cross stitch – Alex Jayne

Tag: cross stitch

01
Jan
2016

New Year: New Goals

I know I say this frequently, but I’m still useless at remembering to update my blog. I am, however, putting up pictures every couple of days on Instagram (username: alexhulett) so feel free to go and follow me over there as well!

That being said, it’s a new year and I’m determined to both blog more frequently, and take on less new starts until I at least knock off a few more existing projects. I started trying to concentrate on this in the last third of 2015 and I’ve been making some decent progress. Last year I made a post of all of my goals that I wanted to achieve… let’s see how I went?

Once Upon A Time Sampler: Complete!

When I posted this last year, I was extremely behind on this sampler, which was released in 2014. Beginning of 2015:

And by the end:

I really enjoyed stitching this one, even if I did have to rip out about a third of the border due to a counting mistake.

Story Time Sampler: Complete!

This was a new start in 2015 as it was last year’s sampler. At the beginning of the year, shortly after the pattern was released:

And, at the end of the year:

I’m quite proud that I managed to stay on top of this one throughout the year, and almost every month was completed in the first few days from the clue release. I definitely think that stitching the frames for the whole year at the beginning helped, as it meant that once the clue was released I could just get straight into stitching it. I’ve signed up for the 2016 sampler and I’m hoping that this record continues!

Mini Watching It Fly: Progress, 5/15 pages complete.

This is one that I only picked up again in November, but here’s where I was at the start of last year:

And, here’s where I am as of a couple of days ago (I was determined to finish the page before the end of the year, which I managed to do):

I’m finally starting to get some more of the pattern out – I think the next pages over to the right is where I start the actual girl and I’m hanging out for that. I love this pattern so much, but I think I got burnt out – my mode of attack for this one in 2016 is to try and aggressively stitch and complete one page and then move onto another project for a couple of weeks so I don’t get burnt out and sick of this and put it away for months, like I’ve done at least three times already.

Tribute to “Dogloaf”: Complete (except for back stitching).

This is another one which I finished at the beginning of 2015, although posting about this has reminded me that it still needs the backstitch:

The pattern is still incredibly detailed as it is, but I think the back stitch will just make it ‘pop’. As I’m saving to get this and a few others framed, there’s no urgent rush but I should probably get around to it at some point!

Travel Memories: Not touched.

There was bound to be a couple, right? This is one of two that I haven’t even touched – not for dislike of the pattern, but because others were calling to me first. There was no real intention for the finished project in mind, so I’m happy to keep this one in my ever growing stash until it’s needed.

First Love Wedding Record: Slight Progress

At the beginning of last year this is where I was with it:

And here’s where I am now – if you look closely, I promise you’ll see I’ve actually done a bit, even if it’s only a few stitches:

This is actually what’s currently sitting in my Q-Snap as I’ve pulled it out a couple of days ago to start work on again. It’s such a cute pattern (although the mouthless boy is still creeping me out, I think I need to focus on that soon!)

Christmas Celebration Sampler: Complete!

This one was almost all finished except for the border:

Which, for some reason, I didn’t pick back up until mid-year, and then promptly knocked out in a week:

And has now been added to my pile of completed Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery projects that need to be framed.

Dimensions Christmas Ornaments: Not touched.

Another one I want to do, and have no other reason for not touching except it’s not as high on my priority and rotation list and have others that I wanted to do first. Maybe in 2016?

Hogwarts Crest: Barely touched.

I admit, I actually forgot about this one for quite a while. I’ve done a few more stitches on it but wasn’t actually that much to even bother taking a photo of. I started this one maybe 3-4 years ago, so I’d really like to finish it at SOME point. Or maybe at least the house crests in the middle!?

Mini Red Riding Hood: 2/16 pages complete.

The first two pages stitched up remarkably quickly (and I’ve learnt that I much prefer the large sized chart over regular in terms of reading, and smaller page sizes!) – I’m hoping that this year I can try and do another 2-3 pages. It’s a Heaven and Earth Designs chart so I have no illusions of completing it within a couple of months, but I’m hoping to at least try and steadily stitch on this so it doesn’t end up as long of a WIP as the grey blob has been.

