Leopard

This is progress on my JNM Leopard. I managed to do a lot of stitching in the past week on this one and it really feels like I'm making progress.

Anna

Crochet Top

It's been a bit of a crazy month in real life and I didn't realize it had been this long. Presenting my first piece of crochet clothing, a design call Sweet found on the Crochet Me website. It took just under a week to do and I'm really happy with the end result.

In stitching news, I've given up on Sweet Pea and have put it away for now. I'm not enjoying the colour conversion that I've done anymore and I'm just not enjoying the overall design. Maybe some day I'll pick it up again but for now it's going into hiding. I have made some progress on my JNM leopard which is really satisfying.

Anna

Happy Dances

I finished of two projects while visiting my mom's sewing machine. First is Outstanding in His Field by Pine Needles Designs.

The second finish is halloween girl.

I also bought a very basic sewing machine this weekend. Nothing fancy, just enough for what I need it to do but it's still nice to have.

Anna

Halloween and quilting

I finished my Halloween girl this morning though I'll be finishing her into a wall hanging this weekend, I bought some really nice fabric and orange beads that go perfect with this design.

I also worked a bit on a new applique quilt that I'm doing, Holstein Ahead by Pine Needles. I do still need to figure out what green fabric to use for the grass, hills and tree leaves but a quick visit to my local fabric store should solve that problem. I've got seven different green fabrics but they don't see to work well together. The smaller details, mainly the fence and smaller shrubs, I may embroider on as the pieces of fabric may be too small to effectively sew on.

This pattern is from the same series as Outstanding in his Field. Both quilts and the wall hanging will hopefully be worked on and finished this weekend as I'll have access to my mom's now fixed sewing machine.

Anna

Little Witch

I started something new last night. I really should not have done so, I've got a lot of wips that are not very far along, but I've hit a stumbling point on sweet pea and need to stitch something that would be quickly finished. So I picked out this little girl. It is a Halloween design from the October 1993 Leisure Arts magazine. An antique store that is close to me has recently been selling old Better Homes and Garden and Leisure Arts magazines for $1 each and I picked up a bunch of them. There are a lot of great designs in them and this is one that caught my attention the most. She is about a fourth done and I've only put in a couple of hours work. I will continue this piece till she's finished and then pick up some fabric at my local store and finish her off as a wall hanging the next time I visit my parents.

Anna

Sweet Pea mini happy dance

I finally finished part one of Nora Corbett Sweet Pea, figure skater conversion. I say part one because I've divided this project into several parts, the first part being the main part of her dress, the second will be her legs (stitched over one), third will be her arms and face and the last part her skates and hair. The colours in the picture are really not how it actually looks so it's really more prettier in person and not so bleh looking.

Anna

Dutch stitching

I managed to get all the machine appliqueing and hand appliqueing done on Outstanding in his Field this weekend. Unfortunately my mom's sewing machine was broken so I couldn't finish it completely. That will have to wait till the next weekend I see them. I did however manage to stitch. I worked on a piece that my mom and I are stitching together, Lanarte's Map of the Netherlands. I stitched and finished two of the islands though it is but a small section of the entire piece. The colours are really beautiful in it and it reminds me why I love Lanarte's designs so much.

Anna

Oct 26th.

Progress on Sweet Pea. The colours are horribly off but I have made some progress. I find myself in a bit of a stitching slump lately so even a small amount of progress is good for me.

The shirt I was crocheting in my last post turned out to be too long, it looked like more of a short dress then a top, so I've had to start over again and make it shorter. My Christmas party is in six week, hopefully I can have it finished in time.

While at work last week I did manage to crochet this square. Didn't have to frog it as many times as I did with the flower so I know it's a sign of skills getting better!

I bought fabric this weekend to sew around Outstanding in His Field. I'll be visiting my mom's sewing machine (and my parents too) this weekend and while I till have quite of bit of appliqueing to do, I'd like to finish it this weekend. Stitching wise I plan on continuing with Sweet Pea.

Anna

Crochet Flower

I'm back from vacation and had a really relaxing time. I spent a lot of time crocheting and not time stitching. Below are the pictures. The first one is a very simple top that I am making using double stitches which I found in a book from my library. Basically the top consists of two pieces of crochet running vertically from front waist to back waist and joined at the middle. I've finished one ball of yarn and working on the second and it's working up pretty quickly. Ideally I'd like to get this done for early December in time for my work's Christmas party. I absolutely adore the blue of the yarn. The second is a picture of a flower that I finally was able to crochet completely after many, many, many attempts (I'm not kidding).

This week I hope to continue with the top and with the Pixie.

Anna

Sweet Pea Wip

A picture of my Sweet Pea by Nora Corbett as I've finally managed to put some stitches into her (it's been a couple of months). This is a conversion and when finished it will look significantly different from the original. I find Nora's Pixies easily look like other things. Ivy I converted into a teenager coming home from her prom and this one I will change to look like a figure skater. She is stitched on Picture this plus Glacier.

I've also managed to stuck the threads into the back side of my quilt. I now just need the use of my mom's sewing machine to applique the rest and do the boarders and finishing touches.

I'm hoping to get a nice amount of crafting in this week as I go on vacation on Tuesday till next Sunday. I will be traveling but I'll have plenty of time to stitch or to crochet.

Anna

Applique Quilting

This is a wip picture of what has been occupying my time for the past week and a half. It is a applique quilt design by Pine Needles Designs called Outstanding in his Field. I had bought this pattern at the CreativFestival in Toronto last year without having any prior experience with this type of quilting but I fell in love with the design and with a lot of McKenna's designs. I'm sewing machine appliqueing it but using hand for the smaller details and I'm quite enjoying the entire process and learning a lot of things that I can do differently for the next time I do one of her designs.

This week I plan on stitching a leopard design by Jayne Netley Mayhew. Leopards always hold a special place in my heart and this design is one of the best I've ever seen. This is my progress as of last week.

Anna

Weekend crafting.

Wips and finishes from the weekend. First Fruit of the Spirit made into a flat fold, front and back.





I had made a big mistake on the sewing and really had to fudge to make this work. When I make a flat fold I cut the backing fabric into two pieces, one half the length of the second one, with the shorter piece being the outside of the "V" (shown here) and the longer piece making up the inside of the "V". I then place two pieces of foam board in between the fabric and sew the bottom closed. Think of it like a folded pillow case. Instead I sewed the short fabric to where the long fabric should have been and vice versa. The big seem you can see in the top of the picture was my way of fudging it. It still works as a flat fold, it's just not as pretty as I'd like it to be. Oh well.







I also made good progress on a very slow work in progress. This is Relaxing, part of the All Our Yesterdays designs from DMC. I am stitching nine of these designs on three pieces of fabric (three per fabric). This is the first of the nine and I'd say I'm about half way done. The dog still needs to be finished and then there is a lot of half stitches for the clouds, ocean and beach, and the back stitching of course.

Lastly I started a new project, A Fish Tale by Teresa Layman Designs. Done in all french and colonial knots. I'm enjoying it so far but considering I stitch in hand, using a hope for this one take a bit to get used to.

I also did quite a bit of crocheting but nothing significant to show as it was mainly practicing different stitches. This week I do plan on buying from yarn to start a simple t-shirt with. The design is done mainly with double crochet stitches which I have a pretty good grasp on now.

Anna

Happy Dance

I finally had a day without any commitments and was able to finish off Fruit of the Spirit, designed by My Mark. I'll be finishing it into a flat fold next time I visit my parents (and my mom's sewing machine). This is the second My Mark design that I've stitched, the first one being Additude, shown below.

Now I'm off to practice my crochet.

Anna

Adventures in Crochet.

In a quest to expand beyond cross stitch I've been teaching myself how to crochet. I've only been doing it for the past two weeks and while initially it was a bit difficult, I think I'm getting the hang of it. This was my experiment done yesterday. It's supposed to be a mouse. If you squint your eyes a bit and use your imagination you might actually see it. Not a great success but not bad overall for a beginner I'd say.

Progress on Fruit of the Spirit. I finally had a bit of free time and after crochetting the mouse I worked on this for a bit.

Anna

Fruit of the Spirit

My Mark's Fruit of the Spirit. Stitched with DMC's on 14 count Aida with the words "Fruit of the Spirit" added by me and the "Faithfulness" square design changed a bit. I normally don't work on Aida but since the entire design will be filled in and finished as a cube of some sort, I chose Aida because of it's stiffness and of how easy it is to work with when doing that sort of finishing. It's been a wip for about two years though I've only been actively stitching on it again for the past two weeks. Right now real life has been a bit crazy and stitching time is a bit limited. This design is an easy one to pick up in between waking up and rushing out the door or rushing in the door and going to bed. I'm not quite sure yet of how to colour in the bottom box but I'll figure it out when I get there.

Anna