Brummie Blogger

May's Cottage finally done

It seems to have taken ages to do these two borders considering I've left some bits off. All finished now though and I'm almost done on part seventeen of The Great Escape so I'll be able to start the next part of Around the World soon. That's if I can put my Kindle down, of course. I'm on a reading binge at the moment, having let my curiosity get the better of me on the current book craze that was intriguing me. Sigh. I never learn.

Still, some stitching has been done and this is the result.

As you can see it's completely bee-less. There should have been four of the vile creatures in each border but I left two out and changed the colours in the other two to make them resemble oddly coloured butterflies. Or floating flowers, whichever you prefer. I was going to leave all of them out but would have had to change the spacing of the leaves to avoid an odd gap and didn't realise that until I'd stitched most of one border. By then I just wanted to get it finished so I lobbed in the butterflies/floating flowers/whatevers  to fill in the gaps. They'll do.

I also changed the pink border flowers to white to calm it all down a bit and I'm much happier with that. In hindsight, I should just have used a different shade of pink but I'll know to do something before I start if I'm uneasy about the colours next time. Lesson learnt.

June's Cottage is kitted up and ready to go and I like the colours much more than this one. It's much fresher looking. I'm going to have fun with Around the World first though. Part two looks lovely.

May's Cottage- almost finished

I've been stitching away so intently on this that I've almost forgotten to stop and take photos. I've just taken a break to upload a photo before doing the two borders. I'm keen to get this finished so I can get the next part of The Great Escape done as I printed that off yesterday and as I guessed, it's the flowers, or rather the bush on the other side of the owl.

This is where I'm up to with the cottage at the moment.

I've done the right hand side to mirror the left side so the beehive and bee have been removed. I've also changed the colour of the birdhouse from pink to yellow as I'm not all that keen on the colour scheme for this one. The green is lovely and I like the yellow. The dark brown and white are fine and the other brown is nice enough, but I'm disappointed that there's very little variegation to it. I don't like the pink though and I could live without the two blue/greens. Mostly it's the pink that's bugging me so I'm going to change one of the flower colours in the border too.

I should get at least one border done today and maybe get a start on the other. There's still no sign of the next part of Around the World for which I'm waiting very impatiently but if I can get this finished, and the next part of the Owl before that comes out, at least I'll be able to dive straight into it.

In the meantime, must get on with my bee-less borders.

The Great Escape - part sixteen

This part consisted of some more flowers and some stems. The flowers were simple enough. They're just Eyelet stitch worked around in a square, leaving a square empty in the centre. I'll be putting beads in there once it's all finished. After doing several variations on both Eyelet stitch and Ray stitch for the first part of Around the World, this posed no problems at all.

For the flowers I used one of the off-whites that I've used for the other flowers. The green is the same one used for the stems at the bottom of the design. I'm trying to use as few colours as possible to keep it looking more like a night scene.

The stems were done in backstitch on the chart but Abi suggested several variations on that to make them stand out more. She gave instructions for a couple of types of whipped backstitch and also a thinner chain stitch. I decided to be a rebel though and got out my Jane Greenoff book to find something interesting, and ended up using stem stitch. I think it looks quite good and is another stitch that I hadn't used before.

Not much left to do now. I'm guessing it'll be the remaining flowers on the right side for the next part and the moon and stars for the final part.

Around the world - part one #2

I've now completed all of part one and I'm really pleased with it. It took a bit longer than I thought so if all of the parts are going to take this long it's a good job that The Great Escape is almost finished. Hopefully now that I've got the hang of how to read the charts I won't need quite so much time.

This is the second heart.

It has Lazy Daisy stitch down the centre just like the first heart, but this time it has ray stitch around it. I had to frog all the ray stitch after I'd finished the heart as I realised when I tried to line one of the other stitches up to it, that it wasn't right. The top and bottom rays are placed into the same hole as the Lazy Daisy stitch, but the left and right ones are one stitch away from it. I hadn't noticed that and had put them all in the same holes as the Lazy Daisy. I had one of those internal discussions where I tried to convince myself that no-one would notice. Unfortunately, the voice that kept saying that I would know it was wrong was the one that won, which was why it ended up being frogged. Let's face it. It would have driven me nuts.

