Mishi's Bits and Bobs

Lots of updates

2011-04-19T08:09:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

I've neglected to post here lately unfortunately. However, now I've got a lot of updates that have piled up.

First, my two cross-stitches:

Horses

Rapture

I've not gotten as much done on Rapture as I would like - ideally I should have been close to finishing the second page by now. Oh well. I believe the next page is a short one, so I'm hoping to catch up over the next couple of months.

I also got a request from my fiance's family to make a toolbelt for his little brother (who is turning 6 today). I found a pattern at http://2littlehooligans.blogspot.com/2010/12/big-boy-tool-belt-tutorial.html which turned out really well (I made the belt longer, but that was all the adjustment that was needed. Here's the finished result:

Last time I posted about a painting I was working on. Frankie is all finished now - here he is:

My current painting in progress is one that was a request from a friend:

It's still got quite a lot of work to go, including fixing the light areas on the right-hand side, but he's getting there :)

Update 25/03

2011-03-25T07:54:00.000Z

Hi all,

Got a few updates to share this time. I didn't get very much done last week unfortunately, which is why there's no post for it. This week, however, I have some progress pics of both my cross stitch pieces.

Horses:

Rapture:

I have done a bit more since this photo was taken, but don't yet have a picture of it.

I've additionally started to do a bit of drawing and painting again, inspired by the WIP gallery that one of the HAED artists posted on the forums. I've decided to try using acrylics, which is a medium I've never really used much before (I was always a watercolours type of person before). I'm enjoying it so far. From what people were saying, I thought it would be really, really fast drying, but I'm finding as long as I work reasonably quickly, I can still blend colours and the like. Here's my progress on my first piece so far:

This is the initial sketch - it's of one of the ponies from my riding school, Frankie (photo reference was used).

And my progress as of last night. He's still very messy looking! I'm finding acrylics to be very forgiving - if I don't get a part or colour quite right, I can just paint over it easily, which you can't do with watercolours.

A bit late

2011-03-08T07:46:00.000Z

So, I fell behind a bit with posting again. :( Sorry guys!

I've been working away at all three of my current projects the last few weeks - Horses, Rapture and my bargello quilt. Here's the photos of my progress:

Horses

Rapture (Page 1 finished! :) I have done a little more since, but not enough to justify a new photo)

Autumn Song (first 6 rows put together)

I bought myself a Posilock floor stand for cross-stitching - I like to use two hands while stitching, but this has led me to prop up my frame in odd and awkward ways. I figured a stand would come in very handy. It's felt a bit odd at first, but I'm definitely getting used to it now!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T07:50:00.001Z

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day :)

As usual, I have some cross stitching updates on Horses and Rapture:

The first page of Rapture is nearly complete. Hoping to get it finished this week, then I'm planning to concentrate on Horses until I get the next page of Rapture at the beginning of March.

I made some progress on my bargello quilt too - finally started sewing the columns together - but unfortunately I don't have a photo right now. I will post one later this week!

Weekly update 31/01

2011-01-31T21:48:00.000Z

Hi all,

I managed to meet my goal with Rapture this month, which was to finish half of the first page :)

I love seeing how the picture emerges from all the seemingly strange colours. It just seems to come together at the last moment.

I also got some more done on Horses - made a start on the bay horse's eye this week.

Weekly update

2011-01-24T21:40:00.002Z

Hi all.

I managed to work on three projects this week, but only a little on each. I'm not sure where all my time went - it just seemed to disappear! I made a bit more progress on Horses and Rapture:

I also worked a bit on my bargello quilt. I don't have a picture of that, as I'm still just putting the strip sets together - it doesn't look like much yet. Nearly onto the fun bit though, so I'll hopefully have a more interesting photo next week.

I have to admit, I had a moment of weakness this weekend. I saw that Jelly Roll Quilts was available for Kindle, and the temptation was too much. It has some lovely projects in it that I'm dying to try out. But... in order to make one, I needed a jelly roll. So, a trip to the quilt shop later, and I end up with this:

The batiks in the pack are just gorgeous - looking forward to seeing how they turn out when I (eventually) get around to using them!

