Wednesday, June 27, 2012

First Finish!

I know I promised an update of the Lucky Bag on Monday, but I just couldn't sit down and do it. I was having a hard time stitching out the outline on the fabric I was going to use for the back. I finally sat down and did it today. Took me about 3 hours to complete.

Here are pictures of it step by step:



And the finished product! It's stuffed with Poly-fill and I actually bought some dried lavender to place inside it to give it a scent.


I used the same technic that is used to make biscornus, I think it's called the whip stitch.


One thing I will do differently is stitch the outline on the fabric slightly bigger than the actual design. It was very hard to stitch together and I was really scared it wouldn't fit o.O

Update: Another thing I wouldn't do next time is use the fabric that came with the kit. It's such a waste to cut the pretty fabric. It has a nice metallic shine in it.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Happy St-Jean Baptist

It is the end of the long weekend for us here in Quebec. I put it to good use working on a project I had put aside to work on the Lucky Bag.

It is called Flower Patch and is from Papillon Creations. I had put it aside a few weeks back because I got bored with using the same 6 colors over and over, lol.

So it went from this on Friday night:


 To this after about 16 hours of work:

New Stash (Again)

I know, I know. I've been posting a lot of stash updates lately. But I bought all these at the same time I swear and now I'm stopping (I hope).

This a kit by a Chinese company, not sure by who. It came with everything I'd need to start the project, including 2 needles, a needle threader and a boo-boo stick (thread ripper). When I bought it I knew it came with a 14ct fabric which I was thinking of swapping for a higher count fabric, but after seeing that it came gridded (I mean wow! All the boring prep work was done for me) now I'm not so sure.


Another thing that I got from ebay is a DMC color shade card. This is the same one you sometimes see in the store that has the actual threads in it instead of the pictures. The seller still has one more here DMC Color Shade Card Actual Thread Samples.


Now I am stitching. I finished backstitch on the lucky bag, I will upload the pictures later, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to sow the fabric to the back of it so that I can stuff it with the lavender I got. If I can't figure this out by Monday, I'll just upload a picture.


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

June TUSAL

My first official TUSAL!


Looks like a lot doesn't it. This is actually a year and a half of work lol. Only the very top part (the turquoise) is actually from this month. For now, I decided I would keep going with my filled jar. Next year I'll empty it and start afresh.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Lucky Bag Update

I finished stitching the Lucky Bag. All that is left is the backstitching and then I have to figure out how to turn it into a real bag.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Almost Done

Here's another another update on the Lucky Bag. The colors aren't showing up nicely on this. I'm using my cell phone to take pictures. I will have to see if I can get a better picture next time with a real camera.


On another front, I'm almost done kitting Tree of Hope by Mirabilia. I'm still missing 2 of the Waterlillies threads and 2 bead packs. I will probably have to order some from my eBay supplier and end up ordering more than I planned to lol.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

eBay Purchase + Update

I live in Montreal and there aren't a lot of places a cross stitcher can go to get materials. A few places carry DMC threads, but there are exactly two places you can go to to get materials and they don't really have an interesting selection of patterns. So I buy a lot of my stash on eBay and every once in a while you find some nice discoveries.

A week ago I saw two listings from a cross stitcher selling fabric from her stash. She was decreasing her stash to buy lower count fabrics because of her eye sight. Don't you love when fellow stitchers share?

They came in yesterday. A total of 21 fabrics of 28ct in different sizes and colors. Some of them are really nice and big and I can see myself using them for a Mirabilia project.


As a gift, she also threw in this piece. Isn't it gorgeous? Apparently she used to hand-dye fabric and sell it on eBay. If she has more of these I will definitely buy more lol.


Here's the first Lucky Bag after about 10 hours. I've already started to think about how I want to finish it. Not sure if I want to frame it. I've actually been thinking about turning it into a real bag and fill it with potpourrit for scent.


Sunday, June 3, 2012

Stash Gift

 A while ago my sister went to South Korea for vacation and asked me what I would like from there and I told her:  "Get me something to cross stitch!". I got my wish :) Here's what she brought me back:


When I got this, I was in cross stitch heaven. 5 Dome kits and 11 patterns from other Korean Designers, one of which is HUGE.

I don't think I'll be doing the patterns anytime soon, but I will probably do the kits. So I present you my first project on this blog.



Saturday, June 2, 2012

Hello World!

So after browsing through many cross stitch and needlepoint blog, I finally decided to sit down and create my own.

I've only been cross stitching for about a year and a half, so my stash is still small, but I have been collecting a few patterns here and there, as well as a few things I've bought while on vacation, that I would like to start.

I also learned to crochet last year and have been keeping track of my projects on Ravelry. I mainly make amigurumi, I have a passion for stuffed animals, but I am also trying to progress into other types of projects.

This blog will mainly be a journal for myself to keep track of my various projects, but I would also like to use it to set goals for myself to learn other embroidery techniques. Wish me luck!