O Tannenbaum! - Breand Gervais

 It’s time to pull out another project  for ‘Christmas in July’, and O Tannenbaum! by Brenda Gervais fits the bill!

I’ve wanted to stitch one of these boxes for a long time, but have always put it off because it’s difficult getting hold of the box over here.   Luckily, I saw one for sale and I grabbed it as fast as I could.

I actually started working on this back on New Year’s Eve last year, as part of the NYE 12 x 12 Sal, when each of the five panels were given just 1 hour of stitching each.  After that, it was put away again until February when I pulled it out and finished the first panel.

It was put away again until this month when I pulled it out again and this time I started with the smallest panel, but believe it or not the frog visited several times while I was working on it. 

I did eventually finish it though.

Next up was one of the larger panels which I also finished.

Finally, I made a start on what I consider the most challenging panel in my opinion, and that is the Santa……………Oh boy, that’s a big patch of red stitching!

I’m getting close to an overall finish of the box now, with just one more panel to go.

O Tannenbaum!

Designer – Brenda Gervais

Fabric – 36ct Linen – Heartland – Picture This Plus

Threads – Called For – Weeks Dye Works, Classic Colorworks & Gentle Arts Sampler Threads

 

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Academy of Needlework – ABC Sampler

 

It’s so right when they say you’re never too old to learn, so when Nicola Parkman from Hands Across the Sea Samplers,  said she was going to start an on-line Academy of Needlework,  I knew I had to  join in, despite having stitched for more than 60 years.

You start by downloading the ABC Sampler from her web site and then you tune in to her weekly FlossTube video and away you go.

She starts with the basics, like preparation of the fabric, including how to calculate the size of the piece of fabric you need, to how important it is to insure the edges of the fabric are straight, something I’ve been guilty of never doing in the past. 

  

The tutorials are intended to work through stitches, as well as show ways to enhance those stitches in various ways.

The first week covers cross stitch and reversible cross stitch, as well as ways of starting and finishing threads.

I've never been precious about how the back of work looks, although having said that, I do keep it as tidy as possible and try not to carry threads too far.

Learning how to work a pin stitch start has made a big difference my back of my work though, as you can see here.

The reversible cross stitch makes a big difference too, but I'm not sure it's something I would do often, unless I was stitching on a tablecloth, napkin or something else where the back won't be  covered up in some way.  The reason,  because it uses more thread due to the fact you have to stitch again over threads that have already been laid.

The next stitch Nicola covered was 'Running Stitch' and 'Double Running Stitch'.  She also showed another way to start and finish threads, because pin stitch is not really compatible and would show.

Apparently this was one of the first stitches that was taught because it was used on their samplers to stop the edges from fraying while they worked on them. 

Happy Stitching!

Sue x

Chart -  A B C Sampler - Hands Across The Sea Samplers

Fabric - 36ct - Dunes at Dust Linen - Legacy Fiber Artz

Threads - Gloriana Silks

Float Like A Butterfly - Plum Street Samplers

 My  July Cross Stitch Camp project is finished and to say it was out of my comfort zone is an understatement.

The brief was to take a full colour chart and change at least two of them, to make it reflect yourself.  

Up until now, I've never been brave enough to change more than the shade of a particular colour but with this, I jumped in with both feet and changed up everything!  

I’ve changed the fabric to a Lavender colour and have used only three of the original called for thread colours.

I finished it as a pillow, edged with chenille trim. 

 Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Chart – Float

Designer – Plum Street Samplers

Fabric – 36ct Hand-dyed Linen – Coffee Craft Fabrics

Floss – DMC – called for – 501, 503 & 730

Changed DMC threads – 28, 32, 155, 470, 928, 3041, 3766, 3799, 3809, 3010, 3813 & 38495

Angle Globe – Mill Hill (MH16-1935).

Christmas seems so far away at the start of the year, but in the blink of an eye, we are already into July and just 24 weeks until the big day.

Thankfully, the 12in24 ornament stitch-a-long that Carol from Stitching Dream Blogspot has been hosting for the last few years ensures I have at least 12 new ornaments to hang on my tree.  

I’ve stitched another of the charmed Mill Hill christmas ornaments for July, and finished it simply with sticky backed velvet on the reverse.

While I was in the mood for fully finishing, I finally got around to stitching the buttons onto ‘Winter Reindeer’ by Dirty Annie’s and put it in a frame.