Craft updates for this week

2011-01-17T20:43:00.000Z

Hi all,

Like last week, I've been mostly working on my two cross-stitch projects:

Horses

Rapture

I've been having a bit of trouble finishing off my threads in Rapture, as the thread count is so small. I've just gotten my order of size 28 needles through (was using a larger 26), so hopefully that will make it a bit easier

As well as cross-stitch, I'd like to get a bit of quilting/patchwork done this week, as I have a couple of projects that I've left alone for what feels like ages..

Cross stitch updates

2011-01-10T21:40:00.002Z

So, this week I have two projects to post about :). The first is, of course, my Horses cross stitch. Got a bit more done this week, although I only spent the first few days working on it.

On Wednesday, the fabric and threads for my HAED SAL piece arrived finally! Got the fabric gridded and worked on that the second half of the week. I picked Rapture by Marc Potts (the full size chart is here - the SAL chart is a smaller portion of it). I'm enjoying it so far. I've never stitched on anything smaller than 18 count before, so this is a new challenge. Stitching on 28-count antique white Jobelan evenweave, one strand over one square :)

Horses cross-stitch

2010-12-28T11:52:00.000Z

Hi all,

It's been quite a while since my last post - 3 months in fact (oops..). I haven't been working on much besides my Horses cross stitch during that time, unfortunately.

However, I have managed to do quite a bit of Horses - have finished the first page now, and have done a few hundred stitches of the second.

I also signed up for the 2011 SAL on the HAED forums too, so have just ordered my threads and fabric (DMC is starting to get expensive!) Hopefully they'll come through in time for the start on Jan 1st - I'll be posting updates of my progress here as well as on the forums.

Horses update

2010-09-27T22:32:00.001+01:00

Unfortunately, I haven't managed to get much crafty stuff done this month. Mostly, I've just been working on my Horses cross stitch and have prepared my fabric and threads to start the Golden Ice cross stitch at some point. I decided it would be best to grid the fabric for Golden Ice, as there's a lot of unstitched areas in it that would make counting tricky. I may start that this week, if I feel like a change from the Horses cross stitch. Speaking of which, here's the photo of my current progress:

Horses and Shoulder Dragon update

2010-08-24T22:37:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

I apologise for not updating when I said I would in my last post. I haven't had as much time to work on my projects as I did last month. However, having said that, I have managed to make a fair amount of progress on the Horses cross stitch - I've now worked my way up the first horse's ear.

I've been tempted by the Heaven and Earth Designs charts for a little while now - the detail in them is stunning. I finally decided to pick this one up. I won't be starting it for a while - have Horses and Golden Ice to do first, but looking forward to it when I do!

I posted about a dragon toy that I was making some months ago. I haven't worked on it much at all, mainly because the wings aren't much fun to put together. I picked it up again last night and managed to finish the first wing.

Now I have the other wing to do, then I can get back to putting the rest of the dragon together.

All's quiet on the craft front

2010-08-11T21:30:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted for the last couple of weeks, mainly because I don't have anything really to show. I started a new job a week and a half ago (yay!), so I've mostly been concentrating on that. I didn't even go horse riding last week, which is unusual for me!

Having said that, things are starting to settle down a bit now and I'm getting back into a routine again. My aim is to have a post up sometime this weekend with a proper update! :)

Start of Autumn Song quilt

2010-07-27T10:19:00.000+01:00

I mentioned yesterday that I was planning to get started on a new bargello quilt. The pattern I'm using is the Surf Song wallhanging from the Twist and Turn Bargello quilts book. I'm planning on scaling up the size slightly to make it a better size for a lap quilt. Here are the 20 fabrics I bought for it at the start of the month:

I spent the afternoon and most of the evening yesterday ironing the fabrics and cutting the strips from it (80 strips altogether!) As my fabric choice is quite autumnal, I think this quilt will be named Autumn Song :).

The book recommends creating a little key of all your fabrics so you can easily see which fabric needs to be used at a certain step, so I got that completed as well.

I started sewing a few of the strips together last night, but didn't get very far. Hoping to spend some time creating the strip sets today :).

Weekly Progress for Horses

2010-07-26T12:20:00.000+01:00

I managed to get quite a bit more of the chestnut horse's neck stitched this week.

