I have a weakness for Shepherd’s Bush small designs. I tend to like their bigger designs, too, but their small designs quite often make me weak in the knees. I finished Poor Robin’s Pincushion a few days after Warm Heart. I haven’t decided whether to finish it into a pincushion or a pinkeep. For now it’s on a table making me smile when I pass.
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Vitals:
Poor Robin’s Pincushion by Shepherd’s Bush
Stitched with supplies in kit.
Modifications: Omitted words around design
I finished Shepherd’s Bush Warm Heart a while ago. I had the box the model is finished in. I especially love the flowers coming out of the snowman’s head. I love the box, too. I filled it with lucky stars, because I like to have a reason to make them.
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Vitals:
Warm Heart by Shepherd’s Bush
Stitched with supplies included in kit
Modifications: Stitched a couple extra snowflake motifs instead of words
I had an urge for something new. This project won. The model looks like so. I didn’t care for the fabric included in the kit, so I went stash diving and came up with 28-ct. Country French Wheaten. I’d gotten a bit of two stockings and then the branch when I decided I didn’t like the size. It was too big. I plan to make an ornament rather than a pincushion, and it seemed huge. I also realized that the light color for the right stocking was nearly the same color as the fabric. I frogged the stitching. I was too lazy/impatient to look for a new fabric, so I decided to stitch over one. I switched out the creamy color for NPI white. It was handy in my Shores WIP. Easy choice. I’ve been anti-word stitching lately. It’s weird, because I might ordinarily tell you I enjoy stitching words. Not lately. Hence, no “Merry Merry Be” atop the branch, but a couple of extra stitched stars. I wonder if my “None of the Words” mood is why I’m procrastinating the last two blocks on Shores? I could have used the star button that came with the kit, but I didn’t want to. I had to change a couple of the specialty stitches due to the over one stitching. The berries are French knots instead of Smyrna crosses. The squares in the right stocking are Smyrna crosses instead of the modified Rhodes stitches that were charted. I also omitted the Quaker star motif and the bottom of the design. Just felt like it. I really liked the trees, but I don’t love sheep the way the Shepherd’s Bush gals do. It felt done. As my son enjoys saying, “I’m not even sorry!” 😀
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| From Cross Stitch 2012 |
Vitals:
Merry Be Pincushion kit by Shepherd’s Bush. Stitched 1 over 1 on 28-ct. Country French Wheaten with floss supplied in kit, except for the cream color. NPI white was substituted. Adaptations were made due to its size and my mood.
Who knows, I might even finish it into an ornament before Christmas. Heh.
Happy Stitching! 🙂
So I had this idea. I got it when I was thinking about stitching Shepherd Bush’s Warm Heart. I thought I could make it work for Take Joy, too. And I could have. Except the motifs are so tiny, it turned out the return on time invested was pretty small. I don’t like empty boxes and such. I remember when I was a kid, someone told me it’s bad luck to give an empty wallet as a present; you should always put at least $1 in it. Now, I know it’s bad luck to be superstitious, but I still don’t like empty vessels. If I see a box, I want to open it and see what treasure it holds. But making a tiny star, or tiny ornaments didn’t hold much promise after I completed this tiny star. I stitched the star twice, once each for front and back and whip stitched them together. It’s “stuffed” with the excess fabric, nothing more.
It’s cute. It’s TINY.
See? So tiny. I made about a zillion lucky stars from scrapbook paper, and the star is about the smallest item in the box. But the box isn’t empty, and that’s magical.
Take joy in your stitching. 🙂
A quick finish from my “on-the-go” bag.
Vitals:
Take Joy by Shepherd’s Bush
Stitched with supplies in kit.
Changes: I stitched an ornament instead of a sheep, I fudged a mistake on the candy cane instead of frogging, and used the lighter shade of green on the bottom of the basket.
I have the box they show the model finished in, and will share that picture soon. I have some fiddly things I want to do first.
Happy Stitching! 🙂
Since it’s Memorial Day, I guess it’s time to share a recent patriotic finish.
Glory Fob by Shepherd’s Bush.
I didn’t finish it as a fob, just a pincushion. I didn’t want ric-rac for a scissor loop. *shrug* You’ll notice the floss on the back side’s flag ran. I don’t remember how it happened, but I do remember trying to use a Q-Tip and hydrogen peroxide to clean up the mess. Yeah. I don’t recommend that. It made it worse. I laughed (what else could I do at that point?) and smirked to myself, “So much for ‘These colors don’t run!’ ” I’m a wise-ass, it just came to me. I didn’t even have to try. 😀
Also, since it’s Memorial Day, I’m going to honor my kitten, Hero. We put him down this week, as he had the rare, incurable disease known as FIP, or feline infectious peritonitis. In households with one or two cats, the odds are one in 5,000 that a cat will contract the disease. As my brother reminded me, I have terrible luck with cats. Hero was technically my son’s cat, so we plan to replace him this summer. For now, I can’t remove his bed from my desk, where he insisted on sitting when I worked on the computer. He may have been the boy’s cat, but I was his mama. He was a very sweet fella. He couldn’t seem to catch a break. It ain’t right, but nobody ever said life is fair.
My sweet Hero, helping me stitch, very sick
Happy Memorial Day. I hope you get to stitch this weekend.
I lost my blogging mojo this summer. It was a wonderful summer, visiting the husband for two solid months. Long-distance relationships are hard and lonely. Thank goodness for Skype. Today is the boy’s first day in a new school. We’re very excited about this school and hope it’s a positive change. Back to a routine that hopefully includes stitching and blogging.
I didn’t get much stitching done while we were gone. The light was bad in the husband’s apartment, and I didn’t want to buy a stronger lamp for the place. Then what excuse would I have?
Here’s what I managed to stitch:
Jingle! Biscornu by Just Nan.
Pineapple Fob by It’s Fine-ally Finished
And of course,
Glory Fob by Shepherd’s Bush
Elizabethan Stitching Accessories by Talledo Designs.
I screwed up with my counting for the pincushion. I want to make it a mattress cushion, and thought it would be lovely to have the bargello side border. However, I counted terribly, and it’s too short. The worst part is that I don’t have enough of the silk left to stitch another border. I’ll have to stew about what to do for a while. *sob* 😦
After I got home, I stitched this (very slowly):
Live, Laugh, Love by La-D-Da
I’ve abandoned this. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, I just don’t love it. Surprising, when you consider how much trouble I went through to get this. I visited three stores before I found it. First store hadn’t received it yet, second store had no idea what I was talking about (!), and finally in Las Vegas (thank you, Stitcher’s Paradise!) I got the last copy. And now, I don’t love it. 😦 I’m not loving the green at all. OK, I’m not even liking it. It’s the third shade I’ve tried. I love the brown (CC Belle Soie Espresso). Love it. I like the pink (Watercolors Cherry). I thought I would love it, but I only like it. The green, not so much. I tried. I really did. It’s just not working.
I’m going back to other projects. I received my new fabric for CHS’ Shores of Hawk Run Hollow, and put about twenty stitches in. And I have other wips, not to mention smalls that need finishing. Enough to keep me busy without driving myself crazy.
Happy Stitching! It’s good to “see” y’all again.
Raised by Poodles 