Category Archives: stitching patterns

WIP (ahem!) Thursday & Grateful

Posted in family, grateful, Mirabilia, stitching patterns by

Let’s start off on the high note – today is Simon’s birthday. He won’t thank me if I was to tell you how old he is but he withstood the birthday boy bounce from M! The boys gave him a card and gift before Z & I headed out the door. It’s a Zoku Ice-Cream maker – perfect for the man who has everything. I got it thru one of work’s stores:

http://www.livingandgiving.co.nz/kitchen-and-food/preparation/tools-and-utensils/zoku-ice-cream-maker-purple-5035057

Today my Grateful pic just has to be Simon. Not because it’s his birthday but because he has given me so many things to be grateful for. Three of them also on the bed!

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This could be the “before” pic too – I have brought an old (1920’s) solid timber door that I plan to scuff up and use for the headboard. The room looks bare without a headboard! Plus I’ve selected a few paint pots to try.

Low note. I am not at all happy with the Spirit piece. I don’t know if it’s the colours (the book might be different from the chart pack) but the fan background is purple for me, and mid/pale blue for others in the group. I’m talking Eeyore purple, the same skein that I used last stitching a piece that currently hangs in M’s room. The chart is also harder to read, as it is colour blocks and not symbols. I know why, it’s to help stop copyright thieves, but it means a few hours with a working copy & a marker and right now, I just don’t have that emotional investment in it.  So it went away on Monday & I pulled out Stargazer with the intent to finish her before the end of March.

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Stargazer makes me happy.

A very belated WIP Wednesday

Posted in Smalls SAL, stitching patterns by

So you know how I said I didn’t stitch all weekend? The three day weekend?

Well last night I got the guilts and stitched likea mad thing. Finished France and it doesn’t fit the chosen frame! By about 30mm. Gutted. Plan B for the birthday present. Hold on. There is no plan B! And it’s too late to submit to a framer, so it will go into my box for now. At least it qualifies as a Small.

I also got a couple of lines done on Orient, & tonight I finished the verse and started on a frame and the first fan (it is this week’s target). Getting there. I hate doing lettering on light fabric. You have to be very careful to not leave shadows on the back.

Right now I just want to get back into Stargazer. Hopefully when I finish a couple of panels I’ll return to being excited. Hoping.

Saturday Share

Posted in freebies, Saturday Share, stitching patterns by

Most stitchers have to have a stash rummage, count on the fingers/fabric & the dash-around-the-house look for a ruler every time they want to start a new project. I’ve found something that reduces my time here – an app that tells me just how much 32ct linen I would need to start that new design.

The app has free versions for both iPhone and Android users, and so far I’m impressed. Online, you can find it here: http://www.stitchingthenightaway.com/fabric-calculator/

Links to the app stores are below the online calculator. At this point, my only disappointment is that the app is only in inches – but my Filofax hole punch has both measurements available, so I’m all set for my next trip to Ribbon Rose!

Do you have a favourite craft app? Please share!filofax ruler FabricCalcAppPreview

Orient SAL

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From today I will be joining in with the Polstitches SAL for the Joan Elliot piece “Spirit of the Orient”. This is a design my friend Lynne loves and she hooked me in (it wasn’t hard; there are some aspects of the design I really like and was planning to “lift” for Smalls). I also have some gorgeous beads that I want to incorporate. Being late I don’t have any of the Polstitches fabric so will just be using plain Lugana. However I personally think this design is detailed & will pop better on plain fabbies anyway. I haven’t yet gone over to the dark side of dying fabrics – with the noteable exceptions of Stargazer (she had to be at late Twilight) and Mermaids of the Deep – which is a chart I still have to get my hands on but am already planning for a very similar colour to Stargazer.

Hope you approve, Jennie! x

 

WIP Wednesday & the Smalls SAL update AND the new hotel for Travelling Bunny

Posted in Mirabilia, Smalls SAL, stitching patterns by

Is that a contender for longest blog title ever?

I am rocking along with Stargazer. Last night’s progress wasn’t as much as hoped as I tried a couple of different beads for the swag (froggy came a courting) then settled on Kreinik #4 002. It’s more subtle than I wanted but gold beads are too much, and neither 00150 or 03050 or 03014 looked right. The front (white/lilac) part of the skirt is still to be beaded (I will likely use 03044 here) but I had to move onto the threads again as was watching NCIS season 12 kick off here. It’s the first time I’ve pulled that show apart while watching and I hope my love affair with it isn’t waning.

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For Smalls (hosted by Stitching Lotus, link here:  http://stitchinglotus.ca/2015-sal/  ) I managed not one, but TWO pieces. First was of course, Travelling Bunny. I used Anne’s finishing technique to complete him, and I’m really happy with how he turned out.

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Second was a colour conversion of Not My Circus, which is on my filing cabinet here at work. It isn’t properly laced as I am looking for that perfect Monkey or Circus button or brad to add to it but it serves the purpose as a reminder not to get caught up with other people’s dramas here at work, no matter how entertaining they might be. If you want a copy of my stitching notes, including colours, please flick me an email at paulainauckland at gmail dot com & I’ll get it out to you. I’m really happy with the tones that progress down the word Circus. REALLY happy.

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Next month’s Small should be the Lizzie*Kate Stitching Forever piece, as I picked up the chart on a quick visit to Ribbon Rose last week. I’m planning on incorporating some of the jewel threads that Gladrider sent me this month to illuminate it. Yummy!

