A Lil' Flower... for Lil' Sister!

That seems to translate fairly well the words I stitched on the pillow for my sister's Birthday... Isn't it nice that it rhymes in both English and French?

This is so much FUN! I'm deciding everything as I'm going. There's appliqué, embroidery for the text, and the little flower in the top corner is a sample of silk ribbon embroidery - another cute thing I discovered when I was in the United States!

Here is a close-up on the silk-ribbon flower:

I've decided that all the pillow needs now before I sew it, is a little charm or button in the bottom corner that still remains empty. My LNS is still closed for the holidays but should reopen the day after tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll find a cute button there! Another alternative would be adding beads, but I'm not sure what kind of thread I should use...

I do think my sister will like it. I realize that for me, this was a much better option than to make her a top as intended at first - designing and sewing a top would have been much more stressful, and after the apple quilt I needed a fun project which I could feel I had total control over!

What I'm doing now...

Just a quick note to let you know my next project, now the quilt is finished...
I intended to sew a top for my sister's birthday, but I've just learnt that my mother is buying her plenty of clothes! How am I to compete?

So after digging into my little stash, I've decided to make her a small pillow with applique and embroidery. Her sofa is pale yellow with blue motifs, so the pillow I'm making is blue with a sunflower in the center. Of course I'll show you a pic when I'm finished ;)

SB's Question of the Week: Patience is a Virtue

"Do you feel cross stitching requires patience?"

Oh yes, definitely. I feel that patience is most required:

1. At the very beginning (when you start on your blank fabric and need to count your stitches again and again),

2. And near the end of the project, when you feel you'll soon be almost done and can't wait to see the design all stitched, but still need 5 hours of stitching or so...

To me the most enjoyable parts (i.e., when time flies!) are

1. after I've stitched the first few colors and don't need to count every single stitch any more,

2. and the final stretch, when there are just a couple of hours to go and you can fully enjoy the accomplishment!

Often I feel torn between my eagerness to see the design stitched (and to start on my next project!) and the sense that patience is indeed a necessary virtue in cross stitching... If I try to rush I'll end up making mistakes and frogging, meaning I've actually wasted a lot of time by trying to gain a little!

Apples: finished quilt

I machine-quilted it, stitching in the ditch (= along the seams) and adding some details to make the apples come out. You can have a more detailed view if you click on the photo.
I didn't expect the binding would be so difficult... Thought I'd never see the end of it. But it's all done at last and I'm just glad. I've spent so many hours on it! My nights have been very short lately... Every time I decided to leave the sewing machine (and ironing board) and go to bed, it was two hours later than I thought.

I do hope my father will like it. I want this to be felt as a very very special gift, because he has helped me and Sébastien so much moving into our flat in Paris.
I added a label to the back of the quilt (sandwiched between binding and backing) - here it is :

As you can see, I couldn't help adding some aida fabric for a "xstitch look".
Label says: "For Dad, Born at Apple Tide..." with the date of his birthday (Sept. 5th).

I feel so light-hearted now! There is still a whole week before his birthday, and I'm all ready.

Quilt is... Quilted

This was certainly the hardest part of all, as the instructions only said "quilt as desired", which isn't very informative for a newbie like me. After some researching on the Internet and a great deal of cogitation, I finally got away with it... I was really afraid to mess it up, but it turned out OK in the end. Of course, now I've done it and succeeded, I find it fun.

So all that's left to do now is the binding - I also plan to attach a label so that my Dad can remember the occasion.
I'll post a pic when the quilt is all finished.

Apples Anyone?

Just finished the last details to the quilt top, so here it is, complacently held up by my dear one for you to see!

I have no idea why there's this funny reflection on the upper left-hand block. It's not there IRL.

Tonight, next step: the quilting!

SB's Question of the Week: Designer Wishes

"What would you most like your favourite designer to design next? "

Hmm... Let me think... I'd like to see smaller kits by Lavender and Lace - kits I'd dare to tackle without dreading to end up with an UFO...

Great progress thanks to a BIG shortcut (hush... don't tell!)

The four blocks for my father's quilt are now completely embroidered. I have to confess I took a big shortcut. I realized I was never going to have enough green to stitch all four blocks, so I played around with the embroidery stitches. After stitching the first two blocks as required (with a stemstitch), then I decided to stitch the other two with a stitch I "experimented" (I must confess I don't know if this stitch does exist or if I'm being a complete barbarian here)
To make the inconsistency in the choice of embroidery stitches look as if it was all done "on purpose", I inverted the design in the "experimental" last two blocks, so that they are symmetrical with the two others.
So, here's a pic of one of the "experimental" blocks, with those stitches that look a bit like flames:

Of course this took much, much less time than the tiny stemstitch I did for the first two blocks! (see this previous post)
I plan to lay the blocks in staggered rows (not sure if this is the right technical phrase...). I now realize this will give more "energy" to the whole than if I had made all blocks similar as the pattern had required. Ain't it great when your shortcuts turn out to be actually more creative than what was initially "required"?

I even had enough time last night to start sewing the whole blocks based on these centers! Here is the first one, completed:

And this is so much FUN!

This funny "experimental" stitch is giving me lots of ideas for my next quilts: imagine the same but with a cat embroidered in the center and some kittie fabric for the borders! I could even stitch a different cat in each center! Or flowers, with a matching print for the borders... The posibilities are endless!

New fabric!

I got some new cross-stitch fabric today: 28-ct evenweave in antique white, on which I plan to stitch Margaret Sherry's Crafty Cat, and a stunning silver-speckled piece of aida... I've never had such a "fancy" fabric before!

...And here's a close-up for you to see the sparkles better

Now I'd love to know...What would you stitch on it?

