Monday, May 29, 2017

A naughty new start!

As you can tell by the title of this post, I have been a bit naughty and started stitching on a new design. The saving grace is that I didn't have to buy the design....Tea and Cakes is a free stitch along designed by the wonderful Durene Jones and provided by Lakeside Needlecraft......


...the only thing I had to buy for the this SAL was some fabric, because although I have, cough, cough....one or two (ha ha) pieces of fabric in my stash, I didn't have any 14 count white aida...go figure! 

The border was released first and then the cake motif the following week. Since I was already a week behind, I decided to stitch the border and cake together. I'll just continue each border part as and when the cake motifs are released.


Some back stitching to do and then the first motif will be completed. For any of you that would like to join in with this free stitch along, just check out Lakeside Needlework's Facebook page. They also have several other SAL's which are very tempting! Don't say I didn't warn you.....I don't want to be classed as an enabler :)

I also managed to finish the adorable Fizzy Moon card design from the World of Cross Stitching magazine....


Since all my stock of stitched cards was used, it's great to have a card already finished for when I need one. Hopefully I can start building up my stock of cards again. The first part of the Tea and Cakes SAL would also make a nice little motif to stitch for a card....guess I might be stitching this design again!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Late....but with a good excuse!

I'm a day late in posting and not an awful lot of stitching to show either, but I do have a good reason! Hubby and I decided on the spur of the moment to have a quick trip to Canada. So Wednesday evening we packed our bags so we were all set for an early Thursday morning start and we drove up to Ottawa....what a beautiful city! The weather saw fabulous....we even got a bit of a tan...and we walked for miles! By the time we got back to our hotel room in the evening I was too tired to even think about doing any stitching.

So here are some 'snaps' from our trip.... just scroll down if you want to see the stitching pics

The parliament building which is beautiful inside too. The building will be closing for ten years for renovations!


One of the main halls inside the Parliament...

 The art gallery...

 War memorial...


And to prove that I haven't just used some random pics off the internet, here's a picture of me with the Parliament clock in the background :)

  
And since it was Tulip Fest while we were there, here's the obligatory tulip picture! 

  
And then a tour of the Canadian Mint....who knew they bolted down their gold bars....would still have been hard to run off with a 28lb gold bar in my pocket :)

What a great trip!

So here's the extent of my stitching for last week. Some more of the Fizzy Moon free kit. Just a bit more of the body and then all the white for the daisies. White is not my favourite colour to stitch....it's kind of hard on the eyes unless you have the right light! (For anyone who wants to download the stitching log, please see the previous post)


 ....and some more of the adorable Margaret Sherry kitties...


And for anyone who wonders why I named my blog Tangled Threads, you can just see a bit of the reason in the top right hand corner of the picture above....so here's a closer view!!!


No matter how organized I seem to be, I always end up with a tangle of threads!

Hope your threads end up less tangled than mine!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Monday, May 15, 2017

Stitching logs

So today I have something exciting to share with you! 

After my last post about changing the colours on chart and not making a note of the changes, I did a search online for something that we stitchers could use to log either our daily/weekly progress or something to note the changes we have made....and came up with.....nothing! Zero, zilch, nada......not a single thing - how sad. Sooo, what's a girl to do but design her own! Well, in my case, it was design her own and get the technology savvy daughter to help out :)  (Thanks Sweetheart, you're the best!)

So what started out as a single idea has spawned into several projects as there was so many different things I wanted to do. So this log I'm sharing with you today, is the first of a few different logs that I'll be producing to make our stitchy lives easier and a bit more organized

Since I was working on a design that already had the colours picked out and all I wanted to do was make a note of the conversions I had made, I designed a log specifically for that purpose.....



Now I can stitch the Margaret Sherry cats again and know exactly what thread colours I used and not have to waste time fiddling about trying to decide what colours look good together since I don't have all the anchor threads listed in the key. Now I just open up my DMC threads and select the ones I have listed on my handy-dandy log!

I can record who I stitched it for and how I finished it (well in my case that area would probably be left blank, as you all know how bad I am for actually getting round to doing any finishing!)



