Monday, January 25, 2016

Somebody can't measure.....

....and it's not me! 

I went to the craft store to buy some frames for my two lighthouse finishes (normally my finishes languish in a pile that I keep meaning to deal with, but never do! ) and found the perfect frames. Unfortunately they weren't made in the size of the finished stitching, but since I like a mat with the stitching, I went with the bigger sized frame and bought a couple of plain coloured mats to fit.....or at least I thought I did. Now the thing that you have to understand is that I'm really fussy (and a bit indecisive) about picking colours for frames and mats. It takes me ages to decide. You have no idea the problems I have with picking between white, winter white and off white....I kid you not! Any way, after  the trials and tribulations of making such a momentous decision, I get home unwrap each of the frames and mats to discover that......the mats don't fit!!!! Arghhhh! 

The mat which came with the packaging description of 'fits an 8" x 10" frame for a 5" x 7" picture', actually only measured 4½" x 6½ ".....cutting off some of the stitching that I wanted to be seen!

A few night later I was in the local Wal-mart and happened across some (much cheaper!) mats....same problem....they measured only 4½" x 6½"...but..... they also had double mats that when you remove the inner 4½" x 6½" mat, the remaining mat measures.....wait for it.....yayyy, the desired 5" x 7"!!!

And here's how these two stitched pieces look now...









I can't get a photo of the two pictures side by side as the reflections look awful. I think the distressed blue wood is perfect for the sea/ beach subject of the stitching....I'm so happy!

Now all I have to do is find a hammer and some nails and get these two lovelies on the wall.

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona


Monday, January 18, 2016

It's finished!!

Woo hoo....I've finally finished 'Beacon at daybreak'! And it's gorgeous......


I'm so pleased with the finished result. The mixture of full and half cross stitches done with different numbers of strands of threads give it a lovely textured effect.



And here it is with it's sister design 'Cliffside beacon'. Both these designs are kits by Dimensions....and wonderful to work on :)


I think they look great together. I really would like to do a third design like this as I love sets of three's (strange, I know!) Unfortunately none of the lighthouse designs that I have come across would fit in with these designs, the colours etc don't match.....but I'll keep looking!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona


Monday, January 11, 2016

Forget the sewing basket.....

....I have a new project in the yarn basket!!!


All those lovely shades of blue.....even lovelier (is that even a word?!) since there was 40% off the yarn....sweet!

This is the afghan pattern that I'm working on...


 ...and this is the back of it....




The free crochet pattern can be found here. Just be aware that there is a mistake in the written instructions. I only realized after spending several nights crocheting and rattling down all that evening's work thinking that I had miscounted.....only to eventually read the comments and see that other people were having problems getting the pattern to work too!

Anyway, this is going to be a long term project for me. Not knowing how many chains to make in the foundation row, (I thought it would be better to be too big than too small) it's ended up the size of a football field! All the better to snuggle up with a loved one, that's my excuse :)

So this one's not going to be finished any time soon.....I'm slow at crocheting as well as cross stitching!


Now on to some stitching!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona


Monday, January 4, 2016

Happy New Year!

Now that the hustle and bustle of the Christmas period is over (phew!!!) it's time to get back to normal...or as normal as life will permit!

I have two designs that I have been working on for what seems like forever....and I'm determined to have them finished in the next few weeks....and now that it's written in black and white, I just have to get them done now :)

First off is the lighthouse design.....


...as you can see, Dimensions sent the extra thread needed to finish the cross stitching, so I have no excuse now! There's just a few cross stitches to complete and then the back stitching...not my favourite part, but it will be worth it!

Then project number two....Twilight Fairy....


...this one hasn't got much to be done either....but..... I've run out of one of the blue threads! I think that I may have used the wrong blue colour for some part of it (there are a few blues that are quite close to each other!) as I seem to have quite a bit of one blue thread left......arghhh....silly me! So, yes, I will be begging Dimensions again for some more threads! Thankfully their customer service department is really good.

So hopefully in the next few weeks, these designs will be upgraded form WIP's to finished items...woohoo!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona