Back again!

First I am so sorry I haven't said a word for ages! That doesn't mean I haven't been stitching though. So this time I do hav few pictures to show you :)

First my "wild animals" round robin. You have already seen it, but without my own part. It is done now. It was actually my first finish of 2013! I chose to stitch a bear. For some reason I love bears now. When I waas younger I was scraed of them! I was always afraid they would attack and kill us all. Why? Well.. my favourite cartoons as a kid were about wild dogs who fought against bears which were real killing machines. I know, sounds stupid, but hey, I was a kid :) And those were good! Maybe not anymore.. but I loved them.

So here's my bear :)

Here's also the whole round robin with my bear.

I was a bit afraid it would be too dark for it as the other animals are not that dark coloured. But I think it is fine. Me likes :)

Next is a birthday gift that I stitcher for another stitcher. On this picture the band is not attached to the towel yet. Forgot to take a picture when it was finished..

I also stitched Pollyanna Pickering's Zebra a bit. I added some more black on it. What bothers me is the fabric, 14ct white aida. Not really huge fan of it..

Here's before and after pics.

I do wanna finish this one day ofcourse, even though I don't like the fabric.

I also managed to put few stitches on the "Joy-ornament" by Dimensions. I didn't find the picture of it though. Maybe I didn't take one. I am still not sure what's wrong with it. As earlier I said it looks a bit messy cause the cross stitches and half stitches are going different directions. I mean the top stitches. On my cross stitches the top stitch goes like this \\\\\ and on my half stitches it goes /////. However, on "Southwest Mesa" I have the half stitches exactly the same way as on the ornament, but there it doesn't look bad at all. So, the problem may be on the fabric/floss. The fabric is 18ct aida and I stitch with two threads as was told in the chart. It looks a bit.. bulky to me. Not sure what I will do, if I just keep stitching or what.. Time will tell :)

Then.. ta daa! More finishes!! Whoooo!!!!

Here's my Joan Elliott's Witch that I started on January 2012 during the CrazyJanuaryChallenge. It's finished, finally, lol! The fabric is actually orange. The picture just doesn't look right and I didn't manage to capture the real colour. It's 28ct linen by Silkweaver, called "Inferno".

I left out some backstitches (swirls and border) that I didn't really like. Eyes are all french knots but I tried to do french knots on the dress too. Oh, what a disaster! They were all different sizes and it just looked really bad.. After I was whining about it on a Facebook group, I was told to try a colonial knot. I tried and I fell in love :) Those are so, so much easier than french knots and I managed to make them all same size too, whooo!! :)

There's another finish coming! It's Lizzie Kate's "Snowman '10" which was also started during the CJC. I think.. It was my laptop project but I noticed it wasn't really getting any stitching time, I decided to stitch it and finish it, asap.

I stitched it using DMC. The fabric is.. not quite sure, I once bought it from a real shop. Its 14ct aida by Zweigarth, that I do know. It is marbled, brown. Buttons (which are soooo cute!!) are by Papermania :)

Ofcourse now that I have finished sooo much ;) I had to make new starts, too!

First start of the year was a Quaker. I bought the pattern from a stitchy friend. I LOVE it. The fabric is Silkweaver's 28ct Lugana "Goldspinner". Here's a pic of the patterna and the fabric and how far (not far) I am at the moment.

The first picture of the fabric is quite accurate. I LOVE the colour. And this is fun to stitch too, but sadly, not getting that much stitching time at the moment :(

Here's another start! I started this yesterday as I got the fabric (Silkweaver's 28ct Jazlyn "Seaside melody") earlier this week and it was calling for a mermaid! I was first planning to stitch a Mirabilia mermaid on it, but I did some research and lots of them have tons of bling bling which makes them pretty expensive. So I skipped them.. Maybe later :) But I realised I do have another mermaid pattern and it's perfect! Here's my "Mermaids" by Country Cottage Needleworks :)

Oh how I love it! And the fabric too. It's Jazlyn and even though it is not my first Jazlyn-piece it is my first time stitching on it. Ohhh, soo sooo soft! I seriously love stitching on it. Might be my new favourite. Plus the colour is nice too. I stitched one of the mermaids yesterday and I plan to stitch another one today. I am not using the colours given on the charts as I don't have them. For the mermaid's tails, the ones that change colours. Instead I am using my DMC variegated thread that I bought years ago and never used them. Found some pretty nice colours :) Here's also a pic how the final result will look.

Isn't that lovely??? :)

Lots of stitching and I do love it. I didn't stitch as much as I wanted last year because of my backproblems. I hope they are gone now and I can really enjoy stitching again :)

Have a lovely Sunday everyone, all the mums in UK: Happy Mother's Day! :)

*hugs*

Amazing mailday :)

Hello everyone!

It was the last mailday this week, before Midsummer. I was expecting to get something but not all of these!

First, I bought two Little House Needleworks-patterns from a Facebook group where people can sell their unwanted stitching stuff (Finnish group). I got them today and whooo, I really love them both! They are "Bookshelf" and "Little House Neighborhood". I need to buy some nice coloured fabric though (or dye myself!) as I don't seem to have anything that would work with these. Or maybe my "bone" Jobelan could work.. Hmm..

I also got my order from Needlecraft Corner. Again some Little House Needleworks-patterns as well as three patterns by Country Cottage Needleworks and Lizzie Kate. LHN patterns are "Music and books" and "Home of a Needleworker". CCN patterns are: "Party Cakes", "Bee Joyful" and "Sheep in the meadonw". Lizzie Kate patterns are "Live Simply", "A bit of March" and "Welcome baby".

I also got my FOM from Sparklies yesterday. Here's a pic of the two fabrics that I got. The blue one is "Before the storm" and the light grey is "BST". I am not huge fan of the light grey one though.. It's kinda nice as it will work with lots of different patterns as it's light coloured. But then again it looks almost white. The blue one is really nice though :)

I got damn nice mail today (and yesterday too) but I also bought the newest Maxxina today. It didn't have as many must stitch-patterns this time, but some nice ones, still.

Oh and my amazing fiancé sent me two magaznes, too! I didn't expect these as I didn't know he had sent them to me <3 I was really happy to get them as we don't have these magazines here in Finland and I do like the Queen :))

I actually started to stitch some Jubilee stitching but as I have problems with my back every now and then (a lot sometimes) I can't always stitch as much as I want or not at all :/ meh..

I am not gonna buy anything else this month! Cause I also bought this today.. *giggles*

Fitfh season of Bones! I haven't seen it yet so I am really excited. I miss Booth and Brennan already, it's been ages since I saw season 4.

I am gonna watch an episode of Bones now, or maybe even two. After that I need to cook and hopefully, I could do some stitching today too! My back feels a bit better now. I also need to go out to have a walk today, my back loves it :)

Have a lovely day everyone *hugs*

Fabric dyeing

I wanted to dye some fabric again. Sadly I only had some 14ct cream aida and only one tiny piece of Jobelan. But it didn't stop me!

The colours are not exactly true, most colours look darker in pictures and not as bright as they are. Although one colour looked a lot lighter in pics.. hmm.. First I played with blue and lilac colours. Here are the results.

This fabric was 14ct cream aida (about 17x20), It's blue with lilac areas here and there. I like it a lot! :) I wanna stitch something on it, right now!

I also dyed some small pieces.

This one is actually a bit darker colour in real. I like it, even though I didn't mean to have those light spots.

Two tiny pieces, again they are darker in real.  I used same blue and lilac colours on all these, just changed the amount of colour and combinations :)

Next I tried red. First on a small piece.

Now this picture is BAD! It's not this pink, it's more like a peach coloured. I liked it a lot, so wanted to dye a bigger piece which would be the same colour.

No. It's not the same colour :D This picture is actually very close to the real colour. Even though it's not what I was after, I do like it a lot and I already know what I am gonna stitch on it! You'll see later ;)

The next day I wanted to try green! I love green and esp. on fabrics. I had two 20x22 pieces of 14ct cream aida and one piece of antique white jobelan (28ct, 13x18). Results..

Me likes! NO! Me loves!! The colour is more to a lime green. It's not this dark. No matter what I did, I couldn't take a pic which would show the real colour :( However, it looks damn nice in real and I can't wait to stitch something on this/these!