I recently bought a pile of fabrics (20 in all) to make one of the bargellos from the Twist and Turn Bargello quilts book I bought a little while back. Now that I've finished the Trip Around the World quilt, I think it's time to get started on it! My plan for today is to get all the fabrics ironed and start cutting the strips. If all goes well, then I'll post some pics here later :)

May BOM Block

2010-07-24T11:36:00.000+01:00

I've fallen way behind with the Quilting Board block of the month. I started this block at the beginning of May, but left it when I went away on holiday. Yesterday, I finally went back to it and finished it.

I think it's the most complicated block I've done so far - so many pieces! It was paper pieced though, which makes a bit easier if a bit more time consuming.

I like the way it turned out in the end :) Now I just need to get the June and July blocks done soon!

Trip Around the World quilt completed

2010-07-21T13:13:00.000+01:00

Got the last stitches done on the binding last night :)

I'm pleased with how it turned out - it's definitely far from perfect, but I think it looks good from a distance. Having now completed a quilt entirely from start to finish, I think it's definitely a hobby that I want to keep going with!

No update on my Horse cross stitch this week - I never managed to get round to working on it. Planning on working on it for a while this afternoon though.

Progress on Horses

2010-07-13T11:10:00.001+01:00

Hi all,

Just a quick update on the progress of the Horses cross stitch. Still just looks like a blob, but it's now a bigger blob :). The part I'm stitching just now is the top part of the chestnut horse's neck - just behind its bridle.

I haven't done anything more on any quilting projects since my last post - ended up having a busy weekend with helping at the stables on Sunday and a showjumping competition yesterday.

It was good fun - a few of the school horses were a little excitable on Sunday morning for some reason so I ended up exercising one of them for a while to try and cool him down a bit. He's not usually a horse I ride much, but it was pretty good fun. He certainly had a good go at the jump below!

Monday was good fun too. I placed in both the non-jumping classes (1st in Ridden Horse and 3rd in Tack & Turnout) and got a clear round, but I didn't manage to go clear in any of the actual jumping classes. Not bad for my first show in years though, and I definitely enjoyed it!

Trip Around the World top finished

2010-07-10T00:07:00.000+01:00

So, back to quilting again. I finished sewing the rows together and then added the borders. I've never done borders before, so I was a little unsure about how easy they would be to do. I followed the instructions I found online about measuring the middle of the quilt instead of the edges, and they turned out not too badly at all - it was quite fun putting them together. Here's the finished top:

Next stage is layering and quilting! My plan is to quilt the table runner first (from this post) to get some practice, then move back onto the Trip Around the World.

'Family of Elephants' completed and start of 'Horses'

2010-07-05T09:41:00.001+01:00

Hi all,

I've been working steadily away at the Elephants cross stitch, and managed to complete it last week.

I've just started on the 'Horses' kit, but I don't have very much of that to show yet - I get the feeling this one is going to take me a while!.

Atfer a few weeks of ignoring my quilting projects, I'm also finally starting to get back to working on them again. The Trip Around the World top has all the rows completed now, and I'm in the process of sewing those together. After completing the last row by hand, I decided to cheat and do the rest of the sewing by machine. Hand piecing is just taking way too long. I don't have a photo to show, but I will try to remember to get one posted in the next couple of days!

"Tiger Chilling Out" completed

2010-06-09T20:54:00.000+01:00

So, another month without posting. I'm a terrible blogger. :-p

On the plus side, I have actually completed one of my projects! I put the last stitch into Tiger Chilling Out on Saturday night, and I really like how it's turned out.

Due to the size of it, I think I'll need to get a custom frame, but I think I've found a decent online supplier that will make the frame and cut the mount board for a reasonable price. I'll probably not be able to order a frame until near the end of the month, but I do intend to get the piece framed and on my wall eventually. :)

A week or so ago, I gave in to temptation and ordered a new kit and chart from Sew and So. I've decided that one of them (the DMC 'Horses' kit) will be my next project for the SAL blog, as I don't think the Family of Elephants chart I posted a few months back is a big enough project.

I'm currently planning on working on the elephants for a week or two, to give myself a break from a big project, then go back to the SAL with the horses kit. Here's my progress after two days - off to a good start!

