Royal Winton Queen Anne - Finished!

Today is an historic day. I have finished my chintz napkin. There are a few little things I might go in and add/fix, but it's pretty damn finished and that's the main thing.

After months of working on and off, horrible hand cramps, unfocusing eyes, pricked fingers and bouts of swearing, I'll never need to stitch that damn pattern again.

If you'd like to stitch it just contact me for the pattern. It's easy enough to get from the china, but mine is already finished and in a handy .jpg file so I'm happy to share.

Now I can rest and get some good laziness in before the next project!

So close!

Well here is the next to last stage of the chintz napkin. I'm determined that my next spurt of working on it will finish it. After that I will probably frame it.

Today is the birthday of my adorable niece, Evie. I gave her the Celtic G and her parents were suitably happy, I think. A year ago I was woken up at 6 am and had to drive to my sister's to watch my nephew as Madre and Kyla went to the clinic, as Evie came so quickly there was no time to get to the birth center or the hospital. Evie was born in a small doctor's office, next door to a Big Lots, after only around an hour in labor. She is a very happy baby, and loves her Auntie Moo (that's me), which is of course the most important thing.


My own birthday is in four days. I am not really very excited. It means I've spent another year stagnating in the same stalled state while those around me move forward with their lives in the approved fashion. My teeth are also rather screwed up so I'm not eating cake or anything fun. I'm always happy to have a morning with my family though, so at least there's that.

The last two days have also seen substantial progress on the wisteria photo-stitch piece. The left side has a lot of large chunks of green so I've been steadily working on that. It still looks rather insane, but is coming a little more easily now. Well, I say that, but I'm about to run out of the large swaths of green and will be back in the more frustrating work tomorrow. Which actually sounds like a good reason to start my next Pratchett quote as a lovely break.

Onward and Upward

Well, I've completed the only full version of the largest design in the napkin. It is ALMOST perfectly centered, so now I'm quite annoyed with myself for not trying to plan that.

Granted, I don't think I could have, as there was a tiny stain in the corner and I had to make sure it would be covered up. 

Anyway, I'm pleased with the progress and can't wait to be done! There will be another break from this project though, while I finish the third border on my "une fille formidable" piece.

lots of little stitches

Well I'm about a third of the way through my chintz napkin! It's going much faster than I'd thought it would, which is generally the way with all of my larger projects.

I think as my 'break' project, for when I get tired of no frame and tiny stitches, I'll finally stitch my Liverpool pattern. I'm going to do it on 22 ct. Aida though, so it goes more quickly and won't use up so much thread. 

In a bit over a week I'll be at the beach with Madre for our timeshare week. Lately I've been so tired and run down and anti-social that it can't come too soon. It will be a relief to get away from this apartment and this city.

blinding progress

I am slightly kicking myself for deciding that doing a chintz napkin to match the chintz cup was a good idea. This is SUCH a frustrating pattern, because of all the tiny bits of one color spread out in a way that makes it difficult to keep at all organized.

It is going well though and it will be amazingly gorgeous when I'm finished. That's some consolation.

I've been posting some older patterns in my Etsy shop. You can now find the Moody Bastarditis pattern, Not Dumb Luck, Dumb Skill, Reality Continues to Ruin My Life, Never Bored When I Am Present, and Captain Haddock (though those last two are quite new, of course).

The shop has been more successful than I ever dreamed and it makes me really happy that other people actually want to stitch my patterns. I'm going to start work on a "Living in Sin" pattern with a super traditional border. It will give me something less frustrating to work on when I get sick of the chintz napkin.

Oh, if anyone would like the pattern for the Royal Winton Queen Anne chintz, just let me know and I'll send it to you. It's easy enough to make yourself but is tedious and annoying.

Napkin madness...

Remember my tea napkins which match my tea cups? Well I've finally started on my fifth one. It will match my Royal Winton Queen Anne tea cup and saucer, the pattern of which IS a cross-stitch pattern! Since it's a chintz (all-over pattern) tea cup I'm doing the napkin as chintz as well.

This means it will take bloody forever. I decided to measure the stitches and each one is 1mm square. My eyes and hands shall hate me for weeks, but oh well. It will be absolutely glorious when finished and that's what counts. It's also difficult since you have to look back at the pattern every three seconds, there's no steady stitching to be done.

Haven't decided yet what to do as a normal "not killing my eyes" pattern to use as a break between chintzing.

yet again...

This is a hard time of year for me. First it's my nephew's birthday, then my sister's, then my brother-in-law's, then Thanksgiving. After that it's clear sailing though, since I've had all my Christmas shopping done for ages.

I've been being really productive and doing actually useful things, so of course the embroidery suffers. Really it's a good thing though as I needed to clean out my fridge and get a new dresser and all that.

What I'm super excited about is having bought the best tea cup ever! It's the Royal Winton Queen Anne chintz design which is a cross-stitch pattern basically. How cool is that? I can't wait to the do the matching tea napkin.

There are new patterns in my Etsy store and I'm hoping to start an Uncle Scrooge quote for my dad for Christmas. My brain is so sick of working on patterns on the computer though. 

Instead I'm burying myself in True Stories of the Great War a collection of stories/articles edited by Francis Trevelyan Miller. When you read the titles you have to say them around in a very dramatic newsreel voice. Titles such as "Tales of the Daring Rides of a French Trooper" and "What the Kaiser's Son Saw on the Battlefield." I am utterly mad for that kind of thing. It's usually interesting but also makes me giggle.