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

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.

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.

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

Hand Dying

Firstly, thankyou to my watchers for sticking with me. And thanks for the comments. It's really nice to get some interaction.

Yesterday I was thinking about hand dyed linen and wondered if anyone out there hand dyes, or do you prefer to buy the fabric already hand dyed by those specialist companies? Or do you just buy your linen in a flat colour?

I also got about 4 lovely hours to stitch yesterday. I wish it had been more, but life is just so hectic at the moment. I can't wait for the end of next week when I can slow down a little for the school holidays.

Not much to write about today ... sorry.