What it should look like on completion:

Until next time!

Another week, more tiger progress

2010-04-28T12:03:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

So, it's time for my weekly progress on the tiger cross stitch piece. Got a bit more done on the blues at the very bottom of the reflection.

I was also intending to post some of my progress on the lap quilt (I've since found out that the name of the pattern is actually called 'Trip Around the World' - need to think of a good name for the quilt itself I think, instead of just calling it 'the lap quilt'), but I haven't gotten around to taking a photo yet. I'd like to try and get one in natural light, as the flash seems to distort the colours a lot.

I've gotten another couple of rows completed, with another in progress. I'll try to post a new photo in the next day or so. I'm really trying to push to get some of these WIPs completed now - I don't want to start anything more until I complete something. Once I have a finish or two, then I'll allow myself to start something new, otherwise I think these hobbies could start to spiral out of control!

Weekly Tiger progress

2010-04-21T12:46:00.000+01:00

I did mean to post this yesterday, but completely forgot last night. The end is slowly coming into sight for the 'Tiger Chilling Out' piece now! Hopefully just a few more weeks and it'll be done. :D

Shamrock block and block swap

2010-04-18T09:27:00.000+01:00

So, I finally finished the Shamrock block for the quilting board's 2010 BOM.It was time consuming, but otherwise easy to do. Now I just need to get caught up on April's block in the next two weeks and I'll be back on track again!

Before I decided to stop starting any new projects until I finish something, I signed up for a batik block swap on the quilting board - we have to make 12 12.5" blocks, all the same pattern, all out of batik fabrics. Once the blocks are finished, they are sent to a central host, who sends each participant 11 different blocks from other people, plus one of your own. I picked an easy pattern, Squares Upon Squares, and last weekend picked up some assorted fat quarters and 1/2m of batiks. I finished the first block a couple of days ago - it went together really easily up until the very last seam, which just would not line up correctly. I resewed it 2-3 times, before finally tacking the intersections together instead of pinning. This worked a bit better - hopefully the intersections are now close enough.

Until next time! :)

Weekly tiger progress and new books

2010-04-13T12:38:00.000+01:00

So, I'm attempting to get my posting back onto a reasonably regular schedule. As I'm a member of a weekly stitch along blog for cross stitching, I have absolutely no excuse not to post at least once a week! So, here we have my progress as of Sunday for the tiger cross stitch. I stitched a fair amount of the yellows in the reflection, as well as tidying up the left hand side of the water. It's definitely beginning to come together now, I think!

I had received a gift voucher for Amazon a couple of weeks ago, and so decided to put it to good use. Yesterday, these arrived in the post.

They're all great reads - there's loads of things I want to make in each one! They'll need to wait though, until I get some of my current projects actually finished. I'm trying hard not to let any of my WIPs turn into UFOs!

Quilt blocks (and a tiger)

2010-04-06T21:42:00.001+01:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I've managed to be pretty productive (for me at least) on the craft front in the last month.

I've been doing some more work on the blocks for the quilting board BOM. I decided that I wanted to do two of each block, so I'd eventually have enough for a double sized quilt. So I started a new Sunflower block (January's). It's a bit more muted than the first one I did, but I'm hoping it will still tie in nicely with the others

I've also started work on the March block, which is a bit different to the first two - it's an applique block. I didn't have any fusible interfacing to do machine applique, so decided to try hand applique (needleturn to be precise). I'm enjoying it so far - it's quite relaxing and easy to do in front of the TV, but it takes much longer. I've gotten the first quarter of the block done so far, and have started on the second quarter. Need to get a move on with this one, as the April block has now been posted!

I haven't done much work on the red/brown lap quilt lately - intending to go back to it once I've caught up on the BOM project. I've taken a picture on my progress so far though - at the moment I have just under half of the rows put together. Again, the camera has changed the colours of the fabrics and made them look far too pink - they're either red or almost red.

Finally, I have a bit of progress to show on my tiger cross stitch. I'd really like to get this finished fairly soon - would love to see it completed. I just need to start setting aside more time for it!

Until next time! :)

Mishi

New sewing machine!

2010-04-06T21:27:00.000+01:00

I'm really, really not doing very well with this whole 'update regularly' thing, am I? Yet again, it's been a month without posting.

