WIPocalypse – December 2015

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Karen

Theme: Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc).

Bee’s Needleworks – Tree of Stitches
Progress at January 1, 2015
Blackwork Journey – Save the Stitches
Châtelaine – Workshop 1
Châtelaine – Workshop 2
CloudsFactory – 2015 Zodiac Sampler
The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – 2015 Story Time Sampler
The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – Autumn Harvest Festival
Progress at January 1, 2015
The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – Christmas Celebration Sampler
Progress at January 1, 2015
Glendon Place – Baked Alaska
HAED – Dona Gelsinger – Teddy Bear Tree
HAED – Aimee Stewart – World Traveler Bookshelf (Large)
InkCircles – Celebrate Diversity
Nora Corbett – Bluebell Pixie
Passione Ricamo – Under the Sea – Mystery SAL 04
Progress at January 7, 2015
New cuffs for my bunad shirt

Glendon Place Amazing Desserts SAL 2015 – April 15 Update

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Karen

This is my start on the Baked Alaska by Glendon Place as of April 15, 2015. The picture is actually taken on April 19, but as I haven’t touched it since March 13, it doesn’t really matter.

Glendon Place - Baked Alaska - April 19, 2015

I was enjoying stitching on this, but I had a period where I had lots of other commitments and I only stitched on a couple of small projects. I hope to get back to this soon.

WIPocalypse – February 2015

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Karen

Current progress:

I had finished parts 1-6 on Under the Moonlight before the last update, but I had not yet started the two SALs.

CloudsFactory – 2015 Zodiac Sampler
Started January 12, 2015
The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – 2015 Story Time Sampler
Started January 18, 2015
Passione Ricamo – Under the Sea – Mystery SAL 04
Before – Parts 1-6 finished on January 7, 2015

After – Part 7 finished on February 2, 2015:

Part 8 partially finished as of February 4, 2015:

Monthly question:

How do you overcome that feeling that you’re in a rut with a particular project?

If I get in a rut with a project I just put it away until I feel like working on it again. I don’t give myself a deadline for when my projects have to be finished, so if I get bored I find something else to work on. However, sometimes I postpone the parts I don’t enjoy, like borders and background, until the end and I have to force myself to carry on to get to the finish. I don’t have any way to overcome the boredom, but the goal of getting a finish is usually enough motivation to keep me working.

CloudsFactory 2015 Zodiac Sampler – Part 1 Capricorn

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Karen

I finished the first part of the CloudsFactory Zodiac Sampler on Sunday January 18, 2015. I am very ambivalent towards the zodiac, I don’t believe that the position of the stars and planets at the time of your birth has any effect on how your life turns out, but I have always liked mythology and enjoy the myths of the constellations. As a child I read a series of books called “Heroes and Monsters of the Sky” by a Swedish author called Maj Samzelius. The plot was that the TV broke down at the cabin of a family and to make up for it the grandfather tells the children the myths of the constellations. I loved these books as they told the old myths in a modern and exciting way. Unfortunately the books are difficult to find in Norwegian and I don’t think they were ever translated into English, but they are available in Swedish. Anyway, I have decided to view this piece as a representation of the myths connected to the constellations.

Back to the pattern by CloudsFactory. I decided to start with circle no. 12 as it was the circle closest to the center line, and circle no. 1. l like to start at the center of patterns as it makes it easier to avoid counting errors. If it is not possible to start at the center, like with this pattern, I try to start close to the center lines for the same reason. This means that I stitched two of the circles before I got the January section. I have to admit I am not a fan of the satin floss used in the circles. It is really slippery and it takes a lot of time to get the stitches to look neat, but it has a nice sheen and looks really nice. This is a picture of the circles I did this month before anything else was added.

CloudsFactory - 2015 Zodiac Sampler - Frames

I believe that each part will consist of three circles with the Zodiac symbol, the constellation and a representation of the astrological sign. The outer circle contains the astrological sign, this month a cute goat with the Zodiac sign flower of Capricorn, pansies. The pansies were stitched with Weeks Dye Works, which seemed kind of pointless as there were a couple of stitches of each colour in the flowers, but it looks nice. Here is a closeup of the first circle.

CloudsFactory - 2015 Zodiac Sampler - Capricorn

The second circle is the constellation Capricornus. This was really fast to stitch as it was only a couple of stitches and a little bit of backstitch. Here is a closeup.

CloudsFactory - 2015 Zodiac Sampler - Capricorn Constellation

The inner circle contains the symbol of Capricorn. Inside the circle of circles there is a red ball and a couple of stars. I have not managed to figure out which planet this is supposed to be yet. CloudsFactory has a pattern called Mini Solar System where the red planets are Venus and Mars, so I am thinking it is one of those. The pattern for Aquarius contains a brown planet which did not really help, I guess I have to wait for more parts to be released to figure this out.

CloudsFactory - 2015 Zodiac Sampler - Capricorn Symbol and Planet

Here is finally a picture of the whole part finished.

