Wednesday 30 March 2016

Lucky find

I stopped by a St Vincent De Paul store and found this stocking! Only $1!! Wonder why they didn't finish it. I'll add it to my FF WIP list.

Saturday 26 March 2016

Mini's Friday Frolicking

Hello Friends,

It's my first time posting on this blog. Thank you Kaye for accepting my request to be a Friday Frolicker .

Friday I stitched on my Candamar designs project called "Most Beautiful Things Picture". I have changed the fabric to 25 ct Zweigart vintage Lugana as the fabric in the kit was stamped . Here is my progress picture :


Here is how the finished piece will look like.

There is an interesting story behind this piece. If you want to read about it, you can find it here.

I'm one at a time stitcher ,so you will see a lot of pictures of this project in coming months ,until I decide to start a new piece lol. Hope you don't get bored .


Stitching for Syria...

For this week's Friday Frolics, I finished my Stitching for Syria piece and posted it off. This is run by Concern, an aid organisation, who have asked stitchers around the world to stitch this little design to be made into a wall hanging to show the women of Syria that stitchers around the world are thinking of them and are aware of their plight.  It is also to give them inspiration for their own craft.  I found out about this via the lovely Jo, who also stitched a block.



Stitched on 28 ct Mocah Linen
Floss: Cottage Garden Threads 1004 Blue Ixia

I was very pleased with how the colourway turned out on this piece and it has been sent to the women of Syria with all of my love.

That's all for now,

hugs, Kaye


Serendipitous Jo's Thirteenth Frolic of the Year

Does that mean we are a quarter of the way through the year already?

Yesterday was Good Friday which is a Bank Holiday in England so the boys were off school for the start of their Easter Holiday.  I decided to focus on the letter J from Nora Corbett and have now finished all the plain cross stitches and backstitch.  The Kreinik will be next (the veins in the wings and some swirls) and then the beads.  Lots of beads!

stitched on 32 count Murano Love-in-the-Mist from Crafty Kitten

Close-up of the fairy: 

You can see from the gaps how much beading there is to be done!

I also spent quite a lot of Friday hopping around the Blogosphere like an Easter Bunny to collect the letters for my Easter Treasure Hunt.  This is ongoing until 8th April so if you want to join in please hop over to my blog and get hopping from there!


The Sanctuary again

Hello friends,

yesterday I stitched on The Sanctuary again and finished the spring garden bed and started stitching the trees along the upper edge. The flowers were so much fun to stitch as each flower used a different specialty stitch.


Have a real Easter weekend,
Brigitte

Tuesday 22 March 2016

The Sanctuary

Hello friends,

I'm late with my FF report as usual.
I stitched some on Sanctuary by The Drawn Thread. I had pulled it out because I just wanted to stitch some specialty stitches. I worked on the borders around the flower beds and finished them on Sunday. It's the four sided stitch they are worked with, not difficult but slow going. And the walls between the flower beds are diagonal satin stitches.
Meanwhile I added the plants around the spring flower bed. Next will be a little rabbit and lots of spring flowers in the bed.


Happy stitching,
Brigitte

Monday 21 March 2016

Finally a little cross stitching

I've been very busy and haven't posted the pics I did manage to remember to take, LOL! These are from 3 FF.. It's Traveling With Santa from Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments 2013. My Fri Frolics have sometimes been on Sat whiling I'm babysitting. My little helper wanted to know where my magnets were. I told her at home. Don't need anymore snapped in to pieces, LOL! Makes it harder to keep my place without them.

Sunday 20 March 2016

Serendipitous Jo's Twelfth Frolic of the Year

The Third Friday of the month heralds the start of IHSW - International Hermit & Stitch Weekend hosted by Joysze of Random Ramblings.  Here are the guidelines for IHSW and here is March's sign-up page.  You can also copy Hermie the crab onto your blog to show everyone you have joined in.

