Two down two to go!

I managed to complete two out of the four projects mentioned last week. Firstly, the September Calendar.


Secondly, the poppy card.


I'm not convinced about the frame but it's the only one I had.

As of today the Knotted Garden Biscornu looks like this.


I was pleased with the progress made on the Pale Blue Santa. All he needs is a head and a lot of backstitch!


Yesterday I managed to complete two more motifs on Mary Wigham. I have recharted some more of the medallions to make them symmetrical. I will post them next time. As I stitched I also noticed some errors on my recharted version which I will also go back and correct.


I've enjoyed reading the comments on the TUSAL post. Heaven knows what I will do next time.

No more starts as things are getting out of hand!

So on the rotation should be the Pale Blue Santa and I fully intend to do him in the evenings, or after three o'clock in the afternoon. So that gives me the mornings to get some things finished. The plan is to finish three things this week.

Firstly,

The September Calendar from Mill Hill, started last Friday.


Secondly, the Knotted Garden Biscornu by Polstitches Designs to go in my Bowl of Biscornu for August.

Thirdly, 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' poppy card (cover kit from WOXS).

And finally Boo from Just Nan. OK so that's four things!

Anyway, this is where I'm at with the last three smaller projects.


On an update front. Sunday is Mary Wigham day and this is what she looks like so far.


And finally, here is Midnight Ride finished.


Whilst on holiday the rest of my family suffered from insect bites. Now usually I'm a magnet for insects of the biting variety. But not this time. Until, that is, we arrived back in the UK. Where, within the space of about an hour, I got bitten SIX times! The worst were on the ring finger and little finger of my right hand and on my right forearm. My ring finger became so swollen I could not get the rings off. My arm well, see for yourself. The two bites on my arm caused a hot, swollen area about FIVE INCHES in diameter, I'm not kidding. They are still weeping, and itching five days latter!

As they say on the news, 'Some viewers may find the following pictures disturbing'. If anyone knows of a cure/treatment for chronic bites then please leave a comment as this is beyond a joke.


Happy sitiching!

Two finishes and a start

So back to the stitching. Last Wednesday I finished the May calendar, all it needs now is blocking and stretching, tomorrow's job.



As this was finished early I went on to the next project in the rotation, 'Simply Summer' from Waxing Moon Designs and finished that too!

This gives me a 'free week' on the rotation so I have started 'When Barnabee Met Bella' from Just Nan.

Homework? set by Yoyo

In the last post I said I had received an invite to join 'Stitcher's Showcase' and was off to explore. Yoyo in her comment asked if I could do a synopsis of what it is all about. So here we go.

Stitcher's Showcase aims to provide 'stitchers, regardless of the type of stitchery a place to showcase their work'.

How do you join? Go to the homepage, link provided at the bottom of my sidebar, and follow the sign up instructions. It takes less than five minutes.

You get your own page where you can add

• photos and organise them into albums


• video


• music


• blog post, on the site's blog


• add to or start a discussion topic

Some people have customised their pages but not being into Facebook or My Space I haven't a clue where to start. The default layout is fine anyway. When adding a photo you can put a title, brief description and appropriate tags. When added the photo appears on the site's main page. If you click on the photo you get a larger version with the description, if given, and there is a box for people to leave comments.The comments appear on you page and you also get email notification.

There is also a search facility. I searched under biscornu and got four pages of results which included photos, comments on photos and blog posts. To my mind some of the photos had not been fully labeled eg. naming the designer but you could leave a comment asking for that information.

It seems that many people, like me, are using the site to display finishes, that is, showcase their work. Many of the biscornu photos I recognised from the Basket of Biscornu SAL. Some are adding to the blog with photos of WIPs and finishes.

If you are interested in a person's work and would like to find out more you can click on their name, go to their page, scroll down and eventually get to the link to their blog, if they have one.

Finally, as I said, I will be using Stitcher's Showcase to post photos of my finishes. If this encourages people to visit my blog who have not done so before that's great. But this blog is my main focus and my inspiration for stash enhancements comes from visiting other blogs to find out what everyone else is doing, and how they are getting on.

Hardly a synopsis but please Miss (Yoyo), how did I do?

So on to this week's project in the rotation. The picture for May in the Mill Hill Calendar.

This was how it was at the end of stitching yesterday. There is a yellow flower to go in the bottom right hand corner and a ladybird where there is a gap in the middle, a small amount of backstitch and then the embellishments. The reason why I have managed to do so much by Tuesday is that I was effectively sent home from work on Monday with what the doctor thought could be 'Slapped Face Syndrome' or Shingles. It turned out to be 'Slapped Face Syndrome' a virus which makes your face look like, well you've guessed it. Your face goes very red and very hot. So I had a day and a half off work. I went back today to find that a colleague was off on Monday with the same thing and another one looked like he's coming down with it. Great, Sod's Law says that teachers will come down with a childhood ailment just in time for the holidays.

March ~ Progress after two evenings stitching

Here is the progress made since Sunday on March of the Mill Hill Calendar Series. The green parts of the letters done so far, that is, M A and R are stitched in Kreinik ribbon. The missing bits are to be done with beads. I get the feeling that this is not going to take very long to do.

I usually stitch a Valentine's card for 'the other half' and as yet I have not started. He is away this week so I will need to get a move on as I have decided to do one that involves some Hardanger. I am going to use a free pattern from The Victoria Sampler called the Heart Sweet Bag. So work on March is suspended until Friday when he returns and that gives me three evenings to complete the card. If there are no posts for the rest of the week you know why!

January ~ Projects completed so far

As this blog is supposed to be about my stitching projects I thought I'd start with the ones I have completed so far, that is since 1 January 2009.

First to be completed was the 'Cat Lovers' biscornu from The Sweetheart Tree. My mum has always given me a little sewing project on Christmas day and this was the one for 2008. I had previously done the matching scissor fob. The chart was again a gift from my mum to cheer me up after the death, in early December, of one of my cats.



As originally charted the cats did not have whiskers so I added them using the scissor fob chart as a guide.










The February picture of the Mill Hill 2003 calendar series took a week to complete. This picture does not reflect how much the beads and the metallic ribbon make it sparkle.











This little treasure took just a few evenings. Barnabee's Bride from Just Nan. A cross stitch scissor fob fits inside the body of a jeweled bee which has a treasure inside it. In the stash I also have the matching biscornu 'When Barnabee met Bella' . The final photo for this post shows the needle roll inside the bee!