It does look a lot better now that it's done properly. Lazy Daisy stitch, with Ray stitch.

Around the outside is some pretty backstitch and some nice simple Scotch stitch. I've done that one before so it was nice and quick to do. I used a very dark blue Threadworx for that.

In the centre is Lindisfarne stitch. That's made up of three parts. The centre is done in the metallic thread. The main part of the stitch is in Gentle Art Highland Heather. I liked the effect of that as it was nice and subtle. It looked quite pretty but slightly bland compared to the first heart and then I added the backstitch outline. That really made it pop and made all the difference. That's done in another of the Threadworx, a lovely deep pink.

The backstitch outline even made the metallic thread look more blingy. It was amazing just how different the whole heart looked once I'd added it.

Finally, here are the two hearts together. One part down, twenty-three to go.

 

The Great Escape - part fifteen

There wasn't much to do for part fifteen but I needed to get some more thread to use for the spider's web. I had a couple of different metallic threads but nothing in my stash was suitable. I finally found something in Hobbycraft. I've used some DMC in a silver. It's not ideal but it's better than anything that I had and it saved having to send for something online and then paying postage. And you just know that if I'd done that, I'd have added several more items to my order to make it worthwhile...

This is the spider and his web that caused all the problems.

It's quite difficult to get the web to show up on a photo. It's supposed to look like a web glistening in the moonlight, which it does pretty much, but that doesn't translate digitally.

The other bit of part fifteen was a few flowers on the other side of the Owl. They were in Lazy Daisy stitch but weren't the same as the ones that I've been doing for Around the World. The instructions for TGE were excellent though and I had a good read through them before doing the other project and they helped a lot with the Lazy Daisy stitch on that even though it was done a bit differently.

This will have beads in the centre of the flowers but as with the others, I'll add them once I've finished the whole project.

Just three more parts to do now. I've got part sixteen printed off and will be doing it this week if all goes to plan. I can't believe it's almost finished.

Around the World SAL - part one

This is fun! I've completed half of part one so far and I love it. It's so pretty. The design is two hearts, the same size and shape, but filled with different stitches. The first part uses lots of stitches, some of which I haven't done before so it's been really interesting, and in places, challenging. Just how I like it.

This is what the first heart looks like.

The design calls for three greens, light medium and dark. I've gone for two overdyes and a DMC. The two lighter ones aren't necessarily light and medium but are different greens. I like them both so wanted to use them.

Then you need eight floral colours, of which it's recommended that no more than two should be overdyes or it could look bitty. I really, really love overdyes. I love the effect you get from them so my selection is nearly all overdyes and just a couple of DMC. My end result may be more of an abstract look than some of the others but I'll love it.

Here's a close up of the stitches used. This is Berwick stitch. It was one of the slightly more challenging ones. Above it is one of the versions of a Partial Eyelet stitch.

This one is Norwich stitch. It's in one of the lovely Threadworkx colours and I love how it looks in this stitch. Inbetween the arms of it is a version of Ray stitch in a metallic thread. It's Petite Treasure Braid and was not only nice to work with but looks so sparkly. It's surrounded by backstitch in a plain colour.

Finally there's Lazy Daisy stitch. It took me a couple of tries to get this one right but once I did it went fine. I used another of the Threadworkx colours. Around it is a combination of another type of Ray stitch and another Partial Eyelet stitch.

There are still loads of beads to go on this but they'll have to go on at the very end as they really won't like the R&R frame. I'm a bit nervous about clipping it over those stitches to be honest but they should be fine. I hope.

I have the next part of The Great Escape and will do that next before starting on the second heart.

May Cottage - the stash

Oh dear. I like this cottage, really I do, but I have to say that it's my least favourite so far. And I really am going to have to make a couple of tweaks to it. I just don't like bees and look at it. They're everywhere. They have to go.

And there's a beehive. Yikes! It's been suggested that I could change the bees into butterflies with a slight colour change, and I may do that but that beehive has most definitely got to go. I may move the birdhouse to the other side and add a leaf to the tree to fill the gap a bit. I'm sure a bit of tweaking will do it. Whatever, my cottage will be bee free by the time I've finished.

