working, working

well, as much as designing is work for me, it's too much fin to be work.

I've completed sun's face, mask and hair, moving on to the cape and the sun he is holding. I'm really liking how it's turning out and I can't wait to stitch it (which I think says a lot about how much I'm loving it).

But tomorrow it's back to the paid employment (sob). So I'll have two days I won't want to design and then it's the weekend. So what am I complaining about hey???

Preview

I'm afraid this is the only preview I'll be able to do of these two before they are published.
But here is the artwork I created that I'll be using to chart my 'Sun and Moon' pair.

Sun

 and moon (though I'm sure you worked out which one was which). LOL

What's Next?

I know I've been very quiet lately.
I was still working on my school planning. It took so much out of me. But it's finally all done.
So now I can relax and settle back into doign some designing work.

I've nearly finished stitching the peacock which is the first bird of my exotic birds series of cards. I'm considering having the others stitched by a local lady who sells who cross stitch work at the market.

But I've also embarked on a much larger project - the sun and the moon.
I have the models for the artwork picked out and 'the sun' pencilled onto watercolour paper ready for painting. I'll pencil in 'the moon' later today. I actually like 'the moon' better. So that's why I'm doing 'the sun' first. I'll hang 'the moon' infront of my face like a carrot to get 'the sun' done.

I'll post some pictures of the artworks when they are finished.

Somebunny Finish

My term Three program for KC is FINALLY finished (4 days of work on that!) and I had some time to stitch tonight. It was just enough to finish of a somebunny loves you card.

This was an interesting experience for me as it required stitching with just one strand. I hate stitching with one strand and usually ignore that instruction. But the kit really had limited threads, so I decided to give it a go. I can't say it was the most enjoyable stitching (better than no sittching at all!!!). And it's finished now.

It wa shte first time I've finished an edge by fraying too. That was pretty easy and surpridingly enjoyable. I'll do that again some time.

Tomorrow the kids are back at school and I am too. But I have Tuesday and Wednesday off, so I'm hoping to finish the design of a larger project and get started.

Catch you later

Jenni

Just One Piece Left

Just letting you know there is only one piece of hand dyed aida fabric left; pictured below.

It's 14 count and about 19.5cm by 25cm.
Price is $15 plus postage (it worked out at just $1.20 to an Australian address) and you also receive the Moonlight Fairy chart.

Some News

I've just found out that my 'Herald Angel' (as in Hark the Herald Angels Sing) will be in issue 19.2 of Embroidery and Cross Stitch. It's the Christmas edition I think, so I expect it will be out late August to give stitchers time to work on their items for presents or decorating their home. Luckily that means the angel will most likely be back in my home in time for Christmas.

I'll let you know when the magazine is released.

Beads on a box

Hi everyone,
On Friday I worked hard to finish off my two latest creations as made up projects. I turned them both into boxes using the EXCELLENT tutorial from lynn
http://lynnscrossstitchtutorials.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-make-covered-box-part-one.html

I can shoe you the bead box as this is a cross stitching blog (well that's my resoning anyway, and I'm stitcking to that).

I'm so amazed that I could turn a few pieces of thick card into a box.
I like the blue material I chose to go with the hand dyed fabric. The tonal quality of the finished piece looks rather soft and peaceful to me.

Let's just hope that the beading magazine like it enough to publish the chart.

Lisa Liked her L

Hi everyone,
I took the 'L' up to Lisa for her 40th birthday last night and she seemed very pleased. I put it in a gold frame which set of the bright colours in the design nicely.

Sorry about the dark photo Lisa, I guess that light in the club wasn't bright enough after all. But you can see the size of the design in comparison to her hands. In the end I was very pleased myself how the design stitched up and she said it was a lovely touch to get something hand made.

Friday I spent inhaling glue fumes as I put together some fabric covered boxes. I mounted the bead design on one of them. I promise I'll take a photo tomorrow to show you.

Beads in Cross Stitch

I did a little research and according to the sites I read on the internet, beading in cross stitch has been around since the first recorded samplers in 1580. That probably means it's been around longer than that.

I rather enjoy putting beads into my cross stitch work. But last night was the first time I've made a design entirely with beads.

 It was a little hard for me to get a good photo of it. The first photo shows the sparkle of the beads, while the photo below shows the design.

I used a pearl chabochon with a silver setting for an elegant focal point. You can get these from bead and craft stores. It's stitched on one of my hand dyed pieces of 14 count aida.
The chart is availbale in my etsy store.
Click on the charts page to your right to purchase the chart.

Ten Pet Stitchy Hates

10. Not actually getting time to stitch. Whether the distractions are enjoyable or annoying, at the end of the day, if i don't get to stitch it just seems wrong!

9. Finding that you've forgotten something important and you can't stitch when you're out. Yesterday it was the fabric I was supposed to be working on. DOH!

8. Getting up to do something, putting my glasses down and then I don't know where they are.

7. Running out of a thread when the shops are closed.

6. My lamp falling off the table it's screwed to.

5. Dropping my thread box and they all fall out.

4. A knot in your thread.

3. Metallic thread fraying.

2. Finding a knot at the back of your fabric that you've already well and truly stitched it in.

1. Unpicking! It's bad enough when you have to unpick something you just stitched, but when you discover you've made a mistake hours or days later ... well I just can't do it. I usually  just work the design around the mistake.

Free Pattern Heart

To say thankyou to everyone who gave feedback on the peacock, and to everyone who follows the blog or even just drops in now and again, here is a free pattern inspired by the free gift heart in Cross Stitch Crazy.

Feel free to change colours. I'd love to see someone stitch this. Send me a photo by email, or post a link in the comments.

Peacock

I was goign to design a peacock alphabet, but in the end the peacock I designed was too big. But it might still make a nice card.
What do you think? Maybe I could add a pretty border or something?

I'm only showing you 3/4 of the design here for copyright reasons.

Quick Finish and Preview

I just finished a quick card that I got free in a magazine.
I'm so glad I was able to start it actually as I had pinched the needle out of the kit quite some time ago and forgotten to replace it. I was waiting for my son to do his Taekwondo lesson when I brought it out and realised I had no needle ... bummer right? But the day before I had put an emergency sewing kit in my handbag. Phew!!!

And here is a very quick preview of my next piece for Cross Stitch and Embroidery. I can't show you the finished piece unfortunately (they want you to buy the magazine. LOL). This is the Moonlight fairy on another of my hand dyed fabeic (14 count aida this time). The photo doesn't show the gold thread very well, but it stands out beautifully on the dark background.

I actually dyed four pieces of fabric in the same manor. Of course each one comes out differently, that's the beauty of hand dying. I chose the one I wanted to use. They are all beautiful, I just chose the one which 'spoke' to me.

If you would like one of the other pieces of the hand dyed fabric, I'll give you the chart of the moonlight fairy for free (including the finished photo of course). I'm asking $15 for the fabric (approx 20cm by 25cm) and chart. Let me know if that's a fair price. You can contact me by email

jenni@exemail.com.au and I'll send you a photo of the two pieces I have for offer. There are only 2 pieces for sale and I don't intend to dye any more exactly like this.

So just to be clear: $15AU for the hand dyed fabric and Moonlight fairy chart. There is no thread or needle included. Buyer will be responsible for postage from Australia (it will all be quite light so I don't anticipate it being more than $5AU).

When the magazine prints the pattern there will be instructions to dye the fabric yourself.

Well I guess that's it for tonight,

Happy Stitching

Finished Lisas L

Here it is all stitched. I really hope she likes it. It took longer to do than I thought it would.

I really must remind myself next time I work on 18 count that it should be two strands, not 3. It's much more difficult to pull through the fabric. But it does give a nice coverage, more of a tapestry look to the finished work.

And now on to something else. I think I'll do some smaller pieces for cards or small objects.

I'll let you know how it goes.