Cross stitch update

Added another section to the pink birds this week - only two more to go (one of which, I have the chart for - the other, I haven't received yet).  Can't believe this is nearly done (though I still have all the buttons to add - I haven't done them as I've gone along as I worried it would make it hard to put the frame on where I wanted it if there were buttons everywhere...

And started something new, as the pink installment was finished.   Not made a lot of progress yet, but this is what it will look like in the fullness of time:

Cross-stitch update

Finished the section of the Faith birds - only 3 more to go - but not until after Christmas. I decided to start the chickadee next, as I'd like to get it finished before Christmas (to give as a gift) - but I will also get some seasonal stuff out soon...

Cross stitch update

Nearly finished (but not quite) with this section of the pink bird stitchery - just the little bird to finish stitching and the bottom border.  Then there are 3 more sections along the bottom part of the piece, of which I have the pattern for one (so I'm only a tiny bit behind), but although I will go ahead and finish this little section off before I swap pieces, I won't do the next one until after I bring out some seasonal stuff and work on that. Yes, including the angels (though I might bring out the Winter Wonderland piece before the angels)!

Flock update

Finished this section of the pink birds, with a few days to spare until the end of the cross-stitch week (Wednesday), so I'm blogging it now - I'll blog what I've started next, on Wednesday. I expect to make fairly good progress on the new piece, as it's quite small.

Here's where it stood last time I worked on it.

And here's a current view of the whole thing - the entire top section is done now, so it's just the bottom left to go. The bottom isn't quite as deep as the top, and there are mostly leaves rather than birds, but it should still be good fun to do. And yes, I do need to iron this!

Cross stitch update

Back to the pink birds... well, the birds aren't pink, I guess, but the canvas sure is!  Here's what I accomplished this week - the white bird with yellow spots (without the legs or eye and the detail in the tail feathers still needs finishing), the moon, and most of the border to the top right corner. Yep, I'm at the end of the top - now it just needs the bottom of the stitchery to finish it off.  I say "just"...

Here's a picture of the piece, overall, as it stands at the moment

and this is what it looked like last time I put it down.

Cross-stitch update

So, this week I finished off the 7th installment of the bird piece - I reckon there's one more installment on the top of the branch - so I'm guessing the next one will be the top right hand corner of the piece - then after that, four on the bottom.  I could be wrong; I guess we'll find out before long.  There are a number of little buttons to add as well, but I'm doing them all at the end, as it makes frame placement while I'm stitching easier not to have them on the piece.

Once this was finished, I started one of my little sheep...

This is "Peace".  Technically, it's not the first of them, but I didn't really feel like stitching a snowflake just now, so I didn't start with hope. You can see the six which have been released so far, on the Little House website. I have four of these patterns in hand, and will receive the others on a monthly basis - I'm hoping to catch up with the installments before too long - they are quite small and quick to sew.   I actually took this sheep with me to start while I was queuing to get into a rock concert on Saturday (The Killers at Wembley) but I didn't get a lot done because it was quite windy and therefore hard to work. Maybe half a sheep or so.  But the rest is just two evenings' work, so you can see how quickly it goes.  Next week, back to the Irises, and then I'll finish off the sheep and perhaps start something new (or another sheep - we'll see...)

Cross stitch update

It's been a while since I worked on this piece, but as I had finished the Spring Sampler and had one evening left before my tradtional, self-imposed, switching over day of Wednesday, I decided to have a go at the latest installment of this piece. As the installments are quite small, I knew I could get a good chunk stitched, even if I only had one evening...   I worked on the bird with the spirally tail - he's almost done now, except for beak, eye, legs and filling in the little heart. There is also a bit of branch and a word, a small section of top border, and a round design at the top border. None of this will take long to finish, when I next pick it up.  This summer, when I am away on holiday, I probably won't take two pieces to switch between, which will be a little odd - of course, I probably won't get as much stitching done either, as I mainly do it when I am sitting watching telly, and I won't do much of that on holiday. Though I'll do more sitting around chatting, so I might stitch quite a bit at those times!  Anyway, back to the irises for the next week, and then I will finish this and start one of the little sheep virtues - really looking forward to those - they are very cute.