My IHSW has been The Scarlet Letter's Elizabeth Shephard for some time now.  This month I focused on one motif and added some of the red touches to the rest of the design:


stitched on 30 count linen using AVAS silks

The centre part of this design is stitched in a dark green silk with the outer motifs done in brown.  I wonder if Elizbeth ran out of green and switched to the brown or if it was a deliberate choice.  She obviously did not have much of the red because she used it very sparingly.

Saturday 19 March 2016

A Friday Frolic on a Saturday - Happy Dance

Good afternoon everyone! I spent the day doing laundry and cross stitching in between loads.

I was able to finish my The Sweetheart Tree Blackberry Jam pattern.


Another small pattern finished from my stash of projects! Woohoo! I'll be returning to the saisons sampler after this for my Frolic days unless I'm tempted to start another project :)

Hope you guys are having a great weekend of crafting.

Rachel

Friday Frolicking.... and then nada!

Well, I am sooooooo behind!  I started this post on the 7th March and now it is the 18th!  That is what having a week or so of farewell celebrations when you are made redundant and finish work does to you - puts you totally off schedule!

This is what I wrote on the 7th March:

 Oooh, I never got around to posting the week before last's Friday Frolics and here it is the Monday after yet another FF!  So, you are are going to get a Two-for-One deal today - lol!

Friday, 26th February:
I randomly picked up my America Sampler by Jean Farish.  I am still stitching "America" across the top - one of these days I will get to stitch a State!
Before:
(now I have just added the pics and will continue with the blog post)



After:

Then, the following Friday, 5th March, I worked on my " Measure of a year" by Prairie Schooler, which I have now finished by working on it off and on over the past couple of weeks.






I am so thrilled with my finish and it is now off at the framers and should be back this week!

Unfortunately, the following Friday was my last day at work, so Frolicking of another kind took place - Twilight Music at the Zoo - Bjorn Again!



Then, this past Friday, 18th March, I picked up a mini rotation of three smalls I am doing for various SALs, Blog hops, etc.

Before pic:



After pic:


The Hallowe'en piece is for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL theme of pumpkins - it is a freebie from one of the designers on the Pumpkin Seed Stitchers FB group - Northern Expressions.

The sheep is another freebie, from the Le Comtesse & Le Point de Croix, which you can find here.

The snowman is Snow Mates by Blue Ribbon Designs from the JCS Christmas Ornie Magazine 2015.  This is being stitched for the JCS Stitch along FB group.


Anyway, I am going to stop here, or else I will never get this posted before next Friday - it is already Sunday!  lol!

I hope that you have all enjoyed this post, finally!, and that you are frolicking on.

hugs, Kaye


Saturday 12 March 2016

Blackberry Jam Progress ♡



My frolicking was today, which was great because it was a dreary, misty rain kind of day.

I finished backstitching except for the leaves in the center and I stitched the eyelet stitches around the design.

I started to bead one of the blackberries, but it looked wonky so I think I'll start back on them on another Frolicking Friday when I haven't been stitching all day. Maybe then the instructions will make more sense :)

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far!!

Until next time >___<

Rachel

Serendipitous Jo's Eleventh Frolic of the Year

Posting in a much more timely fashion this week!

Friday was the second Friday of the month which means Christmas stitching.  I've chosen the Christmas Cubes from Primitive Hare for my monthly project this year and here is my progress on the third cube:


There's not a lot of progress there, mostly because I am currently obsessed with my Nora Corbett Fairies.  Here is a corner of E, I am so close to a finish I'm not showing the whole piece until she is done!


Friday was her leg, the metallic (see the glimmer?) and the backstitch including those swirls.

Today I have completed the backstitch and started the beading!  Such fun.  What a shame I have to work tomorrow instead of continuing on her.  Nevermind, she'll be a finish in the early part of next week for sure.

Friday 11 March 2016

Serendipitous Jo's Tenth Frolic of the Year

Because of one of my colleagues swanning off to New York on holiday last week I had to work a number of full days, 9 until 5.30 which severely limits my stitching time!

