Celtic Autumn

 Here’s my latest progress on Celtic Autumn.

 I don’t know if you’re the same, but I’ve really had to force myself to put her down for a while. 

I have another three largish projects that I really, really want to work on too and another Christmas ornament I want to start, so needs must I suppose.

 Happy Stitching!

Sue

 

Chart – Celtic Autumn

Designers – Marilyn Leavitt- Imblum / Lavender and Lace

Fabric – 28ct Cashel Linen – Vintage Mocha

Threads – DMC Conversion

Celtic Autumn - Update

I wasn’t sure when I started to Celtic Autumn for the second time, that I was going to enjoy it as much as I did the first time round, but I’m enjoying every stitch.

Here's where she was when I left her:

She’s had another three days of work as part of the Teresa Made Me Do It Sal, and I’ve made it all the way across the full width of the chart and slowly working my way up.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

 

Chart – Celtic Autumn

Designers – Marilyn Leavitt- Imblum / Lavender and Lace

Fabric – 28ct Cashel Linen – Vintage Mocha

Threads – DMC Conversion

Celtic Autumn

 

I’ve stitched on Celtic Autumn for five days now and I’m loving this colour conversion.

She beginning to take shape but she’s going to take a little break, while I stitch on Butterfly Lace Mandala for the Chatelaine Weekender, but she’s be back out on Monday!

 

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

 

Chart – Celtic Autumn

Designers – Marilyn Leavitt- Imblum / Lavender and Lace

Fabric – 28ct Cashel Linen – Vintage Mocha

Threads – DMC Conversion

Teresa Made Me Do It ……..Sal

 I thoroughly enjoyed Teresa Little Stitcher’s  ‘live’ Floss Tube last night and stitching along with everyone.

I’ve taken the opportunity to join in the #teresamademedoitsal and stitch Celtic Autumn for a second time.

It started off great but I hit a slub in my fabric and thought I could stitch over it, but it didn’t look great, so I decided to try and pick it out.

That’s when disaster struck.

The thread was so thin and went a fair way down the fabric before thickening up again. 

Needless to say,  I managed to snap the thread and spent a good part of the evening weaving in another thread.

Front 

Back

It doesn’t look great at the moment, but it’s going to be stitched over, so I’m not too worried, just annoyed with myself.

Anyway, I didn’t do too badly with my first evening of stitching in the end.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

Chart – Celtic Autumn

Designers – Marilyn Leavitt- Imblum / Lavender and Lace

Fabric – 28ct Cashel Linen – Vintage Mocha

Threads – DMC Conversion

A New Year, New Start

 

Happy New Year Everyone!

I’m kicking off 2023 by joining in with a stitch-a-long that is being hosted by Teresa Little Stitcher, over on Floss Tube.

She had been doing some ‘live’ chats on Sunday evenings and a few weeks back a suggestion was made to start a Sal, where we stitch “Fancy Ladies” or Men, Mermaids, Mermen, or something along that line, you get the idea!

Then there was a poll to come up with a # and by unanimous decision we settled on  #teresamademedoit.  Very apt, don’t you think?

I decided to stitch something for a second time, Celtic Autumn, from Lavender and Lace.

I first stitched her back in 2014, staying faithful to the 

called for colours, but I’ve always wanted to re do her with the autumn colour conversion.  I also made a mistake and stitched her on 32ct fabric, instead of 28ct, like the rest of them.

So when Teresa suggested the Sal, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to re stitch her and purchased a kit, although I changed the fabric from Aida to Cashel Evenweave.

Here’s my little start this morning, all 10 stitches, Lol!   and I’ll be joining Teresa for her ‘Live’ Floss Tube at 7pm this evening.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

X

 

Chart – Celtic Autumn

Designers – Marilyn Leavitt- Imblum / Lavender and Lace

Fabric – 28ct Cashel Linen – Vintage Mocha

Threads – DMC Conversion

 

The Girls Are Back In Town!

The final two Celtic Sisters (Celtic Summer and Celtic Winter) are back from the framers and as always   Frames of London  have done a wonderful job.

The previous two I had done in the same style frames, one Silver, one Gold and I had intended to do the same with this pair, but much to my disappointment they have stopped doing the Silver version, so I went with the Gold for them and had the Silver one changed to Gold, so they all match.

Now I have the whole collection – The four Seasons and Celtic Christmas.

Can you spot my mistake?

Somehow I managed to stitch Celtic Autumn on 36ct instead of 32ct, making her smaller than her sisters.

Just as well I’m not planning to hang them all together, but will the Virgo in take over and make me stitch her again……….

Only time will tell!

There was also a little hitch with my Mirabila ‘Crystal Christmas’, which went in to be framed at the same time as the others. 

I had a phone call to say all four of my projects were ready to be collected, but the night before I realized I had miss off a very important thing……...the Crystal Star on the top of the tree. 

My plan now would be to carefully take it out of the frame when I got it home, stitch it on from the front, so as to not have to undo all the stretching threads and then re-seal it into the frame.   

I did mention the fact that I blundered when I got the call, not expecting them to do anything about it, but the lady I spoke to very kindly said to fetch the star and thread with me and they would take it out of the frame for me so I could stitch it on in the shop.

To my amazement, when I got there they had taken it out, and undone all the stretching, making it much easier to stitch the star on.

I collected it a week later, after it had been stretched again and re-framed. 

I can’t praise them enough because they didn’t charge me for their extra work, so please keep them in mind if you are ever looking for someone to frame your precious work, I can recommend them. 
They have been doing mine since 1996 and I can’t fault them.

Frames of London

Happy Crafting!

(Whatever you passion may be)

Sue

X

Please feel free to leave a comment if you stop by.  

2018 minus One Month - Part 4………..nearly there!

My Mirabilia, Crystal Christmas is now complete and is ready to be taken to the framers along with my last two Celtic Ladies.  Celtic Summer and Winter have been finished for some time but I just never got around to having the framed, so now’s the time.

Since finishing Crystal Christmas I’ve been busy working on my Burcilla ‘White Christmas’ stocking.  

I just love these kits and have made six stockings and a tree skirt but of them all, this has been my favorite to work on.  I did make one little change to the metallic thread which should have been silver.  I changed mine to Gold, to fit in with my Christmas décor.

Happy Crafting!

(Whatever you passion may be)

Sue

X

Please feel free to leave a comment if you stop by.  I would love to know how you stumbled upon me and what you were looking at.

Framing

I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say that the finishing of a project is almost as important as stitching itself.   Pick the wrong frame and it can completely ruin the look, but I’m very lucky in that I have a framers in our High Road,  Frames of London.   

They have been looking after my finished pieces for many  years now and I can honestly say that I’ve never been disappointed with the finished results. 

When I’m about to take something in to be framed I usually have the discussion with myself about the pros and cons of non-reflective glass, but I’m not a fan of the mat finish it has and always go with standard glass.

Alas, it’s not good if you’re trying to photograph your work though, as you will see in my pictures.

So, here are the latest two projects they have framed for me.

Celtic Autumn.

I already knew the frame I wanted for this one.  It’s the same as the one I have on Celtic Spring but in the Gold option as opposed to the Silver.  

 The photo doesn’t really do it justice because it looks so opulent and I love it!

The second one is the Wedding Sampler, United in Love.

Now, when I took this in I had in my mind that I wanted a White ornate frame but when I was laying them against the project it really wasn’t working.
 
 With the help of staff in the shop we finally settle for a Greyish/Pink plain frame, which picks up the colour of the fabric perfectly.

 I just hope that Lee and Manna like it as much as I do! 

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

Celtic Winter

Last month I finally finished my fifth Celtic Lady, Celtic winter.

Right from the very start I had misgivings about the colours used in this project, but wanted to stay true to Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum’s original design and stuck with it. In fact, I stayed true to all five designs, with one exception and that was the addition of the falling leaves on Celtic Autumn.  

My first pet hate on this design was the use of Gold thread. 

I know that Gold threads were used in all five pieces, so they all tie in together but the Gold really wasn’t shouting Winter to me.

 

 

This was  closely followed by the colour of the fabric which was Smokey Pearl Linen and the fact that the Grey shading on the dress was too dark in my opinion, but despite all that I still enjoyed stitching her.

 As soon as I finished her, I started work on a piece of Blackwork and strange as it may seem, my piece of Blackwork is actually White! 

It’s going to be a Wedding Sampler for my Nephew and his new Wife, who got married in Greece back in June.

Here’s a few sneak peeks.

And I have another project all lined up (well sort of)  for when the Sampler if finished.

With all five Celtic ladies under my belt,  I plan to stitch Celtic Winter again, but this time using Thalie’s  conversion with the cloak and hood. 

I’ve not settled on the colours yet but it will definitely have Silver in this one and I was thinking along the lines of  a deep rich Purple or Blue for the cloak and White dress with shading of pale lavender or Blue.   I’ve not decided yet but am leaning more towards the Mauve shades because all the other designs have those colours in too.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

Celtic Autumn & Celtic Winter……………..and some knitting!

Oh my, where have the weeks gone?

I can’t believe that I’ve not updated this blog since the end of November…….that’s almost four months ago!  
It doesn’t mean to say that I’ve not been keeping myself busy though because I’ve had my knitting needles out as well as my sewing needles.

 

I’m very pleased to say that my first cross stitch finish of 2014 is  Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum’s beautiful Celtic Autumn, so that’s four down and one to go.

I was very  tempted to work her in the Autumn conversion colours that a lot of people are doing, but in the end I decided to go with the original colours, but decided that I would still add the falling leaves.

  Janet Granger  helped me out with the chart for the leaves which  were  designed by a lady called Crystal.  She was better known as  “Ice Queen “on her blog but  unfortunately I’m not able to give you the link to it because it seems to have disappeared.

I’ve gone straight on to stitching Celtic Winter and again I was tempted by the various conversions that I’ve seen, but in the end stayed true to Marilyn’s original colours.

This is where I am after four evenings of stitching.

 

Now then, as I said at the start, I’ve had my knitting needles out.

I started by knitting myself I nice big, baggy, chunky jumper and liked the style and fit so much that I knitted two more, using the pattern for the number of stitches and creating my own design for each.

This was the first one I did.

This the second.

And finally, the third.

And I even have enough wool for these three to make a fourth multi coloured one, so what this space.

 

Well, that’s it for now.  It’s been good catching up.

 Happy Stitching!

 Sue
   x

Time for a TUSAL

Well it was on Tuesday anyway…….and as usual I’m late again with it despite me saying in my last post that I would be ready to show it.

 Still, I’m here now with my update and quite a few threads have gone into my little jar since the last New Moon.

 As always, it’s accompanied by my calendar panel…….only four left to stitch now!

 

The majority of the threads have come from the squares I’ve been stitching for SOLAK,  four which were shown in my last post, but  these are the latest four.

Mickey

 Tigger

 Woody

 Donald

 And this one is still a wIP……can you guess who it is?

 

I managed to get a good bit done of Celtic Autumn too.

 
All in all, I think I’m managed quite a bit of stitching since the last TUSAL and am pleased with my progress but I must try harder to be in time for the TUSAL next month.

I’m guessing that everyone has already done theirs by now but just in case you haven’t and want to join in then, Sharon over at   It’s Daffy Cat  that can point you in the right direction.

Thanks for dropping in and…………………………….

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x