'Welcome' - The Home Stretch

Ugh! I've hated this goldwork and I'm not very pleased with it as it's not very even. It was such a relief to finish it on Monday though. I would have posted an update on Tuesday, but we've been away for a few days this week - Youth Hostelling in Derbyshire.=)

So, here's the 'Welcome' sign as photographed about 10 minutes ago:

The lily will be fully finished today and I'll post the complete thing tomorrow. I'll have DH take the photo of that one as he's much better at that than I am and I'd like to catch all the light effects, with it being on silk and all.

Here's what I was stitching whilst away, the card to go with the wedding present. We decided that, as it was far too late to get the picture framed, we'd slip a £20 note into the card and let them pick the mount and frame they like instead. It's a good excuse for having dragged my heels with it for so long!!! The card design is simplified slightly from Just Nan's 'Promises'. I thought that it could do OK without all the extra beading and that also meant I could finish it sooner and get on with the other stuff that's nagging me....

Tomorrow I'll post the completed 'Welcome', the progress so far on the hardanger bookmarks, (yes, I've been back on those too), and a review of how I did on my goals for March etc.

Lilac Time

Here's the completed Lilac Time needle case. The fabric was stiffer than the Orange Blossom one, so I had to put it under 2 heavy dictionaries for hours and hours before it would lie flat enough to even be photographed!!! I adore the scent of lilac - it's my favourite perfume.

Here's the current status on the 'Welcome'. I'm not really that pleased with it as the goldwork is hard and is not as even as I wanted it to be and I'm struggling with the shading on the flower.


All right Lili, BE impressed, see if I care!!!!!!!!!=)LOL!!!!

All Stitched Up....

Well, I didn't get the 'Welcome' sign anything like finished last week, but I have got all the sewing up that I wanted to do done. Here are the two Orange Blossom pieces:


I still have to put s few stitches in the Lilac Time needlecase as the tassel cord is a bit loose and doesn't look very good at the mo. Will post that one tomorrow when it's finally done and photographed.

I've got 'elco' and about half of the 'W' done on the sign as well as the leaf and stem done, so really not much progress. It's very hard work and I think I might have bitten off a bigger chunk than I can chew, but I seem to have the habit of wanting to shoot for the stars with a kid's catapult!=( Let's hope somewhere local does last minute framing..... Planning on working on this one a lot today and getting the 'W' finished and the back of the silk shading on the lily broken.

Speaking of which: Lili, I don't design all my pieces, just a few here and there. I've done about 100 pieces of needlework since I started stitching and I think I actually designed about 10 of them, most of which are hardanger cards anyway! The only CS piece I designed was really only heavy adaptation of a freebie 'L' and adding to it. Don't be too impressed!!!=)

"Welcome"!

Here's the latest design:

I swiped a lily photo from a gardening site, inverted and turned it, then did a copy as a working diagram to stitch from. The lettering is done in goldwork and is quite hard with 3 lots of thread each time, plus I never realised Pearl Purl can't be taken to the back of the work, so you have this end kinda stuck there... The idea is to get this one all stitched up by next Sunday, so I can show it to some chums then and take it for framing on Monday sometime. White or rose pink mount and antique pine frame, perhaps? Well, we'll see. Let's get it stitched first!!!!!=)

Just took delivery of a copy of 'Embroidered Bags and Purses' which I bought mostly to help me be able to put my lil' sis's purse together. I'll design it myself, but there are some lovely ideas in there. Whimper!

Also hoping to get both the needlecases sewn up this week so they can be delivered to the relevant friends' mum's. Aiming for Sunday with that one too. Watch this space.....

Oh Terri, you asked how I was going to finish the 'Poppies and Mallow' design. The short answer is, 'I'm not!' I'm going to put it in a tube and let the lady it's for decide on her own frame once she gets it. I haven't even found a suitable to tube to send it in yet as our local PO is out of them and there are no used ones at work either. I might go ferretting around a few other departmental offices on Wednesday and see what I can find there.

No, I'm not dead.....

...just haven't done much stitching this week. I did finish the needlecase stitching last night though and pressed that and the 2 other things that need finishing up ready for sewing. I also got on with the 'Welcome' sign design and that's more or less ready to start stitching on now. Just need to pick the threads now. Here's the current status on the OB needlecase.....

Ta-dah!

Finished the Poppies and Mallow design! I re-did the mallow flower centres with French knots as the original seed stitch was lost against my fairly dense opus plumarium. Hope it meets with everyone's approval anyway!!

Am I feeling pressured because of the goals? No, I can't say that I am. Motivated, but not pressured. There's not that much actually as the first two were virtually done, the fourth is about 20% done already, the fifth is only a small XS card and the third will take about a week's stitching at my current rate, so I might even get well into April's goals by the end of this month!!

I got all the Xs done on the needlecase and the blue back-stitch trellis work as well. Here's the latest.

Ugh, Wednesday!

That means work day, but thankfully a 'normal' (rather than long) day today. OK, OK, I know I only work 3 hours a week, but it cuts into my stitching time!!!!!!!

Didn't get the leaves finished last night, but I did get something done and here's the progress:

Thanks for the explanation of the laying tool, Terri! You know I was just teasing, don't you?=) Sounds like a good idea for something really special, but I think it would make the process of stitching quite a lot longer than normal, esp. whilst getting used to using it. This is the beauty of photography though - it doesn't show all the imperfections!!! My stitches lay OK, but sometimes the 2 strands get a bit twisted and it shows, if you want to look that closely anyway.

I got fed up of working on the leaves and decided to take a bit of refuge in cross stitch just before bed, so worked on a little more of the Orange Blossom needlecase. Just one more colour, (couple of dozen X's), and the cross stitching is done on this one and it's on to the copious BS! Here's the story so far:

Oh, Lili, I forgot to mention something. Thanks for the compliments on the photos of England etc on my Webshots. They were taken by my husband though, not me.=) Must make sure I put that on my album. I can't take the credit for his work!!!LOL!!!

So, hope to have the poppies and the needlecase stitching done as well as the Welcome sign designed by the end of this week. Might even get something sewn up too, but I'm not counting on that!!!!!! Anyone else not good at getting on with finishing off??