Small Finish!

I finished this piece a while back and forgot all about her. I ended up using all of the colors from my Victorian Christmas Lady so the colors vary a little bit from the original pattern. She ended up poking out from the magazine I used to stitch her and completely forgot I had finished her! So I took it upon myself to hunt down the holly berry fabric I knew I had and made her into an ornament I can hang in the house for Christmas.

She is designed by Joan Elliott, there is also a Silent Night one but I don't think I will be stitching it this year. They were both with a bigger pattern of caroling children which I might stitch next Christmas. I plan on finishing off a few more small stitchings like this I have laying around. It is about time I had some handmade decorations, feels more homey :)

Joan Elliott's 2012 Christmas Angel

Has been a few days since I last updated. I wasn't able to work much on her due to being unmotivated. Technically it has been 5 stitching days so far spent on her, with two of those days spent on the 1 over 1 on her skin, first time ever doing that and I have got to say I am really pleased with the results!I may just have to suffer through this every time on skin here on out!

I always seem to have a problem stitching with flesh tones and the finished stitching looking lumpy and bumpy, so I decided to experiment with this technique and see if I would have better results. I just love how the skin looks painterly in a way, and looks more delicate and feminine. It was really weird when I switched back to working 2 over 2, the stitches felt way too big even though I am working on 32 count! 

I now have some ideas for 2013! Call me crazy if you would like but I think I plan on stitching one of Nora Corbett's Pixies one over one using petite Mill Hills and half stitches of Krienik. Oh the ideas in my head!

Mermaid's Tail

Just a quick update on my Mermaids of the Deep Blue, I realized I haven't updated on it for a while! 

So I just have the tail part and a few smaller areas to finish up and then I can move onto the upper half of the pattern. I am shocked about how fast this is to stitch! It is just a matter of finding time to do it that's the problem.

I Think I Can!

After telling myself multiple times that my Victorian Christmas Lady would be for me and my own enjoyment I have crumbled and decided nope, my nan would love it. As my mom said "you should just give in and surprise her by giving it to her" She is constantly asking if I have finished it yet and bringing up how she wants to open the green present. Not only is it her colors but she loves ladies and trees. I enjoy seeing her face when I surprise her, she is so cute and shocked that I managed to just finish a project!

So with that being said....I have started a new project in hopes that I finish it in the next 2 or so weeks so I will have my own Christmas cross stitch to hang up in the dinning room! I am working on Joan Elliott's 2012 Christmas Angel

It is not overly Christmas either so I can hang her up for the winter season if I want to. I am not too sure about the wings and might end up leaving them off having her as a Winter Maiden instead. I am also planning on doing her skin over one!

Here is my progress so far:

This is after just one day of stitching. She is on white 32 count linen and uses some of my favorite shades of teal. It is far from my nan's colors so I know this one is for keeps for sure!

Victorian Christmas Lady Finished!

I have managed to finish yet another project this year! And finally this one is all for ME!

Joan Elliott's Victorian Christmas Lady

It took a while to get all of the supplies to finish her. When I ordered all of the beads I forgot to order one of the Krieniks that was just used for the outlines of the fur part of the dress. Then once I got the order I ended up having to go away for a week. During that week away though I managed to get two Christmas Ornaments stitched up, but I can't show them just yet since one is for a Christmas Ornament exchange I am participating in and the other is a gift.

I am going to get her framed in a few weeks so she will be ready for Christmas. I already have an idea of where she is going to hang! Now I just need to figure out how to have her framed. I am thinking of a double matte. Have the bottom matter in either a red or green and then the top matte can be a cream or beige. I want something neutral because all of the colors are so bright.

Has anyone else started their Christmas stitching yet? I would love to see some of your work!

Emerald Dragonfly Finish

I have been a horrible blogger I know I know. Between dog and house sitting, trips to the ER, and losing my stitching bug I just couldn't find myself cross stitching all that much and when I did it didn't seem like enough to post about. However the past two weekends I found myself with nothing to do since the dog didn't like staying downstairs so I picked up a kitted up project of Nora Corbett's Emerald Dragonfly and worked on it.

I didn't really like the project at first. The picture on the chart didn't do the cross stitch any justice. I had no idea how much Krienik or beads were in the pattern, but really how could I not think it would be dripping in sparkles and bling since it is a Nora Corbett design.

Again this project is for my sweet nan. She bought the chart about three years ago and handed it to me saying "My people will do this one for me, right?" and so it went on the list of projects to do for her. I think she has forgotten all about it though so she will be surprised on her birthday that I finished ANOTHER one in 2012.

This was just a weekend project for me. I spent last night putting the beads on which was about 3 hours. The beads really add to the piece though. It is stitched on 32 count on the recommended fabric.

I really can't wait to see it framed, it will be going to the framers hopefully this weekend. I want to finish off my Victorian Christmas Lady first so I can take them both in to get done at once. I am just waiting on the postman to bring my cross stitch order so I can get the missing Krienik plus the extras I got hehe.

Haven't Been Around

So sorry for lack of posts the past couple of weeks. I have been out of town and just busy and really haven't had much energy or desire to do any stitching. I have been meaning to update everyone on my projects though.

Here is the Victorian Christmas Lady:

Got the third page done (sorry for blurriness of the photo yikes that looks bad!) I had to place another order online though for cross stitch stuff (oh darn) because I forgot to order one of the Krienik threads. So I also got some other projects to do for some family members and another pattern for myself!

And here is Mermaids of the Deep Blue:

I have had her done since before I left for my trip. I do plan on picking her up again very soon, I just need to finish my Christmas stuff before so I can get it all done for the season. I really can't wait to get all of the beads on her!

While on my trip I stocked up on DMC floss for a bunch of other projects. I think I ended up getting 208 DMC colors in total. I also ended up buying some fabric dyes and plan on experimenting with that in a couple of weeks. I want to dye some fabric for my Petal Fairy, I am thinking a light teal color to go with the orange and pinks in that one.