A Very Merry Christmas Town: Complete!

This was a new start this year – another Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery design that was released mid-year and was their Christmas sampler released over four months.

It’s fairly adorable and nice to have a new start *and* a finish!

Woodland Sampler: Complete!

Another new one – I bought the pattern a couple of years ago, the threads a few months later, and then a friend bought me the fabric for my Christmas present in 2014. I think this one took me a little under 2 months all up, but it’s super cute and finished:

The only thing I changed on this was the year (from 2013 to 2015). With this, I think I’ve finished all of the FPS yearly samplers, and am up to date – so this year I’ll only be doing the current year, not 3 at once, which will hopefully free up some time to do other projects!

I’ve also got a TON of embroidery projects to catch up on that have completely been put on the back burner, almost all exclusively Rosalie Dekker (formerly Rosalie Quinlan) Designs. I haven’t taken pictures, which will have to wait for another blog post but in the interest of trying to hold myself accountable and see where I’m at for the beginning of the year:

Best Friends Forever BOM: Super behind. I’ve completed about half of a stitchery, and there’s 32 to go. I reaaally need to work on this, it’s been almost 2 years since I signed up! I guess I’ll put this down as 0.5/32 stitcheries complete
Simply Blessed BOM: Doing slightly better, I have completed the first two and have made a small start on the third one, and this one’s only a year and a half old! 2/9 stitcheries complete
United Stitches BOM: Not doing much better in this, I’ve completed one and a half stitcheries, and I think I’ve received about 10 in the mail! Added to this, because it’s a “stitch and switch”, it’s more like 20 stitcheries as all of them need to be done twice and swapped with my partner (who, thankfully is my mother, who understands that I have far too many WIPs and it’s going to be a while before she gets hers!) 1/20 (and growing!) stitcheries
Flowerville BOM: The newest BOM from Rosalie, I’ve promised myself that I won’t start this one until I’ve made at least some impact on the above three. This one is still being mailed out – so I’ve got 5 months so far sitting in a pile, waiting. I’d like to at least tackle one of them – they’re in gorgeous Cottage Garden Threads, but I need to wait otherwise this will end up like the others and not at all done! Not started

—

Well – that’s my round up of all my craft for 2015, and my goals for 2016. I feel like I didn’t get much done in terms of finishes, but when I’ve put it all out there, as well as the before and after shots it looks a bit better. Here’s to another year of successful craft!

18
Aug
2015

Once Upon A Time – Finished!!

categories: craft

I’ve been meaning to write this post for the longest time, but never got around to it.

Remember the Once Upon A Time sampler? That I started in February last year and promptly got ridiculously behind, and never caught up? I finished it!

Here’s where I was last time I blogged about this –

I then proceeded to put ALL my energy (except for when Story Time got released) into finishing this one off, rather than my usual rotation of a million different piece.

July – Thumbelina:

August – Musicians of Bremen:

September – Rapunzel:

Did I post about how I stuffed up the bottom border? It was horrible. I had to pull out SO MUCH of it, after thinking about it for a while and deciding that if I didn’t fix it, I’d be bothered forever:

October – Cinderella:

November – Little Red Riding Hood:

December – Hansel & Gretel:

And finally, the finished piece!!

I tossed up for a while what to put down the bottom (whether to put 2014, when it was released / when I started it, or 2015, when I finished it – I tried to chart “The End” but I couldn’t make it work) but in the end I went for the original 2014 as that’s really when I started it. Now I just have to save up to get it framed!

17
Aug
2015

Woodland Sampler

categories: craft

I bought the pattern for the Woodland Sampler last year – it’s another Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery design, and I’ve always found it incredibly cute! It then took me a few months to find the perfect fabric, and I think I succeeded when I came across this from SewItAll, a local store where I get most of my fabric from in Australia:

I’ve definitely found that stitching the frames first helps with my motivation and it’s been so helpful in doing it! The first few months are stitching up fairly quickly…

How cute are they!?

I’m not used to blocks where everything is filled in! Definitely took a while especially as it was a darker colour, wanting to make sure I had full coverage.

March was definitely the quickest block – the same day I finished February, I knocked out March as well in a few hours.

I think April is where I noticed the “double” sized blocks were going to be a lot more work than I initially though!

This gnome is totally adorable, I love it.

I’m currently halfway through the June block and want to finish it in the next day or so – my friends from our monthly stitchy group were ‘encouraging’ (challenging!) me to finish this by our next meet up on the 22nd and at one point I thought I’d get there, but I’ve been sick this month and haven’t had time. July through to December are all quite bit blocks (not only is there a lot of detail, but there’s a lot less blank space as well) so I don’t think I’d even be able to knock out a block a day. That said, I’ll still give it a crack and see how I go! I haven’t been taking photos daily of these ones, just posting the finished block on Instagram, but I’m loving how it’s coming together.

19
Jul
2015

Red Riding Hood – Progress!

categories: Uncategorized

I’ve been on a massive cross stitch kick lately, and have managed to actually get a couple of finishes! I’ve also been incredibly behind on blogging (to the point where my website was down and I didn’t even realise – good job, me) so I have them queued up to go up in the next few days. My embroidery is falling to the wayside and as usually I keep signing up to new projects – but here’s what I’ve been working on.

Remember how a while back I made a new start on a Heaven and Earth Designs project, even though I already had the grey blob? Well, I’m still in love with this pattern and I pulled it out again when I hit a couple of finishes. Here’s where I was at a few months ago before it got put away:

So many different shades in there! You can kind of make out the pattern, if you know what you’re looking for. But, I did then manage to get a page finish!

You can make out the trees and some of the forest background! When I bought this chart, I bought it in the “large” format, which was a godsend – the symbols are a bit easier to read, and it helps that the pages are a bit smaller to finish.

I then promptly moved onto the second page and here’s where it is right now. The tree trunks are definitely getting some more definition to them! I also think I have a real chance of finishing this page in a week or so which is amazing for me (provided I don’t get distracted by any other projects, of course…)

I was also asked by someone to take a picture of the back for this one, so here it is.

For a piece that is so full of confetti I have to say I’m a bit proud of how neat I’ve been managing to keep the back! Don’t get me wrong, there’s threads all over the place, but I seem to have tucked them in neatly. Hopefully I can finish the rest of the things so neatly…

If you’re over on Instagram feel free to check out my page – I’m trying to remember to post a new picture daily as it’s great to go back and check out my progress especially on those days when it feels like I’ve made no progress at all!

16
Mar
2015

Craft Retreat

categories: craft

This post is a few days late – it’s been sitting in my drafts for a while but I haven’t gotten around to typing it up.

Over the Labour Day weekend I had the opportunity to join 8 other ladies on a craft retreat up in Hepburn Springs. They’ve been up beforehand however it was my first time and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and managed to get a decent chunk of work done on my WIPs (which yes, are still increasing, oops).

I’m not sure where I last left this off, but my grey blob had a page finish! I’m getting back into this again and I think the thousands of stitches in DMC5200 were worth it as now when I look at it I can actually see that it’s meant to be clouds in the sky, rather than a ton of greys all meshed together. The next lot of pages are going to be better, I think, as I start making a move towards the actual girl in the piece and get more strands of hair. And then I’ll have another page which is just full of DMC3799 for the girl’s corset – looking forward to that…

I also pulled out the Once Upon A Time Sampler from last year as I’ve really got to make more progress on this. I’m trying to work towards a mid-year deadline, whether or not I’ll reach that is a different story, but I’m trying to assign myself reasonable deadlines that I can not only achieve but will also push me to work on them.

As a result, I started, and finished, the May block whilst on the retreat! So I was only 8 months behind… it’s a start!

I then managed to knock out the June block a few days later, which means the actual blocks are half done! I haven’t done any more on this one since, but I’m hoping to stay on track and work this into my rotation soon. The border is fiddly so I’m tossing up between doing it all first, but then I also want to jump straight into the next block – however I’m still mindful of my Christmas Celebration Sampler I started in December and have finished the blocks, done about 1/5 of the border and promptly put it aside and haven’t picked it back up.

