Freebie Finish!

Here is my finished freebie. :) It's from Janlynn's homepage. I really like the colors on it, which is the main reason I chose this pattern! I'm doing a stitching marathon this weekend or till my eyes give out, so back to Fairy Flora..

More Summer Breeze Progress

Wee, making some nice progress. The tree is starting to appear. Looks a little weird now, partially done, but another week and it will look good. It's a good project. The fold-out color chart is a bit awkward, and the color codes are easy to mess up too, but it's ok otherwise.

Anyways, more memes.. does one ever get tired of them? :p lol




1. Which designers/design companies are you favorites? I like Teresa Wentzler and Mirabilia, and HAEDs, but those are a bit special because of their hugeness.

2. What do you like about them? I like TWs because they are a bit complex and a bit of a challenge. The shading and coloring is amazing because of all the blends. Not to mention the specialty stitches in some patterns provide a nice change and add visual interest. Mirabilia's-- they use simple colors to create amazing shading and of course the sparklies :) I can't say I love to stitch on a zillion little beads, but the effect is beautiful. HAEDs-- they are indeed a challenge. Mine has been on a break, but it's coming out some again :) Closing in on the 3 page mark.

3. Which others do you like? Hmm lots really.. Some Stoney creeks, L&L, Paula Vaughn, Shepard's Bush, and many others that I can't all name.

4. Do you have any patterns on your to-do list that are from designers you haven't tried before? Yep, I do. Just a little example :p This is on my wish list. Would love to stitch it this year:



Anyways, weekend starts early for me, and is 4 days long. I am hoping to get loads of stitching done!

2 tests done this week, think I passed them both (I hope), so I'm a little tired tonite. Kinda just doing some easy work on Summer Breeze this evening. Might put in a few stitches on Fairy Flora and of course, my freebie :) Should have something to show by Friday.

I added thumbnails with click links of my projects done so far this year. With a little luck I will have too many to keep them all on the side bar, lol - a person can dream anyways. Also fixed a typo in my title bar.. lol not cool mistyping the first words guests will read.

Today's Meme is (click for link):

Find and post a nice picture of spring or summer. Preferably it will be from your own life, but the net is fine too. Feel free to make any comments or leave a description about the picture.

I found this one I took a couple years ago here outside the house. I like it when the bushes are full of the white flowers. They last such a short time. In Sweden everything just explodes in color early June from the very long daylight hours and all the spring rain. It's just the best time of year to be here.

Another day another meme :)


1. what is your favorite count and type of fabric? I like 32 ct over 2 best. Haven't tried 40ct, but I would like to. I have used linens, jobelan and lugana. I like them all really, hard to say which is my favorite. I like the feel of belfast a lot, but I appreciate the evenness of jobelan and lugana.

2. Do you use hand-dyed or tried them at all? I have bought 3 pieces, but none of them were quite what I thought they would be, so I haven't stitched anything on one yet. But I am still open to it, just need more inspiration, I think.

3. Any favorite fabric colors, hand-dyed or regular? Hmm.. I like a clean, fresh white to stitch on, lol.. I don't really have a favorite color.

4. Have you tried opalescent fabrics and do you like them? I have tried opalescent lugana. I have only stitched ornaments and small things on it though, haven't found the right big pattern for it. I like the look of it though, it's fun, but it's a bit stiff and harder to push the needle through, so not sure I will jump at the chance to stitch a large project on it.


Stitching-wise.. I have stitched on all 3 of my big projects the past few days while still focusing on Summer Breeze most. I like them all. I wish there was more time to get more progress on them all. My freebie will hopefully be done by the end of the week! I love the colors of it. ;)

cross stitch meme for sunday

1. How old were you when you started stitching?
I was about 9 years old

2. How many years have you been at it?
Hmm.. That would have been 25 yrs ago, however I was very intermittent about any needle work until about 15 yrs ago. I did a few projects in college, but I didn't get going until I found L&L and Mira patterns :) I have been more or less full steam for 10 yrs.

3. Self taught or did someone teach you?
My mother showed me the basics. Details about beads and fabrics and specialty flosses I picked up on the web.

4. What was your first project?
It was a stamped sampler my sister started for a school project but abandoned. She did a small part and I did the rest of it.


Click here if you want to know more about memes. (they are essentially questions to blog about :) ) Feel free to grab the questions and post them in your blog with answers :)

Summer Breeze Update

Here is my progress again. It's coming. Just got a tiny start on the backstitching. I think I would cry if I had to do it all at the end. Got all the leaf area done by the house. It took longer than it ought to have.. kept making little mistakes the whole way through :p Oh well, off to do some reading before I pick it up again.

New Mira!

Yep, a new Mira has been released, Bliss Fairy. She is very cute, and would be a nice companion to Petal Fairy. The fabric isn't that nice though. I still don't understand her fascination with drab brown fabrics - they just don't do it for me. A nice hand-dyed fabby would work. The flowers seem a bit overly strong too.. feels like they pull too much away from the fairy, but it may simply be that the picture is unfair and would be nicer in real life.

I got a visit from the floss fairy this week too! My mom is my floss fairy, as floss in Sweden costs over $1 each. Just silly expensive. It wasn't a huge haul this time as I didn't request a lot.. must not abuse the fairy after all ;)

I started a new freebie last night! I am on a major freebie roll lately :) For so long I only wanted to do large projects.. couldn't spare time for little ones. Now I sort of appreciate them better. It's nice with quick finishes and many of them are so cute :) I think I will wait till it's done before posting a pic, don't want to give it away before hand!

Freebie Finish and other stuff

Yay! Finished this freebie from the Brightneedle. The pattern came in the mail with an order a few years ago. It seemed to fit the mood I am in here... Wishing spring would begin :)

WIP Update with pictures!!

Got out the camera today and took a few pictures of my projects.

The first picture is Paula Vaughn's Summer Breeze. I have been making this my focus piece lately. It's coming along nicely. Lots of nuetral shades in the house though. Really looking forward to the flowers in the picture :)


Here is a photo of Teresa Wentzler's The Unicorn. It's coming along very nicely :) Stitching on black is certainly a challenge, but it is worth the trouble!



And here is Mirabilia's Fairy Flora. Lots of pretty pinks in this pattern. I only have a small start now, and I think it might stay smallish :( I'm not much of a rotater so having more than 2 projects gets me antsy.

Midweek update

No pics today but soon I will have several, I hope. Time is a little tight this week since I have 2 exams next week, but there is still time over for some stitching. Mostly I have been focusing on Summer Breeze. I think if I keep this one as a focus it could be done in April.

2 finishes!

Finished Celtic Summer the other day and here she is. She stitched really quickly although the doing the beads was a bit trying :)

Here is another quick finish:


Another freebie from cyberstitchers. I plan to make it into an ornament for my dad and his wife.. they live in Florida so I though they might appreciate it.

In other news, I have 2 new starts, PV's Summer Breeze and Mira's Flora Fairy. Summer Breeze is making it past the blob stage slowly to actually being a shape, but without backstitching done it has no definition. After only about 1 hr of stitching, FF is still in major blob stage. Progress pics incoming soonish in any case :)

I'm on the hunt for another small project or freebie, we'll see what I come up with. Ideally something springish since I am getting impatient for the cold to go away.

Freebie HD!

Found this on cyberstitchers and thought it was cute :

Took 4-5 evenings working on it in between Celtic Summer.. which is coming along, doing just bead now.

Celtic Summer Update

Here is my latest pic:She is flying, but probably now I am working on the borders I will give her fewer hours per day. Haven't touched my poor Unicorn at all since last weekend, so I will try to fit in a couple hours this weekend. Ah yes, this project is on 28ct buttermilk jobelan.. a nice warm buttery color, too bad it's slightly washed out here :/

In other news I have a new HAED going :) It's just a blob so far but since I'm starting with the face, so soon there will at least be something to see. I've been putting some stitches into Just Believe but the 28ct fabric is a bit of a problem for me now, but nearing in the 3 page mark.. feels bad to retire it now. My new one is on 25ct and I find it much better for me, both easier to see and I think the stitches are less crammed together and still excellent coverage. Oh well, my new one actually inspired me to squeeze a little time into Just Believe, oddly enough. But we'll have to see. I just like 25ct so much better and am even considering trying 22ct also.

March goals

I'm not a big one on making goals overly specific, like get a certain amount done or number of hours, but I do like to have things I aim for :) So here is a short list that I made:

March will be to

• finish up Celtic Summer. Have the lady almost done now.
• 
  
• Continue slow but steadily on my unicorn.
• 
  
• Figure out what will be my next focus project. I'm leaning towards starting Mira's The Kiss now, but that might change.

Here is a look at my february goals and how it came out:

• Finish The Enchanter done

• 

• Get a good start on my next project - TW's The Unicorn. sort of. I do have a decent start on it, but I took a u-turn and started celtic summer on a whim, and it's so fast I am going to focus on it first. Plus I realized, there is just no way to work on dark on dark for more than an hr or 2 at a time, so this project likely to be on slow burn for a while.