A Double Dose

I've been really sick so haven't updated my WIP's/finishes in a little while. Haven't really been well enough to stitch all week either. This is last weeks finish. Its called Summer Pudding. Its from Cross Stitcher magazine of August 2005, by Shelia Hudson. I used 25 count Evenweave and DMC threads. Its done 2 over 2. The only thing I really changed about this pattern is I didn't include the French knots. I hate them and really can't do them, so I used tiny little beads instead. Far quicker and actually looks better than my French knots. This took me 8 days in total to complete and was really quite a fun and fast project. I'm now totally out of Evenweave, so I have met my "use all old fabby" goal for my Evenweave stash. Now to work on that Aida stash.

Here, also is progress on my HAED, Afternoon Tea. Not much done last time I worked on it. Loads of confetti on this page. Am hoping to get the page completed this week but since I was sick last week I didn't get any study done either and so really should catch up a little on that too.

New couch can be seen in the background. Much better back support for stitching. I'm going to get a floor stand soon too. My lap hoop stand is great and works well, but now with the new couch there is room for the feet of a floor stand. I plan on getting a universal one that will hold hoops and scroll type stands. That way I can use what I already have with them. I will need a larger scroll stand for Afternoon Tea but they aren't overly hard or expensive to get.

Wave of Light 2013

While not cross stitch related this is still very important and dear to my heart.

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month. Yesterday, October 15, was the wave of light. Everywhere, all over the world candles were light at 7pm and left to burn for at least one hour. By doing this it creates a continues wave of light for 24 hours the world over in memory of babies lost too soon. 

This is the candle I had burning for  my Zachary and all the other angels.

WIP Rotation

I have given up on the monthly WIP rotation I had going and have instead moved to a weekly one. I think I'll stick to just the two projects at a time but rotate them weekly instead of monthly. I think doing it that way may help to keep my interest in each project a little bit. For now I'll rotate my HAED with a smaller one. Once I've used most of the smaller pieces of aida I have then I might re-assess my rotation. 

This is progress that I made on Afternoon Tea last week. Not the best quality as it was taken on my phone but still there is progress and that is what counts.

Heaven and Earth

This is my current big project. Its called Afternoon Tea and is from Heaven and Earth Designs. I love these designs. They are huge (mostly) and are so full of detail. I'm working on this during this month, but here it is at the start of this month after about 3 months worth of stitching done on it. Not the best photo but you can see the detail in the design.

A finish for September

I started this one back in July. I worked on it for about a week until the end of July before putting it aside for the month of August. I picked it back up again for the month of September. My goal was to get it finished in September. There were times when I didn't think I would make that goal. However, I did. I finished this on September 28th. 

It's called Around my Garden and was featured in Cross Stitch Gold Magazine issue 47. The designer is Joanne Aston.

The pattern called for 16-count white Aida. I used 18-count white Aida. When working on Aida 18-count is my preference. The pattern also called for the stranded cotton to be Anchor. I don't own any Anchor cottons. I prefer DMC. So I had a choice to make. Purchase the Anchor cottons for this chart or convert the colours to DMC and use those. I picked choice number two. Many of the colours didn't have much of a difference but some did. Overall though, I don't think it made a huge difference to the finished design. 

This pattern was the first I've done in a long long time that used backstitch. I hate backstitch. Its time consuming and fiddly and can be hard to get just right. In order to make it not so time consuming and less cumbersome I worked the backstitch as I went. That way I could see the difference it made (and boy did it make a difference) but I also didn't need to spend a whole day (or more) at the end working all the backstitch. 

I am rather pleased with the finished result. It was a rather fun pattern to stitch and watch come together. Even with all that dreaded backstitch.