Progress this week

This week I was able to put a few stitches into two of the projects that I started last weekend.  Of course, I didn't get much of either of them done because of other things that came up last week.  Also I am working on a couple of other projects that I cannot show right now.

I was able to start working on the sun on the blackbird and started to see some progress on that area very quickly.  I hope that this week I will be able to do a bit more work on this project but it will depend on how things go.

Omi's Rose - Jan 11th

Omi's Rose is another project that saw a little bit of time this week which was great. No it didn't see as much time as I would have liked to spend on it.  I am still not sure if I like the colouring of this rose but am going to continue working on it.  I think part of it is I am working on the very center of the rose and of course it is darker than the rest of the rose.

Omi's Rose - Jan 18th

Currently I am dealing with a work issue that is taking quite a bit of my time and energy so that is one of the reasons why stitching hasn't been getting done this week.  Another reason is I am working on a couple of projects that I have to keep secret right now.  One of them will be able to be seen at a later date and the second one will depend on how it goes.

This week I am hoping to be able to find a bit of time to curl up and do some stitching and will see what project gets the attention.  I am trying to do a bit of a rotation on the projects right now so that they both get some progress.

Stitching is still my escape when I need even just a little bit of time to relax.  Of course when things get really busy with work and life my stitching doesn't get as much attention as I would like.

Off to get some work done and then hopefully tonight something will find it's way into my hands and a few stitches will be done.

New starts

What can I say other than the first week of the new year was a challenge for me as I couldn't think of what I wanted to cross-stitch.  The good news is I have almost finished the first cape that I have been knitting for myself.  I just need to sit down and sew the pockets on it and then I will be able to take a picture of the finished piece.

Mouth of Flower - Stitching Studio

So this weekend after a lot of thinking and rethinking I finally decided on what I wanted to work on.  Well it came down to three different pieces and I couldn't figure out which one I wanted to do so I ended up starting all three of them over this weekend.

The first start was Mouth of Flower by The Stitching Studio and as you can see I didn't get much done on it but at least there are a few stitches done.

The second start was Blackbird which is another.  This piece is a blackbird with a sun and some flowers.  I am looking forward to seeing how this one turns out so I am going to be busy working on it over the next while.

Omi's Rose - based on photo taken by myself

The third start which was yesterday was Omi's Rose.  This is based on a picture that I took of a rose that was in a basket that was received when my husband's Omi passed away.  I loved the colour of the rose and decided that it would be a way of always remembering her.  I had started this rose before but realized that it was way too dark so recharted it and the colours were a lot truer to the original photo.  Now to see which piece gets worked on during this week.

I have to admit that i didn't want to start all three pieces at once but when I couldn't decide which one I wanted to work on and which one was going to wait it was just as easy to start them and then figure out on a daily basis which one I would be working on.

Now I would have had a lot more done on both Blackbird and Omi' Rose if I hadn't run into an issue when I started them.  As these are other patterns that I may be releasing in the future I try and stitch the first version on 18ct aida cloth so that it is quicker and easier for me to see.  I had bought a piece of aida at a store and on Saturday I cut it to the size that I needed for both of the pieces.  I should have realized that there would be a problem with the cloth when I was fighting to even get it to stay flat instead of immediately rolling back up.  Well I was determined and figured that it was just me having a bad day so I put both pieces onto the q-snaps with help from dh.  Saturday evening I put about 10 stitching into Omi's rose and put it down for the evening.

Yesterday was the day I had planned on sitting and stitching for a few hours.  I did pickup blackbird and decided to start it first so that I could then have a choice later in the day.  Well, I threaded my needle and started to stitch and couldn't believe the noise I was hearing.  The piece of fabric sounded like a drum and every time the needle went through a hole it made a loud sound and even the thread going through was noisy.  I figured I was just being very sensitive to the noise so decided to try to work on Omi's Rose.  You can probably guess what happened, the noise was almost the same for that piece of fabric.  It was a little quieter but probably because I was using a smaller needle so it meant that both of the projects were going to be a major problem to work on.  I talked it over with DH and he decided that he would try and wash a piece of the aida that remained and see if it would get quieter after a washing but after it dried it still was nosier than it should have been.

So the results you see for Omi's Rose and Blackbird are on 22ct aida which I had at home and that fabric is a lot softer and easier to work on.  I don't need to wear ear plugs when working on these pieces now so hope that this week I can make some good progress on at least one of these projects.

I have been cross-stitching for around 30 years and have never encountered aida cloth that was as noisy as the piece that I had picked up recently.  I just hope that the package I got was a bad batch and I will be able to get some softer aida in the future.  Have you ever encountered a piece of fabric that was extremely noisy, and if so what did you do?

It is now time for me to get some work done and hope that tonight I will be able to find a little bit of time to stitch on one of these projects.

Stitching Progress

This week I decided that it was time to really try and focus on a project and see how much stitching I could get done.

Well I picked up the needle once during the week but the weekend meant that I had time to sit and stitch and now I am seeing some really good results.  The bottom portion of the dragon is almost done other than a few stitches that I need to do but that is it.  I now can focus on the wings and hopefully will be able to continue on them this week.

Omi's Rose - Nov 2nd

I am really happy with how much I was able to get done this week because it looks like I really don't have a lot more to do if I can focus on it for a few more days.  Now the words focus on it were working really well until this morning when I decided to pick up another pattern and put a few stitches in on it.  This new pattern is once again something of my own and is based on a picture of a rose that I took a couple of years ago.

I called the pattern Omi's rose because it is from a picture of a rose from a basket of flowers from her memorial.  I loved the rose and wanted to capture the beauty of it so I took the picture.