When the back stitching doesn't pop!

It's been a week of back stitching for me. I know some people hate it, others love it. I'm kind of in the middle, it's not my favourite thing to do, but I love the effect.....usually.

I finished the back stitching on the two little cards I had been working on and made them up as cards.... no more wasting away in my to-do pile!!!! 

The coloured back stitching on the butterflies really  made the design pop......

 And without the back stitching, the hot air balloons didn't look like anything, let alone hot air balloons, but now you can see what they are....

The back stitching on the balloons was a bit fiddly and I confess to not following the chart, but I know you'll keep my secret! ;)

Now the one design that isn't really 'popping' with the back stitching is the Ice Cardinal design....

I don't really know if it's making much of a difference. You really have to be quite close to actually see the back stitching. Because of this, it's not quite as satisfying to be plodding along doing the boring bit!

And more designs with back stitching.....

My pet library in this month's World of Cross Stitching magazine. Forty little designs of pets.....furry, feathery (is that even a word?) and slithery pets are all covered in this collection....

No mention in the magazine as to who stitched them, but they did a great job don't you think?

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

It's been a week for smalls!

Small finishes that is....not the underwear kind of smalls!  :)

I tried to get some of the back stitching done on Ice Cardinal, but the qsnaps frame and the fabric is rather large and the fabric kept rubbing against the poison ivy blisters that I have on my arm....not pleasant - or hygienic! 

I only managed a small bit of back stitching then decided to work on something else so that I didn't end up with an infection as well as the blisters. I finished off the seagull stitching from last week and now have another card to add to my collection...

This little kit from CrossStitcher magazine came with a small cardboard frame to place round the seagull. Originally I wasn't going to put it on as I thought it rather strange, but changed my mind once I had placed it on the stitching. I thought it was rather cute and quirky....

I then started working on another free kit, this time from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine..

....and now have a cute little luggage tag that should stand out at the airport when all those 
oh-so-similar suitcases come out on the luggage carousel...

And since I was on a roll, another freebie kit that I had tucked away in my stash was this little butterfly design....

....and if it looks familiar, it's because I have stitched this design before. I have no idea how or why I had two of these kits, but I'm not complaining!

And the last of the smalls for this week.....

....another freebie from this months CrossStitcher magazine - I do love those free kits, don't you? This shouldn't take too long to complete and then I'll have yet another card to add to my stash.

All in all, I would say it's been a good week for smalls!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

A seagull and chips!

Not much stitching getting done here unfortunately.

When we came back from Scotland, the garden was badly needing some TLC....all the rain and the sun had caused the grass and weeds to grow with abandon. Deciding to tackle it, I donned the gardening gloves and bashed ahead with the weeding. So what has weeding got to do with me not stitching? Well I am very allergic to poison ivy, so much so that I just have to go near it and I end up with that horrible blistering rash. And that dear friends, is what happened. The rash is very painful and the heat makes it worse. Medication from the doctor helps slightly, but it is so uncomfortable to do anything!  The little seagull was finished before my encounter with the poison ivy and will hopefully  be finished into a card soon.

You may remember the mess the back of this piece was when I was stitching on the plane and didn't have any scissors to snip the threads on the back....

Yikes....how awful! Well Rachel from the blog Ten Hour Stitcher  suggested a wonderful and simple solution.....just bring the threads back up to the front of the design so they don't get tangled! How simple is that - and definitely worth sharing! Thanks Rachel :)

Fingers crossed for a finish next week!

Until then....happy stitching!

Rhona

Itching to stitch!

The last two posts have been brought to you by the magic that is Blogger's scheduling feature. I have been back in Scotland dealing with my late father's house - so not really a holiday, but nice to be back in Scotland all the same. 

I had taken some stitching with me but didn't have time to do any of it....yes two weeks without stitching - unheard of! I did manage to buy some cross stitch magazines (of course!) and was keeping them as a way to pass the time on the flight back to the US. As soon as we were on board the plane coming home, the stitching magazines had their plastic covers ripped from them and the contents devoured. Then it was time to start one of the free gifts that came with the magazines....ah, the heavenly feeling of threading the needle and starting a new project!

Of course, being on a plane meant no scissors allowed and so the freebie kit became a bit of a mess on the back since I couldn't cut any of the threads...