CloudsFactory - 2015 Zodiac Sampler - Capricorn Full

Glendon Place Amazing Desserts Stitch Along 2015

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Karen

I have looked at these designs before and when I discovered this stitch along (SAL) by xStitchHaven on Instagram I decided it was a good opportunity to start one. As a lot of stitchers my favourite colour is purple, so I considered stitching Plum Pudding, but I was more drawn towards Baked Alaska.

Glendon Place – Baked Alaska

If purple is my favourite colour, blue is a close second, and this pattern has lovely winter blues so maybe it is an expression of a desire for colder weather and snow. The weather here in Norway has been grey and dull with rain and temperatures around 0 °C so it is doesn’t feel like proper winter has arrived yet.

The suggested fabric is from Picture This Plus, so I decided it was easiest to order everything from them, so I ordered the chart, fabric, floss pack and embellishments before Christmas. I had received a notice that the package has been sent, but it was taking its time to arrive. The US Postal Service is a mystery to me, everything seems to stay in a facility for a week before it moves on, and then the package might get stuck in customs for a while. But suddenly, on January 13th, the package arrived in the mail, and I now have everything to start this project. The Dinky Dyes silks are really lovely, and I look forward to starting this piece.

Glendon Place - Baked Alaska - Floss Toss

Turtle Trot – January 2015

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Karen

These are the 10 projects I have decided will count for the Turtle Trot 2015 challenge. I have chosen large projects that will take the most time and that I will probably need some motivation to work on at some point during the year. All of these are new starts except the Passione Ricamo Mystery, so there are no progress pictures yet for the others.

Blackwork Journey – Save the Stitches
CloudsFactory – 2015 Zodiac Sampler
The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – 2015 Story Time Sampler
Glendon Place – Baked Alaska
HAED – Dona Gelsinger – Teddy Bear Tree
HAED – Aimee Stewart – World Traveler Bookshelf (Large)
Ink Circles – Diversity in Beer
Nora Corbett – Bluebell Pixie
Passione Ricamo – Under the Sea – Mystery SAL 04
Started December 31, 2014
New cuffs for my bunad shirt

WIPocalypse – January 2015

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Karen

My goals and projects for 2015:

I hope to get some more stitching done this year than I have before. One goal is to actually finish something, something I haven’t done in a long time, or at least make some proper progress on my projects. I have made a separate page, WIPs 2015, with the projects that I hope to work on this year, and any new projects will be added to the page. I figured out how to get the page to automatically display the most recent picture I have posted, so hopefully it will always show my current progress on all of my WIPs. I will be making posts throughout the year with an update on what I have been working on lately, but I thought it would be nice to have a page with the progress on all my projects.

Here is a list of the projects I hope to work on this year, and a progress picture for the ones I have started:

Bee’s Needleworks – Tree of Stitches
Blackwork Journey – Save the Stitches
Châtelaine – Workshop 1
Châtelaine – Workshop 2
CloudsFactory – 2015 Zodiac Sampler
The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – 2015 Story Time Sampler
The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – Autumn Harvest Festival
The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – Christmas Celebration Sampler
Glendon Place – Baked Alaska
HAED – Dona Gelsinger – Teddy Bear Tree
HAED – Aimee Stewart – World Traveler Bookshelf (Large)
InkCircles – Celebrate Diversity
Nora Corbett – Bluebell Pixie
Passione Ricamo – Under the Sea – Mystery SAL 04
New cuffs for my bunad shirt

About me:

I am 28 years old (until January 10) and I live in Oslo, Norway. I have been cross stitching for as long as I can remember, but I have only recently discovered all the lovely patterns in the world. As I was not very interested in the Christmas kits on aida that are available here, my stitching has been on the shelf for a long time. Now that I have found other patterns I enjoy stitching a lot more and will hopefully stitch more in the future.

WIPocalypse – October 2014

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Karen

I decided to join the WIPocalypse, both to motivate me to make blog posts and to keep stitching on my current WIPs. I currently have five WIPs that I am working on, and I have two really old kits that I pick up every now and then to make some progress on them.

My most recent start and the project I am actively working on is Autumn Harvest Festival from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I got to a point where it seemed like all of my projects were huge and complicated and I wanted something smaller and easier to stitch from time to time. I think these patterns are cute, and as I am not that into Halloween I liked that it was autumn themed, not Halloween themed. This is my current progress:

Autumn Harvest Festival - Progress - October 18, 2014

My next WIP is the Tree of Stitches from Bee’s Needleworks. I worked on it a lot in September, but then I got a lot of fun stuff in the mail and I wanted to work on something else. This is my current progress:

My other WIPs are the three Passione Ricamo Mystery SALs. The first one was Fatum from 2012-2013. I like it a lot, except the writing on the bottom. I find the letters very dominating and I might try to remove them. I started late and got distracted when the next one came out. This is my current progress:

The second mystery was Into the Deep from 2013. This was the first time I ever stitched on a coloured fabric and I am really liking it. I think the pattern is beautilful and I look forward to working on it again. This is my current progress:

Into the Deep - Progress - October 18, 2014

The final mystery from Passione Ricamo is the 20 Years Celebration. Again I am not sure about the writing, so I have put that off for a while to see how it looks. I like a lot of the Passione Ricamo designs and I think the design idea is pretty cool. Somehow the pattern represented in this pattern are not the ones on the top of my wishlist, so this might be the only way that I would stitch some of them. This is my current progress:

20 Years Anniversary - Progress - October 18, 2014

Finally I have one kit of Paddington Bear making cookies that I haven’t looked at in a long time. I think it is nearly finished, but it had metallic and it frustrated me at the time. Maybe I should try to get it finished soon. The other old kit is a Classic Winnie the Pooh Miniature kit from Designer Stitches of Tigger. I love the classic Pooh designs, and I have another one in my stash, but the fabric supplied is an Aida and the pattern has a lot of fractional stitches. This makes me give up after a while and find something else to stitch.

