Friday, May 31, 2013

Blackwork Quilt - nearly there!

Well, I got almost half the background done and ran out of floss. It's my favorite purple (154), so it seems stupid that I didn't have an extra skein around. Oh well. I'm hoping to get to the store tomorrow, but I really like the way the purple is making it pop.

Wish I'd chosen a different color for the flowers, or done them in half-stitches, but oh well. This one had a lot of mistakes and things I had to work around. Maybe someday I'll make another and it will be perfect (ha, like that will happen).

In the meantime I've been working on my first kitschy transfer piece! I have a big thing for mermaids, and strong feelings that they wouldn't have pink skin or red hair.  Here she is so far.


Meanwhile my mom is is Italy, taking pictures of things she feels would make excellent cross-stitch patterns (and cats lounging on statues).

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Blackwork Quilt


I could have sworn I'd posted update pictures of this piece already! Apparently my brain has gone hooey.

Soo, this is the piece. There have been some issues. Didn't have enough of the one hand-dyed thread for the squares, went to get more, but I'd written down the wrong number. Realized that the sun had faded the other pieces anything, so waiting to use more of that would still leave problems. 

So I used one green-blue kind and one yellow-green kind, then decided to do have the piece is more greenish colors and half in more yellowish colors. It's not really noticeable enough though. I now have many things I wish I'd done with the the corner pieces, but oh well.

I'm doing the remaining white parts in dark purple (154) half stitches. I don't dislike the piece, but I can't help thinking about what I *would* have done if I'd sat and given myself time to think about the choices. I wish I could make myself go through all the options ahead of time, but I don't seem to have the knack. I'm slower with my color choices now, at least, but that's as far as I've come.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Onesie City

My friend got her package, so I can show you the onesies I stitched!

Unlike with all of Benjamin's onesies, I used fabri-solvy as a stabilizer and just drew the design on that with a water soluble marker. It worked brilliantly and make the task SO much easier. 

The designs are a big wonky, because I free-handed them pretty quickly, but I'm pretty happy with them. 

I'm having a block in finishing my robot sampler design, so it's back to work on the blackwork quilt piece.


Monday, May 6, 2013

Finally!

I am finally stitching again! It is quite the relief. I finished two small free embroidery pieces, but I'll have to wait a few days to show you, as they're a gift that's currently in the mail and I'm playing it safe.

However, I found this old piece that I started and nearly finished over a year ago. It got shoved in my purse for a while, and then into a drawer. It was a quick finish, which made me feel nice and productive.

I also spent the last few days cutting and gluing fabric onto hoops so I could start an embroidery display wall! It's not the in the best place for it, but I've lived here for almost three years and my walls are pretty damn crowded.