Happy Dance! - E is for Embroidery

Design: E is for Embroidery

Designer: Prairie Schooler

Threads: DMC

Fabric: 28 count evenweave, cream

Stitches: Half cross stitch, backstitch

 

Oops, I'm a little bit behind on posting my finishes. I enjoyed this, even though I was a bit worried about the seemingly complex design on the "frame". There are a couple of small charting errors on that section, but it all came together well in the end.

I got rid of the Embroiderer's cat - they aren't my cup of tea - and I added the date instead of a sprig of flowers.

This is how the five letters I've stitched so far:

 

I'm so looking forward to finishing the first nine and getting it framed.

E is for Embroidery - Prairie Schooler

Even though I have UFOs to get cracking with, I couldn't resist starting the next block of my Prairie Schooler ABC, and this was after the first couple of sessions.

I've left out the cat - I don't really like cats, and there are two large ones in this project to come - I'll probably replace it with another spool of thread.

I've also changed the design the lady is stitching to incorporate the year.

I'm not sure about the design to go in the frame, whether to stitch the dark background or not ...

Happy Dance! - D is for Drum!

I still hear the snares in the square
Colours ablaze in the evening
The air was still
Down the stormy hill
It's good to be young and daring

Beat the drum
Beat the drum
Like a heartbeat
Lonely and strong
Beat the drum

Design: D is for Drum

Designer: Prairie Schooler

Threads: DMC

Fabric: 28 count evenweave, cream

Stitches: Half cross stitch, backstitch

I've finally finished this block! I think I was dithering over it because of the big changes I made. It seems ridiculous, but I wasn't hugely confident that my modifications would work, but now it is complete, I'm pretty pleased.

This block as charted was very patriotically American. I'm not American, and neither is The Hermit. He's not wildly patriotic in a Canadian or British way either (dual national...), and so any modifications I felt had to reflect my own heritage. My father is English, my mother is Scottish, and as it was my mother who taught me needlecrafts, it was fairly obvious what I'd choose (sorry dad!).

The flag was relatively simple (one of the reasons I chose the Scottish flag, not the British Union Jack!). The Bald Eagle became a Golden Eagle, just by subbing one of the existing colours in. There are quite a number of Golden Eagles in Scotland, although I've not been fortunate enough to see them in the wild. The design in the shield of the drum took more thought - I could repeat the flag motif, but I thought that a little dull. And then I thought about the Lion Rampant, the symbol of Scotland. Could I really design something that looks quite complex and make it so small and yet distinguishable? The answer is yes, with the aid of a computer design programme! It took quite a while, but eventually, I came up with something I was happy with.

This is certainly a very individual block now!

And seeing as I've had the song whose lyrics are written above in my head as I've stitched, I thought I'd add a bit of Runrig too. Runrig are one of my favourite Scottish bands, even though the lead singer in the clip below has now been replaced by a Canadian ;o)

Prairie Schooler SAL Update

I'm still working on this - not much, to be honest, because I'm working on my own freebie January Biscornu and Fob - and I had to take a break to do a bit of re-design ...

So far, I've been lucky - my borders have matched up first time on each block - hope this continues!

Slow progress... the colours on these pictures aren't great because of the artificial light - the low energy fluorescents give a very yellow cast...

This next picture shows the first change I've made - the eagle is now a Golden Eagle, and not a Bald Eagle. Apart from the fact that in the UK, we don't have Bald Eagles, I'm afraid I can't take them seriously - too much Muppet Show when I was young! Basically, I've swapped the colour of the eagle and the arrow - so this block with have less 3371 than most of the other blocks, but I don't think it will throw the balance off too much.

The other amendments I'm going to make are to put a Scottish flag in the box, and a Lion Rampant in the shield - these are all charted out, just need to be worked now!

Prairie Schooler SAL

I've not had a lot of time for stitching over the last few days as I've had work and Uni stuff piling up. This is where I'm at with D is for Drum, the next letter I'm working on for the Prairie Schooler ABC SAL. I have to confess this is my least favourite of the designs. It's just so very American and flag wavingly patriotic, and I'm not. I wish designers would realise that they sell to international markets ... Anyway, I have been working with my design software and have come up with some amendments. The flag is going to be a Scottish saltire, the drum will have a Lion Rampant in the shield (and that took some doing!) and the Bald Eagle will change species and become a Golden Eagle.

Happy Dance! - A is for Anchor

Design: A is for Anchor (from A*B*C) 

Designer: Prairie Schooler 

Threads: DMC as charted  

Fabric: 28 count evenweave, cream 

Stitches: Half cross stitch

I started this on the 28th of December, and finished it on the 5th of  January, as I wanted to stitch my New Year's Day pieces too. Again, this was mostly worked whilst listening to the coverage of the cricket in South Africa - cross stitch and cricket go very well together!

This is how it grew:

 

And this is how the first row completed looks:

Apologies for the dark pictures - we have grey skies because of all the snow we're getting.

I didn't make any changes to this. Although I may go back and work two of the letters in the compass rose in a different colour, as N and W are my initials :o)

D is for Drum is taking slightly longer to work, as I'm doing a bit of a re-design - the flag and shield motif are being changed to designs more appropriate for someone who is not American, and the eagle is changing species too!

Happy Dance! - B is for Blackbird

Design: B is for Blackbird (from A*B*C)

Designer: Prairie Schooler

Threads: DMC as charted, modification noted below.

Fabric: 28 count evenweave, cream

Stitches: Half cross stitch

This is my final stitching happy dance for 2009. I finished it on the 28th, and I'd hoped to have had "A is for Anchor" done too, but work commitments have got in the way... sigh. It's not very flat, as I laid it out on my fluffy duvet...

I loved working on this, despite a visit from the frog. I only made one modification from the design as it was charted, and that was to turn the red eyes of the blackbirds into one of the gold colours, as blackbirds over here have yellow rims to their eyes. It was nice working on this to think of the nesting pair of blackbirds my parents' garden hosted - they used to make their nest in an old honeysuckle bush.

And is is how it looks with the first letter I did.

I'm so enjoying this, I'm not sure I'm going to want to knuckle down to my Year of the UFO project, but I must...

Prairie Schooler SAL

Day 1

Day 2(under artificial light)

Day 3

The combination of a peaceful Christmas with no travelling and Test Match Special on the radio, with live coverage of England's cricketers taking on South Africa has given me plenty of stitching time until I start work again tomorrow (boo, hiss!).

So my Prairie Schooler SAL is growing apace ... of course, when talking about over one, 'growing' is a relative term ... but hopefully, I will finish it later today. I've had a visit from the frog, I miscounted the vine border and was one stitch out by the time I got to the top ... I've reworked the horizontal row at the top, but the leaves and berries I've left alone, it can be our little secret :o)

C is for Cow - Prairie Schooler

Design: C is for Cow (from Booklet A*B*C)

Designer: Prairie Schooler

Threads: DMC as charted

Fabric: 28 count evenweave, antique white

Stitched in petit point over one thread, with two strands of floss

Thank you for all your kind comments on this so far - you've really been an incentive to keep stitching, and now my cow is finished! I've been lucky in that all my Christmas preparations were completed early and so I've had time to stitch :o)

I can't promise I'll keep this speed up in future, but here's to starting B is for Blackbird later today!

I've stitched this as charted - the only modification I made was not filling in the block around the letter C.

Prairie Schooler SAL

Hey Diddle Diddle

The Cat and the Fiddle

The Cow jumped over the Moon...

Here's my cow in space rather than on a lush green field - she looks a little startled, but I've found cows take most things in their stride! I'm pleased with how quickly this is working up, but I hope I don't go off like a rocket and then burn myself out! However, I'd like to get this part finished before Christmas now, rather than the end of the month...

Prairie Schooler SAL

I know I said next year was going to be the Year of the UFO and that I wouldn't do any new starts ... but I really couldn't resist the Prairie Schooler SAL Vonna has set up! And I told myself (and everyone agreed) that if I started it now, well, it was obviously going to be a UFO for 2010 ...

Initially, I thought that I could just stitch the little boxes with the letters, but that wasn't really working for me in the end. So, I decided to bite the bullet and go for the full blown designs! Eek!

I'm going to stitch them over one on 28 count evenweave, but only do a half cross stitch in two strands. I've done this before and liked the effect. And the speed!

I'm going to do the alphabet in three pieces, so I will have a layout of 3 x 3 on each piece - it brings them down to a more sensible size for handling, I like working with a small hoop in hand.

So, here's the set up, with my lovely Prairie Schooler floss tag I received from Laurence on Hooked on Exchanges...

And this is after my first session on Sunday - I'm starting with C is for Cow, as there was a nice solid border on the right hand side so I could just measure and go ... well, calculate, measure, calculate, measure and go...

I'm happy with the coverage of the threads, on the whole. Of course, as it's going to be framed, it only needs to look good from a distance :o) It looks yellowish because of the lighting, unfortunately.

And this is how it looked after Monday night's session:

 

 

I did a little bit of frogging (and you can just about see the fluff left) as I felt that the C didn't stand out enough against the dark background, so I'm going to leaveall the letter spaces unfilled. For now... I may decide to do them in a paler colour later, I think I need to ponder on this a bit more.

I've counted all the grids on the charts, and I think for this section all are 70 wide, and there's only one that isn't 100 stitches high. I'm leaving 5 threads between each design to allow for 'leakage'.

My goal is to stitch this before the end of the month, and then to stitch one piece a month. But you know what they say about best laid plans...

Morning Song - Just Nan

Design: Morning Song

Designer: Just Nan

Threads: DMC as charted

Fabric: 28 count Cashel linen, flax

Here it is, finally finished! I've been stitching Morning Song as a SAL with Sally, and I completed it at the weekend.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I've made a few amendments to the charted design, namely the fabric, stitching the over one section as petit point, and omitting the butterflies from the rooster band - I have an aversion to butterflies in stitching, don't ask me why! I've just noticed I haven't stitched the sheep charm on yet, either - and actually, looking at this, I might not.

Thank you Sally, for your company and your encouragement!

SAL Progress

This should possibly be "lack of progress" as I haven't done very much at all these last couple of weeks!

However, it seems that Sally and I are at the same place with it, so that's good!

I'm really enjoying stitching this, I might have to keep going with stitching a Just Nan once a week, as I have a number in my stash!

Lovely Mail Day!

I had a great mail day on Friday :o)

First of all, Sally sent me the chart for Bee Charmer by Indigo Rose which she completed earlier this year, and which I loved - I love things with bees on, and this is a charming biscornu. Thank you Sally! Then there was another envelope from Carol and it contained a PIF gift - a personalised fob, from Nature's Alphabet by Elizabeth's Designs. It is beautifully stitched and finished. I will show a photo on Monday when I get back to work - as I've left the USB cable for the camera there ... Carol was also very thoughtful and included a whole host of Little House Needleworks freebies so that I can take part in the exchange on Hooked on Exchanges - thank you Carol!

I had a stash fondle and sort out yesterday as I had a day indoors, the weather wasn't great and The Hermit hasn't been well. Everything is need and tidy, and I kitted up my remaining goals for the month. My WIPs are going well, so I had a new start ;o) - the Buzzing Around biscornu from Barbara Ana Designs. It's going to look really cute :o)

I'm opting out of making a cushion cover for my dad, because I found the perfect one in a local discount store, so I'm going to attach the finished Celtic B to that - which should save some time, and the cover will look more professional. So I'm on track with finishing that. Of course, no sooner is his birthday over than Father's day will be upon us... but he's worth it! :o)

Today is SAL with Sally, so Just Nan's Morning Song will be getting an airing - I want to finish the rooster band and the floral band below it - hopefully it won't take too long, I have an essay to plan. This is for my American Literature course, and I think I'm going to use the title which talks about the portrayal of women in the books we've studied - and I'm going to talk about how needlework is used symbolically in that. Not that I'm obsessed or anything...

Hope you all have a good day, I'll be back tomorrow with progress pics (although probably not of the essay, that'd be dull...)

SAL and an update

Yesterday was my usual Sunday SAL with Sally. I got quite a lot done as –despite the numerous colour changes – it’s a pretty easy stitch, not too much fiddly detail. I have one small row to do – another darning pattern “path” and then I will be at the half way point – not bad for three sessions work! If I keep this rate up, I should be finished at the end of May, but I have a lot of gift stitching to do next month, so it probably won’t work out like that.





This is the project I’ve been calling the “Sludge Monster” – it’s actually not a very fair name for it, because although the colours are muted, and mainly browns, it’s quite warm in tone. I had hoped to have this finished for the end of the month, but that won’t happen now due to my evening commitments over the next couple of days, and I will be laying this aside whilst I work on my gift stitching.





This is the first block in my rather ambitious quilting project – a sampler quilt! I’ve not stitched this in the usual American pieced way, rather the old fashioned English way, using papers, as I’m stitching it all by hand (and without a rotary cutter and stuff). This block is called Rail Fence, apparently.





And this is a work in progress – the second block, called Maple Leaf. Given the fact that my partner is Canadian, I had to work this one in! Again, it’s pieced using papers. The green cotton I’ve used to tack (baste) the papers in with was some from my late gran’s stash, which I inherited. Actually, I’m using a lot of thread from her workbasket – it’s nice to have that connection to her.

As you can see, the colours are quite warm and bright - I will be introducing a moss green at some point, too, and another accent colour. I've chosen fabrics with abstract patterns or mottles rather than (say) flowers or leaves - I want the fabric shapes to be the pattern, not the print on the fabric.

Saturday is Stash Day ...

Well, perhaps this should read "Saturday after pay day is stash day..."

I went to the Patchwork Garden, intending only to buy some fabric to make a gift for M, my niece, but somehow I came out with half a dozen fat quarters to start a sampler quilt, using the book by Lynne Edwards, which I have on my shelf ...

It's going to be a long job, as I will be entirely hand piecing it (sewing machines make me stressed) but I did finish a simple block yesterday, only another 24 to go :o) Or possibly 19, it depends on how big I'm going to do it ... The colours are my favourite jewels and autumn tones, so it will be ... bright, I think is the word for it. There was a class at the store about to start, and the ladies were all very interested in what I was planning, and I got lots of compliments about my colour choices and "eye", which was nice ...

I'd love to do another block today, but I'm stitching on Morning Song with Sally as it's SAL Sunday, so it might have to wait. I want to stitch at least two bands...

SAL Sunday

This is progress after week 2. It seemed to want to "grow" really quickly yesterday. The Cashel linen that I'm using is a joy to stitch on, the needle goes through so smoothly, and I love the texture.

I'm mostly stitching this as charted, although I have amended the over-one areas. Instead of cross stitch in one strand of floss, I'm doing tent stitch in two - which is probably why I had time to work on the next couple of bands, although I don't think I'm way ahead of Sally, my partner in this.

Ma and Dad came over yesterday morning, and Ma really likes this chart - she's an accomplished stitcher herself, but we have quite different tastes, she's much more traditional than I am, and I think she's a bit bemused at my bees and sheep obsessions - she's more of a floral type, which is so not me... I think she thought I was stitching this for my niece, because of the farm animals on it, but it's mine, all mine!

WIPs

This is how far I got, Sally, with Morning Song - it looks a little forlorn, doesn't it? :o) I've tacked the outline for the sampler, too - I forget how small Just Nan's can be, the chart always looks so big! I guess that's good though, as they are nice and clear.


This is one of my other WIPs at the moment - Sow Kind Seeds by Bent Creek. I traded for the chart years ago, and the sender included her left over perle cotton, which I've used, as well as some from my stash. At that point, I was waiting on my order for more of the border colour - ordered it Sunday afternoon, it arrived yesterday lunchtime, you can't fault Sew and So's service! I stocked up on some other DMC that I was running low on, and also the ones that I lost on the bus, so I'm ready for anything now - I think! I'm going to stitch the missing motif (a hand, as in heart in hand) in mauve, or gold as I don't have enough of the charted blue - blue isn't a colour I'm fond of anyway. I'm not sure now, looking at the picture, that the mauve I have will be dark enough to balance the composition ... hmmm, it might be a case of trial and error!

Update

My camera batteries are flat - again - so I can't show any pictures at the moment. Not that I could for one project anyway, as it's a return exchange from my last days as a member of Crazy Exchange :o) I finished it as a pinkeep, and that's the only clue I'm giving ... so that was last night's creative endeavours.

Sunday, as promised, I started a SAL with Sally. We're stitching Morning Song by Just Nan. I've chosen to do mine on a plain linen - Flax 28 count Cashel. I managed to stitch most of the right hand barn, the picket fence and the tree trunks - seems straightforward so far, although I haven't attempted the over one parts yet!

My travel project is currently Rooster Strut by Meme's Quilts (who no longer appear to do cross stitch designs, only quilting and applique). I'm stitching it on Tula, which at 10 count is quite a change from my usual stuff! It was one of the first folk style charts I traded for on Chartswappers so it's been sitting in my stash for quite a while!

Sunday Stitching

Well, we had more bad weather, but fortunately, none of the snow settled. It's bizarre - we're officially in British SUMMER Time. Oh, and the cricket season starts today ... Mind you, I'm old enough to remember a match at Buxton having to be called off because of snow - in July! That year we had a drought later in the summer ... and that was before anyone knew about global warming!

Both The Hermit and I stayed in, nice and warm. I finished stitching Shepherd's Bush "June" - which made me feel a little more summery. I think mine is a little less pastel than the model, because of the overdyes I chose to use, but I like it. This will probably be framed.

After the finish, I did think about going back to The Sludge Monster, but by that time, the light was really dull, so I picked up another new start - bad girl! Anyway, this one is Tall Trees by Brightneedle. This is proving to be a quick stitch, despite the number of colours (fifteen! in a piece 61 stitches by 39). I also have the freebie chart for the matching scissor fob, so that will be my travel project this week. I think I will finish Tall Trees as a pinkeep, and I might try that type of finish for the fob.

And good news! I found Morning Song (it was filed with some of my stitching magazines) so I can start the SAL with Sally when she receives the chart. I think I'm going to stitch mine on Flax Cashel, I just need to do a "floss toss" to check that there's no clashes or invisibility.

I hope everyone has a good week, thanks for dropping by!