Flower Patch Finished

After 3 years, I can finally say that I finished stitching Flower Patch. This design is from Papillon Creations.

I originally started this piece to take with me on my trip to San Francisco. I had just been hired at my current company and they were sending me there for training. It's also been to Calgary when I was there for the Stamped.

Flower Patch is stitched on 32 count Jobelan Lambswool, which is my favorite fabric. I decided to stitch it 1 over 1 because I didn't have enough of the fabric to stitch it over 2. I love the effect, but all those leaves became tedious to stitch over 1.

I also made some changes in the colors. I didn't really like the pale green in this pattern. Actually, every time someone would see me stitching this piece, they'd tell me it's out of place. It was too late to do anything about the octagons, but I could at least change it in the leaves. I switched it out for DMC 3052.

The thing I love about stitching over 1 is the back. It looks almost exactly like the front of it.

Best part of all this, is that I reached one of my goals for this year :)

Project Updated

I haven't posted an update on my projects in a while, so here it goes.

Spirit of the Southwest is almost done. The string art was all finished last weekend (no pictures of that yet) and I started on the outer border right away. Here's a picture of where I was at Sunday afternoon. Since then I've stitched the second layer of cross stitches and have started the last layer of long stitches.

Flower Patch is almost done. I haven't taken pictures of it since finishing the roses, but there isn't much to see until it's all finished. I'm on the last side of pale green leaves and I should be able to complete it this week. I've been stitching this for 3 years and will be happy to move onto something new.

Knitting... So last week I said I would buy another type of needle (I got circular needles) and try again with the mystery thread. That didn't work out any better, so I left it alone. Yesterday, I received the book that contains the pattern I want to knit and decided to try it one more time before crying help. This time I pulled out a ball of thin baby thread that I had and tried again.

I tried casting on using the two knitting needles like they show you in the video and was still having a hard time. The bamboo needles are too long and awkward to hold, and the wire part of the circular needle keeps folding on itself. That and my tension is horrible. The last time I tried knitting, I did the cast on with one needle, it was awkward but I was able to get to the next step. Right now I feel like I'm floundering.

Tonight, I'm going to the Nutcracker Market to visit La Maison Tricotee's booth. I want to pick up another pair of scissors (You can see the pair I picked up last year in the picture below). They are hand made and feel very comfortable in my hands. The tip is also perfect for Hardanger. The person who makes them retired last year I think and they had a few of his scissors left. While I'm there I'll see if they can help me with my knitting issues.

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).

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 :)

Flower Patch is Back

After over a year of no stitching, Flower Patch is back. The last time I touched it was back in April 2013 and only to put in a few stitches.

2013/04/08

2014/08/22

One of my goals for this year is to finish this WIP. In order to encourage me to accomplish that goal, I can't start the Hardanger piece until Flower Patch is finished. Let's see how that goes ;)

Over the weekend I also worked on binding my new wooden hoop.

In a previous post I had ordered one hoop, but there are two hoops in this picture. That's because I liked the one I had so much I ended up ordering a bigger one (10") for an upcoming class I'm taking. More on that in the coming month :)

Castle in the Air Part 23

It's done! I can't believe that after 3 years, Castle in the Air is finished... well almost. There is still a lot of beading left to do, but I'm not going to do that now or any time soon (maybe in another 3 years lol)

For part 23, I made some slight modifications. I decided not to stitch the castle that is supposed to go at the top.

Top

I also swapped out the floral version for the fantasy one. I love the dragonfly and delicate flower bushes.

Middle

The bottom part is exactly the same as the top one, but a mirror image of it.

Bottom

And here it is without the grid. It took me 3 hours and a half to take it all out (almost as much time as it took me to put it in). The reason for that is because my needle had split the thread in a few sections and I had to be more careful pulling it out without disturbing my stitches. I will have to rethink my gridding technique for next time.

I've already started preparing my next project. I'll put up a post later on what it is :)

Castle in the Air Part 22

Part before last. These would make very nice biscornus or pinkeeps.


I already started the last part, with the long weekend (St-Jean Baptiste here in Quebec) I hope I can finish it.

Castle in the Air Part 21

I feel very motivated to finish this now that the end is near :)

This is the last garden scene (sorry the picture is kind of blurry):

Two more parts left and then I can take a very deserved break before the beading starts.

I also went to Finnegan's Market again and found these: a tiny hook and an awl with ivory handle. Both are very old and were being sold as a packaged deal in a sewing basket with other sewing thread. The owner was kind enough to sell me only these two for $2.

Castle in the Air Part 20

So many Algerian eyelets! I hope I won't have to do any for a long while. The piece itself was very quick to stitch. But those Algerian eyelets, I thought I would never finish.

Next up is the last garden scene.

More Updates

I've had a good week. I got a lot of work done on Bramble and the Rose. It's relaxing to cross stitch without having to constantly re-thread to change colors.

I also finished part 19 of Castle in the Air. With this completed I now have 4 more parts left and all that will be left is the beading.

Castle in the Air Part 18

I'm on a roll :)

Update (a few minutes later): I just noticed that there was a mistake in the chart for part 18. There should be a diamond of white between the two green diamonds. This isn't the first mistake I noticed in this part. The back-stitched flowers on each corners of the outer diamonds were also incorrectly charted.

Castle in the Air Part 17

I'm in a good stitching mood :)

I'll ride this out and continue with Castle in the Air. See how far I can get before I get bored with it.

Castle in the Air Part 16

After almost 3 month of inactivity, I finally went back to working on it. I'm kind of having trouble with this project. I love how the end result looks like, but all these small little details and the constant threading and cutting is starting to get annoying. This does not bode well for me if I want to try my hand at one of Chatelaine's designs.

Here is part 16:

Now I have to decide: Do I keep going on this or take a break and work on Bramble and the Rose?

Off to Korea

Tomorrow my sister and I are flying off to South Korea for a two week vacation =D

I've already made a list of things we will want to see as well as stores (yay! New stash!) we would like to visit. I will try to upload pictures, but I will probably have limited access to my blog while there.

As always, whenever I go on vacation, I take a cross stitch project with me. Usually I start something new before leaving and just work on it on the plane. Last year, I took Flower Patch. I still haven't finished (below is a picture of what it looks like currently), but I decided to start a new one anyways.

Which is why I kitted out the Bramble and the Rose last month. The one color will make stitching on a plane easier.

Here's a floss toss. I had bought this super cute 6" x 6" Q-snap (my third one now, I just couldn't resist) super useful for the flight. It's small enough to fit my new project bag. I also needed something for the hand-dyed floss. I've seen some stitchers use rings made from mother of pearl, but since I can't find anything like that here in Montreal, I decided to look for other alternatives. I found a bag of Boye Cabone Rings at Michaels which will do the job very nicely. I actually have no idea what they're actually used for, found them in the knitting and crochet section, but it works.

I always start the projects before the flight. It's always easier to continue a project than to start a new one in an environment like that. My progress so far!

One thing I'm finding hard is doing full cross stitch instead of doing the legs in one direction and coming back and doing the other leg. I hate having a messy back, sigh!

Castle in the Air Part 15

I finally ordered the metallic thread I was missing on eBay. It took me 2 month to do! I found a seller who lives in British Columbia who has a very good listing. The shipping cost was very low and delivery was fast. I ended up ordering way more than I needed (obviously!).

So I got my threads within a week and I went to work on filling in what was missing. I decided to use gold metallic thread on the gate instead of silver. It just looks nicer that way. By the way, the gold thread was a JOY to use. I hate working with the silver metallic thread, the gold thread is much softer and easier to handle.

This is part 14, with the silver thread in the flowers and the Blackwork trellis in gold.

Here is part 15 with the black gate and gold trellis.

Part 14 and 15 had a lot of Blackwork in them. I always wanted to try Blackwork and this was a good opportunity to try. Not sure if I really enjoyed it or not. I'll have to try a Blackwork project next time.

Here is an overview of all the parts so far. It felt nice to take it off the frame. As I was holding it out I kept thinking how nice it looks hanging like a scroll. I might just finish it like that.

Castle in the Air Part 14 (sort of) and some Part 15

My procrastination has reached a new level. I still haven't gone to the store or ordered the metallic thread I was missing :( What this means is that part 14 in Castle in the Air is sort of done as well.

I also mixed up part 14 and 15 (the third column of flowers is part of 15). But that's okay, it just means I have less to do in part 15 ;) Here's an overview.

Castle in the Air Part 13 (sort of)

When I say sort of, I mean I'm missing two more Star stitches in silver that weren't stitched because...I ran out of thread :( I've been procrastinating for a while now. I knew that the metallic thread will finish soon, but when I went to one of the local needlework stores, I found out some really bad news. One of the few stores in Montreal, Trimmings Dressmaker LTD will be closing its doors soon. And since not many people buy Kreinik threads, they stopped ordering stock for it. So now I have to decide whether I want to make a trip to the only other store I know that carries Kreinik (on the off chance they have it in stock) or order from eBay.

I was still deciding when I ran out yesterday :P So technically this isn't really done, but I decided it was and I'm moving on to the next part. Anyhow here is part 13:

And here's an overview:

Castle in the Air Part 11 AND 12

I finally finished the side border! Now with parts 11 and 12 over with, I'm hoping Castle in the Sky will stay at the top of the pile.

And here's an overview:

Next up are the bottom left and right corner.

Castle in the Air Part 10

Two updates in one day :) After looking at my logs, this is the shortest one so far. Only 5.25 hours!

An overview of what it looks like now.

Now the next two parts (11 & 12) are repeats of parts 8 and 9 but inverted. Not very inspiring but if I want to get to the good stuff I have to get through these.

Castle in the Air Part 9

It's been awhile since I worked on Castle in the Air. Finally sat down at my desk and worked on part 9. I was determined to get this part done. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do this part 8 and 9 again, but I will persevere :)

An overview of what's done so far.