Back-stitching

I am constantly surprised by how much of a difference back stitching makes to a piece! I’ll look at a piece before back stitching, and wonder just how something coherent will come out of it! Sometimes I even wonder if I need new glasses, it seems to out of focus!

And then, I’ll do the back stitching, and it all comes slowly into focus!

Here are before and after pics of the back stitching for my dad’s card!

Tada! I think my dad will like it- he does a lot of gardening with my mum, especially over the summer!

Well, I have been busy

I have two new finishes to show you all!

Only little things, but still.

Well, the first one is small; it was decided that the house I’m living in (it’s a student house, there are 6 of us in total) needed a Santa. And because I wasn’t really doing anything at the time, and everyone up here knows I craft, I was somehow roped in to make it. So, here is Santa:

Itty Bitty cork Santa

I think it’s a really cute thing to make with some left-over corks. I have plans in my mind to make some elves, as place markers for Christmas, but although I have the wine corks to make them, I’m not sure if I’ll have time to make them. I do have a couple of long train rides coming up, so I may do them then, unless I’m busy doing something else!

I’ve also finished the first doily for my parents:

I really like it, and hopefully my parents will too :). I’m currently planning on making two now, as there are really only 2 jugs at home we use. This doily is 20 cm across, which I think should be big enough for the larger jug, which has a 16 cm diameter. I will check when I get home for Christmas though, as I’m not a complete idiot  I don’t want to leave these things to chance 🙂

I really need to get on with Frederick now… I only have a week before I go home, and in an ideal world, all the backstitching will be done by them time I get home. Somehow, however, I doubt I’ll get all the backstitching done in a week, so… I’m trying not to think about how much time I’ll have to finish him off when I get home, both so I don’t scare myself and so I won’t relax and not start until I get there!

Are you on track for Christmas gifts?

The Backstitch hill has been started

So, I finally decided to start the backstitching on Frederick. So far, I’ve used two lengths of thread, one black around the books, and the other yellow to write the titles on the spines. Here’s a close up of the stitching done.

Lovely stitching

It’s really difficult to see the yellow stitching on the blue book- it says ‘Garbage Can Guide’. It’s a bit easier in real life, and not tugging the threads so they hide between the full cross stitches helps a bit too. I do think it’s going to look better when it’s done, which will be nice. Hopefully it’ll be finished by Christmas 🙂

I’ve also started a penguin. I have a rough idea of starting an etsy shop to earn a bit of money while I do my PhD. What do people think? Any tips to share with a newbie?

Hope you’re all having a crafty time.

Nearly finished Frederick :)

So now I only need to finish up a couple of the books, and then all the backstitching (deep joys!)

This is where I’m up to now:

Close up of where I’m currently working

You can see that the red book in the middle still needs some more work, as does the green/blue one to the fight of that, and the white one lying down above that. Oh, and the black cross to the left of the green book needs doing in a metallic blend, which I’m going to do at the end. 🙂 Here’s another shot which shows the whole thing so far

All of Fred so far 🙂

There’s a LOT of backstitching needs doing- I think all the books are outlined as well as titled… yipee. And around Fred there’s some, to show off fur lines mostly I think. Ahh well, I’m hoping to get all the stitching done this weekend, and then spend as much time as possible next week just trying to get it done. Not going to be fun, but I’ll try (fingers crossed, I have no idea how insane this plan is right now… ) to have all the backstitching done by next weekend before I go up to York. Wish me luck, I’m gonna need it!

Hope you’re all doing much more fun crafty things 🙂

Whew, that went quick

Okay, so it turns out I could finish all the stitching (including the backstitch!) yesterday. This photo just shows what a difference backstitch makes, however much we may complain about it

There’s such a difference between the bottom flowers and the top

I was actually rather surprised that I finished it all, especially that backstitch. I suppose the desire to get it finished so I could spend some time on Spirit and the fact that it was the last one meant that I didn’t faff about or get as sidetracked this time.

All stitched up

And then, I was even more organized last night and started finish finishing them! I didn’t have enough card cut up to actually finish them, and by the time I’d stuck 4 of them down, I was tired and cross, so I decided to stop rather than carry on and potentially make a big mistake rather than just the little ones which were pretty much fixable 😛 Here’s a photo of what I’ve done so far

In the process of being finish finished

Yeah, you know that old saying; measure twice, cut once? Use it :P. Don’t just assume that they’re the same size just because they’re a similar style :P. All well, I think they look ok, and I’m sure they’ll be appreciated, which I suppose is the important thing.

Well, I’m off to go and finish these, and then spend some quality time with Spirit, which I’ve been neglecting lately. And maybe get some more needles, I’ve gone through all mine. Well, other than the tiny ones used in Spirit, but they don’t really count!

 

I found my camera :)

So now you can all see the lovely photos of all the things I’ve been doing. Okay, so there’s only been two things. But still, it’s all lovely.

First off, I’m still working on my butterfly. I have a little over a week to finish it before Uni starts again properly, and I actually think I’m gonna make it…

That damned staring contest is really starting to get on my nerves…

The amount I have left to do took me about a week for the other side. This mean that I’ve squished 7 weeks work for the right hand side into 3 weeks work on the left hand side. and I don’t even like the left hand side! I much prefer working patterns left to right, which is crazy, because knitting charts are more often right to left than left to right… *shrugs* I’m not gonna complain, especially if it means this is ready before Uni starts, rather than having to be put onto a back burner until all my Christmas presents are done.

Yeah, I made the start of Uni (or the completion of my butterfly, whichever comes sooner…) the start date for Christmas presents. I’ve already got the threads I need for everything, and most of the other materials, I’d just really like to get the butterfly done first :). and it looks like it’s gonna happen, so *squeeeeeeeee

I did take a couple of days out to work on my Grandpa’s birthday card, since his birthday is at the beginning of October, and I think he’s going away, so I need to finish it up and get it in the post pronto!

This is what I sewed for him

My grandpa’s birthday card

The main fairy was really nice to do, and the backstitch wasn’t as painful as I thought it was going to be. I had to keep repeating to myself ‘backstitch is nice, backstitch is your friend’, especially when it got to the metallic thread for her wings and October, but it really worked! It probably helped that most of it was straight lines from one hole to another, rather than that randomness of ‘the thread will go through here, even though it’s about a third of the way up and some way along, so it’s really hard to make the lines line up’. There was a bit of that for her face, but even that was relatively nice. I really liked this fairy, and want to do the entire set now! And ideas on framing them???

Unfortunately, this has mean that I haven’t been doing any knitting :/, which really is a bit of a bummer. Hopefully I’ll be able to get into it soon, as a couple of my Christmas presents are knitted things rather than cross stitch, but I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. Which means no knitting picture for you 😦

Well, I think that’s everything for now (isn’t cross stitch monogamy such a bore for all my readers 😛 ). I did see a wonderful idea for a cross stitch rotation, where each cross stitch piece was given a week, and then sent to the back of the queue again; is this a common thing? Or do people prefer working on one thing at a time, and being able to remember where you were up to? If you do work on more than one thing at a time, how do you remember where you’re up to, or is it just a skill that comes with time?

Okay, that is me done for now, probably talk to you all next Saturday, when (fingers crossed, eh?), my butterfly will be cross stitched, washed and de-wastefied. See ya then!