Free chart!

Here it is....the free chart for the holly design....enjoy!

The DMC colours I used were...green 700 & 702,  red 666, white B5200 ....but feel free to use whatever colours you have in your stash.
                                               

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Christmas stitching

I have been reliably informed by a rather smug very organized friend (who has already started her Christmas shopping!) that there are less than 100 days until Christmas....YIKES!!!

Sooo...even although we are still basking in the sun (yayy!), it's probably time to start at least thinking about Christmas stitching.

Using a small Christmas motif I decided to start with making some things to decorate the house at Christmas.  Using an old jam jar, some coloured wire and ribbon here's what I made...

...an adorable little candle holder!

 ...I think a few of these across the mantle piece at Christmas time will look  great....

...and the Epsom salts to hold the candle in place looks like snow and sparkles wonderfully when the candle is lit.

If it wasn't quite so warm and sunny, I could almost get into the Christmas spirit! :)


Hope you like my little Christmas candle holder....pop back later in the week as I'll be posting the chart of the holly motif for you to print off and use.

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Twit twoo cute!

A corny title for this post,  but that's the title in the magazine and once that was in my head, I couldn't think of anything else! So here it is.....

Craftseller magazine Issue 54

Immediate media co.

....my little owl design as featured in this month's Craftseller magazine.

Here's a close up of the stitching that I did...

...I even had to dust off my sewing machine and make it into a cushion....always the scary part for me.......

...but the sewing machine co-operated and it turned out rather well!

This week, I managed to get some more stitching done on the lighthouse design... this was last week's picture....

....and here's what it looks like now....

...it's really coming together! All these Autumn colours in the design are perfect for stitching at this time of year!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Ahhh...the joys of a long weekend!

A long weekend means plenty of guilt free stitching time, and then tonight, having family and friends over for an evening of beer and pizza (yeah, we're a classy lot!)


So there will be no stitching for me tonight....pizza and stitching probably isn't the best combination, but luckily I managed to get quite a bit of stitching done earlier this holiday weekend. I was able to finish off the free kit form the World of Cross Stitching magazine....

..the back stitching was a bit fiddly but well worth the effort! The printed card that came with the free kit  is just super-cute...

 ...so now Christmas card number 1 is finished! Just another one or two or three to make! It's a good job it's still only September.

I've also been working on Beacon at Daybreak, which is coming on a treat. This is where I was the last time I showed a picture of it...

...and this is how it looks now...

...all those wonderful colours in the sky have been a delight to stitch...

At the risk of sounding like a McDonald's commercial ...I'm lovin' it! Heehee! (sorry, I absolutely hate McDonalds, but their slogan is just so appropriate!)

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Waiting room stitching.

Life has been rather hectic again and I've not really had much free time to stitch in the evenings. I have managed to get some stitching done though....yes, I'm spending lots of time in various doctors waiting rooms again! I picked up the free kit with this months World Of Cross Stitching magazine and slipped it into my bag for the first of what turned out to be quite a few different doctors appointments with my hubby.  Thank heavens for these free kits, they are the perfect size for popping into a bag and with the threads already pre-cut and a needle already enclosed, they really are sanity saving!

Here's what I stitched while waiting for my hubby....

...so, looking on the bright side of things, I have made a start on my Christmas stitching! Now if only my hubby had been five or ten minutes longer at his last appointment I might have actually managed to finish all the cross stitching....twelve stitches to go...how very inconsiderate of him to come out before I had finished! ;)

So a few more stitches and then the back stitching and I'll have my first Christmas card made!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Arghhhhh......

... cross stitch kits! The great thing about cross stitch kits is that you can (usually!) start stitching them right away....no searching for threads, no faffing around trying to get fabric that is the right size....even a needle is included. But, the bad thing about kits is that sometimes you run out of thread and can't find an exact match....which means contacting the manufacturer and waiting on them to (hopefully) send replacement threads.

Yup, that's where I am just now...sitting doing nothing, just twiddling my thumbs (yeah, you believe that one, don't ya?!!) hoping that Dimensions Crafts will send me some replacement thread. I've run out of, not one, but two colours! This is where I am at the moment...

Now I'm sure that I'm not a wasteful stitcher when it comes to using the threads provided, I've run out of threads before, so I'm extra careful about  stitching to the last tiny amount left in the needle.  This is how much of the black thread is left from the kit......

...and I've finished all the black stitching! There's just a little bit of back stitching to do using black, and I'm pretty sure that I will only use maybe one or two lengths at the very most to finish the back stitching. Weird how there is so much left of one colour but not enough of the other colours. I can only assume that the model stitcher for Dimensions is even more frugal with her threads (except the black) than I am!!! :)

Oh well...time to look out the old lighthouse design :)


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

If only I had remembered.....

....to mark off each colour that I had stitched on the chart, I wouldn't  waste so much time trying to decide if a certain stitch was pale blue or very light blue (with my eye sight, they both look exactly the same!!!) and then I would know exactly where I was on the chart, and what colour I should be stitching with!

Filling in those last few stitches in certain areas is driving me mad and resulting in me fudging it when I just can't decide. I do have the decency to feel guilty about it....for a second or two....then I can't realize that I can't tell which bit was fudged and then I don't feel too bad as no-one else will know ......except you, but I'm sure you'll keep my secret...won't you?!!  :)

So I've gone from this (last week's pic)....

...to this...

......almost finished with the reflections!!!  Woohoo! Feeling good....except for the fudging part!

Until next time..happy stitching!

Rhona

Out of sight, out of mind....and a change of attitude!

In order to resist the temptation of stitching  the more colourful lighthouse project, I decided that the 'out of sight, out of mind' approach was the only one that would work for me....in reality it's more a case of it being out of reach rather than out of mind...but hey, it's working! So, the lighthouse project is packed away out of sight (but not out of mind) in another room so that I'm not tempted to pick it up and do "just one length of that lovely pink in the sky" ...which never happens, because just one length of thread then becomes two lengths, then three lengths and then...well you know how it goes!!!

Anyhoo, this is what Twilight Silhouette looked like last week.....

...and the thought of stitching hundreds and hundreds of little black x's on to navy fabric really wasn't all that exciting, as I'm sure you can imagine! I really didn't want to stitch all that boring black, but changed my attitude when I realized that since there was sooooo much black to do, it meant that for great big chunks of the design I didn't have to do any counting and didn't really have to concentrate too hard, soooo, I could really watch a move (not just listen to it) while I stitched....yayyy!! (and yes, I'm enjoying the italics today!!!)

So after a couple of movies (no popcorn though!), this is how these sweet fairies look now....

Quite a change!

Sadly for me though, since most of the black area is done, it means that now I'm back to having to count my stitches and just listen to movies again!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

The problem with colour....

Not only am I having problems finding time to get any stitching done, (these summer nights just seem to fly by!) but when I do get my stitching out, instead of working on Twilight Silhouette, my hand just seems to gravitate to the more colourful  lighthouse design. 

I have been making a big effort to do more of the Twilight design, but progress seems to be quite slow, I think it's because stitching blue threads on blue fabric makes seeing any progress quite difficult....here's where I was last time...

...and here's my progress...

There's actually quite a bit of half stitch done in one strand that doesn't seem to show up on the photograph! Of course, the great big chunk of black to be done at the bottom seems to be so boring and tedious compared to stitching this.....

...all those yummy, scrummy colours in the sky...

Isn't this just gorgeous? You can see why I want to stitch this design with all those beautiful colours that are in the sky.

Yeah, so much for this one being my 'stuff-it-in-my-handbag-to-stitch-while-I'm-while-waiting-for-the-doctor project'! Ah well, you only live once...might as well stitch what makes you happy!

Hope whatever you're stitching is making you happy too!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Chocolate and stitching.

Most of the time stitching and chocolate really don't go together. 

The thought of chocolatey finger marks on your stitching can be real nightmare. I. however. being a freak of nature, don't like chocolate. Can you believe it.... a woman who doesn't like chocolate....weird huh? So anyway, I never have to worry about chocolate and stitching......until now. Yes, I broke down and bought a bar of chocolate. Don't worry, all is well......I'm not sick or crazy. This is the one time when chocolate and stitching definitely go well together

Remember I showed a glimpse of some secret stitching I was working on? It looked like this...

Well here it is now....

And that's the reason for the bar of chocolate! Yes it really is a bar of chocolate in the frame...

This is a gift for my friend's daughter who is heading off to university at the end of August. I thought this might be a nice gift for her dorm room. I have a feeling that I might have to make another one for my friend too.

So, now we know..... chocolate and stitching really do go together! Don't you agree?

Until next time...happy stitching (with or without the chocolate!)

Rhona

Long days with not much to show for it!

So much for the long hot days of summer! It may be hot, but they certainly don't feel very long....I don't seem to be able to get much time to stitch just now.

I have been a bit naughty and started on my new kit. I blame Caitlin at Naughts and Cross Stitches as she is working on the same kit and posted a picture of her WIP which you can see here. Of course, once I saw her stitching, I just couldn't help but start it.....

I can't wait to start working on the sky part of the design, the colours are just gorgeous!

I have also been working on some secret stitching, and I can show you this part of the design....

...it looks a bit weird, but it will make sense and all will be revealed shortly!

Twilight fairy hasn't been totally neglected, just not an awful lot of stitches added to her this week.

I bet you're struggling to see the difference from last week's picture!  :) Hopefully next week there will be an obvious change......fingers crossed as the days are still long!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

A little mouse finish!

Another week has flown by with very little stitching done. Somehow the summer months always seem to mean less stitching time for me...anyone else feel that way? I did manage to get the little mouse design finished...

This came with a cute printed card and I was hoping to have it done in time to send to my mother-in-law for her birthday, but I took too long to finish it....maybe she'll get it next year!

I also managed a few stitches on Twilight silhouette.....and when I say ' a few', I really mean a few.....

....if it wasn't for that little loop of blue on the right hand side, you probably wouldn't have noticed the difference from last time! :(


Hopefully on my next post I'll have been able to stitch enough that you'll see the progress!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona