Test Crocheting

Recently I have signed up to test stitch crochet designs on Ravelry and have been really enjoying these projects.  Having an absolute deadline certainly helps me concentrate on one project at a time!

I started with the lovely little Bunny Basket:

I did have the basket full of mini-eggs, but they all seem to have disappeared and with no-one owning up to eating them!

The same designer then asked if I'd like to test the companion Ducky Basket!  And so here she is:

And finally my latest test design has been a shawlette - more a scarf really.  Typically I have been stitching this in a mini heatwave!  Not that I'm complaining - seeing the sun again is wonderful.  This one has stitched up really quickly.  It took me only five days, I think.  Definitely one I'll be stitching again.  I think I'd like to try it in more spring-like colours with laceweight wool.  And guess what - that's exactly what's winging it's way to me in the post right now!  Here are a couple of photos:

Huge Catchup Coming ...

I don't know where to begin I have so much catching up to do!  Let's start with my latest projects - somehow I have got myself absolutely addicted to crochet.  Not quite sure how this happened.  A friend was expecting a baby recently - and with a week to go I decided to learn how to crochet properly (I've dabbled a little before making crocheted flowers) and make a baby blanket!

And here it is:

I had a little wool left over so I made a hat too:

And packaged them up together just in time to visit a lovely little three day old baby called Joshua:

I really enjoyed making these so much, that I decided I really wanted to make a much bigger baby shawl.  I managed to find a pattern I really liked on the wonderful website Ravelry and have been crocheting it non-stop for the last month or so.  I've even been stitching at lunchtimes at school and have enticed one of my colleagues to start on the same pattern. (She stitches amazingly fast so finished it first, but that's another story).  Anyway here it is - I finished and blocked it last weekend and am so delighted with the result.

That's all for now - more coming soon!

Back Again

This project took a bit of a dip over the past two weeks.  Funny how you get ups and downs, but possibly holidays and ill children just meant I wasn't in the mood.  I started stitching again over the past few days and am really enjoying it once more.  So here we are, only one more band to go!!

Anticipation

I love getting to this stage, with four boxes just waiting to be filled!!!

Autumn Promise Update

I finished band 2!!

I am loving working on this project and the threads are so beautiful to work with.  This band uses more Thread Gatherer silk on the diamonds and the little zig-zag band.  The blue / grey flowers are Kreinik Silk Mori and the pink is YLI 2000 denier silk.  This is similar to #8 perle, but is more like a silken cord, a really lovely thread.  Here's a close up of that area, you can see the little peach rice stitches too:

Autumn Promise

I had such a lovely day on Saturday.  I was lucky enough to go on a one-day workshop with Judy Dixon, stitching one of her new designs.  Six hours of uninterrupted stitching (apart from a quick half an hour break for lunch!) - how great is that :-)

Looking back at it now though I think - how could I have stitched all that time and have so little progress to show for it??  Here's what I managed on the day:

I have though made quite good progress since - maybe we chatted too much on Saturday :-)  :-)  (why can't you get proper smilies on blogger, it really annoys me).  Anyway here's the latest update - I've completed Band 1 apart from the cutting and beads.

It's been really challenging. The YLI silk (peach) is very fine and I had to work hard at getting it to lie flat. I thought I was going to love the Pearsall's silk (green). It's beautifully glossy and well, silky but I found it really difficult to work with as it's also very springy. I tried using some Thread Heaven with it, but it took the sheen away so I had to persevere without.


The variegated Thread Gatherer Silk n' Colors was a joy to use. Judy Dixon had suggested we should iron each individual strand before using it as the floss is quite tightly wound. At the time I thought that sounded ridiculous, but I tried it and could hardly believe the difference. It's well worth the little extra time it takes to do - athough when my husband saw me do it he thought I had finally flipped!

