Monday, June 29, 2015

Pretty Little San Francisco

I've been very bad at posting on my blog. I'm looking at this month and I only posted twice (this will be the third). I'll have to do better. It's so much easier to just post a picture on Instagram these days and just keep stitching.

Funnily, I wrote the last post because Carla wanted to see what Pretty Little San Francisco looked like. Here is where it was on last Tuesday.


Last Wednesday being a holiday for us here in Quebec, I was able to put in more stitching time. I would love to say that I shared the time equally with all my WIPs... but that's not true. Pretty Little San Fran took up all that time. So much that by the time Friday came, I was this close to being done and then the worst thing that could happen happened. I realized that I wouldn't have enough of the last color to finish it.

I immediately called my sister who was still out and asked her to pick some up for me. Unfortunately, she was no where near the craft store, but promised that she would ask our dad to take her to the one near us on the way back home when he picked her up.


My dad passed by the craft store before going to pick my sister up, but unfortunately they didn't have it. They had all the colors before and after but not the one I needed.

So Saturday, I got myself out of the house to the Michaels near me and luckily they had some. I bought that thread and a bunch of other that I though were running low (don't want this to happen again).


And here she is all finished.



The original plan was that I'd be stitching the cities I've visited with the name of the city and date I went there at the bottom. I wanted them framed in a hoop to hang in my room. Unfortunately, because of my fabric count choice (it's a mystery fabric of which I have three pieces) it won't fit in a 10" hoop and a 12" hoop is too big for the fabric. So the only other choice I have is a plain old square frame (I'm leaning towards white). And as it happens with most of my finished projects, this is going into the finished pile until I am ready to do the actual framing (by hand).

Right now I'm trying to decide what to work on next. I wanted to start on the Estense needlebook kit, and even took it out, but I found that some of the threads might be missing. I should have it figured out by the end of the week.

Update: I forgot to include a link to the pattern on Etsy. It's by Satsuma Street and you can find the pattern here. Now that she's done Hong Kong, I'm crossing my finger she'll do Seoul too :)

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Update by Special Request

Carla of Alaska Wolfpack was asking about Pretty Little San Francisco, wondering when I would post another update. Here you go Carla :)


I've been really enjoying stitching this, especially when the bright blues and fuchsias showed up. I especially love stitching on it outside in our backyard. The colors are beautiful in the sun.


Like my nail polish? I bought it after starting the row of painted ladies and just had to use it the very next day :)

June TUSAL



Another satisfying pile. There's the usual cream, but lots of color as well thanks to Pretty Little San Francisco. 

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Stash Gift

My sister was in New York city last week and asked what she'd like me to bring back and I told her books, embroidery books to be exact. Stash, I have a lot (for) now. I don't want to buy more stash, but books I'll never have enough of.

Look at what my sister brought me back from her trip to New York:


These she bought from a Japanese bookstore (no idea where, I can ask if anyone wants to know). I just love Japanese craft books. They always have the prettiest projects and very good step by step instructions with photographs.

The only instructions I gave her was to pick books that she thinks I would like and to diversify. I also gave her the titles of two books that were on my wish list just in case she is able to find them in stock.

She did pretty well. The top two on the left are lace collar crochet (the first on left was on my wish list), the third one in the top row is an embroidery book with a floral theme. The bottom two are a Hardanger and drawn thread embroidery book. The drawn thread book is excellent and has lots of step by step picture instructions. If you want to see what's inside, I found them listed on Etsy. I'm not associated to any of the stores, but I have bought from Pomadour24 before (you can find the post here).


One thing I'm really annoyed at. Look at the picture below. This is the craft section in the bookstore, it doesn't just contain books on knitting and crochet or sewing. It has tatting, quilting, embroidery... It's a Japanese bookstore in NYC, USA. Look at how much choices they have. If I went to an English bookstore in Canada or the US for that matter, you wouldn't see this variety or even two full bookcases. I'd be lucky to find a shelf in bookstores here.


My sister sent me this picture to make me drool, all it did was make me sad and annoyed. Sigh... I'll just have to make sure to go with her on her next trip to NY ;)

For now my craving has been sated, but don't be surprised if I buy more books in the near future. I'm becoming quite the little addict.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

WIPocalypse 2015 – June


This month's topic: Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter? I try to stitch a few hours each day, but I will admit I get more done in the winter than I do summer. Living in Canada, we get a lot of snow in winter and more often you'll find me at home staying out of the cold. I really dislike snow, so no winter sports for me. In the summer, I try to go out when it's nice outside even if all I feel like doing is staying at home and stitching.

Still nothing on Bramble and the Rose.

No Update
Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

Very small update on Tree of Hope again. I've tried to stitch on in a bit each week without success. For now I'd rather stitch on other things.

Mirabilia - Tree of Hope

The dragons have still not made an appearance.

No Update
Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

This is what I've been preferring to stitch. Fantasy Lace got a lot of attention this month. The cable stitching and satin stitched lines are all done. I'm now stitching the flowers that go under the cable stitches. I have half of them left to do and then I can move onto the button hole border.


Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

A bit more stitching on Pretty Little San Francisco. This is my go to piece when I feel like cross stitching something simple. But again, I didn't spend that much time on it.

Satsuma Street - Pretty Little San Francisco

In my defense, I was pretty busy this month. I worked on a small "crewel" practice piece for myself.



And I had a two day class with Hazel Blomkamp and went stash crazy.



I went stash crazy again that same week and decided to learn knitting again. I started and finished a cowl in two days.