JBW Chalet with Snowflakes - WIP

I started Chalet with Snowflakes yesterday 7/11 and was able to complete all of the snowflakes and one of the trees.

There are LOTS of confetti stitches in this one, so it will be interesting how I will secure them without carrying the floss too far.

This stocking is going pretty quickly so hopefully I will be done midway through this week.


Em :)

JBW Reindeer stocking - stitching finished

Hi, I finished the stitching of my reindeer stocking that I'm making for my dad

I will need to sew it to some felt and do some finishing touches later.


This is what i was up to on the 30/10.

I finished all the stitching on the  4/11 and I think it looks really great

After spending a long time finding backstitch letters that I liked, I backstitched in my dad's name yesterday 6/1.

Will start on the stocking for my grandad tonight probably, which has a house with snow and pine trees, I think it's going to look great.

Em :)

"Congratulations" Is finished and framed! :D

I ordered three custom made frames for "congratulations" from frame shop (and for two other DMC kit hedgehogs which I have yet to start) They arrived on thursday, which was really quick because I only ordered them on tuesday night.

I decided to half-stitch in a very light blue background because I think it looks a lot more finished to have a background on 14 ct.

Today I spent some time searching for some nice backstitch letters for my signature. I decided that it would just be a capital E (I hope to use this across all my framed pieces)  However many of the E's didn't have enough detail or flair which was dissapointing but i ended up finding a nice set of lettering here which had an E that I liked.
 





















After I stitched the signature  I ironed my cross stitch to some iron-on interfacing and then used masking tape to hold everything in place, and I think it came out really well in the end .























This is the back, which I neatened up by putting strips of masking tape of the messy peices I used to secure the interfacing.

 



















I will be posting my progress on the ornaments in a post soon


Em :)

New WIP - JBW designs red stocking collection II

Because Christmas is coming up, I was inspired to make everyone in my family (grandparents, parents and boyfriend) Christmas ornaments this year. I really liked the three stocking designs here.






















I thought it would be better if i did them in different colours for each family member, and i decided to add some gold kreinik blending filament and very fine braid for embelisments to make them a bit more exciting and christmasy. I also hope to finish them with gold braid and ribbon, similar to the picture.

























I started the reindeer one the 29th in dark blue on 16 count aida (for my dad) and decided to do the antlers and stars in gold and add blending filament to all the other stitches. the gold sparkle is subtle but much more noticeable in person.





















I did quite a bit of stitching yesterday 30/10 (in between wow dungeons hehe) and am about a 1/3rd done.

Em :)

First Ever Post! - DMC "Congratulations"

Hi I'm emily and this is my first ever post, 

I started my first ever cross stitch in August and just finished it a few days ago, I have become very passionate about cross stitching and hope to continue this hobby for many many more years to come.

I thought I would document my first ever cross stitch which is DMC's County Companions "Congratulations" cross stitch kit on 14 count aida.

This picture was taken on my first day of stitching (23/9).

Over the next two days I spent around 10 hours stitching like a crazy woman (obsessive much? :P) but got quite a bit done.

By the 7/10 I was at this stage, but to my horror I realised that I had mixed three of the colours up from the kit and would have to frog the face, hands and legs/tummy area of the hedgehog where the gold colours were wrong. (deciphering very light gold, light gold, medium gold, dark gold and golden brown was almost impossible without samples of the colours). 

I have since purchased a dmc floss sample book so I never make the same mistake again.

On the 19/10 I had finished re-doing the parts I had to frog (you can see a distinct difference in the colour of these areas) and had started the tweeding for the hedgehog's spikes.

On the 25/10 I had nearly finished all the tweeding.

On the 29/10 I  was completely finished!!

Between the 25th and the 29th I did all the backstitching and the half stitch shadow underneath the hedgehog.

I'm really happy with how it turned out considering this is the first needle work I have done.

I am planning to half stitch in a very subtle blue background, but I need to find a frame first so I know how much background will be showing.

I will post another picture when it's all finished and framed.

Em :)