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

Of Earth, Air, Water & Fire This week I finished the top page on the Phelan project.  The first column is now complete! Reminder of cropped version: Previous progress: Current progress: It's really tricky to capture the sparkle on camera.  It glitters more in person!  The metallic threads were not charted and have been added to the design.   Goals Update Now the Phelan pages are done I'm very very close to achieving my yearly goals!  There are still two pages left to finish for my 2016 goals.  The pages are almost there but both have a decent amount of confetti remaining, so fingers crossed they can be completed in time! Update on the T-shirt Yarn Project! After checking out how many t-shirts were used in similar projects,  I decided there was a need for more shirts!  The yarn pile has now multiplied from 29 to 51 balls! There are also some spare shirts to cut up if need be. The dark greens and blues are not displaying correctly...

I've needed a short break from the confetti in my Wall Challenge piece and have some more progress to show on “Of Earth, Air, Fire & Water.  I hoped to have this page fished already, but it's very close to being done! Last update on this project, there were issues with the white light effects (E5200) going over the yellow section of the wings.  The white metallic blended with the yellow dmc was washing out the dmc too much.  To solve this I ended up finding a yellow light effects (E746).  This is working perfectly over the yellow section and the results are great! Yellow light effects: Previous progress: Current progress: Close up of light effects on yellow section of the wings: I’m still going on the challenge and I’m up to colour 31 at the moment. It’s progressing slowly! Happy stitching! xxx

Of Earth, Air, Fire & Water I’ve made some progress on the Angel piece by Phelan.   I’m about halfway through working on the second page of “Of Earth, Air Fire & Water" (page 7).   Previous Progress: Current Progress:   Heavenly Sparkle This design has not been charted with metallic thread.  I decided to add metallic to give her more of an ethereal/translucent look as this seems appropriate for an angel!  I’m using one strand of E5200 over 3770 and one strand of PB10 over 3865.  It made sense to use the metallic with the more intense sparkle over the brighter DMC shade. I’m enjoying the way the sparkle in the wings is turning out!  I need to decide whether to continue the metallic blend all the way through the wings. The original plan was to do this… but now I’m getting to the part where there is more light yellow and need to check if it will tone in okay.  Using the E5200 over the 3770 lightens it considerabl

Here is a reminder of where the Mystery Chart left off at!: And now...  Drumroll...  Well… Here we go… ta da!!! Mystery Chart Finish: Tented using 3 to 4 strands (colour dependent) on 20 count Mint Green Bellana/Lugana Started March 19th 2015, Completed December 18th 2015 Completion time: 9 months (whilst jugging other wips!) This is my second ever stitchy finish!  It's such a good feeling to put that last stitch in! It's also such a relief to finish the piece in time for Christmas so it can be gifted.  Since it’s not so mysterious anymore I can reveal the source.  The chart is appropriately called Flowers and Birds and is available as a freebie from the Free Cross Stitch online website .  It is a very complex pattern to stitch… If you check it out you will see the confetti battle within and understand!  Improvising You may notice the pattern has been made wider.  It has been stitched out an additional 1-2 centimeter

I’ve been working on the Phelan Chart: “Of Earth, Air, Fire & Water." Finally I have finished the first page! Her hair has toned down a bit now the surrounding colours are in! Progress: Halloween Chart If you missed the butterfly freebie for Halloween here it is again!: Happy Halloween and happy stitching! xxx

Some More Mystery... Here is my progress on the Mystery Chart!  There are still so many confetti stitches to fill in! Previous progress: Current progress: Also I've made a decent start on the first page of the Phelan Chart.  Her hair is coming across very orange but hopefully should tone down a bit once the surrounding colours are stitched. This one is being tented on 18 count cream davosa fabric with a variable amount of strands (3-5 depending on colour): Freddy Werner's Butterfly Chart Finish A big thanks to Freddy Werner for sharing her stitching progress on the butterfly chart (available on the downloads page). It has been a joy to watch it take shape! I love her use of variegated thread as I think it gives the piece a great sense of movement.  Freddy has plans to make the butterfly into a cushion, it may be showcased in an exhibition and will get a spot on her stitchy couch! :D Congratulations on your beautiful finish Freddy: Freddy's Butterfly (share

I’ve started stitching Robber Bridegroom again! I was really excited to find that DMC have darker metallic thread in their light effects range corresponding with the 310 and 317 in this chart. The light effects e310 is a shiny black colour and I’ve decided it will look amazing blended in with the normal DMC black for the hair. I also got some e3747 along with the e317 to work in with some of the lighter more blue based tones in the clothing. Here are all the metallic threads I will be using: Tresure Braid  PB10, Kreinik 032,  Light Effects e310, e317, e3747 and e5200: I have a pretty extensive plan for adding the metallic threads to the chart. The plan is based on some test patches I did with a whole lot of different blends of metallic threads combined with particular DMC threads in the chart. Also I’ve been through the whole pattern and looked at what colours are where to give me an idea of how to blend and combine threads. I’ve just got to bring out the

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