The Girl that Stitches

Butterflies Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been stitching another butterfly cushion! This was the colour scheme of the first one I stitched some time ago. Original Butterfly: Monet’s Room I stitched another version of this butterfly as a gift for my Sister. The colour design of the cushion was inspired by Monet's painting "Water Lily Pond 2." My Sister has a room with a Monet inspired colour scheme, so I picked colours that would work in this room. Water Lily Pond 2 by Monet: New Butterfly; Ready to be stitched to cushion: Finished Cushion; 22 count Hardanger tented with 3 to 4 strands: Lilly Butterfly The Pattern is available on the downloads page .  The colours used in this Monet version are: Happy Stitching! xxx

Some Treasure: Treasure Hunt is moving along slowly… I’ve started on page five of the cropped chart. Stitching this in conjunction with the Mystery Chart has me suck in a pit of never ending confetti! Previous progress: Current progress:  The hourglass is starting to appear! Update on the Floss Organizer If you haven’t already noticed the Floss Organizer I made has recently been revised.  I added a skein estimator, percentage calculator and fabric calculator. Since the document has become quite fancy, I also created a User Guide to make it easier to navigate through the different sections and see how it all works. These are both available on the downloads page. A Little More Mystery: Here is where the Mystery Chart is at! I’m falling behind with this one and need to get a move on with it! Previous progress: Current progress:  Happy Stitching! xxx

I’ve finished page 6 of Nocturne, which means the whole top row is now finished! This is tented on 25 count lugana using 2 over 1 on the light colours and 3 over 1 on the dark and mid tones. Previous progress: Current progress: I extended my Q-snap from an 11x17 to a 14x20 inch frame. Nocturne now fits perfectly across the width of the frame, which means no frame creases in the sides!!! When I ordered the Q-snap extension kit I also got a small 8x8 inch frame for the Mystery Chart… Well the 8x8 inch has actually now morphed into an 11x11 inch thanks to the extra extension kit in my box of q-snap goodies! Anyway, the Mystery Chart now snaps nicely into my microphone stand… and I’m singing away … I mean stitching away! ;) Q-snap Goodies: Bird Song I’ve dived into page two of the mystery chart and the birds are taking shape. The top row is only two pages… I’m thinking I will change approach and cross country the whole next row once this row is done. I normall...

This year I am participating in the HAED BB SAL (Heaven and Earth bulletin board stitch a long). At the start of the year I set the following goals for 2015: Treasure Hunt: pages 3, 4, 5, 6 ( have currently completed pages 3 & 4) Nocturne: pages 4, 5, 6, 8 (have currently completed pages 4 & 5) Iris: page 2 and 3 (have currently completed page 2 and about half page 3) Even though I’m about halfway there I still feel there is lots of stitching remaining! Especially on Treasure… One page of treasure seems to take forever! I really want to meet these goals and have been trying to work out a rotation that meets them and also introduces the new pieces I’ve started… but from my calculations I’m being a bit ambitious.  So the plan is to focus on the goals I originally set and to also get the mystery chart completed by the end of the year so it can be gifted.  That’s going to be a challenge in itself as that mystery chart is the most detailed pattern I’ve ever att...

I have finished page five of Nocturne! There is one more page of clouds to stitch to complete the first row.  Awhile back I decided to try Petite Treasure braid PB10 thread from Rainbow Gallery.  This page full of sparkly cloud stitching was a great opportunity to test out the PB10 and compare it with the Kreinik #4 032 (very fine braid) metallic.  I found they were not all that different to stitch with.  However, I did prefer the feel of the Treasure Braid because it frayed less when trying to thread it onto the needle and therefore I felt there was more integrity to the thread.  At a subtler level the Treasure Braid also seemed to sit slightly neater in the stitching because the integrity of the thread seemed sturdier. I also found the tones in each were slightly different and they both caught the light differently. The Krienik has an orange/gold tone running through it (which is absent in the Treasure Braid) and the Treasure Braid has a hot pink to...

Treasure Hunt is such a confetti heavy pattern that it seems to be taking a long time to get not much done!  I admire anyone braving the whole chart!  Page number three of the cropped section is now finished and I'm just over halfway through page four.  There are ten pages all up. Previous progress: The project was not fitting on my q-snap frame well (I had to hold it with the longer length as the height, which just felt weird) so I went a hunting for my old scroll frame, which has been tucked away in the cupboard catching dust for some time!   All of my other projects are too big for this frame but Treasure Hunt fits on there nicely.  Now I'm back to stitching with the frame being longer in width which feels less weird!  Having the two frames in use means I can work multiple projects and not have to swap projects on and off the q-snap as much :D  Yay! This was also timed well because now the stitching won't end up with indentation marks from th...

Hi! I hoped to have Umbrella Sky framed by now but unfortunately there has been a delay with the frame shop getting the moulding.  So I thought I'd show you all how Nocturne is going instead :) I've managed to finish page four which takes me to five pages completed!  This takes Nocturne from 9.97% to 12.43% complete.  It feels good to jump into the double digits! Previous progress: Current progress:  

The Butterfly has finally made it onto the cushion! It’s taken awhile to get round to it but here are the steps I went through to get there! 1. I washed the stitching with quilt soap. This is also known as Orvus paste and is also used for washing horses! I brought this specially to wash Umbrella Sky with because it has no harsh chemicals and wont damage the stitching. 2. After washing I ironed it face down with a tea towel over the top to sort out any wrinkles. It was still a bit damp so I left it to dry. 3. Here I did all the measuring for the cushion cover and pinned the seams. I chopped off the excess fabric on the butterfly and sealed the edges with the fray stop. 4. More pinning and measuring to get everything centered! 5. I needed to sew on the ribbon and butterfly to the fabric before sewing up the side seams of the cushion. I hand sewed all the ribbon and it took me about five hours! 6. I sewed up the seams on the sewing machi...