Hardanger Class Finished

Sorry, I should have posted this last week, but kept finding other things that needed doing - working so gets in the way of stitching doesn't it :-(

But I finished the Judy Dixon hardanger class from Classic Stitches and am now totally hooked on her designs.  Here it is with half of the cutting completed:

And now finished, complete with all the beads too. 

Judy Dixon Class Update

This is a lovely project to work on and for once it's not taking me too long to do.  So here are my latest update photos.

And my latest one has everything done but the cutwork and beading (okay, so only the hard bits left then!!)

I've just joined Judy Dixon's Yahoo Group and hope to start another of her designs after I've finished this one - but you'll have to wait to see which one!

A finish - and a new start

I have finally finished my Roses Runner project!!!  And I'm so delighted with it.  The hardanger parts weren't too difficult after all the practise with the Classsic Embroidery Tiles, but I was worried about cutting around the outside border.  However, when I finally plucked up the courage to get on with it, it cut easily and as you can see, didn't fall apart when I did it! 

So, what next?  Well something I've wanted to try stitching for a while now - a Judy Dixon design.  This one is a class from Classic Stitches magazine, and I haven't been able to put it down :-)

It started out last Monday as a lovely delivery from the postie:

Those threads are lovely :-)  Two colours of Gloriana silk, a Kreinik silk mori, Petite Treasure Braid and DMc perle.  The fabric is 28ct Jobelan and the beads, Mill Hill (of course).

Within a few hours of starting I had a WIP like this:

And up to date today (unbelievably quick for me!) it now looks like this:

More updates soon on this one I think :-)

Hardanger Practise

So, I've been doing lots of practise hardanger and enjoying it so much too.  I can thoroughly recommend the Classic Embroidery tiles from SewAndSo as a great way to learn.  I've now completed two of them.

Pearl was first (here it is without any cutting):

and finished:

Then I started on the second one, Peridot:

I decided to have a go at making this one into a cushion and have been sooooo pleased with the result that I can see myself making lots and lots of cushions now!!!!

What do you think?

So now it's back to my Roses Runner project - more photos soon .....

Roses Runner

Roses Runner is a beautiful little table runner kit I was given by my Mum for my birthday.  It's also my first real try at stitching Hardanger.  Here are some updates of it so far.  The first is simply satin stitch worked in no 5 perle with some cross stitched bordering:

Here's a close up, showing the stitches:

Here I've added some cross stitched roses - there are also two more now on the other side and upside down:

Next came the edging in buttonhole stitch.  This was easy to do, but I'm terrified I've done it wrong and the whole thing falls to pieces when I cut round the border :-(

And lastly, here's an up-to-date photo showing the satin stitch being worked for the hardanger cut area. 

For me, I've flown through this and really enjoyed stitching it. But now I'm terrified to go any further as the thought of cutting the wrong threads is not funny.  I think I'm going to leave this one for a bit now and complete some small Hardanger kits I have in my stash, just to get some practise in first :-)

Stitch Club Stitching Basket

This year in stitch club, we're starting a new project - a Stitching Basket. We'll have the basket (obviously!) and lots of stitchy bits and pieces to keep in it. Our first project is a fan shaped floss keeper. Here's what I managed yesterday:




And today we've had a snow day at school, so I've had a lovely morning finishing off the stitching:



Now I have to figure out how the finishing is done. I have lots of wadding and fabric and not much idea what to do next! I'll post the finished floss tag soon (honest Mum, I will!!!)

UFO

I've hardly had time to stitch at all recently, and it's amazing how quickly you just get out of the habit. But luckily, Crossstitchforum has come to the rescue. We've started a new UFO week, for the first week of every month and as I have just found a project that's at least 12 years old, I decided it was high time I joined in!!

It's called Skipping Together and is an old All Our Yesterdays kit. Here's how it started out

and after an enjoyable weekend stitching, here's where I am now:

My Latest Stitch Club Project

We're now working on a 'Pocket' - no I haven't a clue what that means either - but I'm sure it will look just like one when it's finished!!

