In which much is accomplished in a short time....

Since my last post, I really got down to business and I'm happily surprised at just how much I have managed to accomplish in the last week...

First off, I finished the model I was doing for X's and Oh's. While this piece is not to my personal taste, I did find the fabric choice wonderful and it certainly stitched up quickly. I accepted this project after the original model stitcher was unable to complete it due to a family crisis. Luckily we stitch in the same direction (I had visions of my having to rotate the project 90 degrees and stitch sideways, but thankfully that didn't happen!). I'd share a picture, but the piece hasn't been released yet. I think it's scheduled for September, but maybe since I finished it a good month ahead of schedule it'll get released sooner. Either way, it's done and back in the designer's hands, safe and sound. Yipee!!!

In celebration of finishing the model, I immediately stitched up two small things since I was in a 'get-it-finished' mood:

Princess of Perpetual Projects by Cross Stitch Happy
Stitched on random hand-dyed from Enchanting Lair with Dinky-Dyes Moonie Ponds

I have no idea what the thread count is on the fabric - I found it in a stash dive and it was unlabelled. I know I got it from Laura at Enchanting Lair though (as an aside, is there anyone but me buying Laura's fabrics? They're stunning!!!!!). It's really pretty. I hope to turn this into a little pillow of some kind and hang it by my stitching spot. It suits me to a 'T'. It just needs a little sparkly tiara or something that will glitter to really finish it off.

Next up:

Link from Legend of Zelda
Designed by DS#1 (stitched by Mom)
On 14-ct perforated paper with DMC

This little piece was drawn out, coloured and floss chosen by my oldest DS. It occurred to him recently that cross stitch charts kinda look like 8-bit pictures that he's seen on the 'net of various Nintendo characters. He then asked if I would stitch him something if he drew it out. So, a little time with his coloured pencils, some graph paper and my DMC colour card and voila! Link in all his glory. I think DS did a great job. Maybe I've got my own little designer on my hands.... :-)

My urge to finish things had me rummaging in the stitched-but-not-finished pile and I dragged out 3 things. Here's what I've been doing with them:


This is Here Be Dragons by Dragon Dreams. I stitched this piece many years ago when it was offered as a class at the CreativFestival (although it was called the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival back then....). It has sat in my pile of projects since then and I had a sudden urge to *do* something with it. So, I made it into a flat fold. Here's some pictures of the side and back:



I had found the dragon fabric ages ago and easily put it together with Here Be Dragons. I didn't have enough of it to do the inside of the flat fold with it, so the insides are just a simple dark blue fabric. I'm quite happy with how this turned out.

Then I tripped over these two pieces:


Now these two pieces aren't completely finished as I didn't have the right kind of ribbon or fibre to make cording in my stash. I'll rectify that later today. These two pieces are old as the hills though - they're my first pieces on an evenweave as opposed to Aida. I don't remember precisely where the designs came from, but I think they're from a book. I'll need to do a little rummage and see what I find. I could also tell the age of this piece simply from the new-stitcher mistake I made on them - they edges of the fabric were masking taped! They've left a few yellow marks on the fabric, but I cut that off before I made these up.

I'm going to add ribbon and a hanger to these and give them to my mother. She loves these pieces and has done for years. I don't know why I've waited so long to do something with them and give them to her.

Finally, something Silverlotus said in her blog not long ago has inspired me a bit. She's right in that we, as stitchers, do need some kind of Public Awareness League. Our craft is declining in popularity and I really this it's up to us, as stitchers to try and do something about it. It needs to be visible or folks just won't catch on to what an awesome thing needlework is. I've no desire to become a needlework celebrity(!?!), but I do have a desire to share my passion. To that end, I'm going to start this:

What's so special about starting another project, you might ask? Well, this isn't just going to be any old project pulled from my rather embarassingly large stash. It's going to be my travelling project. For however long this might take (it's not exactly a *small* project), this project is going to travel with me when I leave home. It'll be stitched on while I'm away from home and I'm going to try to document it's travels (something akin to the Yarn Harlot's travelling sock).

Tomorrow we leave for the cottage for a week so my project will have it's first adventure in the 'real' world. I will put in a few stitches today whilst at home, just so I don't waste time figuring out where to start.

This could be interesting....