Category Archives: Cross stitch
Waiting for Neptune – Linda Ravenscroft
While going through the Heaven and Earth designs on Pintrest I realised I had bought a kit of one of the pictures, at one of the Olympia Cross Stitch shows I’m fairly sure, that much like the Scarlet Wizard, I saw it one year and bought it the following year.
As you can see it is one of those sort your own thread kits, as I am a DMC stitcher, it is cheaper for me to buy the full kit rather than the pattern and floss. Also unfortunately as with the Scarlet Wizard, it encourages you to buy, buy, buy. Both kits are now discontinued, looking at my stash, I have a few discontinued kits I also have a couple of Teresa Wentzler kits
The Fortunate Traveller and the Storyteller, I do have a lot of Teresa Wentzler patterns, I went through a phase of buying them, I do like me a good Dragon picture, but also a lot of them are now discontinued – not helping with the stash busting.
I did sell a couple of the larger Mirabilia patterns on eBay just before Christmas, I have a few of the Pixie Couture patterns
and I did buy Moon Flower, though that was before we had the results of the biopsy. This is my problem, I’m looking through my stash and thinking I could start this one next.
I have found two more started WIPs
First Finish of 2018
Hello, this is my first finish of 2018 my Somebunny to Love Ballerina, August 2014 The World of Cross Stitching, with my Stash Busting hat on I swapped out a couple of the speciality threads, for the Gold star on the wand I used Krenick treasure braid doubled instead of E3821 and instead of S211 which is a Satin thread I used plain 211 which is a light mauve with two strands of Blending Filament. I am very pleased with the results.
cross stitch Christmas
I received a couple of cross stitch kits for Christmas and a cross stitch book, all Michael Powell.
I am coming along quite nicely with my existing cross stitch, the Scarlet Wizard is finally progressing, I have gridded most of the remaining fabric to make it easier to work out where to stitch.
The Secret Garden 1 has come along quite nicely. The bottom two inches are complete apart from the back stitching which will make the picture pop.
I also have a small picture that I spotted in The World of Cross Stitching started that I am stitching on a hoop, which means I can take it to the Hospital with me.
The colours aren’t as purple in real life as they are in in the magazine, which as you can see on the stitching are more of a pinky colour.
I’ve been listening to audio books while I’m stitching as at the moment I can either stitch or watch TV not both. While I was in hospital I started listening to the psi/changeling series written by Nalini Singh, performed by Angela Dawe, which are brilliant, I am now up to book 10, I have already read the books. I prefer Angela Dawe to Justine Eyre who narrates the Archangel series, I find her a bit harsh.
I recommend Audible especially if you buy kindle books, if you are smart you can get the most for your money. Also the audible app for the iPhone is great, it has a sleep function on it, so if you fall asleep while listening to know there is only a certain amount of time you need to go back.
Cross stitch review
Hello, readers of my blog will realise I have just got back into cross stitching after a long break, the reason I stopped is I needed an operation to remove a bone spur on my right shoulder, which was making it quite painful to use, I never got back into cross stitching afterwards. The new sofas made it hard to use my brilliant cross stitching frame.
Since coming out of hospital I have found out that the ‘new’ sofas and the hard flooring we had put down over the summer are a magic combination. I use a lowery frame, which is quite expensive but worth every penny, I bought a second one to have upstairs, for when I can’t manage to get down the stairs. The second one although twice as expensive as the first bought many years ago. The actual construction is as good, but the Allen key that comes with it doesn’t fit however the key that came with the first one does.
The second thing I have bought that doesn’t match up to the originals are Siesta clip-n-sew frames, the wood now used for these appear to be more flimsy, and I couldn’t get the tension on the Scarlett wizard without the horizontal bar bending.
The biggest worry I have is that some of the patterns in the magazines appear to have been dumbed down a bit, the biggest culprit appears to be Tatty Teddy, they are only using 2 shades of grey for his body and head, where they used to use 5 shades, which looks so much better.
I also have a new cross stitching aid to review, which is a 3 in 1 magnifier and light, I am having a great deal of difficulty stitching the wizard, not only is it on black Aida, it is 18 count, and the light isn’t that good for it. I have tried magnifying glasses before on a bendy clip, I have never managed to get it in the right place, this can be clipped to a table, stood on a table or stood on the floor, which is how I’m using it. The light is good the angle is easy it adjust.
If you have only just got into cross stitching, the Apple App Store has some good deals at the moment for back issues of the world of cross stitching, cross stitch crazy and cross stitch gold.
