Birds Eye View Update

I know it's not quite the end of the month yet, but with lots of things to do this weekend I don't think I will be getting anything else done on Birds Eye View this month. Picture above shows where it was at when I picked it up at the beginning of August and the one below shows where we are as of today.
I manged to get a fair bit done. The cat and bird are outlined and I've made good progress on the top of the bird house. Next time I'm hoping I'll get the bird house finished and maybe get to start on the next cheeky kitty. For September I've decided not to work on Lakeside Farm, even though it is so close to being finished, instead I love Halloween and I have a couple of smaller designs that I want to make up in time for this years celebrations so I'll be working on those instead.

Hope you all have a fabulous fun filled weekend. X

Birds Eye View

I didn't get round to doing my usual cross stitch update before the month of June was out so here it is now.

Just a reminder this is what the new project looked like when I picked it up.And this is the now.Not quite as much progress as I had hoped considering I didn't have a sewing machine but I also had a generally busy month and a week off on my holiday so I guess I shouldn't beat myself up too much.

Introducing Birds Eye View

With Siberian Gold finished it was time to pick out a new cross stitch project from Mum's UFO box. I have to admit that looking through the box makes me so sad, but luckily my wonderful man noticed that it was weighing heavily on my mind and offered to have a look through and pick something out for me. This is what he came up with.It's another big one, and similarly to Siberian Gold Mum barely got it started. So this is where I'm starting from.Not a lot to go on huh? This one is likely to be with me for a good couple of years I reckon. There is quite a lot of back stitch too but I'm planning on doing bits at a time as I go along. Tune back in at the end of the month to see if I manage to make much progress!

I can't believe it's done

Siberian Gold is finally finished. Now it's done it doesn't seem possible, I think it might take me a while to settle in to the idea. I first picked this UFO out of Mum's project box back in August 2008. This is what it looked like.It's been a long time in the finishing hasn't it? Of course I haven't worked on it nonstop and in those years I've had a good few months of downtime where I didn't touch any stitching or creative stuff at all. But it's done.
I don't think I could even hazard a guess as to how many stitching hours have gone in to this one. Way too many to count or even think about. The finished size is 11.5 x 16 inches. The back stitching is quite subtle - some for the whiskers and also round the branches and grasses in the background so that took me a couple of sessions to get finished.
All that needs to be done now is to get these cats washed and damp stretched and they will be ready for a frame.

I already have the next of Mum's UFOs picked out. After 3 years the thought of going through that box again was weighing heavily on my mind, it always makes me sad to see how many projects Mum never got to finish. Anyway Dave bless him took that burden away from me and he went in and picked something out. It's another big one that's not had much of a start so it could be another few years before I have to visit the box again. I'm going to leave you in suspense though until next month to find out what it is. The rest of this month will be spent trying to make some progress on Lakeside Farm.

Siberian Gold - February

Time to report on my cross stitch progress for this month.

You might remember that I had decided to work on a couple of projects on a monthly rotation. So it was back to the Tigers for February. This is where I left them.Taking these progress pictures never ceases to amaze me. In a month where I again thought that I'd barely gotten anything done I was really surprised and amazed at the comparison. This is the now.I am so so close to having this one done. Just a few more inches of cross stitch to fill in and then some back stitched detail. If it was just the cross stitching to finish I would be tempted to keep this one out and get it finished, but back stitching always takes longer than you think, and while it is only a few details I know it will take some time. So this one is going away again until April, time to start working on Lakeside Cottage again.

Siberian Gold End of Year Progress

Wow, only a few days now to the new year. I'm feeling really hopeful and hugely positive, with new plans and dreams in my head for 2011. I'm sure I'll tell you more about them later but for now it's time for the last Siberian Gold update of the year. You might remember that my original goal was to have this one done by the end of the year, but I ended up taking a break and working on the Autumn Queen for my sister instead.So as always the above is a reminder of where I was at the end of November. Thanks to a few days of illness where I've done nothing but curl up on the sofa under a pile of blankets and work on this, a great deal of progress was made during December. Tiger 2 now has his chin and a lot more of the background around him has been fleshed out. It's still going to be a good few months before this is finished I think but even though these guys have been with me for so long I still really love the picture and can't wait to see them framed and on my wall.

Winter Sun

I really like this quick snap taken out of the window last week, while the front lawn was carpeted in white. We didn't see much sun but boy when it showed itself it really made the snow gleam.For me there is something very special about the feel of the light cast by the winter sun. I love the rich tones that it gives to anything with colour, like on this close up of some of the stitching on Siberian Gold.

Siberian Gold - November Progress

With the lack of anything else creative to share this week (the quilt is under the machine and what little free time I have is being spent on that at the moment) I thought I'd share my November progress on the tigers. The above picture is where I picked it up from a few weeks ago and this is the now. Not a vast amount of progress, but actually looking at the two pictures side by side I've managed to get more done than I thought. As soon as the quilt is done I will go back to this one in earnest but for now every needle full of thread helps.

Ready to fly

The budgies pillow is finished, and in plenty of time too - you might remember that this is a christmas present for my Aunt, so I'm feeling pretty pleased. I love how the border turned out, it's amazing what you can make out of even those tiny scraps of fabric that you save. The back turned out really well too, made from an old shirt that I picked up at a local charity shop. I wasn't sure about the shirt at first, particularly as it had a pocket, but I figured I make a little feature of it, so now it houses my hand stitched label. If you've been visiting my blog for a while you might remember that the budgies was one of my Mum's cross stitch UFO's that I finished off. The label reads 'Handmade with love by Susan and Angela Hart, finished 2010' I hope my Mum would be pleased with how I finished off her project.

