Finish: How Does Your Garden Grow

Hi everybody,

Well I finished the stitching on How Does Your Garden Grow about two weeks ago and started beading right away.
Unfortunately,  about 3/4 of the way through, I ran out of beads, which was a major inconvenience as there are no shops around me that carry Mill Hill (that I know of!). Thankfully, the lovely Elaine from Lanybleu Stitches, with whom I did the color exchange over the Summer, came to the rescue and sent me a package of the beads I was missing. Thanks again Elaine!
Here are some photos of the pieces, all beaded:

I went last Sunday to the Knitting & Stitching Show, where I found a gorgeous backing fabric and bellpull to finish it up:

And finally, my very good friend Camila sacrificed her Sunday afternoon, and probably half her sanity, and put this all together for me:

Thank you so so so much Camila, I don't know what I would do without you :)

Camily just started her blog, check it out here ; not only does she stitch, but she also does amazing papercrafts.

How Does Your Garden Grow Update

I think the last time I showed you How Does Your Garden Grow I had only finished the first 4 parts, ie the top third. I have advanced quite a bit on this one as I am now stitching parts 11 and 12!

A few photos - sorry about the smudged parts, looks like I need to clean my camera lens

Top Third

Middle Third

Bottom Third so far

Whole piece so far

Almost there! I just have parts 11 and 12 to finish stitching and then all the beading. I think I'll finish it as a bellpull (if I can figure out how to do that), and it will be a present for my mother-in-law, who has been so supportive of my stitching.

How does your garden grow parts 1-4

Well it's been a productive week working exclusively on How Does Your Garden Grow. I couldn't get enough of those gorgeous specialty stitches, so much so that I mostly went to bed at 3am every night (morning?) and was a zombie at work all week. Oopsy daisy.

Here is a photo update, including parts 1 to 4:

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.