Hardanger WIP

Here's the latest WIP, another hardanger cushion cover. I'm really disappointed with the photo as I had to increase the contrast as far as I could without making the picture quality keel over and die, but the colour in the thread still hardly shows! I remember trying to take a photo of the threads themselves and having the same problem, but what you see a very poor representation of here is Caron's Watercolors in 'Iced Lavendar' which I chose to replace the suggested 'Dawn' shade in the pattern (which is Mary Hickmott's 'Soft as Snow' from 'New Stitches' issue 55.) I was also really very disappointed with the photos in the last posting as every one, although I used 'medium' and this normally only happens with the 'large' sized ones, did not click through to the full sized pic. Some of them really lent themselves well to larger images and so that was a shame! Anyway, larger sizes are available on my Webshots as always.

I've begun to list an enormous quantity of stuff on E-bay. So far there are 117 listings - 2 of which have bids thus far, so I will at least sell something!! What I've got up so far are most of the threads I'm selling - lots of WDW and GAST in 'sets' of two for a starting price of 99p for the set. Actually, pretty much everything is 99p, including the sets of 7 Six Strand Sweets and so on and some patterns that I'll either never stitch or already have, (the 'Oriental Dress', 'Chinese Junk', 'Bluetits', 'Goldfinches' and the last hardanger cushion are up for grabs - all for 99p!), so please take a look and, preferably buy something - or several somethings!! I'm not sure if the listings show up as available outside of the UK, but I am willing to ship anywhere in the world for the extra postage costs, so please take some of these things off my hands, no matter where you're based! There'll be books, ladies' clothes and more stitching things to come (XS mags mostly as well as some more threads etc), so do keep checking back. I'll include the link in every post until it's all gone so that those reading on reader software can click through and visit.=)

I've also cut all the posts (not many) from my other language blogs and inserted those sections on here. I wasn't using them much and I realised that it was just taking up room on Picassa, which would, in time, mean that I had much less lifespan for this blog etc than I might want, esp with so many travels coming up. So, from time to time, when I'm feeling diligent, I'll post a summary in German and/or Chinese and any other language that takes my fancy - I'm using the Japanese freebie at Rocket at the mo and DH is enjoying taking his first steps in Spanish with the on-line course I bought him as part of his anniverary gift!

Some Finishes!

I may not have posted over the last fortnight, but I have been busy with the needles, so have some things to show you now!
First up is the completed goldleaf dragonfly design. I did get this finished a couple of weeks ago, but what with one technical problem or another (camera was taking really dark photos, Photoshop Elements stopped saving on the PC and so I couldn't edit anything to any good purpose etc), I haven't been able to get it to you until now. Here's both the full thing and a close-up of the flower centre etc, which was worked with bright check purl (aka chips) in both gold and silver as well as French knots in one strand each of pink Reflecta and gold Ophir.



And here's the initial response to it!!



This is DH's 10th anniversary card which I adapted from a strawberry circlet design in an iron-on transfer booklet and worked in Pipers silks on a piece of blue-grey Mulberry Silks silk fabric.



Last February I stitched a simple goldwork dragonfly on the most amazing piece of royal blue silk. One of my friends, Abi, admired it on my Webshots and since then I'd been looking for a suitable 'format' to give it to her in, but it was too big for a card etc etc. Well, she recently got engaged and so I used the pattern in the latest issue of 'Stitch' to turn it into a casket:



And filled it with chocolates:


Not very practical, but well receieved nonetheless!!=)


DH bought me a super-duper new digital camera for part of my anniversary present (the other part was some good quality watercolours, which I haven't tried out yet), and we also got me a new laptop (not an anniversary gift), so I'm back in business technology-wise and, yes, Photoshop is working just fine on here. Phew!

Over the next week I'm hoping to get the band sampler finished up as a bellpull and the Chinese dress design made up into a small cushion/pillow. I've also started another hardanger cushion/pillow cover on white Oslo fabric with Caron Iced Lavendar threads - pale pink and lilacs.

Goldwork progress

Here's the current status on the 'Goldleaf Dragonfly' piece. As you can see from when I posted the kit photo 2 posts ago, I've carried on making changes to threads and stitches. I didn't really like the way the leaves were done, so instead of using Kreinik 002 1/16 ribbon and stranded cotton, I've couched #16 braid in 002J with Japan thread #1 002J then outlined it with Cord 008C in backstitch instead of couching down fine braid 015 with stranded cotton. I've also not done the straight stitches within the leaf section as I think it's busy enough as it is.

The flower is planned for today, so I hope to show that off over the weekend some time.=)

Band sampler stitching finished

Got some unexpected stitching time today - 4 hours of it - and managed to get, not only the stitching finished on the everlasting band sampler, but also all the beading and the trimmings! The snowflake at the top needs re-doing as I just noticed there's some thread caught around it. It was hard to attach that as the hole is rather too small for any needle to go through and I had to just poke one strand of floss through and hope for the best. If anyone has any ideas.... Anyway, it just needs finishing up into a bellpull now, for which I'll have to get an 'old' VS design out (old as in I've stitched it before) and look up how to do it as I've forgotten now. Oh, and it's not really blue, it's just bad lighting and camera problems.

Has anyone else noticed a distinct decline in blog hits and comments, or is it just me? I think it's the popularity of services like Google Reader that's leading to this. They're very convenient (although this blog looks dreadful on Bloglines) and I tend to use GR myself these days quite a bit, but it's a shame that so few comment nowadays and it can even be disheartening to see your visitor stats on Analytics plummet!! (No, it's nothing to do with the nice weather either!) And, hey! What's happened to the Stitchologist!!?? Where are you, Kate?