Lavender Fairy

When I was hunting for a piece of fabric for Lavender Fairy, I came across this small piece of hand dyed fabric. Its a silkweaver solo. I then remembered I bought a number of these, and these little flower fairies are the only suitable patterns I have to use them for. I did give this one a little bit of thought before deciding if it was suitable, rather than my usual course of just launching into it and worrying about it later. I think it works, although. I know hand dyed fabrics are much revered in the cross stitching world, and they are lovely, but with my lack of creativity I'm probably better off using plain fabric for the most part, after all, its the design that's important. This fabric is more blotchy than most of the pieces I have, and I think I've got away with it for this one, but if I go for hand dyed fabrics in the future I'm more likely to chose subtly blotchy ones, a bit like the fabric I'm using for Moon Fairy Spirit.

My current project is Snowdrop Fairy which is almost finished but has taken me over a week, I should hopefully get it finished later today and it is the last of my little flower fairies for now.

Sleeping Beauty

After I put Rhinestone aside I picked up Mirablia's Sleeping Beauty again and worked on it for a few weeks. I feel I have been working on this for so long, its a few years now, and still my first Mirabilia. It is so huge, but remains my favourite. It is the most beautiful project I am working on. Unfortunately the fabric is a bit on the small side - it does fit, but only just.

I have 3 other WIPs from way-back-when, Teresa Wentzler's Fantasy Triptych, the HAED Waiting for Neptune and the large flower Fairy, Rose Fairy. I don't think any of these have moved since I last posted photos of them.

At this moment I'm working on another little flower fairy, Lavender Fairy. Picture to follow tomorrow I hope!

Rhinestone

This is the project I was writing about in my last entry. I got quite a bit of it done, but I did have a week off work and spent a lot of it sitting in front of the TV watching the Olympics (sort of) and stitching this. The reason it's cut off so awkwardly at the bottom is because the chart's on 2 separate sheets and this was the top sheet. The top half of it is nearly there, I stopped at this point because I was using a large hoop which it had just about got too big for, it will have to go in Q-snaps next time I pick it up. I do prefer using a hoop but as I also like to stitch large pieces a hoop is not really ideal.

Moon Fairy Spirit

This is Moon Fairy spirit by Passione Ricamo. I think it was the last thing I was stitching before I packed away my needles and threads last year. It's quite close to being finished, but hasn't been worked on for about a year. It is my plan to get this one finished once I'm done with my current spate of flower fairies.

Forget Me Not Fairy

My daughter said this fairy was prettier than Daisy Fairy so I decided to stitch her as well. I didn't have one of the main colours so took a bit longer to get going. also, I kept going wrong so had to do a lot of pulling out. So much for quick and easy! I've done a much better job of the french knots with this one, most of them are pretty good, am quite pleased with myself for that. Yes, I know it needs an iron to get rid of the hoop marks.

Daisy Fairy

I've got some pictures at last. I'm going to post them all in separate entries as my computer is very slow and might crash again.

Because its so long since I had a cross stitch finish, I decided to stitch something little so I could have a finish and also slightly reduce the very long list of charts & kits I have stored in my stash. I don't have many charts that are little but I do have a few flower fairies. I like daisy fairy, I got it finished in one day although it did take several hours. It involves french knots which I haven't tried for quite a few years and couldn't quite remember how, and mine in this fairy are pretty bad. Fortunately there are only a few so they don't notice too much.

I am back!

I am stitching again. Woohoo!

At one point I thought I'd even forgotten the password for this blog. It seems I haven't.

My stitching has been very erratic for the past year or so. Not sure how much of what I've done since I last wrote, next to nothing on most of my WIPs. At one point I even let my daughter have my stash of thread and declared that I hate cross stitching. How dare I!

Then I changed my mind and claimed my thread stash back - not sure how messed up it is, not sure I want to know just yet. But what there is is safely back in my stash cupboard.

A week or so ago I picked up 'Rhinestone' by Maria van Scharrenburg, a Lanarte kit. I had started this a while back, it is my most recent start. I've stitched quite a lot of it, seems I'm back into the swing of it again, for now anyway, and I'm getting to the point where I remember which colours the symbols correspond to.

I'm not committing myself as to when I'll re-commence stitching on anything else, will see how it goes.

But to reinforce the fact I'm back in stitching mode, I bought some more stash, as if I really need any more! Hobby Craft had some of the specialist materials packs for L&L designs in the sale and I couldn't resist. I did pick them up, and put them back, then decided if I didn't buy them and went back a week later to find they were gone I'd be bitterly disappointed. So this barely stitching woman spent £40 on specialist material packs for Celtic Summer and Celtic Spring. On arriving home I found I already have Celtic Spring fully kitted, so it was pretty stupid of me to buy that one. I wonder if Hobbycraft will take it back? I could have a go at selling it on ebay, failing that split it up and mingle it in with the rest of the huge bags of thread and beads. It was the cheaper of the 2 packs as doesn't have any of those mega expensive needlepaints threads in it. That doesn't justify me wasting £10 on it but there you go.

Back to 'Rhinestone'. I don't have a picture just at the moment. As I've been right off this writing on the internet lark, I have forgotten how to connect the camera to the computer. Husband knows how to do it, I promise there will be photographic evidence of my return to the stitching world this side of Christmas!

Eventually she writes something

So many lovely comments on my last entry, and she didn't have a face! I did have a stitching frenzy a while back, but sadly not a needle has been lifted for about a month. Maybe I should take the hint, a busy working mum of 2 has no time for hobbies, oh but I do love to stitch! The ironing is nearly finished so maybe I deserve a treat. Who knows what might happen?!!!

Moon Fairy Spirit (again)

After another lapse I picked up MFS again. Only because this is the one currently sitting in the Q-snaps. I don't seem to be the dedicated stitcher I once was! But I have made some progress - its a bit all over the place, I'm drifting to different parts of the pattern but who cares!

Moon Fairy Spirit

I was determined not to let my 2 week stitching slump turn into a several months long slump like I had last year so, shortly after I posted my last entry, I started stitching again.

Everything seemed to be conspiring against me. First, I couldn't find the pattern for Sleeping Beauty. I turned to Moon Fairy Spirit. I stitched a large amount of the lilac colour then found it was supposed to have kreinik thread blended with it, so had to frog it all out. Then, I couldn't find the beads. Still haven't found them, I bought some more. Last weekend, I thought I'd stitch a bit while my daughter had a ski lesson. I took out the fabric, scissors, thread, even the beads. Forgot the pattern of course.

Ah well! Here is my progress ..... haven't touched her for about a week now. I think I need to stitch something a little easier so, now I have found the pattern for Sleeping Beauty, I will switch back to that.

Rose Fairy

There's not been much stitching going on around here - I've not lifted a needle in nearly 2 weeks. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon.

The last pic I published was of Fantasy Triptych - hardgoing as ever but worth it! I will be glad when I've finished the land of green and brown. I had to do a major bit of frogging on this session so there's not as much progress on it as there should be.

Next it was the turn of Rose Fairy. I didn't get a whole lot done on this either! I'm stuggling to work neatly with the rayon thread. I have now got a smaller set of q snaps which do help a lot but the real problem here is the piece of fabric is just too small. I really do need to be less trusting with kits and check the fabric before I launch off. You learn!

When I eventually do start stitching again my next project is to be Sleeping Beauty. Hopefully not before too long.