My Week In Stitches

It's been a very quiet week here - the kids were in Vacation Bible School every night which meant I had solid blocks of daylight evening hours for stitching!  What???

I managed to finish-finish two-thirds of the baby gift for my friend (the parts I've finished are actually their own little ensemble, the third piece will be for when babygirl is bigger).  They are so cute, when I finished today I actually put them on H's baby doll to take a picture.  I wish I could show it to you, but a secret is a secret.  Besides, my blog pushes new posts to Facebook and the mommy-to-be is one of my long time besties.  Once she's received it (baby is due in October) I can share pictures.  Just looking at the finished product makes me wish......that I knew someone else who was expecting so I could make another one.  (Not me.  I am very very happy to not be expecting in southwestern Idaho in the middle of the summer.)  Oh, wait.  I do know one family, but they're expecting a boy, and this is not a boyish type of gift.

So I was able to get a lot done on Fairy Sisters - almost all of the older sister's head.  For these 2 pages I'm left with the rest of the black on the head, 1 shade of navy blue and 2 (3?) shades of purple/silver. 

And Irish Blessing - the original plan was to stitch the words in Ecru, but it just wasn't showing up with enough impact.  If you look closely you can see toward the upper left corner an ecru triangle, and then below where the blog name has been added there's sort of an underline - imagine how faint the lettering would be if I'd left it that way!

I was trying to remember the last time I stitched something with words on it.....I'm coming up dry, guys.  It seems to me it was probably something for Tiny Treasures Exchange, which was 2 or 3 years ago.  I just don't do a lot of "message" projects, I guess!

That leads to an interesting question - what's your preference for stitching?  Images (geometric, or representing something) or letters/words?  Let me know in the comments.  I'm just being nosy. :)

My Week In Stitches

Sorry I'm a little late this weekend.  I'm not one for crazy-busy Saturdays - I like to really take a day off, sleep in, get some things done around the house.  But yesterday my church hosted the annual Community Block Party, and I'd volunteered to help.  So that was a long hot day.  I also spent a good portion of the day waiting for the cell phone store to call me and tell me I could pick up my new phone!  Their computers were down in the morning, and they couldn't process purchases unless they were with cash.

So after the block party I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing with my new toy serious electronic device used only for communication. ;)  I'm not really into gadgets.  I had a smartphone for a little over a year, and it died tragically when I was talking on the phone to the bestie while making pizza dough.  No, I didn't drop it in the dough, but I did manage to get raw dough in the charge port.  Smartphones don't work when they can't be charged.  I got an inexpensive replacement, but it didn't even have a camera!  This one has 2!  It's nice to feel fully connected - I can get back to Instagram and tweeting more often.  And I can use Evernote on my phone again - I think I've told you before, I put my knitting and crochet patterns in Evernote, that way I don't need to carry paper patterns with me every where I go.  Love it.

Back to stitching!  I finished part of the baby gift, and I've met all my stitching goals for July!  Yay me!

Fairy Sisters - I was able to get some work done on the wings - all this shade of navy blue is done for both pages.  And I started on the black wing.  Next week I'd like to finish all the black wing and start on the big sister's hair:

Irish Blessing - the blackwork border is done.  Now I think it's time for some words!

I really need to stop photographing this in natural light - it washes out the colors.  From now on, ugly-harsh lamp light for this one!

My Week In Stitches

Thank you for all the nice comments on my posts last week.  You're all so supportive, I love the crafty blogosphere!

It's strange to think that at this time last year I was in Las Vegas with my friends, knitting poolside during the day and going out and having fun at night.

Most of what I worked on this past week was the baby gift for my friend, so there are no pictures on this.  But there's a little bit on Fairy Sisters and Irish Blessing!

Irish Blessing - I pulled this out and worked on it Tuesday night during the All-Star Game, while tweeting (I also worked on it some on Wednesday).  So if you follow me on Twitter, yes I was really stitching and tweeting at the same time.  Here's proof:

I was able to do quite a bit more of the blackwork border, and I'm glad I stayed with this moss green color - once I did the return trip it stands out quite a bit more.

Fairy Sisters - I was able to finish the edge of the moon.  I was hoping to finish all of this color, but my mom and I went to a movie Friday night, so I didn't get as much stitching time in.  But this still meets my July goal of "weekly progress"!!  All that's left of the current color is one of the wings.  I think next week will be all about wings!

Okay!  I'm off to get my hair did - I'm getting highlights for the first time ever.  I've always been a box-color girl.  But my friend has talked me into an even more updated look, so I'm going to do it!  Have a great week, and happy stitching, everyone!

I Told You It Would Be Celtic!

Welcome, Pinners!  I'm blown away every time I see someone has pinned this design - I'm glad you like it or are inspired by it.  If you stitch it, will you share a picture with me?  I may feature some in a future post.  Thanks! - drea

It's less of a sampler, I think.  Although it does feature several different kinds of stitches, it's really an embellished Irish blessing.  And here it is in .jpg - I think you can right-click and "save as":

I've left it at symbols so you can choose your own colors.  But if you want to use the colors in my original design, here's a little help - (I can't figure out how to show the symbols with the color numbers):

Blue (upper left corner) - 820
Green (lower left corner) - 701
Red (upper right corner) - 321
Gold (lower right corner) - 167

Hopefully that will help you match up the symbols to the colors I used.  Or you can choose your own!

Edited!  I figured out how to turn it into a pdf AND share it here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Click here to access the pdf file, which includes a real symbol and color key!

Specialty stitches - in the center, the red is a Smyrna Cross (large X with a + over it) and the green is a Double Leviathan (you could also do a large eyelet here).  The blue is Crow's Foot - Montenegrin would be pretty as well.  And the long stitches cover 5 threads.  You should note that the points where the red and green run together is 4 long stitches!  (I'm working my way into Bargello.)  The blue border is blackwork.

Grid is 100x160 - actual design area is 92x154.  If you stitch this, I'd love to see your finished piece.  I hope I'll have time to stitch it myself soon!

Enjoy!