Stash and HAED update

As promised, here is a photo of the goodies that came in the mail this week. Can't wait to start playing with it :)

And a quick update on Celtic Fire: page 1 is finished and I've moved on to page 2. Since it is not a full coverage piece I am doing a mix of parking and cross country stitching, it just seems to make more sense like that.
(Sorry for the lousy pictures, I can't seem to get the lighting right)

I am so looking forward to this weekend, the sun has finally come out to play, so lots of outside fun with my little Peanut. We already spent a good hour last night blowing bubbles and running to catch them, I had forgotten how much fun that is :)
Then Sunday is going to be an awesome day with the monthly meeting of the Emerald Isle group; a whole afternoon of stitching, with no husbands, no kids, and no intrusion from real life.

Happy stitching everyone!
Maud

IHSW Report & New Start

Well this was my first International Hermit and Stitch Weekend and, although I didn't get to hermit as much as I wanted (hard to do with a toddler...) I did get a good chunk of stitching done.

First up was Celtic Fire, below are the before and after pictures.

 

Celtic Fire is pretty confetti-heavy and those over 1 crosses are so tiny that I needed a little break from it. I enjoyed so much stitching those few eyelets in the Tiny Rose Mandala that I went through my stash to look for something with specialty stitches and found How Does Your Garden Grow (HDYGG), which was the 2008 Papillon Creations SAL.

Here is the floss toss, it is stitched on 28ct antique white lugana and I chose to use DMC 935 & 3364 for the greens, and DMC 920, 926, 3779 & 3821for the floral colors.

And here is part one (out of 12) finished.

I. Just. Love. It. Although I love love love stitching and cannot get enough of it, those specialty stitches are a whole new level of delight and enjoyment! So much so that as soon as this one is done I'll move on to the next Papillon Creations SAL, Castle in the Air, and who knows, maybe I'll manage to catch up with the new one Around the World in 80 Stitches.

New Start: HAED Celtic Fire

Hello and welcome to all!

I don't have much time today so this is just a quickie post to show you my new start.

The name is Celtic Fire, it was designed by Cari Buziak and charted by Heaven and Earth Designs.

This is what it will eventually look like:

And this is where I am at after a couple of evenings:

Design size: 348x347, aka 120,756 stitches (!)

Fabric: 25 count Ice Blue Lugana

Threads: DMC cotton floss for stitching, Sulky Sliver for griding

Stitching: one over one

A Productive Weekend

Well that was a nice weekend. I got to finish all the stitching on Tiny Rose Mandala, it's now waiting for beads to arrive before being completed. This was my first time doing specialty stitches other than French knots, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing something else than crosses. Here is some eye candy for you:

I experimented a bit with the rose eyelets, thinking at first that 2 strands didn't provide enough coverage. I then tried 4 strands and thought it too bulky so back to 2 I went and I actually really like it now, it makes them delicate just like a rose should be. 

A close up of the little rose corner gardens, the colors are just so beautiful together:

For the gates I stitched at first with 2 strands out of habit but ended up frogging that I switching to a single strand; I thought the iron work looked finer this way.

After I was done with this I picked up Winnie the Pooh and threw in a few stitches but I quickly got bored with it and moved on to Celtic Fire. No piccies yet as there is not much to see for now, but I am so excited to have started my first HAED that I just had to share :)

Working 1 over 1 is awesome in that I don't have to worry about the stitches not laying properly (no railroading, yeah!), but I still need to figure out the best way for me to start and end threads. Practice makes perfect!