Monday, March 30, 2015

Cute card finishes

I've had a stinker of a cold this past week.....but I can't complain - life could be worse! 

I couldn't concentrate on Twilight fairy and kept making silly mistakes so decided to put her aside till my head didn't feel like it was filled with cotton wool! I hate sitting in the evening without doing anything, it seems like such a waste of time....anybody else feel like that? So I looked out some of the free kits that come with the cross stitch magazines and decided to stitch some of them....it fits well with my 'buy less, waste less'  challenge for this year.

I made the flowers from my last post into a little card....


....then I stitched a cute Margaret Sherry design......


I love the 'stitched by' on the back of the card....


Isn't that perfect?

Normally I would make my own cards, but in the spirit of not wasting anything, I used the cards supplied....and they are so cute!

Then I started working on this  design...


This one turned out to be quite the problem design! How can something so small be such a problem? First of all, I started stitching with the wrong colour of thread and had to unpick it. Then when I stitched the inside of the ears, the colours didn't look right . According to the chart they were supposed to be stripy, but mine just looked like the same colour....soooo.... more unpicking! After checking that I am in fact stitching in the right colours, I start again....but the ears don't look stripy at all..... the two shades of thread were too close and the difference didn't show up, arghhhh....more unpicking! So by this time, I decide just to do the ears a totally different colour just so that I can get it finished. Phewww....that was hard work :)

This design came with a cute little patchwork card mount, but unfortunately I have run out of double sided tape so I can't finish it yet. 

So, all in all, three little finishes in a week is rather good, especially when full of the cold!


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

PS. I seem to be having lots of emails returned when I respond to blog comments. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I do try to reply to all comments  - sometimes it takes me a while :) so thank you for commenting and apologies if you're not receiving my replies.



Monday, March 23, 2015

Happiness is.....


.... some new needles and......


 ......a cute little finish!

Simple things make me happy :)


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Ahh......the guilt!

It's not often that I feel guilty about starting a new cross stitch project - or any project for that matter - but guilt got to me this time!

After finishing off the lighthouse design (see previous post) I was eagerly anticipating a new start and trying to decide which of my three new kits I would start on....each of them wonderful and all crying out to be picked first! Unfortunately...or maybe it's fortunately, I'm not sure.... I only have two scroll frames that are the correct size for any of the new projects, and guess what....they both have WIP's on them. And that, dear friends, is where the guilt comes in. One of these WIP's  would have to vacate the scroll frame for the new project to be started....so which one?  One I want to finish...and will finish (eventually!) and the other I kind of want to finish but would need to frog quite a bit of it ( I'm not happy with the shading) and I know that if I take it off the frame, I'd probably never go back to it.
So...what to do...remove one that I want to finish, or remove the other knowing that it would be relegated to a UFO?

Guilt, guilt, guilt!

Since I'm fortunate enough to have a few projects to keep me busy for a while, maybe the best thing to do to banish the guilt would be to actually complete at least one of the WIP's.....logical, uh?


Soooo, I'm back working on Twilight Fairy!

Here's where I left her....


...and I can't believe that it was November when I last worked on her (oh, more guilt!) ....and here she is now...



.....ahh...feeling a bit less guilty now! I WILL get her finished!

And in case you're curious to know what the design on the other scroll frame is (my almost UFO)....it's this one...



...and the strange thing is, I have seen other bloggers working on this and it looks wonderful....so why does the shading on the bodice part really bother me? Maybe it's something as simple as I've used the wrong colour of thread! :) Anyhoo....hopefully this Geisha won't end up as a UFO...but I can't promise!!!


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona


Monday, March 9, 2015

It's finished!!!

Woo hoo...the lighthouse design is now completed!


The design makes me long for those warm, sunny, summer days...




....sand between your toes...




... listening to the waves ...




.... basking in the sun on  those long glorious summer days....



 ...you can tell I'm fed-up of winter....can't you?!!!




So while I'm shivering in what feels like sub arctic temperatures here, I'll look at the lighthouse and know that Spring will eventually come and summer won't be long after!

The design is a kit by Dimensions and is one of their Gold Collection Petites, called 'Cliffside Beacon'. It's stitched on 18 count cream aida with....wait for it.....enough threads in the kit!!!! In fact, this is what I had left over....


...can't complain at that!

Soooooo, what shall I start on now.....?!!!

Watch this space! :)


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Arghhh.....no time to stitch!

Can you believe that I have gone a whole week without finding time to do any stitching? Not a single stitch at all....unheard of! I'm beginning to suffer some serious withdrawal symptoms....my fingers are itching to pick up a needle......especially as I'm almost finished the lighthouse design. Hopefully this week I'll be able to carve out some time for myself and get even a few stitches done. 

Fingers crossed.

So although I didn't get any time to stitch, or crochet....or do any crafting at all....I did manage some stash enhancement (if you could only see me sitting here with a big grin on my face!)....funny how stash enhancement always makes you smile!

I went to the craft store as I had a $5 off coupon (even bigger smile on my face!) and decided to buy some yarn for my next crochet project....forward planning on my part as I haven't finished my current crochet project! I had gone in with the intention of buying greys and dusky pinks and came out with this colour scheme....


The colours are actually a lot darker in real life....I think all the snow reflecting the sunlight has made them look quite pale! 

I was quite pleased with my choices and even more so when I got to the check out and discovered that they were on sale....yayyyy! Don't you just love it when that happens?

Hopefully, next time I post I will have managed to get some stitching done (or crocheting)....and maybe even the lighthouse design finished!

Until then...happy stitching!

Rhona