Here’s where it’s at presently! I’ve done bits and pieces of the border already – I suppose I could always try and do the border as I go…

I also pulled out the 3rd block in Rosalie Quinlan’s “Simply Blessed” – Jess from A Patchwork Quilt sent me the 9th block, which was the final one last month, which made me realise (quelle surprise), how behind I was on this one too. I’m still in love with the colour variegation in the Cosmo Seasons threads here – I think I’m going to try and do all of the stitching and then put them together all at once.

And lastly, not part of the craft retreat, but I’ve been tasked with doing another latch hook, this time for my husband who is a massive Brisbane Lions supporter, and thusly has informed me we will be putting up lots of Lions things around the house! I made a bit of a start on this last week but haven’t done any more since – the thing is seriously massive and covers the entire coffee table. I had no end of grief trying to sort out the colours (vanilla, light gold, medium gold, dark gold, honey, beige, cream, rust – took me about 10 minutes just trying to work out which colour was which!!!) but I think it’ll make the effect well worth it if/when I finally finish this. It’s quite the majestic lion!

I’ve also been trying to work on a few other things – Red Riding Hood is back in the rotation, and I’ve been doing some quilt work and some embroidery in the mean time, but that’s a story for another post.

15
Feb
2015

Story Time Sampler: February

categories: craft, story time SAL

Is it the 15th of February already?? The month is going by so quickly – guess it means it’s time for the first check in post.

I’ve kept on top of this one (which is still a far cry from the Once Upon A Time sampler, where I am still on April’s block) and I love how adorable this is to stitch up.

I had intended to try and finish the banner before the clue was released, but failed.

I did manage to finish it not long afterwards, though!

I’m really enjoying the Weeks Dye Works threads and I am dying to see what the next months are. Any thoughts? Personally I think August will be Sherlock Holmes, the gap up the top looks just about right for his hate, although I’m stuck on the rest of them.

Don’t forget to add your link so your fellow stitchers can see how you’re going!

14
Feb
2015

Another new start

categories: craft

I know, I know, I should really be working on some of my endless WIPs, but this has been calling out at me for so long and has been kitted up for a month that I had to make a start!

I sent a text to one of my best friend’s with the above picture. The response was “WHAT IS THAT. IS THAT RED RIDING HOOD?” … She knows me too well.

Day 1 Progress.

Day 2 Progress. Believe it or not, that blob on the left is two different colours.

Day 3 progress. Starting to introduce varying shades in – I’m a big fan of cross country stitching, I am far too uncoordinated for parking.

Day 5 – or, as I call it, “Avoid the confetti (single stitches of one colour) for as long as possible”. I can’t wait until I finally get some kind of pattern coming through – not that this area will have much as it’s the ground and the side of the forest, but I’m hopeful that eventually it will be distinguishable as the forest!

I’ve never gridded my fabric before and seem to be doing fine with my other Heaven and Earth Designs chart (Mini Watching It Fly), however that has a lot less colours – 16 vs. 81! It’s too late now, but I may keep it in mind for future projects.

I think my aim on this is to finish about four rows across completely – my next aim is to try and fill in those single stitches, but at least I’ve made a bit of progress! The whole thing is just shy of 70,000 stitches, and I’d be surprised if I’ve done more than 1000…. this could take a while.

07
Feb
2015

A new home…

categories: craft

Looky – it’s a brand new home for my blog! I’ve transferred it over (although I still need to get some kind of redirect going on from the wordpress site), but I took the plunge and have now officially got my own blog. There were a few thing I was trying to do that wouldn’t play nice on the WordPress.com hosted site, so now I’ve moved over and can do whatever I want! Plus, I do like having my schmancy own blog url, I have to admit.

I’ve been busy, though! Incredibly, I am still managing to stay on track with my Story Time Sampler, and have completed February:

Yet another adorable frame – The Secret Garden.

I’ve also created a stitch-a-long for the Story Time Sampler as I’ve seen a number of people mention they have a blog – go along and check it out, the link is right here, or alternatively, can be found at the top of the page.

Finishing this meant I could put it away until the end of the month, which means that I can pull out my Ode to Dogloaf!

