You know you have a problem when......

.....you buy the same design twice! I admit it, I have a problem.....and this is the design that I bought not once but twice.....

....has anyone else done this? I think this should be a wake-up call for me to go through all my stash and get reacquainted with what I have 😊

It was a relief to be working on white fabric again and it seemed to stitch up fairly quickly compared to the black fabric and the cardinal from last week.  Here's my progress so far...

....I decided to do some back stitching so that it's not so much of a chore at the end....

Now my problem is that I want to do more of this design instead of going back to the cardinal which was my original plan......will I be good and stick to the plan? Tune in next week to find out!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Fun Finds Friday

This week while having a quick (ha ha!) nosey on Pinterest, I came across this picture....

....kind of looks like the hoops from last weeks Friday Finds, doesn't it? Unfortunately the blog that the picture links to, appears to have been closed. I was so excited to see how I could make these hoops and then so disappointed because there were no instructions. So, what's a girl to do when she can't find a tutorial on how to make them? Well, I guess she has to do it herself......so here we go!

Gather all your supplies.....hoops (of course!) and fabric (a small pattern would work best on this project) then your choice of either glue, double sided tape or glue tape runner. I tried all three and there were pros and cons to all. In the end I felt that the glue runner seemed best but feel free to use what you have on hand.

  
First step is to trim your fabric into long strips, mine were about 1.5 cm wide, but they don't have to be exact!

Then dab a spot of glue on the inside of the hoop to hold the fabric in place. I found that the tacky glue was a bit messy and I preferred the tape.....but there's no rules about what you can use.....

 ....then keep wrapping around and around pulling tightly until you come to the end of the hoop. Another dab of glue or bit of double sided tape to finish off at the other end and you're done!

  
Of course after I had taken this picture I realized that I should have covered the metal fitting....duh! So......undo all that work and start again......

.....much better! For my next hoop I decided to use some ribbon....no cutting or snipping frayed edges.....much simpler......

..... and a nice shiny finish too!

So many lovely colours and pattern in ribbons that can match any project you are working on....

....add the same ribbon to make a hanging loop and a little bow to finish it off...

...and you have it all matching! 

Doesn't that look great? The design I used here is one of Joan Elliott's from her book 'Cross Stitch Greeting Cards'. The blue in the design and the ribbon matches perfectly! What a great finish....well, I think so anyway!

Until net time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Winter stitching!

It seems as if Mother Nature has finally realized that it should be Spring and has given us some almost Spring-like weather.....so I go back to stitching a wintry design! Go figure! I went back and started stitching some more of the beautiful cardinal design....

....I managed some more of the bird and decided to do some of the ice covered branches......

It's very slow going as I really am not a fan of stitching on black fabric. The end result will be beautiful but I'm sure it will test my patience after a while!

On the couple of nights that stitching on black just seemed to unbearable I ended up picking up my crochet again...

This blanket has been languishing in my crochet basket for a while. It was nice to be working on this again and it's one of those projects that you can do while watching the telly......the cardinal isn't this kind of project so I'm hoping to get a few more rows of this blanket done.....maybe even finish it soon? 

Hope you're having a wonderfully crafty week, and thanks for stopping by!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Fun Flowery Find!

So this week's Fun Find is a flowery one....just so that I could keep up the alliteration!

This is what caught my eye this week (Instagram has a lot to answer for!)........

Photograph copyright DMC

These are the new DMC Daisy hoops...aren't they adorable! They come in the four colours pictured above and in either circular  or oval shaped hoops. Click here to see the DMC Instgram post. Sadly for those of us living in the US, these bright and cheerful hoops are only available in the UK and some European countries......all I can say is...... 'thank heavens for international postage!'

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

When you're about to do a happy dance....but.....

.....don't you hate it when the word 'but' is in the same sentence as 'happy dance'? 

So there I was ...all set to do my happy dance as I had finished my little embroidery project.....

 ...but then I noticed that something wasn't quite right...

....did you spot it? Yup, I used the wrong colour! One side of the design is stitched with  pink and magenta and the other side is pink and lilac! Now on some things it really doesn't matter if you've used the wrong colour....usually no-one would notice but on this it seemed kind of obvious -  although how I missed it while stitching I'll never know!  So my happy dance was delayed while I unpicked the lilac and re-stitched with the magenta....

...and it does look so much better being stitched in the right colours....don't you agree? And since I'm thinking of finishing this one off by using a bright magenta hoop, I'm glad that there's a bit more magenta in the design.

Here's the details of the kit...

Bucilla Plaid stamped embroidery called Bohemian Paisley
Stamped on dark blue denim fabric.
Finished size 6 inches
Threads, fabric, and instructions included.

As much as I enjoyed trying something a bit different (and I'll definitely be doing some more embroidery as it was fun) I'm really itching to get back to doing some good old  cross stitch!

Until next time (and don't forget to check in on Friday to see what fun finds there are this week!)....happy stitching!

Rhona

Fun Finds Friday!

Here's the first of my new Friday posts.....any fun thing related to stitching that catches my eye.....anything from new gadgets, new techniques, finishing ideas etc......the list is endless (at least, I think it is!)

So what better way to start  off Fun Finds Friday than with a free chart.......or what about five free charts?!! 

The first one is one of my own designs that you can find at http://www.cross-stitching.com. 

Photograph copyright Immediate Media Co.

You have to become a member to access the free charts....but there's plenty to choose from, so it's worth doing :) This design makes a great card for almost any occasion.

The next free chart is from Amanda Gregory......

Picture copyright Amanda Gregory

You can get Amanda's sweet little dream catcher here. This is such a cute design and is another design that can be used for so many different things.

And if you were lucky enough to get you hands on the new DMC thread colours, here's a gorgeous design that uses those new colours!

Photograph copyright StitchedModern.

This chart can be accessed here. Stunning on black fabric, don't you think?

This free design is from the wonderful, bad sadly retiring Linda Ebright better known as    Lizzie Kate  of Lizzie Kate designs

Picture copyright Lizzie Kate

Friendships are something that have certainly grown with this blog so I thought this design really fitting to have in this first of the Fun Finds Fridays!! You can get the free chart here.....just scroll down for this and many other free charts. You can also visit the Lizzie* Kate blog here

And finally, design freebie number five......a design that's great for using up any colour in your thread box...

....stunning in black thread, but would look good in any colour! You can find the chart here. This is another one that's being added to my to-stitch list! 

Hope you like the first Fun Finds Fridays!

Check back on Monday to see what I've been stitching!

Rhona

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Trying something new!

Learning new things can be fun.....and it's supposed to be good for your brain....maybe not always good for your wallet, but we'll just concentrate on the good parts! 

So as I was wandering round my local craft store I spotted this little kit and decided to try something a bit different and expand my crafting skills....

....it's a Bucilla embroidery kit and the colours really caught my eye. It's printed on a denim fabric and uses some basic embroidery stitches, some of which I'm familiar with and others that I have had to learn. Luckily for me, the Internet is  a crafter's delight and good old google always come to the rescue :)

This has taken me wayyyy longer than I had anticipated, partly because I haven't done some of the stitches before and also due to the fact that I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I have been doing quite a bit of frogging to get the stitches to look he way that I want them to.

So this first attempt at embroidery is far from perfect, but it is enjoyable and since I already own a ton of one or two skeins of thread, it might not be an expensive new hobby to undertake! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :)

Don't worry, cross stitching hasn't been abandoned.....I managed to finish off the rose design that I posted about last week. Now I have another gorgeous little card to add to my stash...

....isn't that pretty? 

Hope you have a wonderfully creative and productive week.

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

No more blues....at least for a little while!

No more feeling the blues for me.......the love birds are finished!!!

So, the burning question is did I add the border or not? Well I appreciated all your comments and I have to say that I agreed with both sides.... fine without and fine with. In the end, after much deliberation I decided that it looked a bit unfinished without the border and seemed to need something to anchor or frame the design (I guess the designer really did know best!) so I reluctantly picked up the blue threads yet again and stitched the border.....

Although I would say that the design does need a border, I'm not sure if the border style is exactly in keeping the main part of the design. Anyhoo, it's done and looks fine and there's no way, I'm unpicking it and doing any more blues for a looooong time! 

So here are the details of this kit and my thoughts on it (These are just my opinions and I haven't been asked to do this by the company)....

The kit is by Plaid Bucilla and called 'Love You Always'. Finished size is 8 x 10 inches and stitched on 14 count aida. Whole cross stitch, half cross stitch, back stitch/long stitch and french knots are used in this design. Kit comes with a black and white printed chart, fabric, threads and a needle.

Here's some pros and cons of the kit...

Pros.

Lots of threads (I didn't run out of any colour!)
Very large black and white printed chart....and when I say large, I mean large......(Great for those of us who's eye sight isn't as good as it once was! 😄 )

Cons.

Not quite enough fabric. I like to have more fabric  to allow for stretching the finished design and framing.
The chart is super large as you can see from the photo....it's almost too large and is quite awkward for stitching and holding the chart.
Threads didn't come pre-sorted......those blues are killers!

So now I just have to decide how to finish this piece and not abandon it in the pile of shame.

Here's my next little start, it's the free kit from this months' World Of Cross Stitching magazine. The appeal for this little design wasn't the fact that it was a quick stitch.....it's because there are no blues at all in the design! Yayy!

Also in this months magazine are my little mug cosy designs.....

 World of Cross Stitching magazine

Immediate Media Co.

Didn't they stitch up beautifully?  I was really tempted to stitch some of these when I was designing them, but didn't get round to doing them (isn't that always the way!) but seeing them again, I think they might be added to my ever increasing to-stitch list.  

Here's a picture of my little mock-up that I made to check out the sizes when I was originally working on them.  I keep this kind of thing in case there is ever a problem with the deign when the magazines are making up the finished article.The designs are done so far in advance that it's often hard to remember small details that you were thinking at the time you were working on them so keeping this mock up helps......

 ....I didn't have time to do much stitching so all I did was the back stitch detail!  And a little tip for anyone who might be thinking of making these, I used one of those coloured elastic hair ties instead of a regular piece of elastic as the size was right and the colour matched the felt perfectly!

  
Also in the magazine is my Blackwork alphabet ......

Traditional Blackwork with a modern pop of colour....so versatile! 

And one last thing....

World Craft Week this year is  April 16th - 22nd. You can find all the details and download your free crafting magazine here.  This year it's supporting Bliss, the leading charity for premature and sick babies in the UK. There are some really cute projects in the magazine - I'm sharing because it's for a great cause and we all need some more projects to do, don't we?!!!!


Thanks again for all your opinions on whether or not to do the border in the Love Birds design....and for all your comments in general....much appreciated.

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona