Seasons of the Heart – Spring

Just 7 days into August and my last monthly challenge for Cross Stitch Camp was finished.

I challenged myself to stitch on 40ct Evenweave for the first time and although it was a bit of a struggle to start with, I soon became comfortable with it.   I think it was mainly due to the fact that I  had been stitching on 14ct Aida prior to that and even with my light and magnifier, I really had to concentrate on what I was doing.

The Blue Flower chart was such a joy to stitch and I will definitely be stitching the other three seasons at some point, but for now I have to FFO this one into a little pillow.

As I mentioned last time, I’m sad that Camp has officially come to an end but Sheri, Colorado Cross Stitcher, has set us another challenge to see us through until next summer and that is to work on a ‘Show Stopper’.

My Butterfly Lace Mandala Chatelaine fits the bill perfectly and that will be a birthday start on the 9^th September, but I’m not expecting it to be finished (or anywhere near) before summer camp starts again next year.

From the 7^th until today I have been continuing to stitch the ‘A Token For My Friend’ panels and have almost finished 4 out of the 6 I need to stitch before the 11^th of next month.

So until next time……

Happy Crafting!

Sue xx

Seasons of the Heart - Spring - The Blue Flower

Designer – Jeannine McGowan

Fabric –  40ct  Verdal Evenweave (Zweigart) tea/coffee dyed by myself.

Floss – Weeks Dye Works overdyed cotton (Called For)

Stitched 1 over 2

Start – 1st August 2021

Finish- 7th August 2021

FFO -

A Token For My Friend  #3  – Heartstring Samplery

Designer – Beth Twist

Fabric – 36ch Confederate Gray (Called For)

Floss – Weeks Dye Works overdyed cotton(Called For)

Stitched 1 over 2

Start –3rd August 2021

Finish-11th August 2021

FFO -

Last Month of ‘Virtual’ Cross Stitch Camp

 To say I was a little apprehensive to join in with Cross Stitch Camp, when it started back in June is an understatement, because I’ve never taken part in something like this before.  

I think it was the thought of being tied down to starting and finishing something within the month that was worrying me but as it turned out it’s been a wonderful experience and I’m so pleased that Sherie, also known as Colorado crossstitcher on Instagram and on her floss tube of the same name, came up with the idea during the Covid 19 lockdowns.

It’s been fantastic, with more than 1600 members following the private Facebook group, as well as the Instagram and floss tube coverage and as you can imagine, there’s an awful lot of enabling going on too, Lol!

 

So on to my August stitch.

The challenge this month is to stitch on a fabric, or with floss that you’ve not stitched with before, so I decided to give 40ct. Zweigart Verdal Evenweave a go, and even decided to have my first go at Coffee/Tea dyeing too!

The chart I’m stitching is Jeannine McGowan’s, Seasons Of The Heart – Spring, from The Blue Flower, using all the called for DMC threads.

I was making good progress on my first evening of stitching, but as you can see by the faint, fluffy outline at the top left of the heat , the frogs came visiting because when I got all the way around I was one stitch and one row out….Ughhhhhh.Oh well, I guess it happens to all of us, but on the up side, I’m not finding stitching on the 40ct as difficult as I had thought it might be.  I do need my light and magnifier but then again I do with most of my stitching these days, unless I’m working on Aida.

 Anyway, this will be my focus piece until it’s finished and then I will be sad to leave camp for this year, although I did hear whispers around the camp fire that there may be a bit of get-together towards the end of the year and another Summer camp next year, fingers crossed!

 

So until next time……

 Happy Stitching!

Sue