April 2011 Ornament of the Month – Picking Silks

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Heather

Sometimes I feel so spoiled by my stash. I know it isn’t the biggest in the world, but I have grown it with love and attention to what I enjoy working with. Until recently, my stash was seriously lacking in silks, but the addition of some silks from Vicki Clayton (Thanks, Erica!), along with some of her discard packs and some Oops! packs from Dinky Dyes, has given me a rather nice collection of unlabelled silks to pick from.

A pile of silk threads

This is what I have been drawing on for some of my ornaments. It is freeing not to have colour names and numbers to worry about. I’m just picking what is speaking too me, with an eye to things that at least sort of go together. And, if I can’t find the right colour, than I dip into my “good” Dinky Dyes and other silks.

This month’s ornament is Britty Christmas Kitty from Britty Kitty (from the 2005 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue). It calls for Week’s Dye Works and, of course,  I only had one of the colours. So I dug out that mass of silk and poked through it, looking for a gold, a red, two greens and a gray or black. Here’s what I came up with:

Silks for Britty Christmas Kitty

All of them, except the Dinky Dye’s Black Coral, are from that pile of silk.

I love my stash, but I especially love my stash of unlabelled, uncomplicated silks. If I ever had the chance, I would pick a whole pile more!

Do you like silk threads too? Why not enter my Favourite Things Giveaway? Part of the prize is a brand new skein of Dinky Dyes silk in colour Fantasy Blues. Head over here for details.

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Favourite Things Giveaway!

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Heather

Back in December I posted about some of my favourite things. I mean, if a blog isn’t for talking about things you love, than what is it for? And, when you can give away some of those things, isn’t that even better? So, today I am hosting a giveaway for just a few of my favourite things.

Some of my favourite things

The prize package includes a set of four individually wrapped thank you cards from Annabelle’s Art, a detail stuffing tool from PlanetJune (in case you think it is only good for stuffing crocheted and knitting toys, let me assure you that it is fabulous for stuffing biscornus, fobs and ornaments too!), a skein of Fantasy Blues Dinky Dyes silk, a Minor Minion knit by me and designed by Heather Sebastian of Joey’s House (the yarn is Mary Maxim Soft Stripes, a bamboo and nylon blend), and a needle minder made by me using Missy Ann’s tutorial.

To enter:

  1. For one entry, leave a comment below letting me know you’d like to enter and telling me about one of your favourite things. (Maybe your favourite author or book, favourite cross stitch or knitting design, favourite etsy shop, or favourite thing to eat. Just tell me about something you really love and that you would like other people to know about.)
  2. For another entry, become/be a follower (look for the Google Connect widget in the right-side column), and then leave me another comment letting me know you are a follower.
  3. Post about my giveaway on your blog/Facebook/Twitter and then come back and leave another comment for a third entry (and fourth and fifth if you post in more places). Feel free to use my picture. And to make things super easy, you can use the share buttons just below this post to spread the word.

The giveaway will close to entries at noon Eastern time on Sunday, April 17th. I will announce the winner next Monday, April 18th.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you are excited about having a chance to win some of my favourite things.

 

Comments are now closed. I will announce the winner the morning of Monday, April 18th.

36 Comments | Posted in Crafts, Site News | Tagged

Little Bunny

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Heather

I love to knit toys. Sadly, Baby Man does not like soft toys. He likes Hot Wheels. So, while I don’t knit toys very often, but I jump at any chance I have to make one for someone who might like them.

White Bunny!

The pattern is The Bunny Bunch from the book [amazon_link id=”0715331728″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Knitted Toy Tales[/amazon_link] by Laura Long. I knit it using Wendy Peter Pan Cupcake yarn in the fabulously named colour 800 Coconut Bunny. The fabric was from my stash, and I sewed it on using a variegated pink sewing thread, which is why it might look a bit strange.

Bunny waiting in bag

The bunny was a gift for a six-month old little girl, the daughter of our friends who recently moved to Cambodia to start a rather ambitious business. Mommy and baby are back for a visit to tie up loose ends, and to visit family and friends. And, as you can imagine, we were very happy to see them.

Bunny with Baby

I think the little bunny will be happy in her new home on the other side of the world. Maybe one day we will be able to visit her there.

5 Comments | Posted in Knitting | Tagged ,

Royalty ABC to I

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Heather

One of my purchases at the Needleworkers’ Marketplace was Royalty ABC by Jeanette Douglas. I also bought the thread and embellishment kit, just to make my life much easier. I have an ever increasing collection of odd colours of NPI and Splendour, thanks to all the Jeanette Douglas and Victoria Sampler kits I have stitched, but it seems I’m always short a handful of colours for whatever design I decide to tackle.

What little stitching time I’ve had this week as been given over to Royalty ABC. And, as you can see, it hasn’t been all that much.

Royalty ABC from Jeanette Douglas (WIP)

It is a beautiful design in person. The silk threads seem to glow on the fabric (Heritage from Enchanting Lair). I can’t wait to finish it up and hang on my wall.

1 Comment | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged ,

April 2011 Stitching Bloggers’ Question

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Heather

Lee at Lakeside Stitcher posted this month’s Stitching Bloggers’ question a couple of days ago. It is:

Do you keep records of your finishes? We are so lucky to have so many record-keeping tools at our disposal to record our accomplishments. So if you do, what recording methods do you use?  What do you think is important to record when you’ve finished a design?

