Coffee and Cross Stitch

Bewitching Pixies | Cross Stitch

Summer is holding on for dear life as we round out August here in VA.  It hit 100 degrees the other day and I about melted walking to my car from work.  Quite honestly, I can't believe this is the final few days of August already.  Where has the time gone this year?! Literally everyone I talk to, particularly at work, cannot believe the year has completely flown by.

The heat had me contemplating fall, and even though I'm already working on Autumn at Hawk Run, I wanted to do something that wouldn't take me decades to finish.  Let's be honest, the Hawk Run series is incredible, but those blocks take an insane amount of time to finish.  So, I decided to pull out one of the Bewitching Pixies by Nora Corbett.  This one is called Witching Hour.

I was drawn to it because of the purples, the books, and, of course, the black kitty that she has as a steadfast friend.  

How do I know they're friends?  The kitty is guarding her book stack.

I think, too, that the bottom of her dress reminded me of Morticia Addams' dress in the old tv show and I used to love that show.  

Also!  I had a swatch of Picture This Plus Haunted leftover from when I did Skeleton Crew, and clearly it was perfect for this piece.  The model was stitched on a creamy color, which made the owl blend in and almost disappear.  This fabric allows you to see all the colors and is a much better compliment than a lighter color.

I need to stretch the piece a bit so the beads lay in straighter lines, but for now, she's done.  

Stay cool out there, friends!  Soon it will be time for sweaters and heavy blankets and I'll be dreaming of this warm weather!! 

Happy stitching!

Summer is Here! | Cross Stitch

Hello, friends! Our weather went from cold and rainy straight to the heat and humidity of July, all in a matter of days.  And it's not even Memorial Day!  Perfect to sit inside where it's a smidge cooler and catch up on some stitching.

What have you guys been working on?  I've seen so many gorgeous stitched pieces on the good ol' Instagram, from samplers to patriotic to Christmas.  I love seeing what everyone is working on, since much of it is so different from my own stitching style.  

The big piece I'm working on right now (since you all know by now I have at least one gigantic piece going at a time...sometimes two) is Dressmaker's Daughter.  I posted about it a while back, and honestly, didn't realize just how long I've been working on it - over a year!

I think the Winter dress is still my favorite (the first one on the left), but the colors in all of these dresses are just gorgeous.

I mean, those fall reds and oranges!  Could you die?!

I absolutely love these apples!  I can't wait to add the beads!

I'm on the final dress, which is Autumn.  I usually wait to go back and fill in the Caron silks after I do all the DMC stitching, but since there was so much in the background that was stitched with two of the silks, I decided it was easier to stitch those first, then go back and fill in the background.

The best part is going back and filling in with the silks and, of course, the beads.  There are two Kreiniks in this piece, which I'm not excited for, but they always make a big different in the finished piece.  

The next few weeks will be busy, so we'll see how far I get on the background.  Hopefully, it won't take too long, especially now that I've become better at the sewing method! It makes all that solid stitching go SO much faster!

Happy stitching!

Snow Queen | Cross Stitch

Holy Heatwave, Batman.  Did you guys cool off yet?  Good Lord it was hot this weekend.  I like summer, but not when you could legit cut the humidity with a carving knife.  It's too much.  I was dehydrated yesterday morning at 7am, and all I did was sleep.  All of this means it’s only appropriate that I post my most recent finish to help us think of cooler temps (which should be here tomorrow): Snow Queen. 

I actually finished her last year, but only recently took her to be framed. 

I’m not a huge fan of matting, so most of my pieces are framed without it. I felt that this piece needed to stand alone without anything detracting from the fabric or the piece itself.  I may change my mind in the future, depending on the piece, but for now, I'm sticking with mat-less frames.

Let's start with the fabric.  Could you die?!  I stitched her on 32 ct Mystic by Picture this Plus, and it is so incredibly perfect.  The called-for fabric was too light - you could barely see her hair and the lovely purples.  This?  This makes them all just jump out.  Plus, since it's got the purple dye in the dark blue, it pulls out the purples in the sash.

How about her reindeer?  Omg.  He's heavily adorned, to include large teardrop gems that fall from his reins.  Can you even?!

And then there are the beads all over her and her dress.  The snowflakes were a bit of a pain - it was tough to get all those bugle beads to sit right, but in the end, worth it.

The frame is a bit tough to see, but it's a creamy white, with a small silver inside edge.  Perfection.

This piece was, by far, one of my favorites to stitch. The dark fabric took a little getting used to, but once I got going, it was easy to work on.  As always, I encourage you all to use different fabric, and even change some (or all!) of the threads, if you're just not liking what's showing on the model picture (see my Skeleton Crew for some inspiration on switching out both fabric and threads :-)).  I will say that to date, I think this is probably the best fabric switch I've made.

Also, huge shout out to my LNS, In Stitches, for their framing services.  It turned out gorgeous, ladies!  Thank you again!

*This post was updated on 18 March 2020 to reflect the actual PtP fabric used.

 

 

Sunday Things.

Sundays are for pancakes.  And stitching.   And reading.  And maybe some scrapping. And really not much else. 

This week, I finished two books - In the Garden of Beasts, and The Fault in our Stars.  Both were exceptionally good, and not what I expected when I started reading.  Now, I'm working through finishing Elizabeth I, since I've been reading it for over a year now...

Although I have to be gluten-free for health reasons, I've really been trying to stay away from all grains over the past year, but today I was really, really craving pancakes.  God only knows why.  So, luckily I found this recipe for grain-free banana pancakes.  Heaven.

I also worked on some Christmas stitching.  Nora Corbett has a line of Red Ladies, all for Christmas.  I have almost all of them (I really have a problem...), and I decided to start with the one who's holding the black kitty, since I used to have one.  Just need to fill in with the Wisper threads on her dress and for the kitty & it's done!

Happy Sunday, friends!  I hope you're enjoying your day!

 

Red Ladies | Cross Stitch

This past weekend, for whatever reason, I was all about getting into the Christmas spirit.  Maybe it was the cooler temps that got me thinking about my most favorite season ever.  Or that July isn't over yet, so I could technically still celebrate Christmas in July.

But then again, I don't ever really need a reason to be in the Christmas spirit.

I'm a sucker for all things Christmas, especially Christmas stitching and paper.  I'm already hoarding cute Christmas paper for my December Daily album.

Ahem.

I went up to my third floor on the hunt for a new pattern to stitch (I keep them as far away from my stitching area as possible so I don't have 457 projects started and none finished), and remembered that I have almost all of the Red Ladies series from Nora Corbett.  I've done two of her larger designs (she has many), Royal Holiday and Sabrina, but this is the first of her smaller graphs that I've done.  I might even be done before Christmas.

Well, this one, anyway, not the entire series.  Although that's something to shoot for....

I always forget how much longer it takes to stitch on 40 ct fabric, since the squares are so small....until I pick up 32 ct fabric, and fly through the stitches....

I decided for this series, since they're all Christmas themed, that the fabric also needed to be festive.  So, I'm stitching at least 3-4 of these lovely ladies on Crystal Legacy from Picture This Plus.  I love their fabrics and most of them can be ordered in crystal if you want that opalescent look to spice up your stitching without changing any of the fibers.  I've said before, changing the fabric is the easiest way to change the entire look of a pattern, and this adds sparkle to a Christmas piece without me having to resort to using Kreinik threads.  

Let's not even go there about Kreiniks......

Have any of you started your Christmas stitching yet??

PS - for another example of choosing a different fabric than what the model was stitched on, check out my Skeleton Crew - I get requests all the time for my floss color changes from my LNS (they're now on my Fabric & Floss page), but the biggest difference in what I did was with the fabric I chose - it changed the entire piece.