Crazy January Challenge: day 9

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

Rose Mosaic needle roll by M Designs
Sunshine Lakeside Linens (32 count)
Stitched with WDW and Silk Mori

I haven’t stitched a needle roll for a while.  This is one of many lovely needle rolls by M Designs.

Thing Two says yesterday’s butterfly (or is it a moth?) looks like a “creepy spider”.  I think he’ll be happier with it once the wings are filled in.

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Crazy January Challenge: day 8

Saturday, January 8th, 2011

Spring Needle-Keep and Fob by La-D-Da
WDW linen (35 count)
Stitched with Vicki Clayton hand-dyed silks

I love this needle keep kit’s pretty colors and beads and unusual finish.  Can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Yesterday’s needle keep has a very intricate design, stitched over one.

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Halloween

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

Halloween by La-D-Da
Just Cross Stitch 2009 Halloween Ornament Issue (September/October)
Natural linen (30ct)
Stitched with Crescent Colours Belle Soie

This little pillow ornament was a quick stitch — so quick, in fact, that I did it twice.  Why?

My LNS doesn’t carry the Belle Soie or WDW linen called for on the chart, so I ordered the kit for this ornament.  When it arrived, I thought the chestnut colored linen was too dark for the silks; I can barely see the stitched pumpkin.  Here’s a photo of the stitched-but-unstuffed pillow ornament.  The linen looks a lot lighter in the photo; actually kind of nice, but even so, the pumpkin doesn’t stand out as well as I would like.  And the linen is much darker in real life, trust me. I also had a difficult time stitching on the dark linen, so I made a few mistakes, and then when it was finished, I just wasn’t crazy about how it looked.  Have you ever had that happen with a project?

As I said, this ornament stitches up fast, and I have a bunch of extra 30 count natural linen with no project on which to use it, so I decided it was worth trying again. (The linen was on sale at my LNS and for good reason; it’s very stiff and scratchy.  Not very fun to work with, but perfect for this re-do, as it has the right sort of rustic charm.)

This time, I’m much happier with how it turned out.  My local fabric shop had just set out their autumn/Halloween fabrics, and I bought a few fat quarters to experiment with this ornament and the Blackbird Designs Halloween stockings.

In other Halloween stitching news:  Trick or Treat?  My Just Nan Spooky tin autoship arrived, but the linen is missing!  I called the shop and learned that they had run out of WDW Peoria Purple.  It’s backordered and they’ll send it to me when they receive more.  Hopefully I’ll be able to stitch up the tin lid before Halloween.  Like all the other Just Nan tins, it looks so cute (Spooky is an especially unique design) and I’m eager to get started on it.

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