Now, the last thing is to announce where Travelling Bunny is heading off to! I got lots of lovely comments – awesome to have contact with people who have stitched him in the past and are still following him – and seven entries. Drumroll please…Bunny is heading off to Stephanie42! You’ll be able to catch up with him here: https://stephanie42.wordpress.com/

Congrats Stephanie – check your email later on today!

Ooh look

Posted in Smalls SAL, stitching patterns by

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Blah. I’d love to share my second finish for 2015 but just remembered it’s my Smalls finish too. Hope you can wait a fortnight! M says if I had green thread and brown beads this could be a Christmas tree…

 

Do please share my Travelling Bunny post. I’d love to see a few more entries! Thanks!

EDIT: It would possibly help if I posted the Travelling Bunny link again, right?

https://sewscrapmuse.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/travelling-bunny-a-finish-a-giveaway/

 

Travel Recap + WIP Wednesday

Posted in books, family, Mirabilia, stitching patterns, travel by

Just for Chiara! Here’s a small sampling of our photos from the long weekend.

This is a boutique hotel in Cambridge. I’m thinking it could be the perfect spot for a stitching retreat – altho it would be a pricy one!

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This is B – if you’re on my FB, sorry, as you would have seen this already. From our stop in Taupo. Plus the sundial that is in the Rose Garden next to the play park, on State Highway one as you drive through town.

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Junk shops – we probably stopped at about 50% of those we saw, so Z can look for vintage Commando comics. One of my bosses collects old gramophones – this was in an ugly shop in Havelock North.

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Also in Havelock – Duart House. As soon as I saw it I recognized the resemblance to the family home in Scotland. http://duarthouse.org.nz/ sadly it was shut when we discovered it, so it’s on the diary for the next time we visit Hawkes Bay.

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Day two was in Wellington. We went to Te Papa, the museum where Z started his Lord of the Rings/Hobbit costume search. This is the Elven Lieutenant – love the detail.

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M as a pilot! He’s got his “oh grow up Dad!” face on.

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B designed a plan in the AirNZ exhibit.

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We had drinks then walked around with one of my brothers. We don’t spend much time together and I’m so sorry R – B & M combined can make anyone’s ears bleed! R helped Z find more costumes. Here’s Gloin – one of the dwarves. His costume was sumptuous yet sturdy. Those boots! Huge.

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Day 3 was more Wellington then the drive to New Plymouth. This is one of the houses along the Wellington ocean coast. I have a thing for lighthouses!

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Hawera – the water tower. Again, closed – but had we been 30 minutes earlier we could have climbed to the top. Apparently only takes 10 minutes! Yeah, right. Chiara, I’m sitting on the ground about 300m away from the base to take this. Any further away and I would have been on the road! The oaks surrounding it are planted to commemorate Armistice Day in 1918 by the local dignitaries and a VC winner.

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And the War Memorial in Hawera.

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We didn’t take many photos from New Plymouth to home. Unfortunately we’d done too much in too few hours and everyone was grumpy and ready for their own beds. It was fantastic to get home.

I did get quite a bit of Stargazer done, given that most of this was in the car on the long straights (don’t try to stich thru the Manawatu Gorge. It’s too windy and too beautiful to miss). All that dark yellow was the trip & I’ve pretty much made up my mind to rip the face/hands and re-do it with 2 over 1 tent, to give more detail. One more week of work then I’ll rotate to a small plus some finishing.

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Reading – Monica Ferris’ Needlecraft Mysteries. Gentle (Betsy’s no Miss Marple) & I like the stitching references. I also like the way the author is experimenting with the genre. Luckily there’s a few books so far in the series! Next will be a re-read of Unbroken before I see the movie (it’s been a few years since I read an advanced copy).

 

Stitching Tips I Love

Posted in embroidery, stitching patterns by

Not that I actually follow this tip much anymore, but it’s invaluable for the new stitcher, or the first few times you move from aida to evenweaves or linen. If I think that my fabric might not be big enough for the design I plan to stitch, I do grid, just for safety. There is nothing more frustrating than getting near to the end of a project and realising that you haven’t left enough room for framing  – cushions perhaps? – and the start point/centre points can be super critical.

This is from Liz the StitchSmith’s site. She ran the embroidery course I went to last year (that feels odd to write that, last year!) and she’s fantastic. http://www.thestitchsmith.co.nz/

Grid marking:

I find it helpful to mark a grid on your fabric so it’s easy to keep track of where you are. You can do this on white Aida with a water soluble marker pen – just draw your grid on and then once you’ve stitched the design, it washes right out.

With black Aida though you will need to stitch your grid. This is easy to do and worth taking a few minutes extra time. Just take a single thread of your stranded cotton and make large stitches over a 10 block square as shown in the photo. Download pdf to see a bigger image.

Once you’ve done one row it’s easy to do the next rows – do make sure your first row is correct!

When you are stitching try not to pierce your grid thread as this makes it just a bit harder to pull out when you’ve finished. It also leaves behind a bit of fluff. If you do find this happens, just wrap some sellotape around your fingers and dab away the fluff. Easy peasy.

On your chart, you will find it helpful to rule the 10 block squares in a highlighter. These squares will match the gird on your fabric. Mark off the rows as you go so you don’t keep having to double check where you are.