I have been busy this month on the crafty front though, so I do have lots of pics to share (although I'll split them over a few posts to avoid a hugely long post).

Firstly, I have another new toy! I got some birthday money this month, so decided to splash out and get a sewing machine. It's a Brother Innovis 10A - been having great fun with it so far.

I even tried a little free motion quilting on it using some spare polycotton and fleece I had. I think I need a lot more practice, but overall it turned out not too badly

The last one was a design I saw on Leah Day's blog at http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/ . It's a great blog if you're interested in free motion quilting - so many awesome ideas, and each one has a video to show you how its done. There's definitely more than a few designs I'd like to try once I've had some more practice! :)

Catching up on the month

2010-03-05T23:36:00.000Z

Hi all,

Well, I really managed to fall behind on updating the blog - it's been over a month since I last posted anything :( I'll try not to leave it so long again.

I have managed to get some things done over the last few weeks, although not quite as much as I would have liked. Firstly, I decided to go for it and buy myself a rotary set. I'm not very good at cutting with it yet - I'm finding it quite hard to keep my pressure consistent. Guess I just need to practice lots with it.

To try out the rotary cutter, I decided to make this table runner using three fat quarters I picked up very cheaply in January. It turned out pretty well - I'm happy with how it looks :) I haven't gone any further than making the top yet - I'm planning on getting the backing/wadding for it when I get the wadding for the lap quilt I'm working on. I can then use the table runner for some quilting practice.

The free pattern for the table runner was from here
I'd definitely consider making this again for a present for somebody!

I also got the February block done for the quilting forum's Block of the Month. It was a paper pieced pattern, which was new for me. I enjoyed doing it, although the block did sit half finished for most of the month. Finally finished it off last night. :)

Finally, I have some progress on my tiger cross stitch to show too. This is a photo taken from last Sunday - haven't taken one of this week's progress yet.

I did get a bit more done on the red/brown lap quilt too, but haven't got a photo of that to show. Will try to get one for my next post!

Mishi

Weekly Progress and New Project

2010-02-01T20:09:00.000Z

Hi all,

I ended up being pretty busy last week, and so didn't get quite as much time to work on crafty stuff as I'd have liked. Thanks to Nate, I've been able to try some machine piecing which I really enjoyed. It's been several years since I last used a sewing machine, so it took a little bit to get comfortable with what I was doing, but once I was used to the machine, I was able to work pretty quickly.

A quilting forum that I visit does a free "Block of the Month" that I decided to follow along with. I wasn't sure if the blocks would be too hard for a newbie like me, but I figured there was no harm in giving them a try at least. So, I bought a couple of metres of white batik fabric that was on sale, picked up a few purple/blue fat quarters and set about the first one. January's block was called 'Sunflower', and aside from my making some ridiculous mistakes (like sewing a square of fabric the wrong way round - d'oh), it went together pretty well. What's more, my block turned out at the required 12.5", which I'm really pleased about. I was worried that my seams might not be accurate enough yet and that would affect the finished size of the block. Some of the intersections didn't match up perfectly, but they're close enough that I don't think you can see it without looking at the block really closely. It's enough for me anyway!

I'm looking forward to trying February's block too - it's a paper pieced one, which is another new technique for me to learn.

I also got some more of the tiger done - did some more of the blue stitches. The reflection is slowly growing across the fabric! I'm intending on working on it a little more tonight, as well as doing some more of the red/brown lap quilt that I posted previously. It got neglected last week unfortunately, with the Sunflower block taking over.

Now, back to sewing!

Project updates

2010-01-19T22:21:00.001Z

Little behind with this as usual, but I have managed to get some work done on a couple of my projects this week.

First off is the tiger. I didn't get too much done on it this week - just a little more of the blues. I really need to try and pick up my pace on this one a bit, as I seem to have slowed down a lot on it lately. Shame I have to spend so much of my time working :(

I have a bit more progress on my patchwork. I started sewing the squares together in rows. The first 3 or 4 seams I sewed I ended up having to unpick and redo.. three times :(. I couldn't get the seam allowance right - my squares kept measuring too small. I *think* I have the hang of this 'scant' 1/4" seam allowance now - my later seams do seem to be measuring correctly, and I have two completed rows!