This log is great  for using if , like me, you love the free kits that come with some magazines and want to stitch the chart more than once. Since the thread numbers aren't given on the key all you need to do is check the threads that are in the free kit and decide what DMC or Anchor threads match the threads supplied, mark them on your log and start stitching the kit, knowing that you can now stitch it again, and again!



Even if you don't have a thread chart like the one pictured above, you can always see what threads you have in your stash and note the numbers from there.




So how do you get your stitching log? It's easy....just click here! 

Please note that this is for personal use only and is not to be sold, shared or reproduced. By all means share the info about the log on your blog or social media, but please link back to this post so that I can get an idea how popular (hopefully!) the log is....thank you!

If you do download the log, please can you leave a comment (even if it's only a few words!) so that I can tell how many people are interested in using it. 

My next project will be to produce a monthly stitching log so that you can log the number of stitches that you accomplish every stitching session etc. I have had some wonderful feedback on what stitchers like to record, so I'm hoping to be able to do a few different types of stitching logs.....so check back for more updates.

Phew! That was a lot for one little log. So how's the actual stitching coming along? Here's where I am now on the adorable Margaret Sherry kitties....



I'm still enjoying stitching this design....and I'll have all the info at hand for doing it again a third time!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona



Monday, May 8, 2017

Do what makes you happy!

I want to thank everyone for all the suggestion on how to keep working on kitty design with the awful chart. The suggestions were really helpful, but in the end I decided that there was no point in spending time on something that wasn't making me happy. Stitching is something that we do for pleasure and I can honestly say that I was getting no pleasure whatsoever from working on this design. In fact, I spent two evening just looking at the chart and trying to decide which part would be the least painful to work on.....even my hubby asked why I wasn't stitching it! Sooooo, I started on something else.....something that I know I would enjoy stitching (and that my friend would like too!).....a Margaret Sherry design.....



....it's called Coffee and Cuddles...



I changed the colours a bit as it's charted using Anchor threads and I don't have a complete set of anchor threads. I converted the colours to DMC and still changed them to what I liked better.....I'm a bit weird like that :) I used a softer shade of red, mine is more a pinky red rather than the very bright red that the chart called for.  It's stitching up quite quickly.....and I'm enjoying it, which is what it's all about! 

Some of you may remember that I have previously stitched this design.....and changed the colours then too!  This is the colour scheme I went with then.....and I so wish that I had written down the thread numbers that I had used, it would have made life so much easier this time! I really should invest in a stitching diary, or something of that ilk.....does anyone record their stitching in a diary or notebook? What sort of info do you record....is it the number of hours you work on each design, or thread info etc....please let me know as I'm quite curious.



I also had great success in the craft store this weekend....the missing thread for Etudes aux Fraises was in stock....finally! I picked up some other threads that I was running low on.......and nothing else! Wow....that's probably a first :)


Now I'm back to being a happy stitcher once again!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Monday, May 1, 2017

More strawberries!

This week I have been working on Etudes aux Fraises. But can you believe that I still can't find that one elusive thread colour?  Luckily I have plenty of stitching to continue with before I have to go into panic mode about one single thread colour. I'm hoping that my local craft store will re-stock that colour soon, as I really don't want to have to order it on-line.....I hate paying postage, especially for one single item! 

Here's where I was last time on Etudes aux Fraises ......


....and here's where I am now....


The pictures aren't that great as I had to use the camera on my phone...

  ....but there's progress!



Not only did I work on this design....BUT, I also decide to (maybe!) master the sewing machine! As many of you know, the sewing machine and I are not exactly the best of friends :) But it seems  kind of silly to own the machine and not really use it, soooooo, I bought some fabric  (just a fat quarter....nothing fancy!) and decided to master the sewing machine. Perhaps not one of my better ideas, but I will persist and I will use it.  I found a rather cute idea on Pinterest (where else?!!) of fabric coasters and decide to make some and add a crochet border. So here's where I am at the moment....


....I have actually sewn two......one where I followed the instructions from Pinterest which I didn't really like and the second time I just did my own thing.  Hopefully I can complete this project and end up actually liking my sewing machine! Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the crochet part of this project.

So this week, it will be back to working on the cute kitty design with the dreadful pattern, and trying to master the sewing machine.....wish me luck!


Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona