Hummingbird Lace Mandala – 1 year on

Last year I decided to make a start on my second Chatelaine and began working on Hummingbird Lace Mandala as my birthday start on 9^th September.

One year on and I’ve not made as much progress on it as I had originally hoped, but we all know there’s so much temptation out there, just waiting for us, so I guess that was inevitable when you’re not a monograms stitcher.

Anyway, tomorrow will be a year since I started it and with the help of the ‘Chatelaine Weekender’, an event hosted in a Facebook group each week, it’s encouraged me to keep going.

The last time you saw it, I had spent some time correcting my mistake with the beading, but the last two weekends, I’ve made some great progress.

The weekend of the 29^th – 31^st August, and although it wasn’t  a holiday in the UK, I took advantage of it being Labour Day in the USA, giving me an extra day of stitching, my aim was to complete the second 1 over 1 hummingbird, which I finish.

I also managed to add some more to the boarder, some beading and a few of the specialty stitches in the corner motifs.

This past weekend I had to make the decision whether to work the next flower on the left hand side or to start on some of ‘lace’ on the right.

In the end, I decided to work on the top, right hand quadrant 

and the first Algerian Eye lace.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Hummingbird Lace Mandala - Chatelaine

Designer - Martina Rosenberg
Fabric – 28ct Jobelan Evenweave – Antique White
Threads – Called for Silks, DMC and Petite Treasure Braid
Beads – Swarovski Crystals and Delica Beads

My Stitching Box – Jeanette Douglass

It seems like I’ve been missing in action for ages, but in fact it’s only been just under a month since my last post.

I’ve actually been enjoying a short break on the Isle of Wight and despite it only being around 4 hours away from where I live, I’ve only ever been there on a day trip.   This time, my cousin and I took a five day break and got to see a lot more of island, including the donkey sanctuary and some of the pretty villages, 

as well as enjoying the beautiful gardens of our hotel,

and waking up to this amazing view from my balcony every morning.

There wasn’t a lot of time for stitching while I was away but I did manage a new start, which I will come to at a later date, but over the past month I surprised myself and managed quite a bit, including a big finish.

As you probably know, Cross Stitch Camp 2025 is well underway and when Sheri, Colorado Cross Stitcher told us that the July challenge was to stitch something from our favourite designer, I knew straight away I was going to be working on  ’My Stitching Box’ from Jeanette Douglass again.

I originally started this project as my Leap Year Day start on Feb 29^th 2024, and started and finished the band sampler, although I never FFo’d it at the time. 

I also finished the box top  before putting it away to stitch on other things.

Once I knew what the July challenge was going to be, I decided to pull it out again and stitch Pin Cube.

Now, I know I have said this before, but Jeanette’s colour schemes are always beautiful and once again she has hit the nail on the head with this collection.  They especially come together in the 1 over 1 flower on the top of the cube. 

When it came to the fully finishing, I decided that I wanted it to be firm and opted to use crushed walnut shells for the filling.

I was enjoying working with the silks so much that I decided to keep stitching on the other parts of the box and eventually finished stitching and fully finishing them all.

First was the needle case.

The chart didn’t suggest adding beads to the front, but I had a lot left over from the band sampler and decided to use them.

Then came the scissor case,

Two scissor fobs,

and lastly the pin pillow, which was also filled with walnut shells.

The final thing I had to do was to add some backing and ribbon to the previously stitched band sampler to complete the roll.

And there we have it........a completed Stitching Box!

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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 My Stitching  Box  

Designer – Jeanette Douglas

Fabric – 32ct Zweigart Evenweave – Antique White

Threads – Classic Colorworks Belle Soie, NPI Silk, Gloriana Silk Floss & Rainbow Gallery Splendor

‘Bee Contained’ Etui by Betsy Morgan

When I started this project back in August 2023,  it was on the back of finishing the 'Virgin Queen's Stitching Wallet' , from the first ‘Willing Hands’ book.

There were so many beautiful Etui and Sewing Box projects in there, and I wanted to stitch them all.

Then I saw somewhere on line, a photo of the ‘Bee Contained Etui', in the Willing Hands Book 2, and knew I had to stitch it too!

I can really recommend these two books if you are looking to stitch a sewing box because there are so many beautiful designs in them.

I collected all the materials together and started stitching, but what I hadn’t realised at the time was that the designer, Betsy Morgan was inspired to design it by my wonderful and very talented ‘on-line’ friend Stasi Buhrman, who is a long time friend of hers.    

Stasi is better known in our community on Instagram as  #stasibee  and she has a blog, Bee-mused and Bee-stitching.

I stitched the larger piece for the box itself first

and put it away for a while, but then in February this year I decided that I needed to get it finished and quickly finished all of the remaining pieces.

After that, it was put away again because I was worried about the detailed finishing that was needed, but this past weekend, I took the bull by the horns, so to speak.

The Etui consists of a six sided box, topped with two sweet Bee charms.

A Needle case

A Scissor Fob

A Thread Winder

Two Measures, one in centimetres and the other in inches

And last be not least is the cutest little Pin Cushion, in the shape of a tiny Bee Hive.

All that remains to do, is to acquire a couple of 'Bee' counting pins and I'll be extremely happy!

I already have another Sewing Box in progress but it’s not from either of the books. 

This one is from Jeanette Douglass, so I’m going to start working on this one again!

 

Happy Crafting!

Sue

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Chart – Bee Contained – from Willing Hands 2

Designer – Betsy Morgan

Fabric – 32ct Linen – Lemon Squash – Nicholas Flamel Designs (Etsy)

Threads – Gloriana Florimell Silks

 

 

 

My Sewing Box

Started 29/2/2024

Designer -  Jeanette Douglas

Fabric – 32ct Murano Linen

Threads – Called for Classic Colouworks Belle Soie, NPI Silk, Gloriana Silk & Rainbow Gallery Splendor

Beads – Mill Hill

 

All Year Round Stitch-a-Long – May

 Just four more segments to go on the ‘All Year Round’ Sal and May is the final one for Spring.

This features the common blue butterfly as it feeds on the nectar of Anemone Blanda which is better know as the Winter Windflower.

I also stitched on Mary Allcorn 1764.

I completed the band of flower vases and the band of Satin Stitch.

 I used two strands of threads for this because I wasn’t happy with the coverage of just one and was much happier with the results.

Finally I made a start on the most prominent alphabet on the sampler, stitched in Algerian Eyelets over four threads and also the band of tiny Algerian Eyelets below it, stitched over two threads.

That’s about it for now.

I still have to sort out what I plan to stitch for the virtual  ‘Cross Stitch Camp’ this year and get the latest badge stitched, as well as stitch my May ornament for 12 in 25, so enough to keep me going until the end of the month, so until then,

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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 Project Details

All Year Round Sal - from Cross Stitcher Magazine

Designer - Amanda Butler

Fabric - 18ct Aida - White Zweigart

Threads - Anchor and DMC's Standard Cotton Threads

Mary Allcorn 1764

Designer – Hobby House Press

Fabric – 36ct

Threads –Gloriana Silks and Classic Color Works Belle Soie Silks

In The Woods Deer – Log Cabin Christmas - Little House Needle Works

I’m well past the half way mark of Log Cabin Christmas

now and have just finished Part 6, which is ‘In The Woods Deer’.

I’m really enjoying working on this, but I think, as we head into warmer days, it’s time to put Christmas/Winter stitching aside for a little while I think because I want to do some Summer stitching.

First though I wanted to get some more stitches into my Chatelaine, ‘Hummingbird Lace Mandala’.

This is where I let it the last time you saw it back in March.

Between then and now, I’ve stitched the first 1 over 1 hummingbird,

worked on the borders of specialist stitches 

and the second flower.  

I’ve also added lots of beads, because I’ve decided to bead as I go, instead of leaving it all until the end as I did with Butterfly Lace.

I did make a little blunder though……….while adding beads to the second flower, I realised that I used the wrong beads on the first one, so at some point I’m going to sit and pick the out, which is a bit of a pain.

There’s one last thing to share with you today.

I’ve seen other stitchers' use Flower Frogs, which are designed for arranging flowers, to display/store their scissors and I wanted one too, so when I saw this beautiful Green Glass one on ebay, I knew it had to come and live with me.

So, until next time

 Happy Stitching!

Sue

 

Project Information

Chart- Log Cabin Christmas – Part 6- In the Woods Deer

Designer – Little House Needleworks

Fabric – 32ct Zweigart Linen – Raw

Threads – Called for Classic Colorworks

Hummingbird Lace Mandala - Chatelaine

Designer - Martina Rosenberg
Fabric – 28ct Jobelan Evenweave – Antique White
Threads – Called for Silks, DMC and Petite Treasure Braid
Beads – Swarovski Crystals and Delica Beads