For some reason, I can't get the colours to show correctly in the photograph - the red blocks are showing up far more 'pink' than they actually are.

For the moment I'm just hand stitching these, as I don't currently own a sewing machine. I'm hoping to be able to save up enough free money to be able to buy one next month - nothing too fancy, just something that will let me piece patchwork blocks and do some simple quilting. I have my eye on a Brother XL2620 from Argos that looks like it should fit what I want, but I'm open to any other suggestions! (I'm trying to stick to a price of around £150-160 or less).

First post of 2010!

2010-01-10T21:43:00.000Z

Hi all! I've been woefully behind on updating this blog lately - I haven't posted anything since before Christmas. However, I have been busy working away on a few things. The first is my tiger cross stitch project. I've completed the tiger and am now working my way through the huge reflection part. There are a lot of stitches still to do, but they're now all half cross stitches, so are going a lot quicker than before.

The second thing I've been working on is a new quilting project. I finally took the plunge when I found out that there was a quilting shop only 10 minutes drive away from my house. I went to have a little look around and came back with a pile of fabric that was on sale.

I've decided to make a lap quilt for my first project. It's small enough to be manageable, and should see a lot of use once completed - we have a lot of fleece blankets we use when watching tv in the evenings, so a little quilt would fit right in. I'm not doing anything complicated for this one - just stitching lots of 5 inch squares together. The design is based on one I found at about.com for a baby quilt . I've changed the colours and am planning on adding a couple of borders to make the final size bigger. So, I've spent the last three days cutting out lots and lots of squares.. (99 to be precise)

If I start quilting regularly, I think I'm definitely going to invest in a rotary cutter. All that template cutting was a little painful!

Almost Christmas!

2009-12-23T16:58:00.006Z

Hi all,

A bit more cheerful post this time, and I have some photos too! It took longer than I thought, but I finally got my cards done. They're going to nearby relatives, so I'll be delivering them by hand tonight/tomorrow. I quite like how they've turned out - it's nice to finish something too, even if it is a very small project.

I also have a little progress to show on the tiger, although the cards took up most of my free time this week, so I didn't get very much done on it. I've gotten all the greys done now, and I'm slowly working my way through the black parts. Stitching black on black is hard on the eyes, I have to say!

Additionally, we were out shopping a few days ago for a couple of last minute Christmas bits and pieces. While looking in a bargain bookshop for some stocking fillers, I came across a copy of Jayne Netley Mayhew's 'Cross Stitch Jungle' for £2.99! I'd been eyeing the book up on Amazon for a little while, but hadn't gotten around to buying it yet. I'm glad I waited, as £3 was a real steal. I've never really looked around bargain book shops before, but now that I've gotten back into a lot of crafty stuff, I'll need to go back for a root around to see what else I can pick up! :)

Lastly, I'd like to wish a Merry Christmas to all!! :)

I hate snow sometimes

2009-12-20T20:07:00.003Z

At least, when I have to drive in it, anyway. We were meant to be heading to a cinema tonight and meeting up with my partner's parents there. We'd had snow yesterday, but the gritters had been out and the roads were clear. There was a little sleet as we set out, but nothing that was too worrying.

Of course, as soon as we hit the motorway, the mild sleet turned into a full-blown blizzard, so we decided to turn around and head back. It took almost an hour and a half to get back home (a journey which would normally take 20 mins or so), with cars breaking down, bumping each other and getting stuck halfway up hills the whole way. Almost had an accident myself when a detour I was forced to take turned into a steep downhill and my car slid partway down it. Managed to stop it before anything happened, thankfully, but that's been one of the scariest driving moments I have ever had.

A few streets away from the house, my partner actually ended up getting out of the car to go and help push other cars up the hills, while I got our own car back to the house. We're both home safe now, thankfully, and have no intentions of leaving the house again tonight!

Busy week

2009-12-18T21:46:00.004Z

Wow, I'd meant to make a post at the start of this week and it's now Friday all of a sudden. You can definitely tell that Christmas is getting close! Things have been really hectic here lately, but I'm now off on holiday and all of my Christmas shopping is done. Hopefully, that means more time for crafty goodness!