However, I do get a proper lunch break when I work a full day instead of only 20 minutes to grab a coffee and a sandwich.  Which means stitching time!

Last Friday I took a new start - Lizzie*Kate's Sampling Easter with me and then in the evening I worked on Just Nan's Counting Bats because it was the First Friday of the month.

I didn't want to take Bats into work just in case I lost it because that project contains all the silks whereas L*K is just scraps and one overdyed.  Good decision as it turned out; I left the project bag in the staff room at work on Saturday!


Two very different projects.  The JN is stitched on 32 count lilac linen using silks with some over stitching (which I love).  The L*K is stitched on 14 count aida.  I KNOW!  Aida!  The thing was, I wanted a nice bright yellow and didn't have any evenweave or linen of any shade of yellow other than pale lemon.  It's stiff and hard but the colour redeems it.

I'm using a Jodyri thread called Crystal Seas for the letters and random threads from my scraps bags for the motifs.

If you like the Easter design, make sure you take part in my Easter Blog Hop because the chart will be the prize.  And a piece of the aida, have to use it up somehow!

It is Friday again today, Second Friday which means Primitive Hare Christmas Cubes come out to play.  Post to follow. 

Monday 7 March 2016

frolics on Saturday

I couldn't stitch on Friday, but I did manage to get some stitches in on Saturday. I'm back to stitching the Lizzie Kate.

Here's where I was before...



And here's where I am now...


Sorry for all the wrinkles!
'Till next week...
happy stitching!
lynda

Saturday 5 March 2016

Blackberry Jam Progress


Good evening everyone! Today was my Frolicking Friday. I picked up The Sweetheart Tree's Blackberry Jam pattern that I had put away while working on the Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks' compass. The picture above is it before I started working on it this afternoon.

And here's my progress for the afternoon and this evening. Not bad, not bad. I stitched up all the leaves and started to backstitch the leaves and vines. At first I didn't think the backstitching thread was showing up as a different color from the leaves, but I just needed to see it in different lighting :)


I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!!

Until next time >___<

Friday 4 March 2016

Sharing My WIP Progress... Frangipani Cross Stitch

Yesterday I spent some time working on one of my current WIPs... it's going to take some time, but it's not really a fiddly piece, just LOTS of stitches!
I bought this kit a couple of years ago... I l-o-v-e Frangipani (second only to hibiscus!) and this is going to be a beauty when it's done.

So during Friday, I was able to add the dark green section at the top left, & also the beginnings of a flower petal in white & creams.
This is a kit from Country Threads, design by Fiona Jude & the design is 25cm square (10inches).

Happy Stitching!

Me and my wolf

Hi,

Today I worked on this piece and managed to finish it too:)


This little chart is part of a set of Native American Gift ideas in Cross Stitch Crazy magazine (issue 214) designed by Durene Jones. I did not have the threads listed in the magazine so I had to dig through my thread stash and try to come up with good alternative threads. I love almost all the designs featured and I'm thinking of stitching another dream catcher design next...or maybe a beautiful feather design...hmm...

Looking forward to seeing what you've all been working on today:)

Annie

Wednesday 2 March 2016

friday frolic frogs

This past Friday was not a very productive one for me! Instead of my Lizzie Kate, I decided to stitch on Strawberry Garden from Blackbird Designs. I really love these designs, but for some reason they always take me some time to really get into the stitching of them. Very slow starts, always!
Anyway, here's where I began;



And here's where I ended.


And then I realized that all those branches on the upper part were started in the the wrong spot and had to be re-done. Not too big a deal, just annoying. except that after re-stitching them, I saw that the bit of the over-dyed thread was way darker than any of the other bits. It looked funny, so...out came all those same stitches again. Stitch once, frog twice!

Oh well, it will get done eventually!

See you on Friday!

lynda