Progress since January

So  much for the New Year resolutions! Despite the lack of blogging there has been activity on the stitching front.  This is what I've been up to.

Firstly I have a number of Just Nan finishes to show you. As per usual these are stitched on the recommended fabric with the recommended DMC floss. Lets start with Love Birds Tree, the first in the Charmed Heart Trees series from last year.

When I finished this project my next Just Nan one was Little Princess Snow, one of this year's limited edition ornaments.  Here she is before finishing.

And made up.

My final Just Nan finish was the Porch Garden Mice humbug, again before finishing and then made up.

I finished, but not in time for Valentine's Day, B My Valentine from The Drawn Thread.  This was stitched on 34 count Cafe au Lait Legacy Linen with the recommended NPI and over-dyed silks.

Each of the blocks are just under and inch square, the magnifier was needed to stitch this one!  I will probably finish this as a bell put when I find some suitable backing fabric. I enjoyed stitching this one so much that I decided to start the Spring Jumble also from The Drawn Thread. With it being the school Easter holidays I finished it in three days!

This one was stitched on 34 count white Legacy Linen again with the recommended NPI and over-dyed silks.  I do not have a massive stash of silks. These two projects came kitted up from The Nimble Thimble.  I did frame this myself putting it into a wooden photo frame from Wilkos.  The other Jumbles in the series are the same size so I will swap them in and out of the frame according to the season, when I have finished them.

And finally, some Halloween finishes.  This is the Hocus Pocus Freebie from Shepherds Bush, the chart came free with the button.  They recommended stitching this on 19 count Cork Summer Khaki linen.  I do not have any 19 count anything but I did have some 28 count Summer Khaki left over from another project.  To make this approximately the right size, so the button did not seem too big, I used three strands of floss over three strands of the fabric.  I tried to use the suggested over-dyed floss. Where I didn't have the correct colour I substituted on that was almost there.  Again I framed this myself in another photo frame from Wilkos. This took a day to stitch.

Another project that I will frame myself will be this next one, The Boys are Back in Town, a freebie chart from Just Another Button Company which you get when you but the button pack.

This was stitched on over-dyed linen, the chart suggests 30 count graphite from Weeks Dye Works but I don't think this was the fabric used.  It was stitched in the correct suggested floss with the exception of the spider's web which I did with glow in the dark white thread from Krienik.  I also finished the remaining circular Halloween ornaments from JBW Designs that I had been working on but then photos were not very good so I will need to redo them.

At the moment I have three things on the go, one of which is near completion.  That leaves a space on the rotation, which has gone out the window, and it will be taken by the my latest Shepherd's Bush acquisition! More about that next time, hopefully, and fingers crossed next time will not be in three months!

Happy stitching!

New Year stitching

It's now two weeks since the end of the school Christmas holidays and a return to work.  I'm please to say that I have managed to do some stitching in the evenings. For ages now stitching has been confined to weekends only.

In looking back at my last post I noticed that I did not post  a picture of the completed Emma and Eliza's Christmas Hat.  Here it is complete with hat box stand.

So far this month I have two finishes and two new starts.  My first finish of 2014 was The Green Snowman from Shepherds Bush.  This came as a kit.

My second finish was The Cat's Meow from The Drawn Thread.  This was stitched with the recommended DMC floss on 32 ct Belfast linen sand/light sand? I can't remember.

So back to the rotation.  The first week of the month will be Christmas stuff, I don't have too much of this in my stash so  this could change during the year.  My first new start was Waxing Moon's Snow Days bell pull.

This is stitched on Mill Hill blue-checkered stitch band with the recommended DMC and overdyed floss. I have stitched this with two strands of floss instead of the three strands suggested. I'm also using a sparkly PB thread instead of Krienik Pearl Ombre for the snowflakes basically because I don't have the Krienik in my stash.

Week two of the rotation is a Drawn Thread or Sweetheart Tree project.  So first up this year is B My Valentine from The Drawn Thread. This is stitched with one strand of silk over two threads of 34 count Cafe Au Lait Legacy Linen.  I have left the needle in place in this photo so that you can get an idea of the size.

I'm really enjoying this project because its not just done in cross stitch.

So week three of the rotation, starting next week, is either a Halloween project, I have masses of these in my stash or a Just Nan project,  I have quite a few of those too.  As I have signed up for the Just Nan Stitch Along 2014 and the first posting date is Friday 31 Jan then it might need to be Just Nan's Valentine Tree.

I'm off to do some more stitching on  B My Valentine as it might be quite nice to have it finished by Valentine's Day itself.

Happy stitching!