Oh my goodness....this drives me insane....the threads tangle up and get caught in the stitches....I'm sure you can feel my pain :)

Anyhoo, lots of turbulence meant that stitching was a bit difficult to do (that needle refused to go in the correct hole) so this project is in my current to-do pile and being worked on just now...

Being the queen of slow stitching, it's still not finished!

Coming back to all that laundry and the usual pile of bills and junk mail that always awaits you after a holiday, was made easier by finding this months issue of World of Cross Stitching sitting waiting for me. Issue 284 has my matching game designs in it...

A cross stitch version of the traditional game...

My kids adored playing this game when they were little and I love being able to use cross stitching for more than just pictures for on the wall!

Also in this issue is an interview with yours truly......

...with a very rare photo of me!

So now it's time to go visiting all your lovely blogs and get caught up with the backlog of blog reading. Thanks for visiting!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Testing, testing!

I have a collection of various glues and tapes that I have collected over the years, some good and some not so good. I decided to test them all out and see which ones were best for  different types of projects.

Here's a collection of some of the glues etc that I have been testing....these were the ones that were in reasonable condition to photograph....I'm not the neatest person, so some of my glues are quite disgusting and I'm too ashamed to let you see the condition the bottles and tubes are in!

So, here's my question to you - what glues and tapes do you like working with? Which ones do you think work best? 

Please comment below and hopefully, with your answers, I can  come up with a list of best products that would help us all!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

How to make a tassel

I thought that I'd share with you how easy it is to make a tassel to add to your cross stitching projects. I added a tassel to the bookmark that I stitched and it really made the whole thing pop...well, I think it did anyway!

So....how do you make a tassel? It's so easy, let me show you. 

You will need 

• a skein of thread in the colour of your choice
• scissors
• a needle

...and that's it! 

Here's how it's done. First of all, take out two lengths of thread approximately 15cm /6 inches long. To make it easy to see in the photos, I have used a contrasting thread colour. You should use the thread from the skein. Cut the skein of thread in half. Keeping the label on makes the whole process a bit easier ....

 ...take one of the 15cm/6"  long threads and loop it through all the threads...

...tie a knot..

...loop it through again and secure with another knot.

Do not cut this length of thread as this is what what will attach the tassel to your project.

Taking the second length of cut thread, warp it around the skein of thread approximately 1.5cm/1/2" from the top (just eyeball it, it doesn't have to be exact!), tie a knot and wrap around to the other side and tie another knot (you can add a small dot of fabric glue if desired)....

Thread your needle with the ends of the thread you just wrapped round and push the needle through the middle of the skein (you may need to do each length separately depending on how tightly you tied the thread)

Remove the label and then cut the tassel to the desired length!

Voila! You've just made a tassel....wasn't that easy? Here's what it looks like using the same colour of thread..

Now to start looking for projects that require a tassel!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Stitching up a storm!

When the background in the design is done in half stitches, it feels like I'm stitching up a storm....it seems to be growing so quickly! And being the queen of slow stitching you have no idea how wonderful that sounds to me! Just compare last weeks picture....

....to this week's progress picture...

Not too shabby...uh?

I heard back from Dimensions about the shortage of thread for Ice Cardinal. You may remember that I had used up all the threads for two of the colours in the kit, and you can see from the picture just how close I am to finishing it....

...yeah, just that little spot at the bottom to complete! I was emailed a conversion chart with the DMC and Anchor equivalents. I can't decide how I feel about this. On the one hand it's great that you can get the missing threads quite quickly, but on the other hand, it's costing  even more money to complete the kit which was expensive to buy. I'm also keeping my fingers firmly crossed that there won't be a noticeable difference in the colours with the DMC threads.  So, what do you think about having to buy threads to complete a kit? Should I be upset or not? Do you think the company should send some extra threads? Either way, it's time for me to stitch on black fabric again and get this cardinal finished....finally!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

I broke the cardinal rule!