When I last posted about it with my goals, I was here:

And after stitching on it for most of today while I was curled up on the couch, sick, here’s where I’m at:

It doesn’t feel like heaps of progress, but I’m slowly getting the bottom part of it stitched in – why on earth I continue to pick patterns that are in the same colour, I will never know. I’m really hoping to get most of this done by the end of the month, but if that fails, I’m heading off on a craft retreat so you never know what that will bring!

Part of me is dying to start my new Heaven and Earth Designs chart now I have the fabric and it’s fully kitted, and then I also want to start the 2013 Woodland Sampler – but then I know that I have so many other projects on the go that I really need to at least finish ONE of them – or at the very least one of the pages….

29
Jan
2015

United Stitches

categories: craft

I’m excited – happy mail today! I’ve signed up for “United Stitches”, which is Rosalie Quinlan’s 2015 block of the month (I’m still working on 2013 – Best Friends Forever & 2014 – Simply Blessed, we don’t talk about those just yet…)

Unlike the previous ones though, this is designed around a ‘stitch and switch’ theme. Each set of stitcheries is numbered, and actually comes with two stitcheries of each design. The intention is that you stitch one for yourself, and one for someone else – either in a sewing group, or as a round robin, or by posting on the Facebook group and finding someone to swap with, and most people will select whether to do the odd or even designs. The team over at Creative Abundance have been posting up pictures of all the stitcheries, and I have to say they are ADORABLE!

I’m going to be doing this one with my mother, who is the one who took me down the rabbit hole of craft addiction, so it seems only fitting. I predict as usual she will be way ahead of me, as I tend to take on far too many WIPs at once, but it’ll be nice to do even if it takes me a couple of years!!

The pack arrived today and includes a fat quarter bundle of the “Chirpy Lola” fabric which is gorgeous, all of the Cosmo threads needed, extra linen for the quilt, the quilt instructions, a tin to keep all the swap cards, a 4 1/2″ template for the stitcheries/blocks, and the first two stitcheries.

I can’t start it just yet as a) I want to get up to date with the Story Time Sampler and a couple of other cross stitch projects, or reach a certain point, and b) I meant to order some thinner stabiliser as I don’t want to use Parlan on this, but totally forgot to! So I’ll be ordering some of that shortly now that I have the requirements for the full quilt.

This is the finished quilt that Rosalie finished – isn’t it just so bright and adorable?? I think putting it together may be a bit of a challenge, but to be honest, once I’ve reached that point I’m hoping to be more confident with some of those blocks.

The Story Time Sampler is trucking along and I’m definitely going to reach my goal of finishing all of the frames before the next clue is released on the 31st (which is Sunday lunchtime here due to the time differences). The frames are all so intricate and so require a lot of concentration when counting, although I’m pleased to report that I have remembered how to count properly so haven’t had to rip out whole frames any more!!

One of my friends who is also stitching this came over for dinner tonight and we were working on this together so I managed to make some decent progress – I’ve begun the last frame! I probably won’t finish it until Friday evening but I’ll definitely have it done, which means that I can hopefully put some solid progress in on the banner and knock out some of that before the clue is released.

I’m determined with this to stay up to date and having the frames is helping so I can jump straight into the stitching – I managed to stitch up Alice incredibly fast and on the day that the clue was released, so I’ve proven to myself that I *can* knock things out and I can stay on target – and I’ve got a couple of other friends who are doing this as well to keep me on track 😉

Is anyone else doing either the Story Time Sampler or United Stitches? I’d love to see your plans and if you’re staying 100% true to the design or making a changes to give it your own personal touch!

22
Jan
2015

2015 Projects: Cross Stitch edition

categories: craft

Once again, I’ve been neglecting my blog! I have been stitching up a storm though, so here’s some of my progress lately!

I’m trying to set myself a list of projects to work on this year – these are all projects that I’ve either started, or am planning to start sometime this year. I’m not going to set myself goals like last year in terms of “finish x amount”, I would like a few finishes, but my aim is to at least make progress on every one of these and hopefully post a before and after at the end of the year with my progress.