More later
CrossStitching Post
I thought you might want to see the other contenders for finishing, then all the. Dress making people can see it isn’t just dressmaking I suck at finishing.
I am surprised at how much stitching has actually been completed, The Wizard and Garden look over half finished.
The Unicorn, I think the fabric was 25ct Laguna, too dark to be a contender
Firefly fairies, some sort of linen, i did the bleach thing with it, I really wanted to do this one but the fabric would have been a nightmare in bad light
This one had 1,2 and 3 strand stitching, just too much for my poor brain
Fairy idyll Because this one was landscape instead of portrait it was too big for the frame i had available
Love Humphrey’s corner, but I do have a problem with keeping count with half stitch
Victim of it’s fabric and not really big enough
Black fabric, so out
This is also beautiful but 1 and 2 strand stitching took it out of contention
This is just a selection of what I can find I know that there is at least one if not two more Teresa Wentzler
Even if i could have found it, everyone who has attempted a Teresa Wentzler would realise that it would have been far too complicated
and a Mirabilia
Depending on the fabric this one would have been alright, if I could have found all the bits for it
Back in hospital more shopping will be done…
I have bought some patterns from deer and doe, I have had so much use out of the free Plantain pattern I recommend you rushing over and downloading it, to be honest I’m not too keen on the styling on the website too much eyeliner and silly poses but I have been eyeing up the azalea skirt
, bleuet dress 
and the givire dress 
ad I just realised I missed fumeterre skirt,
which I love, of course I can’t do this pose without falling over at the moment, i can dream 🙂
I have also been over to love notions for trendy tunic, 
candence top and dress 
and tidal dress and top.
I also suggest that Michael Powell, cross stitch copyright division get their arses over to Pinterest, up and down the garden path and a couple of others are available to down load which brings me to my other purchase, as you may have realised I have gone back to my other love, counted cross stitch and have picked, Michael Powell secret garden 1
to finish, I had it in the evenweave version purchased from the designer himself at a long ago knitting and stitching show, I picked this one of the many started as I thought it would be easy enough because of the fabric and blocks of colour but enough of a challenge because of the back stitching, so went over to amazon to buy the companion kit the secret garden 2
Lizzie Kate flipit charm cross stitch
hi, I do have a finish to share with you, I finally finished my cross stitch – Lizzie Kate double Flip, the last couple of words were quite inspirational. Create and Live! I must admit I wasn’t really struck on the LIVE! I wasn’t keen on the font or the underlining.
The last update on this project was 3rd July when I had just started CARE since then we have had encourage
Laugh and Create, this was taken a couple of days before I went into hospital
The next photo was taken about a week after getting out
unforunately I havent taken a full finish photo of it, and I’m back in the hospital 😦 I will admit I am not overly gone on the ‘charms aspect of the pattern. I don’t know if any of you are interested in the fabric but it is overdyed, when I was at the cross stitching height there were two overdyed fabric places that i dribbled over sugar maple fabrics and silkweaver, I think this is sugar maple fabrics in tropical it is probably 32 count. I have another peice this is a half size, cut down the middle and zigzagged.The previous picture is quite close to the actual colours, on my iPad. Expect more cross stitching less dressmaking.
Cross Stitch
After my trip to Olympia I decided I wanted to get my cross stitch out again, what actually happened is that I saw a couple of patterns at Olympia but couldn’t justify buying them as I hadn’t touched my cross stitch since before I have to have my shoulder operated on a few years ago.
I decided to go with the easiest cross stich I had started (out of at least half a dozen), which was a Lizzie Kate ‘sampler’ this particular sampler is made up out of 6 double flip living with charm charts, each chart has two words and a bit of decoration for each and a charm to be stitched on last..
I had already finished Dream/Love, remember/GIVE and was half way through Listen. I have now finished Listen/LEARN, and half way through Believe/CARE which means I have just started CARE.
I do counted cross stitch which means that the fabric doesn’t have printing on it, you use a separate chart to transfer the picture to the fabric.
I have been cross stitching on and off since school, the first picture I started was this, as usual I went for the overly complicated picture that took about 10 years to complete, I did finish a couple of easier/smaller pictures in that time.
The problem I have is that I don’t really have anywhere to hang them once they are finished, we appear to have filled up the house with Disney pictures and I have only a certain amount of wall space in my room, I suppose I could rotate them.
More soon….
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 