I learned the hard way to always put your stitching away when you're not working on it. Years ago my daughter accidentally dropped a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce and the spaghetti sauce splashed over my stitching. Luckily for me that, although the stains did not come out even after several washes, the design was quit heavily stitched and the stains were covered by the stitching. Since then, I have been quite meticulous about always putting my stitching away.....except this week. I blame the brain fog on the fact that I had been feeling like I had been hit by a truck, thanks to the shingles vaccine. I put my stitching at the side of my chair and, yes, you've guessed it.....disaster! Yet another tomato sauce incident! Thank heavens that I had laid the chart over the main body of the fabric so only a small corner of fabric was splashed. The chart is now in colour....well, colour in some places! 

Image taken from Pinterest

The cardinal rule of stitching....always put your stitching away when you're not working on it!

Anyway, here's this weeks progress....minus the stains...

Last week my camera died before I could take a picture of the kit, so I left you wondering what the design was like - sorry! Here's what what it will eventually look like...

Luckily for me that the camera battery was all charged up when I spotted this little fella  hiding in the bushes right outside my front door...

Isn't he cute? Mama robin has been coming in regularly to feed him and they move hiding places so he's not obvious to predators.....or humans!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Not exactly bright and colourful!

I caved and started  stitching a new design! 

I didn't have the threads in my stash to complete Ice Cardinal and my fingers were itching to be working on something. After all the grey threads used in Ice Cardinal I was relishing the thought of something bright and colourful, but this happened.......

Not exactly bright and colourful, is it? 

The new start is a kit that my hubby bought for me at the same time as Ice Cardinal, so I felt I really should start working on it......I have had it for quite some time now.

The design is called 'Winter's Lace' and it's a Dimensions Gold kit.  The dove grey aida is a breeze to work on after the black aida. So although it' not bright and colourful, it's lovely to work on. Can you see that wolf beginning to emerge?

I'll be heading off to the craft store sometime this week to get the threads to complete Ice Cardinal as it doesn't seem like Dimensions will be sending replacement threads. Hopefully next week I'll be able to show you a finish!


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

A little bit of finishing!

A rainy Sunday seemed the perfect time to work on some finishing of old cross stitch projects. Since I wasn't able to get the correct colour of thread...the elusive DMC 209 that none of the craft stores had in stock....I decided to bash ahead with what I had on hand - otherwise this project might never get done!  First order of business was to make a tassel for the bookmark. I had planned to take pictures to show how I made it, but it was such a rainy miserable day that they turned out rather dark. It was so easy that I will certainly be making them again and will take pictures next time!

Being Mrs Indecision, I couldn't decide if I wanted a white background for the bookmark or if lilac or purple would look better. After humming and hawing for ages I decided to go with the white felt for backing. I ironed the stitching, folding the edges over to give a nice crisp edge then drew out the finished bookmark shape on a bit of card stock then cut out the felt to the right size and shape.

Using fabric glue to put it all together was super-quick and easy....just how I like my finishing to be :) and my bookmark is already in use.....

No threads have arrived from Dimensions and since there hasn't been a response to my email, I'm beginning to wonder if they will be sending me any replacement threads for Ice Cardinal. 

I decided to work on another quick stitch design that I have in my tin of magazine freebies. June isn't too early to start working on Christmas designs is it?!!!

A couple of evenings and this little cutie was completed! Now I just have to look out the double sided tape and my first Christmas card for this year will be done!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

At a standstill.

I'm so frustrated. Ice cardinal is at a standstill till I get more of the missing threads....

....I've stitched all that I can. Soooo close and yet so far!

I haven't heard back from Dimensions about my email request for more threads, so I'm hoping that they are just going to mail me the threads....keep your fingers crossed for me.

In the meantime....what can I start?!! 😏 

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Arghhh....the trouble with kits!

As you can probably tell from the title of this post, the dreaded curse of stitching from a kit has hit....you've guessed it....not enough thread......

I've been stitching up a storm to get this finished and I'm almost there...

....and then I ran out of thread! I'm sooo close to finishing too.

I emailed Dimensions requesting some replacement threads and then found a conversion chart on-line that might be helpful to anyone who stitches from kits. It can be found here and converts Dimensions colours to both DMC and Anchor threads. Of course the colour that I need to finish off this design I don't have in my stash....typical!

Anyhoo....here's what the whole design looks like now...

So maybe next week, I'll be dusting off the dancing shoes ready to do a happy dance....let's hope so!


Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona