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Apr. 1st, 2017 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angrboda posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
cross_stitchHello Stitchers!
I'm so bad at remembering this place exists! Sorry, Stitchers. Spring has come to my part of the world and my current project, I feel, is season appropriate.
First, current project. I've just started this one very recently, so I haven't got very far. It's a chart from Cross Stitch Collection magazine (which is sadly now closed) June 2016 issue. It's called Grow Your Own by Jenny Barton and it's going to be a very long and narrow allotment garden. Lots of detail, with lots of backstitch, fractional stitch, and French knots.
I don't know how well it shows up in the picture, but this is the background greenery at the very top. The grey bit is a bit of a tree trunk. All the green bits here are actually stitched in only one strand, which felt really weird to begin with, but I'm getting used to it. The tree trunk is in the usual two strands, and once I had that in, it's actually a great sort of slight depth effect there. It's quite a large project. The chart estimates about 80 hours of work on it, so it's going to last me for a good long while!
Second, at Christmas, I got a treasure box of ancient floss I had inherited from my great grandmother, via my grandmother who had finally accepted that she just wasn't likely to do anything with it. A lot of it was no longer labelled, but completely usable for stuff where the exact shade doesn't matter too much.
I used some of it to make this pin cushion with a hedgehog on it. Maybe a quarter of the colours are definitely the ones it said on the chart (also CSC, but can't currently recall which issue). The rest are sort of improvised from unlabelled colours. I think it turned out well. Personally, I wouldn't know from looking at it that it's not actually supposed to look like that, so I'm quite happy with it.
I've been keeping all my thread ends and similar off-cuts, and I used them to stuff the pin cushion with. Unfortunately, I didn't have nearly enough for a good plump pin cushion, so back to gathering thread ends.
I had some of this cute patchwork fabric left over from a quilt, I thought it'd make a good backing for the cushion. Shame they're not hedgepiglet paw prints. :D
Thirdly, a couple of finished things. I've shared in-progress photos of these before, I think. I had trouble finding a suitable frame for the first one, and for a long time nothing happened on it, because I was trying to come to terms with possibly having to have one custom made for a lot of money. And then I lucked out and found a shop that sells art supplies and they had these frames in lots of different sizes. Just what I wanted from the beginning! They're a bit on the shallow side, so glass+cross stitch+mounting board only just fits inside, but it doesn't show on the front.
I'm not 100% pleased with the fishing boats, though. I remembered the size wrong when buying the frame, but didn't think it would matter too much. Once I decided I wished I could do it over, they were already cut to shape and mounted though, so no turning back. A valuable lesson in 'Measure Twice, Cut Once' for you there.
Husband has hung these on the wall for me, so they're now adorning our home and I'm pleased as punch. :)
If anybody made it this far, thanks for sticking with me. :D
I'm so bad at remembering this place exists! Sorry, Stitchers. Spring has come to my part of the world and my current project, I feel, is season appropriate.
First, current project. I've just started this one very recently, so I haven't got very far. It's a chart from Cross Stitch Collection magazine (which is sadly now closed) June 2016 issue. It's called Grow Your Own by Jenny Barton and it's going to be a very long and narrow allotment garden. Lots of detail, with lots of backstitch, fractional stitch, and French knots.
I don't know how well it shows up in the picture, but this is the background greenery at the very top. The grey bit is a bit of a tree trunk. All the green bits here are actually stitched in only one strand, which felt really weird to begin with, but I'm getting used to it. The tree trunk is in the usual two strands, and once I had that in, it's actually a great sort of slight depth effect there. It's quite a large project. The chart estimates about 80 hours of work on it, so it's going to last me for a good long while!
Second, at Christmas, I got a treasure box of ancient floss I had inherited from my great grandmother, via my grandmother who had finally accepted that she just wasn't likely to do anything with it. A lot of it was no longer labelled, but completely usable for stuff where the exact shade doesn't matter too much.
I used some of it to make this pin cushion with a hedgehog on it. Maybe a quarter of the colours are definitely the ones it said on the chart (also CSC, but can't currently recall which issue). The rest are sort of improvised from unlabelled colours. I think it turned out well. Personally, I wouldn't know from looking at it that it's not actually supposed to look like that, so I'm quite happy with it.
I've been keeping all my thread ends and similar off-cuts, and I used them to stuff the pin cushion with. Unfortunately, I didn't have nearly enough for a good plump pin cushion, so back to gathering thread ends.
I had some of this cute patchwork fabric left over from a quilt, I thought it'd make a good backing for the cushion. Shame they're not hedgepiglet paw prints. :D
Thirdly, a couple of finished things. I've shared in-progress photos of these before, I think. I had trouble finding a suitable frame for the first one, and for a long time nothing happened on it, because I was trying to come to terms with possibly having to have one custom made for a lot of money. And then I lucked out and found a shop that sells art supplies and they had these frames in lots of different sizes. Just what I wanted from the beginning! They're a bit on the shallow side, so glass+cross stitch+mounting board only just fits inside, but it doesn't show on the front.
I'm not 100% pleased with the fishing boats, though. I remembered the size wrong when buying the frame, but didn't think it would matter too much. Once I decided I wished I could do it over, they were already cut to shape and mounted though, so no turning back. A valuable lesson in 'Measure Twice, Cut Once' for you there.
Husband has hung these on the wall for me, so they're now adorning our home and I'm pleased as punch. :)
If anybody made it this far, thanks for sticking with me. :D