Here's the second one. They look almost the same. I dyed the Jobelan last and the amount of colour is the same on it, however, it is a bit brigter and darker in colour than aida. I love it and I wanna stitch a pixie on it :) Hmm.. then again, not sure if the fabric is big enough?

I love those greens! It's such a shame you can't see the real colour. I think I try to take a new pics later as I would like you to see how bright the colours are!

I wanna buy more white fabric so I can dye more. I also need to get brown dye as I need brown fabric for Mirabilia's Archangel. And brown is another favourite colour of mine :)

to stitch or not to stitch..

Hello everyone!

I haven't been stitching for a while now cause of my back/neck. They were hurting so I wasn't able to stitch. Or I could have, but didn't want it to get worse. So I don't have much news about my stitching but I do have something! :)

I tried to dye a fabric for Mirabilia's "the Deepest Love" (mermaid). I had a white 28ct Jazlyn which I decided to sacrifice! hehe. Here's a pic of the results. I actually do like it a lot how it looks like. The picture is not exactly the same colour though, I'll try to take a better pic later.



I also started a new pattern! eeek! And I have only finished two from CJC, lol. I started to stitch Nora Corbett's "New year fairy". It uses a lot of floss that I don't have so I decided to change the colours a bit. I chose pink! *giggles* yes, I do like pink. Howevere, I also do like the original colours a lot, so maybe one day I will order them and stitch her again. I could have ordered them now too, but I wanted to start stitching her NOW and not after two weeks :D The fabric is 14ct aida from Sugar Maple Fabrics. It's called "Night" and I thought it would be good for her as she is "New Year Fairy" :)




I wanna stitch her NOW! I think in couple days I should be fine again and I can stitch more :) I will continue with her as she looks so beautiful and I wanna see how she will look like with the colours I chose.

Day 8 - Loved you yesterday

I was stitching a bit yesterday while watching a movie. This time I was watching "Watchmen" which was actually quite bad. But as I started to watch it, I decided to finish it as well. It was three hours long (or so). There was something good in the movie though: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, YAY!!! :) Yes I do like him, even though my heart belongs to Sean Bean ;) hehe

I started to stitch "Loved you yesterday" from Cross Stitch Gold. I used 14ct aida from Silkweaver. Fabric is called "Romance" and fits perfectly with the theme.



Eilen pistelin taas elokuvan tahtiin. Tällä kertaa oli vuorossa "Watchmen" joka oli itse asiassa melko huono. Katsoin sen loppuun asti vain koska aloitin sitä katsomaan, enkä viitsinyt jättää kesken. Toki elokuvassa oli jotain hyvääkin: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Yay!!! Kyllä, pidän hänestä kovasti, vaikkakin sydämeni kuuluu Sean Beanille ;) hehe

Aloitin pistelemään "Loved you yesterday"-mallia Cross Stitch Gold-lehdestä. Kangas on 14 ct aida, Silkweaveriltä. Kankaan nimi on "Romance" ja sopii siis teemaan todella hyvin.

Day 7 - Always Welcome

Haha, showing my day 7 start is funny as I did just few stitches while waiting for the movie to start (Superman returns, wasn't really that good). I had a busy day yesterday so no time for stitching.

Here's what I was able to stitch. The fabric is "Daybreak" by Sugar Maple Fabrics and it's 14ct aida.




Jotenkin huvittavaa näyttää eilisen päivän startti, koska en pistellyt juuri laisinkaan. Pistelin hieman odotellessani illan elokuvaa alkavaksi (Superman returns, ei ollut kovinkaan kummoinen). Eilinen oli melko kiireinen, joten pistelyille ei juurikaan jäänyt aikaa.

Ylhäällä kuva aloituksesta. Kankana on Sugar Maple Fabricsin "Daybreak" joka on 14ct aida.

Day 4 - Trick or treat

Yesterday I had problems at choosing what to stitch. I spent at least couple hours just trying to choose my next one! Ofc the funny thing is that it's only a start and I'm gonna start them all sooner or later.. so no idea why it was so hard yesterday. I kinda wanted to start another one (Winter wonderland) but wasn't sure about the fabric after all. It might be a bit too dark, don't know.

Well, finally I was able to make a decision. I decided to start stitching Joan Elliott's "Trick or treat" from "Quick and easy stitch and craft" (issue 157). I had chosen a fabric for it (handyed 14ct aida) but I started to wonder if I should choose a similar colour fabric which is linen. You see, I don't stitch on linen a lot nor evenweave. I have tried them both but stitching on them is a lot slower so I prefer aida. Making that decision took a while, too. I finally decided to try linen as the pattern is quite small so better start with it than with something bigger (then again I do have a bigger one on my list and I planned to stitch that on linen as well). So my fabric is Silkweaver's 28ct Cashel Linen "Inferno".

Stitching on linen.. was damn nice! It IS slower than on aida but the fabric is so nice and soft! Plus I like the colour of the fabric. However I need to unpick some stitching, the orange ones. I started to stitch with orange and I was afraid to pull the thread tight cause didn't wanna cause huge holes on the fabric. So ofc the stitches are now too loose and they look really bad. Oh well, at least it's not much I need to unpick.

I even started to wonder if I should change some fabric choices now. From aida to linen/evenweave. Hehe, we will see. I still do like aida too ofc.

Here's the pic of the witch.




Eilen oli kamalan vaikeaa päättää mitä pistellä seuraavaksi. Meni ainakin pari tuntia pähkäillessä minkä työn aloitan seuraavana! Hassuinta tietenkin on, että aloitan kaiiki työt ennemmin tai myöhemmin. Halusin oikeastaan aloittaa erään toisen työn (Winter wonderland), mutta en ole lainkaan varma kankaasta. Se saattaa olla hieman liian tumma väriltään. Joten jätin sen työn sivuun ja valitsin toisen.

Vihdoin ja viimein onnistuin valitsemaan seuraavan työn. Päätin aloittaa pistelemään Joan Elliottin "Trick or treat" noitaa. Malli on "Quick and easy stitch and craft"-lehdestä, numerosta 157. Olin jo valinnut kauniin käsinvärjätyn kankaan mallille joka on 14ct aida. Aloin kuitenkin miettiä, joskos pitäisikin valita samanvärinen kangas, joka on kuitenkin pellavaa. Minä en pistele pellavalle juuri laisinkaan, sillä sille pistely on todella hidasta. En ole tottunut siihen. Joten pistelen mielummin aidalle. Tämänkin päätöksen tekeminen otti aikansa.. Päätin kuitenkin kokeilla pellavaa, koska työ on melko pieni, joten helpompaa aloittaa pellavalle pistely pienen mallin kanssa (toisaalta, minulla on listassa isompi malli, jonka olen suunnitellu pistelevöni pellavalle..). Kankaaksi siis valikoitui lopulta Silkweaverin 28ct Cashel Linen "Inferno".

Pellavalle pistely.. on huippua! Pistely ON hitaampaa kuin aidalle, mutta kangas on niin ihanan pehmeää! Väri on kans mieleeni. Minun pitää tosin purkaa muutamia pistoja, kaikki oranssit. En alussa uskaltanut kiristää lankaa tarpeeksi, etten vahingossakaan tee kankaaseen reikiä, koska pistot ovat liian kireällä. Tämän takia tapahtui päinvastainen, eli pistot ovat liian löysällä ja näyttävät kamalilta! Onneksi pistoja ei ole kovinkaan paljoa.

Aloin jopa pohtia valitsemieni kankaiden vaihtoa. Siis aidasta pellavaan/evenweave (onko tälle suomenkielistä nimitystä?). Hehe saapa nähdä. Ja pidän siis aidasta edelleen, vaikkakin pellava tuntuu nyt todella mukavalta pistellä.

Ylhäällä kuva noidasta.

Day 3 - Spring ABCs (finished)

Day 3 of Crazy January Challenge is here. I started to stitch Lizzie Kate's "Spring ABCs" today and I am happy to tell you that I also finished it! Yay, my first finished piece this year :) I used 14ct aida which I hand dyed myself few years ago. It's yellow/orange. I used DMC for the carrot (green one is color variations) and for alphabets I used Dragon Floss which I got from exchange few years back. I was really happy to be able to use the pink one on this even though I have to admit the pink is not the best for this fabric.. Or the fabric is not the best for the pink :P But I still like this a lot! I didn't stitch the egg. Not quite sure if I will add anything there or if I will try to find some sort of egg-button.




