I'm Back!

Since February I haven't been all that productive in my cross stitching life. However after getting into a routine with school and forcing myself to relax when I get home I have managed to balance work and play. School is coming to an end in April, and I am really sad about that! I have met some wonderful people in that class and I enjoy going to class every day.

About 2 weeks ago I sat down and felt like designing a cross stitch pattern. I haven't done that often but I am going to set a goal of designing one per month from here on out. I need to do something creative or else I will go stir crazy.

I love the colors in this pattern. They go so well together and they remind me of spring and tea parties! Each dress has their own personal details. Of course there are beads and Krienik in them, it wouldn't be one of my designs without any! Here they are all stitched up with the beads:

They are stitched on 32 count Mushroom. Very antique looking almost. I will probably put them into a small frame sometime later this month. I just adore them!

Welcome!

Wow! My followers have almost doubled in the past two weeks thanks to the blog party! I say welcome to all of the new faces and thank you for liking me enough to follow me :) In the next few days I will visit everyone's blog and see what you all do for your hobbies!

The past two weeks I have been out of town house and dog sitting for my aunt. When there I don't have access to a great internet connection unless I hook up to her cord, so most of the time I don't bother and I enjoy the brief pause from social media, which is a nice breather. Recently I have also been diagnosed with Fibromylagia, which explains my frequent exhaustion and mind fogginess along with a bunch of other symptoms I have been experiencing over the years. It is nice to finally have a diagnoses but everything just seems to be elevated lately and it makes it tough to complete every day activities such as chores, everyday routines and replying to everyone's posts. I am not ignoring you all, I just find it hard to communicate my words properly so please bare with me over the next few weeks as I try and start feeling somewhat normal again.

Ok onto my latest project....

Mermaids of the Deep Blue by Mirabillia. I am in LOVE with this pattern. I can't believe how quick of a stitch it actually is when you sit down and do it. The colors are amazing in it and every time I pick it up I fall in love with it all over again. Today I managed to get the skin of the second mermaid started and her hair. Hopefully tomorrow I can get it almost done and ready for a soak in the water.

On Monday I start school for the first time in almost two years. I am pretty excited for it, but that means not a lot of time left for stitching. That's ok since it means I am finally getting my life back on track, but it also means not a lot of creative time will be had except for (if I am lucky) on weekends. The plan is to pack a small cross stitch pattern in my purse for those moments that I have nothing to do, so I can do little bits here and there. I haven't decided what kit I am going to take yet. Possibly either Ivy by Nora Corbett or a Stargazer Lilly I want to do on some fabric I dyed myself.

Again thank you for the new followers! I am going to go look at some blogs now :)

Blog Party!!

Welcome to all of you who have decided to check out my blog during this wonderful idea called a blog party For those of you who don't know me my name is Shannon and I am 21 years old. I grew up in a small town in Canada where there wasn't much to do so I took up a lot of different hobbies. From sewing and quilting to bead and bead knitting, I have done almost everything in the crafting world. My main focus as of right now though is cross stitching and beading, however that can change at the drop of a needle!

Here are two of my latest projects:

Bead Embroidery with Lace Agate and Swarovski Crystals

Bead Weaving with seed beads and glass pearls

The bead woven pendant is for a friend who is getting married in March. This is just one prototype for her to pick from, I have to say it is my favorite though!

I had a bunch of things planned for this post for the blog party but due to some unforeseen circumstances, it has been nearly impossible to post even this post. I am so sorry to those who have visited my blog for the party.

Here are two of my free cross stitch patterns I have designed:

Click on both to enlarge them then right click to save :)

Thank you for checking out my blog. I try to create a new post once a week if time allows, and I promise better photos! It has been snowing like crazy here and the sun won't peek out for a bit for nice photos. Make sure to check back later for an all new free cross stitch pattern :)

Experimenting with Bead Embroidery

The end of 2012 I was working on the Bluebell Pixie by Nora Corbett. Naturally I got distracted when I was oh so close to finishing her off, and started stitching her Petal Fairy instead. But after 3 days of cross stitching I realized I needed to change it up a bit and decided to try my go at beading again.

Bluebell by Nora Corbett

For those of you who don't know I kind of went through a phase where I didn't see the point of putting all this effort into making beautiful things only to be swallowed by all of the resellers found on Etsy (Etsy is for Handmade or Vintage...a reseller is someone who buys mass produced items and then sells them off as handmade for easy money.) I pushed by beads to the side and indulged in my OCD and cross stitch and managed to finish a few projects. 2012 was the year I finally finished my first cross stitch pattern and got it framed. It then got me obsessing over other projects and managed to finish a total of 6 along with numerous other starts.

Anyways, after deciding to bead again I ended up frustrating myself with my bad habit of looking for something and tearing everything apart looking for it only when to find what I was looking for to say to myself "Oh I will clean this up later" and then eventually just shoving it all into a photo box or bin. So I started sorting. All the findings in one bin, seed beads in another, crystals in another, special beads....well you get the point. Once everything was inventoried in my head I came across an article my nan had cut out of a newspaper for me to read, it was bead embroidery, which I have been meaning to try.

This is as far as I have gotten so far:

 Notice a theme in color? I swear that was unintentional lol! The center portion is lace agate, so are the two beads on either side that have a criss-cross over top. Swarovski crystals are also used along with glass beads. I am designing as I go so it will be a one of a kind piece. I am thinking of adding a rectangular lace agate above the white long beads (picture below) and doing a peyote stitch around it like I did with the center bead, then adding another Swarovski crystal above that creating a dramatic tear drop shape.

I don't know what I should name this piece when it is done. Any ideas? What does it remind you of?

Victorian Christmas Lady Framed

Yay! Another one framed. I haven't been in much of a stitching mood recently but after I got this framed the other week I seem to be eager to work on more stitching, even though I don't have much time nor the energy.

 

I promise in the new year I will be posting more. Recently I have taken up dyeing fabrics and I am waiting on some new dyes from Santa. In the new year I will share with you all the fabrics I have dyed. It really is addicting to do! 

Merry Christmas everyone!! 

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!