Landing Bird

A terribly washed out picture, sorry - but it shows the latest bird in the The Flock installment - this one is called Landing Bird and is part 5 of 12, I think. I am impressing myself with how well I am keeping up with this - it helps that the installments are small.  I didn't photograph the whole piece this time (it needs pressing, really) but you can see that the new bird sits just to the right of the asterisk bird.  Finished on a Tuesday as well, which means time to start my new piece before I swap back to the Winter Wonderland.  But more on that tomorrow...

More birdies

Another cross-stitch picture to show this week - the next installment in the birds; this one is called the Asterisk bird, for obvious reasons.   There's still a few stitches left in the s of the word "feels", but I didn't want to start a new long thread and have it hanging loose for ages, so I'll pick those up when I do the next installment that includes word stitches.  I've begun another piece now, so there will be something different to show for my usual Wednesday update as well...

Cross Stitch Update

This week's cross-stitching projects were two-fold. First, to add a new bird (this catches me up with all the parts I currently have in this project) to the "Faith is the bird..." stitchery (though I had an email that another one has been mailed today - they are quite small sections, though, and quick to stitch). I've just realised that I forgot to give this chap an eye - I'll add that next time I stitch on it.

Then, because it wasn't the end of my cross-stitch week (the only week which ends on a Wednesday), I chose a new design to work on as my alternate (next week I go back to the Winter piece, and perhaps finish it) - a summery garden sampler. Mainly, I chose it because it was a kit rather than a chart, so I didn't need to spend time gathering resources. Lazy, I know!

Here's what the finished thing will look like (the in progress photo is not completely true to colour - it's a bit less washed out in reality). 

And, because I am really not completely lazy, I've chosen what the next project will be after I finish the Winter border, and made sure I have both canvas and colours for it!  (But you'll have to wait and see what it is...)

Cross stitch progress

Amazing how different the piece looks in different light...  Anyway. I have now completed the first three sections of this - I am caught up to what I have received in the post.

Here's how it looked last week:

So you can see there was quite a lot of work done on it - nice to be able to say that about something in my life!

However, I'm now going to put it away for a few weeks (even if I do get another installment of the pattern) while I work on seasonal stuff. I have started one seasonal piece (or rather, picked up where I left off last year, in February, when I tired of winter) - one which just says "winter" and isn't Christmassy, particularly, so I will carry on with that one until it's done. Probably.

I'm nearly finished with the triptych of birds I've been working on (probably only two evenings, possibly even one if I have a long block of stitch time), so I'm going to finish that before I pull out the other seasonal cross-stitch (yes, for those of you who follow this blog regularly, I am talking about my Christmas Nemesis, the Angels).  What I should do before I start on them this year is check to make sure I have all the reds I need before I start.  Maybe I will do that later this week, and really get organised.

I don't expect to finish it this year (there's still a lot of stitching to come) but it would be nice to make some progress, I think.  Of course, who knows what I would do if I ever actually finished them!  I do have several other Christmas patterns knocking about though, so I'm sure I'd find something to fill the space and time...

Cross-stitch update

This is a nice fast stitching project - which is good, as it has twelve parts to it.  I finished the first part and have moved on to the second, though I haven't got far with that - just the branch and "is t".  But it will come!

Cross stitch update

Having finished the chilis, and it not being close enough to Christmas to start the seasonal cross-stitches (though they will have to start in a few more weeks), I decided to start this multi-piece project. It's a huge piece which you can (sort of) see all of here.   But I couldn't resist the cute birds. I'm getting it as a monthly project, and at the moment, I have two months' worth and have started the first, so I'm not too far behind yet. I think it will be quite quick to stitch actually, as it doesn't have tons of backstitching and there's lots of open space, both things which I find make the stitching go a lot faster. I love the canvas colour as well!