Monday, October 28, 2019

A Halloween finish!

Phew....just in time for Halloween! So my little Halloween design that I was stitching last week is all finished....and I mean finished, finished :) Yay me!!!

So after you saw some of the Halloween design last week, (click here for how it looked as my 'almost finished' piece) I finished the stitching part then got on with the finishing part.

First off.....cutting the design to shape....


...then deciding on what order I wanted the coloured felt to be, black border with an orange background.....


....or orange border with an black background...


 Ahh, decisions, decisions! So although I liked the orange with the black background better, I realized that it wouldn't show up if I put the banner on my front door which is painted black, so the decision was kind of made for me....black with orange!

Next step was glueing/gluing  (I ended up looking up the spelling as it doesn't look right either way! Now I know that you can use either!) the stitching to the felt....


Trim to size the repeat with the orange felt...


The with a rather long length of black and white bakers twine (which  was so hard to find in the shops!) and a large darning needle....


....we end up with this....


For speed I pictured it on an inside door, it will of course have pride of place, and show up rather nicely, on my black front door just in time for Halloween!

Now I just have to go and buy some more sweets/candy for the trick-or-treaters on Halloween  (please don't ask why I have to buy more sweets/candy 😏 )

Until next time....happy stitching!


Rhona

Monday, October 21, 2019

Some little finishes!

Ahh...that wonderful feeling when the stitching is complete...times three! Well, maybe it should only be two, as I finished one last week , but the other two that complete the set are now all stitched!

The first designs for Christmas cards are stitched and now ready to be made into cards....



....and the one I showed you last week....


I didn't follow the chart exactly (I'm such a rebel! 😃 ) as the half cross stitches for the background were supposed to be done in two strands of thread and I thought it looked a bit too heavy, so opted to use only one strand. I love how it looks a bit softer than on the finished pieces in the magazine.

Here's the set...


All I need to do now is trim the designs down to size and attach them to the card mounts that came in the kit.  Don't you just love those quick projects that look as if they took ages to do?

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Monday, October 14, 2019

A finish, an almost finish and some progress!

Since it's been two weeks since my last post  (how did that happen?) I have a few things to share with you! I'll do them in the order of the post title. First up is my little finish....


You may recall from my last post that I was itching to have a finish and this free kit that came with this months World of Cross Stitching magazine arrived in the mail box at just the perfect time! The tangle of threads at the top is what happens when you are stitching in the hospital waiting room and can't lay out the threads neatly! A couple of hours waiting for hubby while he had some tests done meant that I got lots stitched and was able to finish off the design the next night. Don't you just love those quick to stitch things? There's some metallic X's in the background design which give just a subtle sparkle (a bit too subtle for the camera to pick up though!)

The 'almost a finish' is one of my own designs that I decided to stitch up...


 Since the title is clearly visible on the top of the chart ( I didn't notice it when I was taking the picture!) there's no point in trying to keep it a secret! This little Halloween banner shouldn't take too long to finish. The stitching is almost complete and since Halloween is just round the corner, I really can't procrastinate with the finishing ....I do want to use it this year!

So now I need to show you the progress I have made on Winter's Lace....


I'm getting there...slowly but surely (with the emphasis on slowly!)

Last of all, I want to share with you my oh-so-cute gift card holders that are  in this month's World of Cross Stitching magazine....


I loved the idea of taking a stitching hoop and making it into a gift card holder and was so excited when the magazine accepted the idea and the designs.  World of Cross Stitching now prints the name of the model stitcher and these designs were stitched by Jan Hazeltine who did a fantastic job with them. Here's a close up of one of the finished hoops...


 Wouldn't they look great hanging on your tree at Christmas?  They have been added to my 'to-stitch' list but I doubt if I'll get them done for this Christmas, my list is too long!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona