New Project, New Frame!

Happy Saturday to all you stitchers! Received a new kit in the post this week, another purchase from eBay. I have really wanted this kit for quite a while so as soon as it arrived I started working on it straight away. It's from Dimensons, The Gold Collection Petites and is called 'Christmas Morning Pets'. I have only made a small start on it but here it is, and how it will look when it's finished too!

It's on 18-count aida which I never stitched on before, the smallest I have stitched on is 16-count aida. I think it will take a while to get used to and I think I will have to use the parking technique as it's a struggle to fit a cross stitch in between two already done! The stitching is not as neat as I would like it to be but I think I will get better with practice. 

I also started using a new frame today, I bought it from Sew and So its a R & R Craft Frame. I wanted to try a different frame because hoops weren't really working for me! I saw a review for a snap frame on Erin's blog 'Less Bitching, More Stitching' and it's a great review. She also has a giveaway for the frame too so check it out. 

The frame I have is very similar and I love it! It's a bit heavier than a hoop but so much easier to hold. I bought a 6x6inch frame, and it keeps the tension really good. I also bought some needles and some thread storage which I will talk about in another post. Here's a little picture of the frame:

Hope everyone has a good stitchy weekend!

Venice Update

I haven't done as much stitching as I wanted or planned to in the last week. Only because every time I was going to get some done on this project something else came up and when I finally had time I was too tired! Nevertheless I did get some progress on my Michael Powell Mini Venice Bridge 1. Once I have completed that last little section at the bottom I only have two columns 20 stitches across!

This is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago:

I have finished all the cross stitch on Bert the Badger now and I am struggling through the back stitch. Hoping to get it done by the end of this week!

I just wanted to say welcome to new followers I am really glad you are here and reading my blog :-)

Happy stitching!

It's Saturday Stash It!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! I have some new stash to share with you, I bought two kits off eBay. eBay is great if you need to stitch on a budget or find kits that are discontinued. The first kit I got was 'Over the Moon', a DMC kit from the Bubble & Squeak range which I really like.

I have stitched two of their designs before and have a chart for another in a magazine. I love the design, but there is a lot of half stitch background and similar colours for the bear. Definitely will be a project I will have rotate with something else!

The second kit I got is another one of my favourite series, Country Companions. I've have stitched quite a lot of them in the past and have a couple that I need to get back to stitching on too. They have been taken over my Anchor, and I still like the designs but prefer how they look when DMC did them. The kits can be quite hard to come by now, but I managed to get a Tom Mouse design called 'Hide and Seek'.

I am really looking forward to stitching them both and they should keep me going for quite a while just need to decide which to start first!!! Hope you like my new stash.

Happy Stitching!

Finished!

I finished my Newton's Law - 'Friends Share' this morning and couldn't wait to share. I am really pleased with how it turned out, just need to decide whether I want to put it into a card to give away or a small frame to keep! 

The back stitch was quite challenging as it didn't all go in the designated holes, so I had to really concentrate and give it some time, but I am glad I did. 

There were a couple of french knots for the champagne bubbles and on the bow. I had to watch a YouTube tutorial to familiarize myself with them. I always find them difficult but I was quite pleased with the result! I'm going to try and finish Bert the Badger soon too! 

Project details:

The chart is from The World of Cross Stitching - Issue 178

Stitched on 14-count aida

Started: Saturday 16th June

Finished: Wednesday 20th June

Happy Stitching!

June TUSAL

The Totally Useless Stitch A Long, my first post for it! These are the threads from the three projects I am working on; Bert the Badger, Newton's Law 'Friends Share' and Michael Powell Mini Venice Bridge 1. I didn't have jar so just used a wine glass! Hoping to get the elusive green thread to finish my Newton Law piece today as well as the extra colours for my Bert the Badger.

Thanks for visiting! Happy stitching!

June IHSW Result

The plan was to have a stitch-a-thon in honour of the June International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and that sort of happened. I didn't get a whole lot of stitching done on Saturday was a bit slow getting going, then went to the gym and after that had a migraine. So wasn't feeling my hermit roots on Saturday afternoon, but yesterday was a big improvement! I spent the morning doing all the housework and got it out of the way by 1pm (I woke up pretty early!) and then set aside the rest of the day for stitching.

I managed to start my new project - the Newton's Law  chart from The World of Cross Stitching - Issue 178. I really like this series they are running and definitely need to go through the rest of my magazines, I'm sure there are more I want to stitch. I made great progress for me, as  I said before I am a fairly slow stitcher, but for one afternoon this isn't too bad.

If I hadn't had a migraine and I didn't buy the thread colour 266 instead of 226 I think I could have finished this in a weekend. Nevertheless I think it will be really cute and the series will be great to make into cards at only 4X4 inches. There is some writing on it too saying 'Friends share' but I think I am going to leave that out.

I did not stitch on Bert Badger at all because of running out of the threads like I said before the weekend. I was enjoying this quick stitch too much to get any stitching done on the Mini Venice Bridge 1, Michael Powell design. But it is only Monday so there is plenty of time for that!

I really enjoyed my first IHSW weekend and can't wait for the next one! I'm off to see what everyone else stitched over the weekend.

Happy stitching!

IHSW

This weekend is IHSW aka International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and it is the first time I have participated! Follow the link to find out more and sign up. It's an awesome idea and a great excuse to get hauled up and cozy on a rainy weekend and stitch! On Monday I will post any progress I have made.

I plan to start a new project and try to get some stitching done on my Michael Powell design after having a break for a couple of days. I was planning to finish Bert the Badger this weekend too but I have run out of a couple of colours from the kit so will need to get them before I can finish.

This is the progress of Bert the Badger from the past three days, the top left picture is how it looked in the last post. I am really enjoying this kit but looking forward to doing something with a bit more colour.

Spent a lovely day in London today soaking up some culture at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. Was very inspirational to see so much and so much colour all in one place! As well as spending some time with a good friend and having yummy Mexican!

Happy stitching!

Work in Progress Wednesday

For WIP Wednesday I wanted to share my other project I am stitching besides Bert Badger. I spent lots of hours over the Jubilee weekend and made quite a bit of progress. Because I am back after a long while I took a before and after picture so you can see the progress I made. My goal is to finish this project before the Knitting and Stitching show in October so plenty of time but I'm not a speedy stitcher! The project is a Michael Powell design - Mini Venice Bridge 1

The picture on the left was taken 7th June and the one on the right was my progress  on the 10th 

I have always admired Michael Powell designs and bought this kit at the last Knitting and Stitching Show. It is all whole cross stitch which is what I often look for when choosing a pattern or kit to stitch. The colours in this are really holding my attention! The final project will look like this:

I have made a bit more progress since the pictures above but will update again next Wednesday! I've almost reached the half way mark so would be good to reach that next week but we will see. I am hoping to get the threads and fabric ready for another project, it's a Newton's Law series from The World of Cross Stitching - Issue 178.

Bert Badger

I needed a break from my larger project was starting to get a bit frustrated with it, probably because I have been stitching on it quite extensively since the Jubilee weekend. So I got out a smaller kit which I had only stitched about 4 stitches on it. It is Bert Badger from DMC, it is a Woodland Folk mini kit. This is what it will look like when finished:

This is the progress I made this morning, which isn't a lot as I had been stitching on my larger project which I will post some pictures of tomorrow. I'm hoping this will give me a nice break though and be fairly a quick finish, and then I will probably make it into a card. Seen as I blogged about goals yesterday, my goal is to finish this by the end of the month. If I carry on the way I am stitching right now I will finish it well within the month! I've started at the left top side of the body.

Stitching Goals

This is an awesome idea, so I thought I would join in!A blog hop hosted with a question:  

                 

Do you set stitching goals for yourself and how do you plan them out? (Weekly, monthly, annually?) What are your current stitching goals (if you don’t mind sharing)?

In addition to setting goals for yourself, do you have a special reward that you reserve for when you reach a stitching goal?

The only real stitching goal I have at the moment is to finish my current WIP before the Knitting and Stitching show in October, so I can buy another Michael Powell kit. So that is around 5 months away, and I am around a quarter to half way finished! 
I would like to set more goals as I find them fun and I'm not too worried about whether they are achieved or not it's just nice to have something to work towards. I am planning to cross stitch all my Christmas cards to my family this year, so my goal is to stitch one Christmas card a month. 
Rewards...hmm...I suppose if I finish a project the reward is starting a new one or maybe treating myself to a kit from my wishlist!!

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.

A Common Thread

It's been over a year since I last posted. I suppose the only excuse is that life was busy!! I started my second year of university which has been once of the most challenging years of my life! Nevertheless I started a knitting video podcast called Studentknits where each week I talk about my current knitting projects, host knitalongs, giveaways and showing the odd beading and cross stitch WIPs.

I thought I should put some energy back into my cross stitch and post progress of my cross stitch projects, so I can journal what I stitch and the challenges along the way. So I'm back and my goal is to blog at least once a week, and maintain some consistency. I hope you will join me along the way :-)

So stay tuned for Work In Progress Wednesday!