Stitching Outside Inspires

We had what was probably the best weekend of the summer. It was so good I spent all of Sunday in my backyard, going in only to have lunch. I decided to take my stitching outside, hoping the good weather will help me progress on Flower Patch.

Here it is in action on our swing.

By the end of the day, I had finished stitching the dark green vines. About time, I say! I've been stitching this WIP on and off for three years. I was supposed to finish it last year, but got distracted by other things. But I am determined to finish it this year.

Dark green vine finished

I think I'm going to start on the roses next, just to get a change from all that green (I really hate DMC 3051 right now lol).

September TUSAL

This month's TUSAL is a much better. It also helps that I did more stitching ;) Some of the thread is from my crocheted Amigurumi, some itty bitty thread from Flower Patch and the rest (most of it) is from Spirit of the Southwest.

HeForShe

This post has nothing to do with cross stitching, embroidery or anything crafty but I had to share it with everyone.

It is Emma Watson's speech at the UN for the HeForShe campaign and I just found it so well said that I will probably not forget it anytime soon.

http://www.themarysue.com/emma-watson-united-nations/

Octagon B Completed

That was fast!

I didn't stitch much during the week, but come Friday I sat down to continue work on Octagon B and nearly had a heart attack. Below the Eiffel, there was what, felt like, a whole forest of French Knots.

Eiffel Tower and forest of French Knots

These French Knots are stitched in a combination of two different threads that get darker as you go farther away. I hyped myself up and start stitching the first layer, but had to redo the left side 4 times before realizing that both sides couldn't be stitched the same with how my frame is set up. What I ended up doing is I would stitch a row on one side, then rotate the frame 90 degrees and stitch that row on the other side. This ensured I was stitching in the same direction to get the mirrored effect.

Another layer where the sides had to be perfectly mirrored is the diagonal long stitch using Threadworx thread.

Mirrored diagonal long stitch

The rest is a combination of more diagonal long stitches as well as tent stitches. The effect looks amazing and well worth the constant change of thread :)

Octagon B

Here is Spirit of the Southwest so far:

Octagons A & C Completed

I finally went back to working on Spirit of the Southwest this weekend. I've been hesitant to work on it because every time I do, I wake up the next day with pain in my right hand and arm. Luckily this didn't happen this time around.

First off, I finally finished stitching Octagons A and C. I haven't been wanting to work on this because of the section of diagonal stitches in the lower right corner (left for octagon C). Anchoring the beginning of the thread under the stitches was really hard.

Octagon A

I noticed as I was working that the stitches in Octagon C look better than the ones in A. I don't know if it's because of the direction of my stitching (I'm stitching this with the frame upside down) or just the thread shines differently (which is the whole point of this pattern). But I do see a difference and I really don't fell like redoing A. So as far as I'm concerned it's done.

Octagon C

I started on Octagon B. The first step is this Eiffel tower looking thing. It's a tent basket weave stitch. The pattern came with a diagram, but I didn't really understand it so I googled it. I found the steps strange, but followed them anyways.

Eiffel tower. The left side looks nicer than the right. weird!

It wasn't until I turned the canvas to finish off my thread that I realized why it was called a tent basket weave stitch. The steps that I found so strange were creating an actual basket weave pattern on the other side of the fabric. How cool is that!

Back of the Eiffel tower

Here is what it looks like so far. Sorry the picture doesn't look that nice. I took it twice and it still looks angled. This is because I'm still stitching with the canvas upside down. Once I'm done with Octagon B, I'll flip it back and take a better picture.

Halfway There

I've been in sort of a slump lately, I don't really feel like stitching my WIPs but I really need to at least make some progress on Flower Patch. So last week I decided to stitch an hour or so every day. Which is how it went from this:

2014/08/22

To this:

2014/08/12

I feel so proud of myself lol. I've been stitching it while re-watching The Master's Sun (which is an amazing Korean drama for those not into k-dramas). It's subtitled, so I have to keep looking up in order to watch it and understand. But since I've already watched it I don't mind missing a line here and there. I will admit that sometimes I will stop stitching for a few minutes in order to re-watch my favorite scenes lol.

I also worked on Spirit of the Southwest, I'll post pictures later (I need to retake one of the pictures). All in all, a very productive weekend :)

Baby Shower Gift

I haven't stitched on any of my WIPs for the past two weeks. My mom and I were invited to a baby shower (for the daughter of one of her friends) and I wanted to make something as a gift. It's been a while since I'd crocheted an amigurumi, so it was fun to do that again. But I forgot how nervous I get when I'm piecing it together and while waiting to see the other person's reaction when I finally give it.

I decided to make lalylala's Rita the Rabbit (which is free as long as you own one of her patterns), but didn't know if the mother was having a boy or a girl so it had to have neutral colors. My mom had already decided to get a white crocheted baby blanket (unfortunately we didn't have time to actually make it lol) and I figured light brown and white will go nicely together.

 Half-way into the making, I find out she's having a boy. So I'm doubly glad I decided on the brown.

End of last week

By Thursday night I had all the pieces done and just needed to put them together. The green safety pins are were the eyes are going to be embroidered.

Pieces ready to assemble

I did the assembly in two days to give me a break. Friday night I put the hood, head and body together. I had decided to sew the hood onto the head completely so it can't be pulled off by accident. Then on Saturday I spent the afternoon attaching the arms and ears and embroidering the eyes.

Here it is with the books I bought from Indigo to complete the gift. I especially love the "That's not my bunny" book.

The mother to be was very happy with the gift since it was really different from the other gifts she received. She had a registry, but we didn't know where it was, so we tried to pick out things that we thought any mother-to-be would like to have but wouldn't think of buying in the rush to prepare for a first child. She was very shocked to know I made the rabbit myself :)

My only disappointment is that I wasn't able to get the acrylic based marker to add a little blush to the rabbit's cheeks. I wasn't willing to do it without testing it first and there wasn't any time left. I'll do it on the next lalylala I do. Did I mention I bought 3 of her patterns: Fibi the Fox, Kira the Kangaroo and Dirk the Dragon. I had to buy one to make the rabbit and she has a 3 for 15 euros (21 CAD) on her etsy shop. I already have a request for the fox and kangaroo ;)