awwwww man! not Fair

 So I've nearly finished the reindeer and i got to wothin 6 stitches of the gold brder and RAN OUT OF THE THREAD PROVIDED!

I have another gold which I'll use to fill the gap, but it's not quite the same. I also ran out of the really light tan colour, but I have teh DMC number so I can get more of that. Then I just have a bit of back stitching to do.

Santa brought me an excellent set of pencils that you can draw on fabric with. You wet them and then they are permament. I've been doing some experimenting with them over the last few days and I'm nearly ready to show you the first finished project which I'm SUPER happy with. It was actually an embroidery design that I abandoned about 3 years ago because the colours looked washed out. With the pencils I was able to lift it with background colour. I added some lazy daisies on top and it looks lovely. I'll take a photo tomorrow.

I hope you had a merry Christmas and an exciting new year.
Jennidee

Saturday's Progress

Saturday 23rd of December

Sorry it's a bit sideways, I was trying not to get a shadow on it.
I was having trouble sleeping so I stayed up pretty late stitching. I think I did about 6 hours yesterday.
I'm not sure if I'll get it finished by Christmas day ... probably not. I always underestimate the time it takes to stitch something.

See you with an update tomorrow.
Jennidee

yay, Holidays

Saturday 22nd December 2012


Yesterday was my last day at the OOSH (Out of school hours care - remember that term, I'll use it from now on as it's quicker). It was an interesting day with one horendously behaved 5 year old and another one causing a panic by choking on a boiled lolly. We had to call 000, but because he was breathing they didn't need to come out and just advised us over the phone. He coughed it up after about 15 minutes, but it was a VERY tense quarter of an hour as he was in quite a bit of ditress. Then, when it was out he ran around as if nothing had happened while we staff were still shaking from the adrenalin!!!!


Anyway, it's holidays now and i'm enjoying finishing a completely frivilous reindeer stitch from 'Simple Stitch' kits. Here's my progress so far.

 I'll post again on Sunday evening to show you how far I've gotten and then when it's finished.

See you then,
Jennidee

IHSW December Achievement

Here's what I was working on at the beginning of the weekend;

And i finished it

 I had hoped to finish this AND work on the reindeer. But I really only had a few hours on Saturday, and as usual I under estimated the time it took to finish something. This gypsy (which I hope will appear in ECS magazine early next year), had more back stitching than I usually put in designs, as I don't particularly like stitching it. But I saw a very old post card of a gypsy with a scarf around her waist with stripes and I had to have it in this design. As it was such a small design (about 100 stitches high?) Back sitthcing was the only way I could really portray the stripes.

Anyway, I hope you like it. I'm very pleased with how she turned out. You can't really see the gold thread and beads I used to add dimension and sparkle to it in the photo.

See you next time (one more post before Christmas I should think)
jennidee

IHSW

I'm going to participate in International Hermit and stitch weekend this weekend. I have a Christmas party to go to on Saturday afternoon, but the rest of the weekend is MINE!
I'm well into a gypsy cross stitch for ECS magazine. I may even get that doen by Saturday ... hmmm? Who am I kidding? But I will be close. So when that is done I'll finish the reindeer I started a few weeks ago. I took him away to the beach with me last weekend and managed to do a few threads.

Angie let me know that my love birds were advertised for the next WOXS mag. I'm very excited. I haven't seen it stitched yet, or made up into an item which is very unusual for me.

I'll post on Saturday for the IHSW.
Jennidee

More Than a week again

I seem to be missing a few blog entries. it's not that I'm not being productive. I just like to have photos to add, I'm getting a bit paranoid about designs being copied.

I've finished the pyjama bag and it's really cute. It's quite big too and I tested it to see if I could fit a bed pillow, a teddy and pyjamas inside, and they all fitted. LOL I had to re sew the handles on the bag three times as the first time one was twisted and the second time not all the raw edges were caught in. But it was worth the unpicking as it now looks well made.

I also finished a turtle soft toy for Patchwork and Stitches magazine. He is so cute that both the kids want him when he comes back from photography. Maybe I'll keep him myself. :) Suffolk puffs were involved in his creation and I enjoyed it so much I want to do more now.

Now the only WIP I have for magazines is a bag with an applique tree. The applique is finished and all I need to do is construct the bag (and write the instructions ... my least favourite bit). It's not due for over a month so I'm not rushing.

On the weekend I didnt' feel like working on any magazine pieces so I opened a really cute reindeer cross stitch kit I bought on special last year (after Christmas sale). He's not too big so I should finish him by Christmas even if I only work on him on teh weekends. Designers have to have a break too right?

I've decided on my next cross stitch design now too and I'll get cracking on that tomorrow probably. She will be a gypsy dancer for a note book cover (so not too large).

OK, I hope you are all well and happy.
I'll write again soon (I'll try to make my blogs at least weekly!)
Jennidee