I've really enjoyed this stitching project so far. I've discovered that I love working with perle floss and Satin Stitch. The fabric is blue 28 count evenweave (I think it's Jobelan, but I'm not sure) and we're using Chameleon perle and Chameleon cotton floss. Lovely to work with, although the yellow is a bit of a sickly colour :-( The pattern is once again from Thimble Cottage designs, so is actually designed by our stitch class teacher, Tanya.

Here's what I managed to do in class last time (I was stitching non-stop for three hours - how could it take three hours to finish just this much??)

I've now finished all I can before going back to class on Tuesday. Here's how it's looking:

And a close up to show off the little Rice Stitches and the Satin Stitch that I have been so much enjoying:

And finally the finished piece so far. There is a bit more I should have done - there should be a line of cable stitch underneath the backstitched daisy stems. But unfortunately I ran out of the perle floss so I just hope I'll be able to get more on Tuesday.

Stitch Club Update

I've done loads of work on my stitch club projects - although got nothing actually finished, though :-(

First is a Scissor Keeper. The design is by Tanya of Thimble Cottage Designs and it's worked on 28 count white linen using perle cotton and beautiful Gloriana silk. I love this floss - it's now my favourite silk. I would start collecting it, but at £4.40 a skein I don't think the collection would get very big!!!

So here are my updates on this project:

Front finished:

A close up of some of the design features. The little Rhodes hearts are cute, aren't they?




And here's where I've got to on this - front and back finished, but no instructions on how to complete the project :-(

I was a bit disappointed when I got to Stitch Club last week to find that we're just meant to finish it off ourselves - somehow. Anyway, I've found some fabric to line it with, so piccies soon on how it turns out.

Summer Garden Completed

Oh goodness, where have the last two weeks gone - I'm sure it wasn't that long ago that I last posted???

Anyway, I'm celebrating today. Not only is it the first day of spring (and the sun is actually shining too), but I've finished my Summer Garden project as well. It was really enjoyable and I'm sure now that it will be the first of many drawn thread projects now. (And someday I might even work up to a Judy Dixon piece - okay, maybe not for quite a while yet!!)

Cheeky Penguin

I completed this cheeky little penguin for a charity card project on CrossStitchForum today. At the end of March, one of our members will be taking them all to LOROS, a hospice in Leicestershire, to help with their fundraising. If you think you might be interested in joining in too, just come on over to CSF and we'll be delighted to have you take part too.

More of Summer Garden

I've been getting on really well with this over the past week. And actually, it's really not that difficult to do (fatal to say that - I bet it goes wrong now). You do need to count and count again, before any cutting, but the actual stitching is not difficult and really very enjoyable.

Here are some updates on this week's progress:

And now for the scarey cutting bit:



That's me reached over half way with this project now :-)

Summer Garden Drawn Thread Project

This week I started a (yet another!) new project. This one's a bit different as it's my first try at drawn thread work, which is downright scary to do at times!!!

I'm working on a SAL with Serinde from Cross Stitch Forum (although she hasn't started yet and I'm feeling very lonely - come on girl, get stitching!!!). We're working on the Summer Garden Garden project from Patricia Bage's beautiful book "Beginner's Guide to Drawn Thread Embroidery".

So here are my updates so far:

The fabric is 28 count linen and floss is DMC stranded and perle, and Caron Waterlillies, Rose Quartz. I started with some satin stitches

and added some satin blocks to 'hold' the cut areas

Then the moment of truth!! I snipped the fabric and drew out the threads. Not really difficult, but knowing that if you get it wrong, the whole thing is ruined is quite terrifying! I was going cross-eyed trying to count threads to make sure I was cutting in the right place.

Once cut, there are some lovely decorative stitches in this project

And here's where I've got to. The beads are Mill Hill and were quite lovely (and surprisingly easy) to add into the design.

More updates on this soon.