I’ve got cross stitch, embroidery, and quilting projects, which I’ll blog about separately, but I’ll start with the cross stitch as that’s what drew me back into crafting again a couple of years ago. So, without further ado:

2014 “Once Upon A Time” sampler by the girls at the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I am abysmally behind on this one as you can tell – I’m really wanting to try and smash this out by the end of the year and try and work on it in between other projects. The blocks are so adorable, but I got behind and then just struggled to catch up and ended up bailing on it for quite a while.

Stitched 2 over 2 on 28 count linen from Picture This Plus (I forget the colour, but it’s the recommended fabric).

The 2015 “Story Time Sampler“, from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I’m actually on track (if not slightly ahead!) of this one, as the first clue – Alice – was released on the 15th along with the frames, and then will be on the 31st and then at the end of each month. My goal for this is to get all of the frames stitched before the next clue is released, which, barring any major difficulties I should be able to do – I’m hoping having the frames will make it easier for me to keep up compared to last year!

Stitched 2 over 2 on 36 count linen from Picture This Plus in Crystal Storm.

Remember my Grey Blob? Yeah. “Mini Watching It Fly” from Heaven and Earth Designs – I’ve been doing this one forever. I pulled it back into my rotation about a month ago, and I’ve very nearly finished the top page! The stitchy bug for this one has come back and I think a large part of that is finally being able to see the clouds form (even if it did take hundreds of stitches in B5200 to get there). There’s still a crapload of grey in this but once I get across to the next set of pages at least it’s got some more variety (and then I’ll start cursing all of the confetti).

Stitched 2 over 1 on 18 count Aida.

My tribute to ‘Dogloaf’, my sausage dog who died late last year – he had an awesome life and was nearly 18, but it was still very upsetting as I’d grown up with him. When I found this pattern I fell in love with it as it looks so similar to my dog. As much as it feels like a couple of the colours are identical, I love the shading that’s going on here.

Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 count linen (I think?)

This is a new kit which I haven’t started, but it’s a small one and the design is quite cute. I don’t have any specific plans for it – maybe somebody will come along that I can gift it to, who knows – but I’ve had this kit for a couple of years and want to at least make a start on it.

I started doing this one ages ago for a friend’s wedding, but circumstances changed so I shelved it. It’s still adorable and I’d like to finish it at some point, whether for someone specific or if I’ll just stitch it up and leave the name blank, but I want to pull it out eventually. This one has delightful blended stitches which is always fun, but I’ve made a decent start on it at least.

Stitched 2 over 1 on either 16 or 18 count Aida.

So close on this one! The fiddly border was annoying me, and then I got distracted by something else. I really should finish this – it’s so close that it’s on the list to definitely try and do this year which I should be able to! This is another one from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and is their 2014 Christmas Celebration Sampler.

Stitched 2 over 2 on 36 (?) count linen in Crystal Gingerbread from I think Picture This Plus – I purchased a kit on Etsy for this one.

I have no idea where the front of this is! This is a set of Christmas ornaments that I bought as a Dimensions Kit ages ago, back when I very first started getting back into cross stitch. I haven’t touched this in about 3 years and have no plans for whether I’ll gift them or keep them, but I’d like to get at least a bit further on these!

Fairly sure this is 2 over 2 on 14 count Aida?

Hogwarts! Another one I’ve had forever and sporadically pull out – one of my friends has just finished this and it looks amazing, so I’d like to knock a bit more of this out. Maybe finish the outline, or at least the middle part of the crest?

Stitched 2 over 2 on 18 count Aida.

This is going to be another new start – Mini Red Riding Hood by Heaven and Earth Designs. I stumbled across this and fell in love – I’ve already got all of the threads, bobbined up and everything, along with the fabric, ready for me to make a start. I can’t bring myself to pull this out yet though until I at least finish a couple, or at least get up to date on a few, but I’m itching to start this one. Someone I follow on Instagram is stitching this up at the moment and I just ADORE it.

Well – that’s my cross stitch projects for the year, there’s a ton of them but I’m looking forward to trying to make some decent progress on them. I’ve decided that 2015 is going to be the ‘me’ stitching year after making so many gifts last year, and this year I want all that time and effort to go towards things that I can display – some people found it surprising how much time went into making things!