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*

I'm still here! :)

I am still here and stitching! :) I haven't blogged for a while though, mostly cause I have been busy elsewhere and I think I also didn't have much to blog about until now.

I have couple finishes! Yay for that :)

This one is my part of the RR which's theme was "Newton's Law". I do like NL however this one cause me lots of headache lol. I wasn't happy with the colours as I don't have Anchor but DMC so I had to use DMC and it's really not the same using those.. So I changed the colours and started stitching. Didn't look too good. So I frogged it all. I tried other colours.. I wasn't happy again, so more frogging. Finally I decided to use the DMC colours given on the chart. It looks ok,but I am not completely happy with it. The two browns used on the teddy are too close to each other. Both colours are also a bit too close to the colour of the fabric. Also cause I was already annoyed cause of the problems with the colours, the backstitching caused more headache :P I usually like backstitching a lot, but here the stitches go through the cross stitches, are only half a stitch long etc. Pain, at least now. But I was able to finish it and it looks ok :)

Next one is teacups (RR) and I am really enjoying stitching it.

I also participated an exchange. It was Halloween themed. Even though we Finns really don't celebrate Halloween, I still kinda like all those nice patterns with pumkins and stuff. Also as my fiancé is English, and English do have such a thing as Halloween, there's now a very good reason for me to start stitching those nice patterns! ;)

Here's what I stitched for my partner.

I really love this! I must stitch for myself as well. The pattern is from a magazine (World of Cross Stitching) and it's by Joan Elliott. I love her designs, eps smaller ones, not huge fan of the fairies and such.

I have been stitching a bit of my "laptop"-project too. I have this next to my laptop, so whenever I am having a boring moment on WoW, I can stitch this. As you can see, not many boring moments so far..

I have been able to put few stitches on my UFO too. I joined a group on Facebook, which is dedicated to UFO's. The stitching day is every Wednesday.

Finally, a pic of my shopping! I bought two kits from Dimensions. I love them both and I wish to have them finished before Christmas! Good luck to me :P Both kits have a word "Joy" and I have a thing for kits/patterns which include that word ;)

So as mentioned earlier, at the moment I am stitching a teacup for the next round robin piece. After that it's cows and that will be the last piece! I should get my wild animals home at the end of the month :)

Have a lovely November everyone and hopefully, I will blog again soon :)

A very old UFO and a small CJC2012 piece

I have to many WIPs and UFOs. When I wanna stitch, I spent lots of time to decide what to stitch! Esp. if the piece I wanna stitch is a no. I wanted to stitch the autumn by Bent Creek but I noticed I am missing two colours! The list says I do have them both, but I can't find them.. So, I can't stitch and finish that piece now. But I did NEED a small piece.. wonder why?

Well, as some of you might know, I play World of Warcraft. I have been leveling my priest's profession: Archaeology. Now that's something that is quite boring! Most of the time you are just flying from place A to place B and again to place C and A :P So, while I was doing this, flying around, I was checking Facebook and newspapers etc. Until I realised something.. I should stitch while I am flying! Ha! So I needed a small project next to my laptop which I could pick up when I am having a boring moment on WoW (flying, waiting for an instance group etc.) I chose one of my CJC pieces: Snowman 10 by Lizzie Kate :) Yay! I am multitasking!  I haven't stitched really much yet, but at least something.

I LOVE L*K patterns! They are nice and small and yet, so colourful :) After I have finished this, I will choose another Lizzie Kate as my laptop project lol.

Let's talk about that old UFO. When I had started stitching back in.. 2003/4 (I can't remember when that happened, I THINK it was in 2004, at least my oldest Cross Stitcher-magazine is from that year) I saw Dimensions' kits somewhere. I fell in love! I ordered one and started it right away. However.. uhm.. I think I chose a bit too big project! And challening too! I soon got tired of it as it doesn't only use cross stitches or even half stitches, but also half stitches on four strands, when 1 strand is colour A and 3 strands are colour B. So, I gave up and it's been an UFO for a looong time now. I pick it up every now and then and do few stitches but for some reason, I always put it away after some time. But now I am not gonna do that! I will keep it in the living room, somewhere where I can always see it and it screams my name! Maybe one day, I am able to finish it. And when I do, I will have a giveaway! :D Don't hold your breath though..

Here's how it looks at the moment. Oh and the kit is called "Southwest Mesa"

Look at these lovely colours!

It should look like this when finished.

Lots to do, lots to do.. But I do enjoy it now :)

Also! I did some shopping few days ago.. From Dimensions again. I ordered two ornament kits which I plan to finish before Christmas. Wish me luck! I will post a pic of them when they arrive, they were mailed on Friday, whooo!!!

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*

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello everyone! I wish you all a lovely day :)

I haven't updated my blog for two weeks now. Biggest reason is that I was in England this month! My very first time in England but for sure, not the last one. I really like England a lot. And especially one person there ;)

I didn't do any stitching shopping there though so I had to order some fabric from Sew and So. I hope the package will arrive tomorrow.

I have done only little stitching in these two weeks. I stitched Joan Elliot's Witch a bit and also finished one of my Crazies! Today I finished Lizzie Kate's "Follow your heart". Perfect one for this day :) The colours in the pic are a bit off, but not much.




