Winter wreath - almost finished

I'm almost finished and I have to say I am really happy with this project. Up above, you see my progress with adding initials in the center.



I stitched the berries using 1 strand of DMC rayon floss in a shiny copper color - 30434 - Sepia Brown.



The finished berries - I love the sheen.



Next, I finished up the back - I drew up the excess linen in the back using a loose running stitch. Then I cut a circle of interfacing and stitched some navy linen onto it...



Here's what I hope the finished back will look like - nice and neat!



I braided some gold floss together to give the hoop something nice to hang from...



Apologies for the last few photos, they were taken in the middle of some late-night crafting, and my cell camera is very odd in low light.

But there's my progress so far! I'll get some proper photos before I give the hoop away, and share those and a book review on Feeling Stitchy very soon!

Winter wreath - tracing paper and pearlescent floss

After all the chalk marks on my navy blue linen faded, I decided to try stitching on tracing paper.

I was curious to see how much I'd departed from the original - I'd just been eyeballing everything as I stitched...



Looks like I make things bigger when eyeballing the pattern... I didn't stress, because I'm not aiming for an exact reproduction.



I stitched over the tracing paper on a big french knot dandelion - I was inspired by this great tutorial by Mary Corbet on Needle n Thread. By the way, I'm really enjoying stitching with that Nun's Boilproof vintage floss.



Next I couched the dandelion stems, using more Nun's Boilproof vintage floss.



Here's the finished Dandelion - the tracing paper did help me stitch those knots more carefully. The only drawback was of course, when I removed the tracing paper, several knots were pulled.

I think I'll do a combination of tracing paper and just eyeballing for the rest of the dandelions.



I tried some Pearlescent Effects floss on the French knots in the center of that large white flower. The texture is really rough, and it's not French-knot friendly, but it has a nice icy, iridescent look:



Next, I added a line of gold metallic DMC floss, couched around the flower center:



Here's all my progress so far - I'm still deciding if I'll add the berries.



Any thoughts on the tracing paper or Pearlescent floss? I'm curious if any of you have tried either!

Bowie in progress

Just a little something I'm working on - I'm teaching someone nice to cross stitch, and it's such a pleasant, familiar feeling to separate the little piles of floss and work in an orderly fashion...



I'm still playing with the older camera - and it's a tricky business getting a clear, sharp photo - but the added challenge has made it fun. I always enjoy working within strict limitations, and seeing what I can make of them.









I only realized this week I've reached my 10 year anniversary of blogging - 10 years! In honor of this occasion, I've been tweaking the template a bit to spiff things up a bit. Apologies if you see something bizarre as I muck around in the code. :)

New project: Siamese Twins

And here's my next project. The Badbird patterns have seriously restored my crafting mojo - the second I finished embroidering Lottie I printed out and started on the Siamese twins, Rose and Daisy. Again, I enlarged the image 170% on the copier and taped 4 printouts together to trace the final image.

First, I started with a red transfer pencil, just like last time:

But, lo and behold, when I flipped the tracing paper over to transfer, I didn't like the flipped version - the proportions and balance looked off. Drat! The idea of tracing all over again, and fussing with my iron was not appealing. So, I tried a shortcut. I pulled out some carbon paper (Sublime Stitching):

It was easy to use, not messy at all, and saved me the extra hassle of ironing on. The lines are crisp, sharp, and dark:

If you look closely you'll notice I made some changes - Andrea Zuill's design has lots of beautiful details that I left out from pure laziness. I wanted to finish quickly, so I stuck with the simpler elements like the hearts and dotted border. I also added one of Andrea's hearts under the girls' hands and added their initials:

I started stitching right away - here they are after 2 hours:

I was admittedly distracted by The Painted Veil (most notably, Ed Norton) and slightly less so by Max Payne (cool effects, but overall it was a drawn out stinker).

These are the only colors I've used so far - two different shades of brown for the girls' hair (for a tiny bit of contrast) and a peachy pink shade for their skin (that's Presencia floss at the top, if you're curious). I still need to pick out the rest of the colors for the girls... I'm thinking, oddly (because I usually hate them) purples... or some deep wines and magentas...

Yay! I'm so excited!

Day 3: More Lottie Progress

So here Lottie stands after about 14 hours of stitching. As I noted on the photo, it was "about" because I kept getting distracted. Number 1: I started this while watching The Princess Bride and I kept getting interrupted by tears coming to my eyes at the romantic parts. Yes, I am that big of a sucker for Princess Bride. Normally I am quite calloused to love stories and spend the whole time rolling my eyes at romantic comedies. But that one is so sweet and silly it always hits me with a sucker punch.

Also, I made the poor choice of watching "Serial Killers on the Loose" and there was a whole lot more looking up, feeling sad, saying ewww, and feeling rather disappointed in humanity.

As you can see, I didn't add a lot, mainly because at this stage I do a lot of inner debate at very small things like, "what color should the stems be?" or "what's the perfect shade of green?" or "how yellow should the yellow be?" I'm on the fence about the olive-y green and may change it. White daisies, so-so. But I do like the lemon yellow bows:

My newest project

by the amazing Badbird - Visit her Etsy store

Ok, I don't even have any progress shots yet, but I just have to show you my latest project because I'm so excited. I did about 6 hours of stem stitch yesterday while watching Scooby Doo, The Last Mimzy, and The English Patient. By the way, it is very hard to tell what is happening in The Last Mimzy when you never look up. I have no clue what that movie was about. The English Patient made me look up. But, you know why.

What are you guys working on?