project and it happened to be within some of the wording. Halfway through I realized the color I had picked was not going to work – it was way too close to the color of the lettering. The words completely disappeared into the leaf. After ripping it all out I couldn’t find anything suitable, so I went for a plain old skein of DMC.

It looks… somewhat okay. I’m not thrilled that there is no color variation on this leaf, and there is with everything else. Oh well. Leaf done, and onto more wording. And then of course I mess up the counting and am way off. Time to rip-it. Again. Needless to say, not my favorite stitching day. But alas, a bad day of stitching is better than no day of stitching at all. Or something like that.

Carrie



Autumn Leaves

Posted on

When I saw this design in the Sep/Oct issue of Just Cross Stitch I knew I had to stitch it. My Uncle Dan had just passed away from a courageous battle with cancer. It was fall, and the leaves were blowing all around. Best of all, his last name was Crow, and my aunt and uncle always had things with crows decorating their home. My mom had cross stitched him a card with crows on it while he was in the hospital. I wanted to stitch this right away, but I made myself finish the hedgehog design first.

I have just started on this but I am loving it. The fabric is lambswool Jobelan which is a dream to stitch on. The floss called for is Weeks Dye Works but I only had one color on hand and didn’t want to spend the money to get the others. I looked at the photo in the magazine and matched up Sampler Threads from The Gentle Art, which I had oodles of. I am loving the subtle color changes and more importantly, no half stitches and almost no backstitch! This one should be an easy stitch with the kids around. I can’t wait to finish it!

Carrie


Finally Finished!

Posted on

I thought this Margaret Sherry hedgehog design would be a quick stitch. WRONG! In 30 years of stitching I have never come across such bizarre stitch combinations. Instead of half cross stitches that take up half of the Aida square in a diagonal fashion, these take up half of the square in either a sideways or vertical way. That in itself would not have been a huge inconvenience, but in some areas there would be a half stitch and then a whole stitch, then another half stitch. This means that the whole stitch would be in half of one Aida block and half in the other. Crazy, right? Counting was really difficult for this chart and the backstitch was a pain as well. But I persevered and in the end I think this little guy turned out pretty well. I used Kreinik blending filament in 032 pearl for the bumblebee’s wings, instead of plain white DMC. I think it adds a nice sparkle.

Next up: Autumn Leaves by Janis Lockhart of Cross-Point Designs (Sep/Oct issue of Just Cross Stitch).

Happy Stitching!
Carrie