Hei vaan kaikille ja toivottovasti teillä on ihana päivä tänään :)

En ole taas pariin viikkoon blogia päivitellyt. Suurin syy tähän on se, että olin tässä kuussa Englannissa! Ensimmäinen kerta kyseisessä maassa, mutta ei missään nimessä viimeinen kerta. Pidän Englannista kovasti ja varsinkin eräästä ihmisestä siellä ;)

En shoppaillut ristipistotarvikkeita Englannissa, joten tilasin Sew and So:lta hieman kangasta. Toivon paketin saapuvan huomenna.

Olen pistelly melko vähän. Joan Elliotin noitaa pistelin viime viikolla ja tänään pistelin teemaan sopivasti Lizzie Katen "Follow your heart"-mallia. Ylhäällä kuva valmiista tekeleestä. Värit ovat hieman metsään, mutta ei nyt mahdottoman paljoa kuitenkaan :)

Day 11 and 12

I'm a bit late with my updates, but here they are!

January 11th I started to stitch "Snowman ´10" by Lizzie Kate. As you can see, I didn't really stitch much at all. All this starting is just making me.. I don't know, not willing so start anything anymore! :D I usually start lots and won't finish anything, but 15 starts in 15 days is much for me! Thank god I changed back to 15 starts instead of 31, haha. I am not sure about the fabric. It is 14 count aida and nicely marbled, but don't know who's fabric it is. It's really nice anyways :)



Day 12 start was "Daisy Lane Cottage" by Little House Needleworks. I started to stitch it on 28ct Jobelan. Colour is Cameo. I really love Jobelan! I changed the colour of the house. It's yellow as I plan to give this to my mum on her birthday in February. And my parents' house is yellow. The fabris looks a bit like grey/blue but its more like cream.



Vähän olen myöhässä päivitysten kanssa. Mutta olen kyllä pistellyt/aloittanut pistelyitä.

Tammikuun 11. päivä aloitin pistelemään Lizzie Katen mallia "Snowman ´10". Kuten kuvasta näkyy, paljoa en pistellyt. Tämä jatkuva aloittaminen ärsyttää kyllä ihan kiitettävästi ja tulee tunne ettei edes huvita aloittaa enää yhtään uutta :D Yleensä minulla on ollut ongelmana, että aloitan uusia ja mitään en saa valmiiksi. Mutta tämä tuntuu olevan kyllä minullekin ihan liikaa. Onneksi palasin alkuperäiseen suunnitelmaan aloittaa 15 uutta, 31 sijaan! Lumiukon kankaasta en ole ihan varma. Se on 14ct aida ja hienosta marmoroitu. Mutta valmistajasta ei ole mitään hajua. Hieno kangas kuitenkin :)

12. päivän aloitus oli Little House Needleworksin "Daisy Lane Cottage". Kankaana on 28ct Jobelan, väri on Cameo. Jobelan on kyllä niiiin ihana kangas! Vaihdoin mökin värin keltaiseksi, sillä aion antaa työn äidilleni helmikuussa. Ja vanhempien talo on siis keltainen. Kangas näyttää kuvassa harmaasiniseltä, mutta on enemmänkin kerman värinen.

Day 5 - Follow Your Heart

I didn't stitch as much as I wanted yesterday. Mostly cause I was checking my stash and checking online stores for fabric. I was wondering what's the difference between Jobelan and Lugana. I have only stitched on Jobelan from those two and I did like it a lot. I was exlained the difference in a Yahoo group (thank you Theresa!). I wanted to try Lugana so I was checking my fave online stores. BUT! When I was going through my stash I found a piece of Lugana. I didn't know I had that piece! So my yesterday's stitching was on that :)

I didn't stitch much at all, but I did test the fabric, a little bit at least. It does feel nice to stitch on it and it's quite easy, however, I don't really love the looks of it. Not sure why not and what's wrong with it, it just doesn't look as nice as Jobelan or linen. But I might order some more to give it a go and to see if I get used to it.

Here's what I stitched yesterday. Picture is not that good, the fabric is actually very light pink (angel blush) but it looks like its light blue/grey.



Eilen en pistelly juuri laisinkaan. Olisin halunnut pistellä enempi, mutta suuri osa pistelyajasta kului netissä surffaillen ja omia varastoja penkoen. Mietin mikä on ero Jobelanin ja Luganan välillä. Olen aiemmin pistelly Jobelanille, mutta Luganalle en ollenkaan. Yahoon ryhmässä minulle kerrottiin ero näiden kahden välillä. Halusin kokeilla myös Luganaa, joten surffasin lempparinettikaupoissani tarkastamassa valikoimaa. MUTTA! Penkoessani omaa varastoani löysin pienen, unohdetun Lugana-palasen! En edes tiennyt omistavani Luganaa. Joten eilinen hassutustyö pisteltiin tälle kankaalle :)

Paljoa en pistellyt, mutta ainakin testasin kankaan, jotenkin kutenkin. Sille pistely tuntuu kivalta ja helpolta mutta en kuitenkaan juurikaan pidä miltä se näyttää. En oikein tiedä mikä siinä on vialla, mutta se ei näytä yhtä kauniilta kuin esim. juuri Jobelan. Taidan kuitenkin tilata lisää Luganaa ja antaa sille mahdollisuuden.

Ylhäällä kuva eilisen pistelyistä. Kuten aiemmin sanoin, en kovinkaan paljoa ehtinyt tehdä. Kuva on myös aika huono, kangas kun on vaaleanpunainen (angel blush) ja tuossa se näyttää sinertävän harmaalta.

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.