The Just Cross Stitch Ornaments issue
Topic: Cross Stitch
Abd because I forgot to post this list when I wrote it, here is my to do list from this year's issue.

It is here! Finally, I might add, though postal services did a good job this time. I always am so anxious to see this magazine arrive. I had already seen most of the ornaments on internet, but that is never the same as seeing the magazine itself. At first I was not sure if I was really impressed by this year's issue, but yesterday on the train to The Hague, I had the time to go over it in detail and found quite an impressive list of ornaments that I would like to stitch. Here is my list:

1. Heartstrings; santa (I have almost stitched all of Pat's santa's from the JCS issues)
2. The Workbasket; Rejoice
3. Val's Stuff; it's a wonderful life
4. Twisted Oaks; Christmas tree
5. Prairie Schooler; Partridge and Pears 2005
6. M Designs; Joy Tree
7. Lynn's Print; Outside my window
8. Little House Needleworks; Home for the holidays
9. La-D-Da; Christmas heart
10. Erica Michaels Designs; Merry Yule
11. Cindy Valentine Designs; Sugarplum
12. Brittercup Designs; Britty Christmas Kitty
13. Brightneedle; Home for Christmas
14. Blackbird Designs; Home for Christmas
15. Angel Stitchin; O Christmas Tree

There are some ornaments that I would like to stitch but that I do not consider Christmas ornaments. The ones from Carriage House Samplings and With My Needle are really cute but they are not Christmassy enough for me. But I can imagine doing the CHS one as a pinkeep or needlebook.

Halloween stitching
Topic: Cross Stitch
It looks as if September is going to be a productive month. I have finished more projects than I can remember of any previous month. Yesterday I finished Girls Night Out by Just Nan (see below) and that had been in my UFO pile for over a year. It certainly feels good to be able to cross off one of my UFO projects. I will probably finish this as another stand up/easel.

Since I finished one Halloween project, it only seemed fit to start another one. Spooky Halloween by Brightneedle has been in my to do box for quite a while. I remember that last year around August I also wanted to start this, but somehow never got to it. I couldn not ecide whether to stitch it over one or over two. Now that I have the 40count cream Newcastle fabric, the choice was not that hard at all. Even stitched over 2 it will only be 15 x 15cm. And I know for sure that it will be more pleasurable for me to stitch. I changed quite a few of the threads. Here is my conversion list.

Design My Choice
OW Autumn Splendor CC Candid Yams
OW Candied Yams WDW Sweet Potato
OW Antique Violet GAST Lavender
Potpourri
OW Anise OW Anise
OW Meadow Green GAST Mistletoe
OW Ashe CC Tabby
OW Ghostly Grey CC Zach Black
OW Medallion Black CC Black Coffee
OW Berks County Rose OW Berks County Rose

OW – Olde Willow
CC – Crescent Colours
GAST – Gentle Art Sampler Threads
WDW – Weeks Dye Works

It is a lot of fun to stitch, the squares are small enough that you can make good progress and have enough detail to keep it interesting. And so far I am very pleased with my own colors.

Apart from this project, I also started my Halloween exchange project. Cannot share pictures or even the name as the person who will receive it, reads this weblog. It looks as if it is a neat project and I will be taking it to work so that I can stitch on it during my lunch breaks. I find it amusing that about 2 years ago I was not interested in stitching Halloween pieces and now I find it hard not to start yet another Halloween project. Which reminds me that I have this incredibly cute canvas of a Halloween cat which also needs some attention before the end of October.

Last June when I visited my friend in Dallas, I picked up another Halloween canvas and she has ordered a few more. I got myself a witches shoe canvas which will be so cute when it is done. I think the attraction of needlepoint is that a) you do not have to read a pattern and b) you can use a lot of threads that you would not be able to use on linen. The ones she ordered are from Melissa Shirley. One is a companion piece to my Halloween canvas that I did in Dallas, the other two are not typical Halloween canvases, but they will be finished into pillows. That is of course if I ever get to stitching them.

Two finishes and more stitching
Topic: Cross Stitch
I got some work done on my Prairie Schooler `Harvest Time`. I am stitching this on 40 count silk gauze and love how it is coming along. It is a little intimidating that I have to stitch 13,350 petit points stitches, but I am sure that it will be worth it. Just imagine, on 40 count gauze it is going to be 11,5 x 4,5cm. If you would stitch it on 32 count over 2, it would be 29 x 12cm. Quite a difference.
This picture is without any backgroun filling, however I wanted to show it before I started on the background. My experience is that when you fill in the background, the motifs pop up even more.

After that I decided to tackly my Let It Snow project. I mounted two pieces of acidfree cardboard with batting and with the stitched piece on one and fabric on the other. I used glue to put everything in place and then a few dots of glue to put the two pieces together. I sewed the two pieces together with a curved needle, made cording out of 10 strands of perle #5 cotton and added that with the curved needle as well. The back is just a piece of carton that I folded about 1/2 inch from the top and glued fabric onto. I really like how this turned out and will definitely use it in the future for other finishes as well.

I finished my little Bent Creek freebie from a while ago. The stitching was already done, I just had to put it together. This is stitched over one on 32 count Belfast. It was pretty easy to do and I love how tiny it has become. And since I have a new Tacky Bob, I simply had to put beads on the sides of the fob.

I also made some progress on my Garden Gloves, cut out the felt gloves and the little pieces but still need to buttonhole stitch them together. I will probably save that for next weekend, tonight I want to make more progress on Girls Night Out. The Halloween bug has really gotten to me.

Contens of the BOX and Garden Gloves
Topic: Cross Stitch
Here is a picture of my BOX, as you can see it is filled completely with ongoing projects. And for those who are curious, no these are not all my ongoing projects :).

In the box you will find in no particular order:
Heartstrings – 2004 JCS ornament
Prairie Schooler – Garden Gloves (2 more to go)
Just Nan – Girls Night Out
Little House Needleworks – Home of a Needleworker
Combined creation with Candy from the Workbasket – design for a friend
Prairie Schooler – Mittens
Bent Creek – Snapperville
Bent Creek – Boo who? (freebie, almost done)
Heartstrings – Birds, Bees and Butterflies
Prairie Schooler – Farm Fresh
??? - ??? (this is the project for our Fall/Halloween day at the shop)
With My Needle – Eliza's Pyn Pillow
Heartstrings – Santa free chart kitted up by The Silver Needle
Heart in Hand – Roundabout Cat
The Trilogy – Pumpkin Harvest
Heartstrings – Winterberry Wishes
Blackbird Designs – Trix or Treat
With My Needle – My Treasures Sewing Case
Brightneedle – Spooky Halloween
???? - ????? (this is for my Halloween exchange piece)
Long Dog Designs – Moulin Rouge
Prairie Schooler – Harvest Time (on silk gauze)

I will definitely add one or two of my needlepoint projects also, there may be just enough room for them. Ultimately, I hope that I can sort of narrow things down to one project per designer. I have several Prairie Schooler and Heartstrings projects in my box and will be working on only one at a time. Right now that is Garden Gloves for Prairie Schooler and Birds, Bees and Butterflies for Heartstrings. Once those are done, I will move on to the next one.

Oh and do not worry, I already have a stack of designs that are just screaming at me to be added to the BOX. Guess they will have to wait for a while, I need to finish at least 2 before I can start something that is not currently in the BOX. Maybe I will have to make a box with projects that are kitted up so that I can just transfer them into this one. I do know that once the Just Cross Stitch Christmas issue is here I will be adding some ornaments.

Another box that I can see appearing is my Finishing Box (FB). I would like to include the necessary fabric, carton, cording etc, so that when I decide to tackle some finishing, I do not have to spend an afternoon looking for everything. Tomorrow I hope to get the finishing done on JBW Let it Snow, I have the carton ready, just need to cut it to size and I know which fabric I want to use.

Below you can see the two Garden Gloves that I stitched so far. The first one with the gardening tools is an old finish, the second one I did over the last 2 days. I am going to stitch the white rabbit next and after that the one with the house. Most of these are gifts to special friends and I thought these would make a nice needlekeeper.

The Mittens that I have in my box will become ornaments, I may even try to do some of the Stockings as well. Not all of them appeal to me so it is nice that you can mix and match. The 2005 Santa is another one that I am really anxious to start. Since I still have to decide what my lunch project is going to be, I might take it to work.

Back to cleaning the livingroom, after all the shipping I did there are quite a few things there that definitely have a different home than the livingroom.

Picture of my Christmas pillow (I hope)
Topic: Cross Stitch
Let?s see if the picture of my Christmas pillow will upload this morning.

Looks like it does, pfew. I have stitched this design by Pat Thode about 3 or 4 years ago and it was my first try on 18 count linen with perle cottons. Now that I have finished this one, I am sorely tempted to get another started. But as I haven?t sorted out my box yet, I will keep working on my current projects and not start a new one.

I have been busy stitching some of the Prairie Schooler Garden Gloves designs.

