Coming to Water

Finished page 10 of Coming to Water - 6 more to go. This is at the moment my main project and I love stitching it.

There is also an update on my so called travel project, the Alphabet Heart. Two people were asking who the designer is. The answer: I don't have the slightest clue. All I know is that it's a freebie from the Australian Home and Garden magazine and can be downloaded here .

The stitching is almost finished. It will be finished as ornament for Donna's "Stitching for a Cure" project. Because it is dedicated to my father in law who is suffering from Cancer AND he likes it a lot, I will stitch it again for him. He chose this afternoon a color. Which means also that my dear readers have to put up with me posting the progress on the same work again...lol. So be warned and prepared

Then there is Manhattan Wonderland. This is how far I am on this one - which is not really far. But I LOVE stitching on it and look forward every week for Thursday to put some stitches in it. This week I stitched 2 evenings on it:

There is not much news for the rest. My brother in law came up with a radio controlled helicopter...and infected Michael seriously. Mike bought himself 2 helicopters with a 3rd one on the way and flies the frigging things inside. My plants get nicely shopped. He's getting better though.

Oh...one last picture. Our niece Haleigh had today her first netbal game and we all were there to cheer her on. Isn't she a cutie?

Garden of Semiramis and other things

Here is a first picture of the Garden of Semiramis. Although...there is no garden yet...lol. This month we got the frame and 2 pilars. And that's quite a big amount to stitch. I finished yesterday the frame minus the beads and crystals. And I think I have a little break with Semiramis and do something else before I return to the pilars.

And I got notice that Laurie received the piece I stitched for her for the Woodland Exchange from HoE (Hooked on Exchanging). It was really fun to stitch it and to finish it as a sewing pocket. That idea of a sewing pocket came to mind after I saw the "The Travelling Stitcher" from Little House Needleworks. Deborah was a darling and posted some close up pictures of her pocket so that I got an idea how it's done. Wasn't that difficult in the end. With the exception that I'm not able to sew a straight line with my sewing machine...even if my life would depend on it. Not that this minor detail has ever stopped me using my sewing machine...lol.

Summer Arbor by The Drawn Thread
Stitched on 32ct Belfast linen "Light Mocha" using Needlepoint Silk and Gloriana Silk
Finished as Sewing Pocket for Laurie for Woodland Exchange

I also received a cute little pillow filled from Leigh for the Woodland Exchange. Leigh stitched a part of "And a Forest grew" from Rosewood Manor Designs and finished it beautifully off. She filled it with crushed walnuts which have a very nice feel to it. Love it. Leigh also sent me 2 skeins of Week Dyes Work which I love and a gorgeous notepad with magnet. That one has already a place on my fridge. Love it all. Thanks again Leigh :)

And the last picture for today is my progress with the Alphabet Heart which will be an ornament dedicated to my father in law and will be sent to Donna for her "Stitching for a Cure" project.

Coming to Water, Manhattan Wonderland and other updates

First of all...I finished another page of "Coming to Water". 9 done - 7 to go. This one is at the moment my main project. It's a pleasure working on it.

There was also a nice surprise in the mail for me. Carla from the "I Love Cross Stitch" yahoo group was my partner in the Needle and Floss Exchange. And Carla truly spoiled me. I love everything. Thank you so much Carla for all the things you sent. I hope you'll like your package too...and that it soon arrives.

And I started my first HAED and LOVE it. Boy are these charts huge. One "official" page is for me in reality 2 pages. Anyway, I will stitch on this one every Thursday , because I joined a SAL. Soon as Coming to Water is finished, Manhattan Wonderland will move up to take that place in. I'm working on 25 ct Lugana over 1 and to my surprise I'm loving it. I think if the picture would be darker I would have considered a different fabric, or a different fabric color. But for this design with quite a good amount of transparant metallic used in the snow section, white fabric is just perfect.

And there is another start - my new "travel project" which I take with me when I'm out and about. It's meant to be an ornament for Donna's Cancer Cure Project . This piece is dedicated to my Father in Law who is suffering from this terrible disease. It's stitched over one on 25ct Lugana using Threadworx "Shortcake" .

Dragonfly Boudoir Box

I DID IT. I DID IT. I DID IT. I DID IT. I DID IT.

Please imagine myself jumping up and down here, wiggling my butt like crazy, making weird sounds and you'll receive a pretty realistic picture of my state of mind right now. What mind btw?

I DID IT (or did I say that already???). And phew, that was quite a bit work involved.

Making a box like this from scratch is not too difficult when following precisely the directions as given by Judy Odell, but it surely is quite work intensive. Because I had to learn couple of new things - like the ladder stitch and how to use my newest bestest friend the curved needle AND because I was afraid to screw it up, it took a bit longer then expected. In the end I'm very happy I finally kicked myself in the butt and did it.

And in reality the box looks even better then on the pictures.
I am SOOOOO happy right now.

And did I say "when following the directions ...blabla?" Of course I didn't. As my husband would say: she never follows any directions - why do you think she would do now?
I followed the directions word for word until almost the end. But then I thought, stuff it, I'll do it my way. Now...I can assure you, if Judy Odell tells you to lace then you do NOT glue. At least not if you don't want to screw up. I glued the fabric of the lid, and the glue was clearly visible. It caused me quite a bit work to get it nicely fixed. There is no glue visible anymore, but next time I follow Judy's directions to the T (I think...lol)

Ohhh....and I'll start this month another Chatelaine project. Here is a picture of the Hanging Garden of Semiramis, and I mounted that picture on my chosen fabric

Update on "Coming To Water" and a new WIP

Page 8 of 16 of "Coming to Water" is finished and I'm pretty happy with it. Half way done!!!

Oh...and I became a self proclaimed "part time parker". After all that discussion I had about parking, I thought I would give it another try. Can't hurt can't it? And I tried it the way I was told it should be done. By going down with a color and having often several of one color going. And I can assure you - that drives me completely nuts. That's not for me, scroll rod and floor stand or not. I admire everyone who has the patience of dealing with all these threads...but it doesn't work for me.
However - with the method I was following one thing took a bit more time. Some colors are easy to find and finish off, others take quite a bit of time to find the stitches on the chart. And I tend to go on with a thread by looking for the little buggers until the thread is finished. Parking these little buggers where I need them next time instead of searching all over the chart does save time.
Basically I park - but take the threads with me the direction I go. I don't park short threads or colors that go in the "wrong direction" Often I stitch more then one square per color - which helps me also preventing having too much threads in one square And above everything, I don't put any rules on me but park or not as I feel at that very moment.
All by all that helped again speeding it up.

And I will start this week my first HAED designs. I fell in love with "Manhattan Wonderland" the very first time I saw this work of Jane Wooster Scott. It's the biggest design I ever started with a whopping 400 x 504 stitches to go.