I sort of keep track of my stitching finishes, but not in a really detailed way. I keep a picture of each one (well, most of them) on my hard drive. The files are named to include the design name, designer, and the month and year it was completed. And, since I started posting my finishes on my blog, I’ve been recording in blog entries any significant changes.

I don’t have pictures of everything I’ve done. Things that I gave away way back when I started stitching were never recorded. And, even in recent years, a few things made it out the door without pictures being taken.

I do have a gallery of my finishes, if you’d like to look.

Now, knitting and crochet are completely different. Thanks to Ravelry (and the fact that I started using it just as I started to knit and crochet), nearly every details of those projects are recorded. I wish there was a needlework version of Ravelry!

Comments Off on April 2011 Stitching Bloggers’ Question | Posted in Crafts, Cross Stitch, Memes & Collabs |

Making Choices

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Heather

Recently I posted about some decisions I needed to make with regards to a couple of projects I’m working on. Perhaps the most… distressing was the error in the button band of the Liesl cardigan for my mom, all the way back at the beginning.

I’ll share a secret: sometimes it pays to sleep on something. I got a good night’s sleep (a rarity around here), and took a look at the button band with fresh eyes. Unfortunately, I noticed another missing ridge about four rows below the one I showed you the other day, near the bottom mistake. Fortunately, however, I realized the missing ridge at the top would be mostly covered by a button. Yay!

So, with crochet hook in hand, and the little man more or less distracted by his cars, I dropped down all three columns that needed to be fixed (one at a time of course), a total of about six inches, and carefully worked them back up. And the result is a lovely Liesl with it’s only mistake under a button. It will be washed and blocked this week (when I’m feeling better), and I will share a picture then.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about is the metallic thread for The Twelve Days of Christmas. It seems that the general consensus is to not buy PTB. It was suggested that I use two strands of the Anchor metallic thread, which is a good idea. However, I like one strand because I don’t have to struggle with it; and, if I used two strands, I’d need to buy more, because I’m beating the kit only has just about enough of it to stitch the design as directed.

Anyway, I sat down finally and stitched more of the border. To tell you the truth, I’ve been avoiding working on this design because I didn’t want to find out that I need to make changes to it. But, my avoidance was in vain:

Twelve Days with triple border

I think the border will be just fine. From a distance the coverage looks pretty good. Again, yay!

So, onward, onward with The Twelve Days of Christmas. And now that Liesel is completely done, it is time to continue work on Annis and another pair of socks.

Starting on the swans

2 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch, Knitting |

Needleworker’s Marketplace

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Heather

This past weekend was Gitta’s Getaway (a stitching getaway hosted by my LNS) and the complementary Needleworker’s Marketplace. Also running at the same hotel were several classes held in conjunction with the other events.

Sometimes, choices have to be made. And, this year I decided I wanted a serger more than I wanted a stitching getaway. 😉 I did, however, take a class this weekend, Treasure Trove from Laura Dickson of Enchanting Lair.

Treasure Trove Kit

Not only did Laura give us full skeins of DMC and silk, but she gave us full thread kits for both colourways. And, an extra piece of hand-dyed fabric to try stitches on, and some thread (a nearly full skein of Dinky Dyes in my case) to do the practice. She is nothing if not generous. I’m actually very glad that she gave us the thread for both colourways, because I think I might play around with the colours a little bit, doing most of the purple colourway, but maybe doing the dragon in green.

I did a bit of shopping at the marketplace too. There were eight vendors this year, including Gitta’s, Enchanting Lair, Jeanette Douglas, X’s and Oh’s, Brenda Franklin, and a few more.

The marketplace was held in a style similar to the US vendor shows, where each designer was set up in their hotel room. While this was novel, it also made for some pretty crowded rooms. I did hear a few ladies saying they would have preferred booths set up in one of the meeting/ballrooms, but personally, I’m indifferent. It was interesting to go to a different style of show, but I did find the crowds a bit much at times.

Of course, I did make a few small purchases. I bought a tiny bee charm and some purple beads from one of the bead vendors, and some fabric from Laura:

Fabric from Enchanting Lair

The one of the kind piece on the right is actually more purple (all the colours are off, actually). I had to buy a piece of Parchment since that was a colour I requested. I think it turned out fabulous, and is much nicer than Silkweaver’s Days Gone By.

I also bought one of Jeanette Douglas’ newest design Royalty ABC, which is just stunning in person. I think it will look great on the Heritage fabric from Enchanting Lair.

Royalty ABC chart and embellishment kit

Each vendor at the marketplace gave away a small free design that is meant to be put together to make a 15-sided biscornu. Of course, I collected all of those, and I do plan to do it eventually. (That’s why I said I would be doing another 15-sided biscornu.)

So, overall, I would say the marketplace was a success (but I hope there are more vendors next year), and my class was great. I’ll definitely attend the marketplace next year.

I’ve hit 50 followers! That means I’ll be hosting a giveaway of a few of my favourite things. Look for the post with all the details no later than next Monday. Hopefully you will agree that it is worth the wait.

3 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch |