That Was Quick

I haven't even finished Breeze and she has a buyer.
I sent a picture of the quilt top to a new editor and she took it right away. So I have to finish her this weekend.

And when I've done that I need to do another elegant cross stitch for ECS Magazine. I like to get a few in front of what is currently publishing.

Yesterday I was looking for a black line of an angel I did years ago and I came across this scan of art work that I did when I was pregnant with my daughter (now 12).
I don't own this artwork anymore, I sold it to a friend.

It was the first watercolour/guace painting I finished after taking a pen and wash course in Katoomba. I still really like this one though, I think the skin tones are nice, especially on her arm. I called it Bella Donna Mariana. I did lots of portraits in those days.

And lastly (but not least) welcoem to my new watchers. Thanks for coming on board. I hope you enjoy reaing my blog
Jennidee Mills

Breeze

I haven't had any luck with the Country Angel yet. The first editor decided it wasn't their style. The second editor hasn't gotten back to me and I have to mail it to the third as I don't have her email.

Meanwhile I've been working on an applique piece called Breeze

She is quite a complicated design with 40 individual pieces of fabric to cut and sew around. The background fabric is another one of my hand dyed pieces. But I'm very happy with how she turned out. And hopefully she will find someone to publish her quickly.
There is some talk of me doing workshops at a local patchwork shop. But I need to come up with some more designs for them. Breeze is too big. I can't find anyone to print the size of the pattern other than magazines. So I'll be doign some smaller designs that fit on A3 paper and making thme up in the next month.

There's still been no luck (???) on the part time job front. I was surprised I didn't even get an interview for the one I thought I was a shoe in for. Perhaps its all a sign? I continue to design and submit until something happens one way or the other.

Thanks for reading
jennidee

Finer Points of Unpicking

OR ...

Frogging Woes

I had to do a some unpicking yesterday. Thos of you who cross stitch a lot will recognise frogging as unpicking because you 'rippit, rippit, rippit' out.

But actually while I was unpicking I was thinking I do it in two different ways and one is most certainly not ripping.

Here's the green I had to unpick;

I decided the outside green was far too dark to go with the rest of the piece. I thought long and hard about leaving it and then made the decision to just take the time to do it right.

As you can see the stitching is already touching other colours. What you can't see is how the thread laces through some of the other colours at the back. So instead of cutting each stitch (which I consider 'unpicking' I thought it best to 'unstitch' instead.

The way I see it, when you unpick, you cut the threads on each stitch and then pull them out in short lengths. When you 'unstitch' you pull the thread out in the recverse order to how you stitch it. I find this to be a much more gentle way to remove unwanted stitches, especially if you a) wnat to use the thread again, b) have other stitches around the area to be careful about not unpulling, or c) are undoing an area that won't be restitched as you have counted incorrectly.

I didn't want to reuse the dark green thread, so I was still able to cut it into shorter lengths as I unstitched it. If I do want to reuse the thread (usually if I've counted wrong), I'm very careful about how I pull the thread out. The I'll spereate the threads again before I reuse it.

 Here's the area after I unstitched the dark green. You can just see that the holes of the aida aren't pulled open or damaged in any way;

And here is the area re-stitched with a lighter green. I'm much happier with the result, and I hope you agree it blends better;

And lastly here's the area with back stitch nearly finished. The more subtle blend looks more like fabric and less like blobs of colour;

In case you are wondering, the item I was working on is a country angel which I hope to sell to Homespun magazine as a quilted wall hanging.
The toatl time of un doing and restitching took about 1 and a half hours, well worth it to get a better result.

I hope you've enjoyed my blog about unpicking ... I thought I might as well get something out of the process. :)
Jennidee

Circus Pony Finished

After a few weeks of on agina off again stitching on this one, the Circus Pony is done.

The fabric is called Purple Swirl (I can't imagine why) and is available from Sew it all Australia
http://www.sewitall.com.au/shop/
It's not visible on their site, you have to ask for it. I got mine at the Stitches and Craft show in Rosehill.
I have a blue one as well that I'll do somehting nice with later.

Circus Pony will be published in Embroidery and Cross Stitch Magazine, probably later this year. I'll put up a photo of the magazine photo when it comes out (they always do a fabulous job of presenting the piece).
It comes with the circus alphabet that i have used down the bottom to spell the name of my friend's little girl, Monique. It probably doesn't show up that well in this photo. Monique will get this cross stitch for Christmas. I know her mum will probably appreciate it more though :)

Now I'm working on a Country Angel. I think she's going to be very quick to stitch up. Circus pony took me just under 40 hours. I think the country angel will take maybe 15 hours.
Unfortunately I won't be able to show you a photo of that one as I'm hopin to sell it to a magazine that I havent' dealth with before. Sometimes the editors get annoyed if you show the work before it's published.

Happy Stitching everyone
Jennidee