These are pretty small, but as the background is stitched as well, it takes a little longer than you?d think it would. I am almost done with my second one and have the felt cut out for one glove. Last year I did one of the mittens and it wasn?t hard at all to put together.

I hope to update my weblog again later today with pictures of the Garden Gloves and my progress on Girls Night Out.

Finally an update.
Topic: Cross Stitch
It has been a while since I updated my weblog. Even during my vacation, I did not find the time to write about my stitching adventures. However, with just 4 more days of vacation left, I decided to sit down and get started on my weblog.

I have done quite a bit during my time of from work. I will try to remember in what order I finished my projects. After the 3 open days at the shop I first finished Daisy Lane Cottage by Little House Needleworks. So many people commented on it during the open days and it was not even done yet. I just love the LHN designs, they are always fun to stitch. My next LHN project will be Home of a Needleworker. I plan on stitching it with Needlepoint Silk on 40 count antique white linen.

After that I finished Just Nan?s free chart Whimzical Rose. It is a small design and fits into one of their new tiny frames. The frames are on their way from the US, but have not arrived yet and I am afraid that customs is to blame. But, my project is finished and it is very cute. You can download the chart on the website: www.justnan.com.

Wednesday evening I left for a few days at Ria?s place. I packed a box full of projects, thinking those 3 days would last forever. I have decided to put all my current projects in a box, limiting the amount of projects simply by the size of the box and I cannot add another project before I have finished one. I will slowly add some of my older UFO?s as well. Of course if I participate in exchanges those projects will be added to my box, but other than that I really hope to narrow down my ongoing projects.

While at Ria?s place I worked on the project we will be stitching during our Fall/Halloween day. Though I did not stitch nearly as much as I imagined I could LOL, I finished this piece. It needs a little more work and then I can finish it completely. I changed some of the colors and love how it turned out.

Ria and I did have our finishing day, though we were not nearly as productive as last year. We did not start until after lunch, talked too much in the morning. I worked all afternoon on a pillow with piping around the edges. Thanks to Ria?s encouragement I did not give up and love how the finished pillow looks. Though it was not easy to do, I will definitely use this as a way of finishing other projects.

(for some reason this picture does not want to be uploaded, I?ll try again tomorrow)

Once back home I finished my JBW Design project that I started a few weeks ago. I needed to add the beads and used my Tacky Bob for that. If you do not have one of these, I can strongly recommend them. They are wonderful. They have a sticky surface on which you put the beads and the beads stay put until you pick them up with your needle. I simply LOVED it. And it could be my imagination but I think I finished this far quicker than I would have otherwise.

I also finished a gift for an exchange, so cannot show it here. I finished it slightly different from how I usually finish these type of things and that will be done again as well.
I had decided that I would finish my second bib that night, I just had to do some backstitching and all of a sudden I get a phonecall from my colleague?s partner that she went into labor 3 weeks early and had a baby boy. Good thing this was on my priority list already. So I did the final backstitching, wrapped it up in paper and it is ready to go out the door today.

In between I reorganized my Crescent Colours threads. I alphabatized them and put them on rings, which will make it a lot easier to find the ones I will need. I also ordered some that were missing so that my collection is complete again. I really enjoy working with these threads. They?re soft and have great colours.

Since I had finished several projects I thought I could start a new one as well. I stitched a Halloween design over one and since I am not sure if it is going to be a gift or not, I cannot show the picture here. It is alsmost finished (completely that is) but depending on whether or not I can get my hands on some nice pins, it may have to be finished differently.

Also picked up another Halloween design, this one by Just Nan. It is Girls Night Out and I got the complete kit with the 100/3 silk from Au ver a Soie last year when I attended a workshop in Columbus. I had one witch stitched up and yesterday evening made quite a bit of progress. It is actually more fun to stitch than I thought and I hope I can get it done this weekend.

Now it?s back to filling up the box, I have a few more empty mesh bags that I can use and more than enough projects to put in them.

A lot of pictures
Topic: Cross Stitch
It?s been a long time since I have updated my weblog but I hope that these pictures make up for it. This is my birthday gift from Theresa, a buddy who belongs to a group in which we stitch a gift for one of the buddies? birthday. Theresa stitched me the most amazing threadkeeper with an adorable needlebook. The threadkeeper has a pouch on one side and on the other three rings on which I can put my threads. She also included a pair of Gingher scissors. The scissor fob has my initial on one side and a flower on the other, all stitched over one. The needlecushion has Happy Birthday on one side and a quaker motif on the other. On the side band she stitched our initials and the year 2005. The needlebook is seperate and equally wonderful. Her finishing skills are incredible. It?s a shame that pictures never do a piece justice.

I don?t know how I feel about sharing my Saturday evening project after this wonderful stitching, but anyway. Here?s one of the two bibs I wanted to stitch for two co-workers who are pregnant. I loved the fact that I could finish it in one evening. I started with the second one today, but it?s not done yet and tonight is Mouline Rouge night.

I have been working on a JBW design project that?s almost done except for some beading, which will take a while. Then my freebie exchange project is also nearing its completion. Just needs some final touches. My head is swimming with possibilities of new projects, I think one of the next ones will either be Halloween or Christmas.

Apart from the JBW Design, the bib and the freebie exchange gift, I've also finished my Scary Wabbit. The stitching that is LOL. I love how he turned out and will certainly do another Wabbit. I have ordered the silk ribbons for the finishing and hopefully can do that during my September vacation.

Sunday evening I managed to get some more work done on Mouline Rouge. This project is so addictive, I stayed up longer than I had anticipated. I hope that next Suncday I can stitch a little longer on my MR and will post a picture of my progress once another 4-5 hours are done.

Back to my stitching, I hope to get the beading done on the JBW Design so that I can post a picture.

Short update, received exchange gfit
Topic: Cross Stitch
Yesterday after work,I raced to the Post Office to pick up my package from Danielle. She had stitched my exchange gift and I couldn't wait to see it. It was delivered to my house on Friday but since I wasn't there, I could pick it up on Saturday. Turned out the PO didn't open till 9:30am and by then I had to be in the shop. Bumemr. So I was really anxious to get my package on Monday.

Daniellestitched me a wonderful pillow, it's Summer Zipper by Bent Creek but she stitched it on 35 count linen instead of the 18 count it calls for. I think it looks sooooo cute.

On the back is a cute beeskep button, so in style. And her tassels are perfect. I can easily understand why she wants to stitch something similar for herself.

These exchanges are so much fun and I am always amazed at how creative people are. I will be doing a redwork exchange that needs to be mailed out in November, a freebie exchange for mid September, a Halloween exchange for mid October and an ornament exchange for December. I think the fun part about these exchanges is that usually the projects are not that big and they're great lunch projects.

I will go hunting for a freebie to stitch tonight. I have a stack of them but it is always difficult to decide which one you want to stitch. I will go over the ones I got in Nashville and Columbus last year first to see if there is something. I have a good idea of what I'll stitch for the Halloween exchange. The redwork is probably what has me completely undecided. I have seen several things I could do, but haven't narrowed it down yet. I do know which red thread I'll be using though :). The ornament exchange is too far away to start thinking about. I will probably wait for the new JCS Christmas issue and pick one of the new ornaments.

I haven't been able to stitch much yesterday, had diner with a friend who will be moving to Amsterdam soon. We had a great time. I got back home quite late and went straight to bed. With the cold and grey weather we're having it feels like it is autumn instead of summer.

More stitching on Scary Wabbit
Topic: Cross Stitch
I am almost done with my Scary Wabbit. He's so much fun to stitch. I love the black fabric. In the picture it's not very clear, but it is a kind of dark grey/black. It is not as hard as I thought it might be and I will definitely use this again for a black background.

Now I need to add the spider web, the spider and some beads. I think I have almost everything I need and the ribbons for the finishing are on order. I need to find a good fabric for the back.

Yesterday evening I also put in some more stitches on Mouline Rouge. Every time I work on it, I just love it more. I only have a little bit done, but it is a gorgeous design.

I hope to get a bit more work done on MR this week. I would like to get another medaillon done as well as another letter. The letters go really fast, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Progress on Scary Wabbit
Topic: Cross Stitch
Here's my progress on Scary Wabbit. I really like this little guy. It's stitching up pretty fast, I worked on it yesterday during lunch and today for about 1 hour. I hope to get a little more done this evening.

We celebrated my dad's 70th birthday today and had a wonderful time. We had a brunch in a local restaurant and it was great. It was also nice to see all the family again. It's been quite a while since we've seen them and since them a couple of them had health problems. I am really thankful that both my parents are healthy.

Tomorrow the shop is open and I'm really looking forward to that. We already know that a customer who lives in Greece is going to visit. She's staying with her sister in the very south of the Netherlands and is taking the train up to my parents.

I have picked up some fabric today from the shop for two JBW Designs that I want to do for our little trunk show in September. I think I'll take them to work with me, to stitch on during my lunch break. Then there are also a few exchange projects I need to start working on. I already know how I want to finish one of them, might have to ask my mom for some sewing advice.

Back to my stitching, I hope to get the little Wabbit stitched tonight.