Saturday, 1 February 2014

Little project

My little project in between two big projects. Can you guess what it will be?



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Sunday, 19 January 2014

Post Christmas unveil or the +1 from November

As I mentioned in a previous post I couldn't post any pictures of my November project as being super organised it was a present for my best friend. She loves Phoenix's and they have significance for a number of reasons.
When I spotted this in world of Cross-stitch issue 207 in their Eastern beauties design libary (pages 47-55) I couldn't resist. Here is the finished stitched and framed project of which I'm rather proud.







Between the two pictures you get an idea of the colours.
My best friend also seems to love it which I'm rather glad about :-D

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Feline Friend

The Christmas holiday season seemed like the great excuse to go cross-stitch crazy. Time to relax and stitch away. I found this design by Durene Jones online at http://www.cross-stitching.com/chart/feline-friend as a free chart.Sign up for free and access free charts and tips online







I was looking for a design to stitch for my aunties 50th birthday in January and it was perfect. I cross matched which coloured threads I already had and ordered the rest that day. Even found somewhere a bit cheaper for threads (great to save some pennies when work is a bit thin on the ground). As soon as the threads arrived I wanted to get stitching which I did on Boxing Day. The design was a bit more complicated than I originally thought with lots of odd stitches of different colours here and there. I pursued though, practising some new skills on the way. I even managed two French knots for eyes, a first for me (in the past I have substituted them for a stitch in the same colour). The back stitching that edges a design has never been my favourite part of cross-stitching, in fact I've disliked it and often put it off, delaying the finish of a project. I can see how the back stitch can transform a design and really put a polish on it, defining shapes. I am therefore slowly coming to like this 'fiddle' process at the end of a project.

I finally finished the edging on this project, gave it a light iron (May in hindsight need more) and framed this on 8/1/2014. First project of 2014 completed! What's next?







I am really pleased and proud of the final product :-D  I am definitely getting better, which is just as well as I was given a DMC kit of Henry the 8th and his six wives (which is rated as advanced) for Christmas. I think I little more practise and I'll be ready for the Henry 8th design.





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