I’m happy with it but I think it still looks a little bit plain, so when the shops start getting the Christmas decorations in, I’ll be looking for something to glam it up a little.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Winter Reindeer

Designer – Dirty Annie’s

Fabric – 36ct Linen – Nicholas Flamel Designs

Threads – Called for – Classic Colorworks, The Gentle Art & DMC

Winter Reindeer – Dirty Annie’s

It’s time for Christmas in July and I thought now would a good time to work on a few of the Wips I started on New Years Eve last year, as part of the NYE 12 x 12 challenge.

This is where it was left after working on it from 6 to 7pm that evening.

I stitched on it for a further four days during January and February and haven’t stitched on it since.

It took a further five days this month to get to my finish.

All I have to do now is find five small buttons for finishing but as you can see, the scrap of fabric I pulled out was a little tight on the side edges, so when I come to fully finishing it I’m going to have to be very careful.

 Updated to show Fully Finishing    14/7/24

Winter Reindeer

Designer – Dirty Annie’s

Fabric – 36ct Linen – Nicholas Flamel Designs

Threads – Called for – Classic Colorworks, The Gentle Art & DMC

  

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Cross Stitch Camp – July

The challenge for this month is to take a full colour chart and change at least two colours, so that it more represents you.

Hands down, that means shades of Mauve and Teal in my case and I pulled a selection of threads that I might possibly use.

The chart I’ve chosen to stitch is ‘’Float’ from Plum Street Samplers and I’ve decided to go completely rogue, changing the fabric and floss for a  totally different look.

A full list of floss colours will follow, because I’m choosing them as I stitch, but this is my progress so far.

This new stitch brings me to my final start, for a challenge that I decided to join in with back in September last year, and that was 'Celebrate 50 New Starts', with Michelle from Penny’s Daughter Shares on Instagram, to celebrate her 50^th birthday.

For the full list of projects I’ve worked on, click on the tab at the top of the page but here’s a quick breakdown of the status of those projects.

The first project was started on 28^th Oct 2023

The final project was started on 4^th July 2024

39 projects have finished and 11 projects are currently wips

38 projects have been fully finished and a further 3 projects are still waiting to be fully finished.

And lastly

9 projects are components of bigger collection and will not be fully finished until the rest of the pieces are also finished.

 These finishing figures could still change, because the challenge doesn’t end until September.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Chart – Float

Designer – Plum Street Samplers

Fabric – 36ct Hand-dyed Linen – Coffee Craft Fabrics

Floss – DMC (so far) 28, 32, 928, 3799, 3809, 3813, 3849

Gingerbread House Globe Charmed Ornament – Mill Hill (MH16-1932) and some much needed finishing!

 Stitching has been a little sparse this week but I did manage a little finish.

We are exactly half way through the 12 in 24 Christmas Ornament Sal, hosted by Carol, over at Stitching Dream Blogspot and my JUne ornament is the cute Gingerbread House Globe, Charmed Ornament from MIll Hill.

For once I was a good girl and FFO’d it straight away, but that’s not surprising when you consider it was just a case of adding some sticky backed velvet to the reverse. Then I made a small start on the next one, for July, 'Angel Globe'

Still in the mood for finishing,  I pulled out a couple of things from my ‘Finishing Box of Doom’.  There are several things in there, one of which is the Time & Season sampler from Bothy Threads,

that I finished in 2013   (imagine embarrassed face here)

The first thing I pulled out hasn’t been languishing in there for that long, only since April this year and it’s the ‘Sampler Bunny’ from La-D-Da.

It’s my first ever attempt at a stand-up and I decided it might be easier to hand sew it, especially as it’s quite small.

Next, I had a couple of pieces to frame.

The first was the Golden Wedding Anniversary piece I stitched for my friend’s Dad and Stepmum. 

  The frame came from Picture Frames Express where I get most of my custom frames.

The second piece was the ‘With Love’ sampler from Modern Folk Embroidery, that I stitched and framed back in February.  I didn’t make a very good job of it then, so decided to take it out of its frame and have another go. 

I’m much happier with it second time around.

The final thing I pulled out was ‘Hello Winter’, from Plum Street.

I couldn’t decide how to finish this one but in the end I decided to make a flat fold.

So, that ‘s  4 new FFO’s to add to my tally of  18 for the  #ffochallenge2024 with @jenquilter and @pennysdaughtershares

 over on Instagram.

 

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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