Kolmas päivä hassutuksessa menossa. Aloitin pistelemään Lizzie Katen "Spring ABCs" ja sain sen myös valmiiksi, Jeee!!! Ensimmäinen valmis työ tälle vuotta. Tuntuu kivalta, hehe. Käytin 14ct aidaa jonka itse värjäsin muutama vuosi sitten. Kangas on keltainen/oranssi. Porkkana on pistelty DMC:n langoilla (vihreä on color variations-sarjaa) ja kirjaimet on pistely Dragon Flossin käsinvärjätyillä, jotka sain muutama vuosi sitten vaihdossa. Ihanaa että sain viimein pisteltyä jotain tuolla pinkillä :) Vaikkakin täytyy myöntää ettei tuo vaaleanpunainen väri ole se kaikista sopivin tuolle kankaalle. Tai kangas langalle :P Mutta pidän lopputuloksesta silti kovasti. Alareunassa pitäisi olla pistelty muna (tai nappi) mutta en sitä pistelly enkä ole ihan varma mitä sen kanssa teen. Pistelenkö vai yritänkö löytää saman tyylisen napin.

House by Lizzie Kate finished

I finally finished the small house by Lizzie Kate. It was a joy to stitch. I really need to get more of their patterns. The reason why I don't have their patterns (or LHN which I also love) is that before I had 2 years break from cross stitching, I mainly bought english magazines and they don't have patterns like that (well I found this house from Cross Stitcher!) so I really didn't have any idea of these lovely patterns before now. Yay, I am happy I found them now as one of the reasons I had a break from stitching was that I didn't really feel like stitching those cute characters from the magazines that I had.

So here's the picture of the finished piece. I love it! Aaand.. what next? :)



Sain viimein valmiiksi Lizzie Katen pikku-talon! Sitä oli kyllä ihana pistellä. Pitää hankkia lisää malleja kyseiseltä puljulta. Ei taida olla kun kaksi tällä hetkellä. Aiemmin ei tullu hankittua heidän mallejaan (tai LHN:n jotka on kans aivan ihania) koska en yksinkertaisesti tiennyt niistä. Ostelin englantilaisia ristipistolehtiä ja nehän nyt on täynnä söpöjä hahmoja. Onneksi löysin Lizzie Katen ja kumppanit nyt! Yksi syy kahden vuoden taukoon pistelyssä muuten oli juuri nämä söpöt hahmot. Lehdet oli niitä pullolaan ja minua ei kiinnostanut ne tippakaan. Joten pistelyhalut olivat hukassa kauan aikaa.

Ja ylhäällä kuva talosta. Ja mitähän sitten seuraavaksi? :)

House by Lizzie Kate

I started to stitch an old pattern that I found from Cross Stitcher (issue 154, Christmas 2004). It's Lizzie Kate's house and I was surprised to find a chart like that from Cross Stitcher. Happy but surprised :) I had most colours, just missing one dark pink which I might replace with another pink. Or I just go and buy the missing one tomorrow, haha.

I started to stitch it while I was watching a movie with my boyfriend. I was able to stitch quite much, considering I was also watching the movie! And talking with my bf ofc. I am not usually too good at multitasking though, haha.

Here's a pic of my stitching and how it should look when finished. Fabric is Silkweaver's 14ct aida. I don't remember the colourname as it didn't have any kind of label anymore.



Löysin vanhasta Cross Stitcheristä Lizzie Katen talo-mallin (CS 154, Christmas 2004). Olin aika yllättynyt, positiivisesti tosin. Yleensä kun CS:ssä mallit on enempi söpöilyyn taipuvaisia, ainakin vanhoissa lehdissä. Kaikki värit löyty, paitsi tummempi pinkki, jonka luultavasti korvaan toisella värillä tai menen huomenna ostamaan sen, haha.

Pistelin taloa illan elokuvan aikana. Pistelin aika paljon, vaikka samalla todellakin katsoin elokuvaa ja juttelin poikaystävän kanssa. Yleensä mä en ole hyvä tekemään kovin montaa asiaa samalla kertaa :D

Ylhäällä kuva omasta pistelystä ja lehdestä. Kangas on Silkweaverin 14ct aida, väriä en muista kun ei ollut lappua missään enää.