I did take a picture of my progress with the tiger last week, but as it's nearly Sunday again, I'll skip last week's and post the latest progress in a couple of days. Unfortunately I haven't gotten much time to work on it this week - a lot of my free time has been spent trying to get a few cards made for some relatives (I know, I know, I'm leaving it late..) I got the card blanks and some patterns in a cross stitch magazine, and I thought it would be nice to make them. Hoping to have those completed by the weekend.

I'd ordered my threads for the elephant picture last week from Sew and So. I love that site - they're always so quick sending stuff out. Sure enough, a few days later, these popped through my letterbox:

So, I'm now all set to go with that once I've completed the tiger!

I've also been thinking about some new crafts I'd like to try. I've been eyeing some of the latch hook kits available on websites for a little while - it looks like it would be fun to do. I also started reading over some patchwork and quilting sites lately. I'd love to give that a try too, but it seems like it's quite expensive to get started with.. Perhaps after the New Year if I have a little spare money, I may pick up a couple of the basic supplies and give it a go - I have to admit, I really like the idea of having warm snuggly quilts that you've made yourself!

Anyway, enough rambling from me - off to get some more work done on these cards!

Tigers, Dragons and Elephants

2009-12-08T13:20:00.002Z

So, time for some updates on my projects. I've gotten the brown and khaki areas done on the tiger and have started on the dark grey. After the dark grey is all done, I have some black areas to finish (not looking forward to doing that.. :( ) and then I can move onto the reflection. The reflection should be a lot quicker than the tiger itself, as it's all in half cross stitch.
I also got some work done on my little shoulder dragon on Saturday. After unpicking what I had done on the wings so far, I started to put them back together again. As the wing membranes have to be sewn into the seams of the spines, and the spines are so narrow, it's impossible to stitch everything together wrong side out as I would normally do when making a toy. I managed to sew some of the seams that way, but most have to be ladder stitched on the right side. Slow progress, but I think I have something that works now. I just need to sew the top of the wing together (hence why the top edge looks all messy) and stuff it, then I have my first wing completed!

Finally, in some more cross stitch related news, I think I have finally picked what my next project will be after the tiger. I am planning on ordering the threads for it today, so hopefully I won't change my mind again! It's a design by Jayne Netley Mayhew from her book 'Animals in Cross Stitch' and is called 'Family of Elephants'. At roughly 6 x 10 inches, it's a bit smaller than my current one, but I think it'll be fun to do. There's another design in the book of a zebra that would make a lovely pairing with the elephants, so I think I may do that one afterwards too.

Soft Toy Making: Shoulder Dragon

2009-12-05T11:01:00.006Z

I like making soft toys from time to time, when I can get the materials for them. A little while back I started on what was probably the most difficult toy I'd ever tried - a pattern for a little dragon from http://www.wyrm.org.uk/cuddly/shoulder.html. I got part way through making it and ended up putting it away as I got stuck during the construction of the wings.

The picture below shows where I got to when I stopped the first time. I had made the feet and part of the head, but not much else.

I've decided I'm going to have another go at it though, and I think I know how to do the wings this time, so hopefully I will get further with it! :)

Cross stitch: Current Project

2009-11-30T08:40:00.003Z

I've been doing quite a lot of cross stitch these days. I did some stitching years ago, when I was a kid, but I fell away from it for quite a few years. Then, a few months ago, I came across a website selling all sorts of cross stitch kits and I decided on a whim to give it a go again. I picked a kit based on what the finished result looked like, rather than the difficulty - I really didn't make things easier for myself!

The one I bought was 'Tiger Chilling Out' by Dimensions:

I've been making steady progress on it. I started in September, and my current progress as of yesterday is below:
Getting there! :)

New blog!

2009-11-26T12:27:00.002Z

Well, I thought it was perhaps about time I started a blog to ramble on about my various hobbies :). Currently most of my free time is spent either cross stitching or horse riding with a little bit of drawing/painting or gaming thrown in if I have time. Hoping to post up some of my various projects here, along with a little bit about life in general. Hopefully it'll be at least a little interesting!

Please feel free to stop by and say hi!

Michelle