... That fabric shall have to wait a little though... I'm so busy with my work, and I need to complete two gifts by the beginning of September, for my father's and my sister's birthdays ... I've now embroidered two blocks for my father's quilt - this stemstitch is taking me FOREVER...
It should turn out nice, though, and I really want to please him, so I'll persevere!

Better get back to it now...

Back in Paris

We came back to Paris yesterday afternoon, and during the two hours on the train I finished to stitch the first block for my father's quilt. It's stemstitch, and it's taking a lot of time... JMHO but I find it far more boring than cross stitch! Anyway, here is a pic...

Trouble is, there are three more to go! I need to find a good audio-book to make time pass more quickly while I stitch them.

QOTW's Question of *this* week: Heirlooms

"If you were to stitch something to be passed on to future generations of your family as an heirloom, what would it be and why?"

I've never thought about this... Maybe that's because I'm still a bit young to think of the "future generations of my family"?

Thinking of it, if I decided to stitch a heirloom it would be something like a Mirabilia or a Lavender and Lace design. Especially one with beads... I've never tried these designs but to me, they epitomize fine cross-stitching.

QOTW Question of *last* week: Confessions

Better late than never... (I didn't have the time to reply to last week's question as I was on holiday and using a connection by the minute)

"What would your stitching confession be? For example, you don't tidy your backs."

I never, ever bother to stitch around the fabric to prevent it from fraying before starting on a project - I'm just too impatient to begin!

Purr-fick Finish!

Ain't life just purr-fick among grass and pansies?

Here is Purr-Fick, fully alive, and apparently rather proud to be! He (for some reason I see him as a "he"!) was stitched on Aida, which was not easy-peasy... although it seels he turned out all right in the end! I'd be very curious to see how he would turn out on evenweave though, and will definitely give evenweave a try next time I stitch a Margaret Sherry design.

I'll frame him when I get back to Paris next week.

Purr-Fick Update

As promised, here is a pic of Purr-Fick after yesterday's stitching... With a bit of green, the flower's center and the backstitching still left to stitch. It's amazing how many fractionals this small kitty can hold! As a result, the stitching is very "dense" - and the overall effect is of very soft shades and textures.

Resting in the Countryside...

We managed to escape from hot, stuffy Paris, and are spending a week with my parents in the Straights of Dover (where I'm from). My parents have a little house (previously a farm) there, very near my very dear grandmother's place. Just the perfect place to relax, breathe in lots of fresh air, go for long, long walks, and enjoy the wind coming from the Channel.

Between walks, I revel in a favorite activity of mine here: cross-stitching in my very personal place in the attic, specially set up for my "crafty" activities, with lots of light and a cassette player to listen to audio books. This is happiness... While listening to David Copperfield, I stitched a lot of Purr-Fick... I'll post a pic when there will be only the backstitching left to be done - tomorrow I guess!

After this, I'll be embroidering four blocks that should be the center for a quilt I plan to make for my father's birthday in September. No time for boredom to seep in!

Placemats & Basket Set

After my setback with my sister's unfinished top I decided to get going straight away on another project to reboost my confidence level. Here's the result: Two reversible placemats and a matching basket for our dining table. ... Can you tell I like blue?

The top is made with upholstery fabric and the bottom with some navy honeycomb fabric (of the kind you use for kitchen towels). I used my own design (though of course I'm taking no credit for the idea... I had seen some fabric baskets like this in a shop a few weeks ago, decided I HAD to make some, and studied carefully how they were made).

The perspective in the first pic makes the basket appear smaller than it is really, so here is a close-up:

This is to put the daily French baguette in!

QOTW's Question of the Week: Only One

"If you could only finish one of the pieces in your stash as it is at the moment, what would it be and why?"

I try my best not to have more than one UFO at a time, because I also have other "needle-hobbies", and I feel that if I had more than one cross-stitch project going, and more than one sewing project going, &c., I'd go crazy and wouldn't be enjoying it as much... So I force myself never to start a new cross stitch project before I've finished the previous one... If I'm getting fed up with it, I lay it down for a while and do some sewing instead - and vice-versa. This is the best way for me to keep stitching (i.e. cross-stitching and sewing) truly enjoyable and not to "stress" about it...

NO Photo... :(

I give up. Have spent a lot of time yesterday and this morning on sewing a cute top as a present for my sister's birthday in September, with a lot of designing - and love! - going into it... I was pretty confident at first, but it appears in the end that the fabric will never be stretchy enough to suit my sister's taste. I had picked up the stretchiest fabric they had at the store, knowing it wasn't quite stretchy enough (normal percentage is 5% elastane and 95% cotton, and their strethiest fabric included only 3% elastane...). I thought it would still do, but well, it doesn't.
Wouldn't mind too much if it had been for me, but... when it goes to sewing a gift, I am much harsher on myself... If it's not something I know for sure will absolutely please the recipient, I just don't give it.

So I feel I have wasted many, many precious hours on this... for nothing... If I had spent these hours on Purr-fick instead, I'd be nearly done by now!
Here he is, lying on my desk, and now his eyes seem to be saying, "see, if you'd taken care of me, you'd feel much more rewarded by now!"

Ah well, when it comes to crafting, sewing and the like, things cannot turn out great every time.
And I guess that once I've come over the frustration, I'll pick up this project again and "rescue" it... Some time.

A Bit of a Kick on Purr-fick

Here is Purr-fick with all the "very light gray" and most of the black added. Starting to look like his real self.

The Weather Pixie has gone off somewhere, so I've got to tell ya it's very hot and stuffy in Paris. Maybe she couldn't take the heat anymore!