I also have some charts kitted up that I would like to start in the near future. These are Whacky Witches in Stitches and the 2014 Magical Creatures Calendar from CloudsFactory, Workshop 1 and Workshop 2 from Châtelaine Designs and the Christmas Celebration Sampler from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

I am kitting up the new mystery from Passione Ricamo, Under the Moonlight, and it will be a priority when it starts. I have all the DMC and the fabric and special materials are ordered from the Crafty Kitten. I hope they arrive in time so that I can start this when the first part comes out.

Question of the month: Are you a Halloween or Christmas stitcher?

Halloween had become quite popular here in the last few years, but most people don’t decorate unless they have a party. Because of this I think stitching for Halloween is sort of pointless. If I displayed any Halloween stitching it wouldn’t be up for more than a couple of days. That said if I find pattern I like I might stitch it just for fun.

I have stitched some objects for Christmas, but I have become really picky and I rarely find anything I want to stitch. Again, if I find something I like I would probably get it. However I don’t feel like I have to stitch for holidays any specific time of the year, so I might stitch a Christmas pattern in July if I feel like it.

Passione Ricamo M04 Mystery SAL – Under the Moonlight

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Karen

Passione Ricamo is going to have a new Mystery SAL. This time it is called “Under the Moonlight” and the fabric suggestions you get when have paid to participate seem to be coloured to look like the night sky. I really like Passione Ricamo’s “The Night” pattern, and I am hoping this is along the same lines, but most of their patterns are very lovely and the SAL is not very expensive.

You can sign up at the Passione Ricamo website for € 12,90 and you receive a document with all the materials required to stitch the pattern. The first part will be sent out on November 3, 2014 and I assume that is the end of the sign-up period as well.

I decided to purchase a fabric and the special materials from the Crafty Kitten where you also get a 10% discount on a fabric for the pattern. I decided to use 32 ct Jobelan in Twilight Shadows. The DMC floss I ordered from 123stitch.com

I have never managed to keep up with the previous Mystery SALs, but I have always gotten my materials late, so I am hoping to be ready to start when the first part comes out and maybe keep up with the parts.

Tree of Stitches – September 12, 2014

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Karen

I didn’t want to wait any longer to start this and jumped in. I had quite a bit of leftover fabric from when I bought material for the Passione Ricamo 20 Years Celebration, so I cut off a piece for the Tree of Stitches. It is a 32 ct Permin linen in white.

At the beginning of the instructions it is states that “You will need to make sure you have enough of each colour, especially if you choose variegated threads” but there is no indication of how much you will actually need. I asked on the designer’s Yahoo Group “The Stitch Specialists” about the floss usage and got some useful answers, but for the most part they were not useful. The most common was “it depends on your stitching/your thread choice etc”. I know that the amount of floss used depends on the way you stitch but all I wanted was to know if I needed to buy more than one skein for the tree’s branches. As I couldn’t get any answer on the group I redrew the whole chart into PCStitch and looked at the floss usage. Based on this I bought 1 skein each of these Waterlilies: 66 Jade, 152 Mulberry and 189 Gingersnap. I also bought 1 card of Rainbow Galleries PB52 Lighter Green. This is a floss toss of all the materials.

Tree of Stitches - Floss Toss 1

The pattern also calls for beads, but I haven’t decided what I want to use yet.

I was really excited to start, so I jumped in and started on the tree’s trunk. I have never used variegated threads before so it took me a while to get comfortable with having to finish each stitch, so progress was a bit slow, but after three evenings it was finished.

Floss used: Waterlilies 189 Gingersnap cut into 1 yard lengths. I used 4 strands from one length and 2 strands of 1/2 length. This adds up to 10 strands of a 1/2 yard lengths.

Part 1 - Trunk

Part 1 - Trunk Detail

I was so excited to have finished the trunk that I jumped right into Part 2 – Smyrna Stitch. These were not very complicated, so I finished the first branch the same evening. I used 1 strand of 1 yard of Waterlilies 66 Jade to finish this branch. I am not sure about the coverage, but I will wait and see how the tree develops.

Part 2 - Whole tree

Part 2 - Detail

I have decided to skip Part 3 French knots for the moment and continue with Part 4 – Eyelets. I have never liked french knots so I want to procrastinate, and I think the placement will be easier when the second branch is in place.

The Occasional Crafter

I stich and blog very occasionally

Category Archives: Cross Stitch