Tuesday 25 February 2014

Tick tock a grandfather clock (cross stitch)

Country Companions Grandfather Clock
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        This Country Companions design came as a kit.For some reason I am always surprised by how big these designs actually are.

There was a lot of half stitches in this (just doing the bottom of the cross, sometimes called tent stitch) for the wall in the background.  It always takes me a while to get my head around doing those after the full cross stitch.  I tend to work in rows, stitch the bottom half of all the stitches in the row then go back and do the top and figure where to go next on that basis.  With the half and no going back ..it just makes me muddle headed. 

The "confetti" as I now know the dot colours all-over the shop is referred to by other stitcher's was less of a pain than I had anticipated.

The original design did not have numbers on the main clock and that did not look right to me so I worked out Roman Numerals for the dial.  It was not too bad with the dial being straight on.  I did not do the same for the alarm clock as being at an angle that was a bit beyond me.

Although finished it remains unframed, one of theses days I will have a framing splurge and bring all of the rolled up completed items out of the dark and into the light.

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Progress on my 2014 cross stitch kit

I have been posting quilts quite a bit lately, perhaps to balance up all the cross stitch stuff over Christmas.  However, I have not been neglecting the cross stitching. Here is the progress on my current kit project.

Cross stitch all done


The instructions said after doing the herringbone grid to complete all the cross stitches next.  I started with the green on the outside edge of the grid then started filling inside.

Close up 1
Close up 2




















Now that the cross stitch is finished time to try some more new stitches (as per the "simple" instructions which came with the kit) and hope they work out OK.

So on the the stem stitch, satin stitch, lazy daisy, French knots and Bouillion knots!

Thursday 6 February 2014

Pyrography, another Dragon

This is a bit of pyrography  I did for me rather than as a gift.  Unsurprisingly it is a dragon.  I bought the coaster for 50p in a charity shop.  I fugued at least that way if I made a mess of it it would not be an expensive one.

Circular dragon

The angle into the coaster was a new challenge, the smoky glass lining smooths out the rougher elements of my execution of the burn.

It was nice to make something just for me.


Dragon coaster with glass lining