Flying Away

The Bird pillow is almost done. The borders have now been added and so far I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out.The colours are loud and bright. It's been like working on a little piece of Spring in the middle of Autumn :) Just have the back to put on now. I'm going to use an old shirt that I bought for the purpose from a local charity shop. Just one little change to make though. At some point during its former life the shirt had a button replaced on it that is just giant compared to the rest.I'll have to make a padded insert too as the size isn't very conventional, but that shouldn't take long. Hopefully I'll have the finished pillow to show you soon.

They're back

After finishing work on Autumn Queen (mention of which reminds me that I have to get that thing framed up), I figured that amongst all of the other things that I have on the go at the moment there is always room for one more project.

So I'm happy to announce the return of the Tigers which got put aside for Autumn Queen.This is where I left off, just about one quarter of the picture to go. I really love this image and after all of the long hours stitching that are going in to getting it done, this one I'm going to keep.

Spot the Birdie

So I've gone from doing not a lot on the stitching front to having lots of things on the go and not actually getting anything finished :)After a long hibernation the sewing machine is finally being dusted off as I attempt to make a start on the gift making for Christmas.But before I get ahead of myself and actually switch the sewing machine on, I've been raiding the boxes of scraps as I attempt to turn one of Mum's cross stitch patterns that I finished a while ago in to a cushion for my Aunt.It could be slow going though as every time I try and get going on the cutting mat Pip decides that the mat is the only comfortable place in the house for a snooze.

Autumn Queen the Finale

The Autumn Queen has had her beads and is now finished.I am pretty happy with the way she has turned out. I would never have chosen to stitch this design myself, but all of the different thread types and the beading made it an interesting project to complete.The beading took a while as I suspected it would, definitely something to be done in the daylight and with the nights drawing in I don't see too mush daylight after I get home from work anymore.I now just have to get out and find the perfect frame for her and she's complete, and in plenty of time before my sisters birthday.

So it'll be back to the Tigers again soon, but I'm not sure they will get too much time over the coming weeks as I've been reminded that it's now less than 90 days before Christmas and there are a few gifts that I want to try and make this year so I'd best get started.

Outlining the Autumn Queen

Outlining on the Autumn Queen has now been done, actually didn't take too long. Not really sure you can see a whole lot of difference on this zoomed out shot, maybe you can see that her hands are a bit more defined, but you can see the difference in the close up.Just the beading to go now, have a feeling that's going to take a while, but she should be done well before my sister's birthday in December.

Autumn Queen cross stitching done

All of the cross stitching is now complete on Autumn QueenShe is already looking quite regal, but there is still a way to go, we have the back stitching and then the beading to complete, so it will still be a while before she is done.I am planning on giving her to my sister for her birthday, which isn't until December so I still have plenty of time to try and get her done.

Introducing The Autumn Queen

I mentioned the other day that the tigers are going in to hibernation for a while, instead I will be working on one of Mum's other UFO's - The Autumn Queen. She is part of a set of 4, my sister has the three other pieces that Mum completed and wants the fourth so she can hang them up in her house.

This is as far as Mum got with her.

Mum has really already done the bulk of the work, Autumn really isn't too far off being finished. This kit has lots of beads and some strange fluffy white thread that I've not seen before, so should be interesting to work on. There are also some quite large blocks of colour in the patterning so in comparison with all the colour changes in the tigers I'm hoping that she will come together reasonably quickly. To start with I have some unpicking to do. It seems that all of the work on the sleeve is wrong so before I go any further that will all have to come out. It feels quite sad to be unpicking stitches that Mum put in, but it's out by quite a way so I can't just work round it without things looking odd, so there is nothing else for it some unravelling has to be done.

Siberian Gold - The last for a while

With being away at the end of June I didn't get round to doing an update on the Tigers. Here is what they looked like at the of May.

And this is where they are at now. I was trying to get stitching done all around the edge of the design to give me a bit of a frame to work within. I didn't quite get there but not that far off.

I know I was going to work on the Tigers until the end, but plans change and this will be their last outing for a while. You might have heard me mention that the tigers are a project that my Mum never got round to finishing before she passed away, well that box of Mum's unfinished projects is huge!

My sister has just moved house and has asked me if I will work on another of the UFOs to complete a set that she wants to hang in her house. I'll tell you more about it in a while. I'll miss the tigers but it will be nice to work on somethingg different for a while.

Siberian Gold - May Progress

I've made a fair bit of progress with the Tigers this month, which is great. Mostly because I haven't really worked on much else and this is an easy one to pick up and put down whenever I have a spare half hour. This is where I was at the end of April.
And here we are at the end of May
The top right quarter is finished and I'm now starting to work on the final quarter of the picture. There is a reasonable amount of background in this section and some of that is done in half cross stitch which is why there has been quite a bit of progress.
It feels good to be on the final page of the pattern, but still a little daunting to have so much space left to fill in. My goal is to try and have this finished by the end of 2010. We'll see ......

Siberian Gold - April Progress

I have been slowly working away on the tigers again this month. As a reminder here is where I left off in March

And this is where I'm at now.

A fair amount of progress but not as much as I had hoped, there just doesn't seem to be time to fit in everything I want to do at the moment :) Still the second tiger now has a complete eye and nose and his head is starting to fill out. It would be nice to try and get the rest of this section filled in in the coming month but I have a tonne of things to sort out at home in preparation for moving house so we'll see.....

Siberian Gold - March Progress

As the end of the month is fast approaching I figured it was just about time for a Siberian Gold update. Here's where I got to by the end of February

And this is now.

I'm pleased with the progress, the second tiger's head is really starting to take shape. I'm not sure exactly how much will get done next month as I have a whole stack of other things that I want to work on (and the list gets longer every day, lol) but the very next time I pick up the needle this second tiger is going to get an eye. It's starting to freak me out looking at that blank space every time I pick this up.