Blossom Splendour - Update

Time for another update on Blossom Splendour - and it's nearly finished!

The floral border was finished much faster than I expected..I had it done in a few evenings.

I am now onto the back-stitch, which I am actually enjoying for a change. Finally I will have to do the beading which I'm slightly nervous about as I've never really done beading before...

I would've liked to have had this finished this week but I've done some kind of injury to the left side of neck/shoulder area so I've had to leave off all stitching this week :( The pain is easing a bit now so hopefully I'll be able to start up again next week... the next update for this project may be a completion!

Roses and Polka Dots rug

Here is a progress update of my first latch-hook project!

It is a rug kit called Roses & Polka Dots and is from Anchor.

It looks nowhere near as neat and tidy as the picture on the front of the box but it does look nice and fluffy :3

At first I found the technique a bit tricky and sometimes it still takes me few tries to get it right but I am getting better. It's very big for little me so it's a bit difficult to work with so I only tend to do three or four rows at a time and then it get put away. When I bought this it was 'the plan' to have it done for Autumn/Winter so my room would be all cosy...not going to happen ^^ Next year maybe...

R&R Craft frame

I decided to try out a new frame - a universal craft frame from R&R Crafts.

Usually I use a hoop - I like the thought of frames but whenever I've used them in the past I've got so frustrated with them as I could never achieve any tension in my fabric. I came across the R&R frames a while back (I think they are called q-snaps in America?) but was a bit sceptical as to their claims. I had a look on the internet and found a few blog posts about them and decided that I had nothing to loose in giving them a try.

I decided to go for an 11" x 11" frame - slightly bigger than the hoop I use, but not too big as to be impossible....here it is set up with Blossom Splendour...resting on my lap...

It's a good size! It is heavier than a hoop but not unworkably so. I haven't tried attaching it to my seat stand so I don't know whether it will be too wide for that. You can fit it together and take it apart very easily and attaching the fabric and getting a nice tension is so simple! After the first use I noticed that the clips had left marks on my fabric...not like hoop marks which you can still see in the bottom left-hand corner...shiny marks. It bugged me quite a bit. I had to really agitate the fabric to get rid of them (but I can still see them!!! D: ) Anyway, I now place some scrap fabric between the fabric and the clips and this seems to have solved the weird line problem. It also gets much better tension so I would definitely recommend using some scrap fabric.

If you haven't tried a frame like this before I recommend you give it a go. They're relatively cheap (this was £11) and I've found that benefits of this style of frame are great.

Haul! - New goodies

I've bought quite a few stitchy bits this month... I shouldn't really as I already have far too much...but I just can't help myself D:

I have three new kits and two new charts!

My kits are 'World Map' by Bucilla (ebay), Cats, cats, cats' by Janlynn (Black Sheep) and 'Jousting Knights' by Janlynn (ebay).

My charts are 'A New World Map' by Better Homes (ebay) and 'Mythical Moments' by Stoney Creek (ebay).

I think I'll do Cats, Cats, Cats next as it's really sweet and there are lots of different sections - so I can complete one in between doing a larger project.

Blossom Splendour - update

I've not posted any updates for quite a long while...a mix of loosing the stitchy-bug and some damn good books! Anyway, I had two weeks off work recently so I decided that I was going to do my best to get back into my stitching. I got quite obsessed...

You can see that I managed to get quite a bit done! I need to finish the sleeve on the left and her hand (which I'd like to get done today) and then the flowers around the edge. Once that's done it'll be back-stitching and then finally the beadwork. She'll be finished sometime this year I hope ^__^

Bird Coaster

Here is a little quick-stitch I completed a while back...

I felt like I was loosing the stitchy-bug quite a bit (hence no updates for so long), so I want to do something small and quick to try and get me in the mood again and my coaster in work had just about had it...so I thought I'd do this ^^

It is stitched on a light pink 28count evenweave from Zweigart. I used a mix of DMC and Anchor threads and a little bit of Kreinik very fine braid #4 just to add a little sparkle. The coaster is from Sew and So (can't remember the brand!). The stitching is backed with some medium interfacing to keep everything nice and neat. The chart is from a Joan Elliott Oriental chart booklet that came free with a magazine. I stitched it over two afternoons.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and it looks nice and pretty on my desk at work ^___^