I mean - just look at the size of those suckers in relation to the cottage. Can you imagine exiting that door and coming face to face with one of those. If I stitched them I'd have nightmares for weeks.

Months even.

I've no complaints about the colour palette though. As usual it's just gorgeous. Not that I'm complaining about the bees. Not as such. The designer isn't to know that I have a bee phobia...

Around the World SAL - finally started

I've only put a few stitches in this so far so there isn't a progress photo to show but it has been started now and I hope to get part one finished this month so I can start May's Cottage on time.

After all the problems with the fabric I've finally got some that I'm happy with. I can't fault Sew and So for their customer service but after the second lot of Pearl Grey Brittney turned out to have white lines where the folds were too, I decided that I'd had enough of that particular fabric and chose a completely different one. I'm now using 28ct Jobelan in a colour called Bone. It's a pinky-brown and it was quite tricky to decide if it would go with my thread choices just by looking at it online so it was a bit of a gamble.

With this in mind, and remember that at this point I was slightly cheesed off by the whole fabric saga, I also ordered a lovely pale pink that would definitely go. They came from different shops and both came the next day. I opened the pale pink one first and got a bit of a shock as it was a bright candy pink and completely unsuitable. You really couldn't tell from the colours online. By this point I was convinced that the contents of the other package would be a sludgy green or quite possibly a pearl grey (nightmare!), but the Bone Jobelan was actually even nicer than I'd hoped and goes beautifully with the threads.

I've added the white to the threads now and taken out one of the blues. I've changed it for the sludgy yellow, which goes with the colour in the pink/yellow overdye. I've also changed one of the beads for a slightly paler one so they're not so similar.

I'm getting used to wearing my new trolley needle while I stitch and it's making life a lot easier. Hopefully I'll be able to stitch a bit faster and more neatly once I get the hang of using it.

The Great Escape - part fourteen

I've decided that I don't like Van Dyke stitch. It's not that it's particularly hard to do. It's not. It's just hard to get the tension the same all the way down. Plus, the stitch sort of wiggles from side to side once it's done so it just doesn't look neat. I can't get a consistently tidy finish to it and that annoys me.

This is what it looks like, in Crescent Colours Dark Chocolate.

There was quite a lot of it to do, three rows in all, and the rows were split so had to be stopped and restarted as you have to have a special starter stitch at the top. Then there was the backstitch along the sides, and the backstitching that makes up the sign with a touch of cross stitch.

If you don't look too closely at the wiggly and uneven bits of the Van Dyke stitch, it looks ok, so overall I'm quite happy with it. It's made quite a difference to the picture now. The mouse that is trying to make his escape can now see which direction his home is, so he knows which way to run.

Can't wait to do a bit more to this. I wonder what we'll be stitching next. Some more flowers perhaps? Or maybe a spider...

The Great Escape - part thirteen

Two new stitches for part thirteen, both for flowers in the moonlight. The bottom flower is in Star stitch. There are only six flowers but they took a while to do as each one had to be done separately as any thread carried across the back would have shown. Also, I was being careful to get the threads to lay neatly. I've just ordered a trolley needle to help with all these fancy stitches.

In the centre of the flowers I can put either a bead or a French knot. I think I'll probably use beads and I'm sure I have some that are suitable. I'll add them at the end though. Abi also says that some beads could be added around the smaller flowers so I may do that too. I'll have a better idea if I want to do that once the rest is done.

The upper flowers are done in Tied Windmill stitch and again each one is done separately. Lots of counting, checking and double-checking of threads to get the placement right. The two lots of flowers are done in slightly different shades. Both overdyes so there's a variegation. The lower one is a touch darker. Both colours will be used quite a bit more throughout the design.

This is how it looks now.

I've still got part fourteen to do, which I'll be starting today or tomorrow. There's quite a lot of stitching in that. And then, finally, I can start Around the World as I'll have the fabric. Sew and So are replacing the problem fabric for me. It's in the post now so will probably arrive tomorrow.