Tiffstitches a Blog!

My secret gift for a friend that recently broke her leg has been received, so I can post about it here!  I received this chart from a friend on the Cross Stitch Forum and it's such a fun little stitch. It only took a few days and I used some threads from my Dinky Dyes oops bags. There were all kinds of fun colours and the chart requested blues, but I think my friend preferred the purples I was lucky enough to get. They just work together so well.  Here are the colours I used to the far right in this...

I hope everyone had a fun IHSW, even if you didn't get to stitch as much as you wanted. Does that ever happen? I'm very happy to announce I actually finished something! This was a WIP from around September 2011, so it's nice to cross something off that huge list of WIPs I have. I'm happy to present: Christmas Drop by AAN! The main ornament is stitched with DMC satin, I think it was 666, and the yellow is Soie Crystale, but I lost the tag. Hopefully you can read it says "Merry Christmas" in the middle. The top ribbon is...

We haven't met up with my in-laws yet for Xmas, so I'm not sure if we will. If not I have a couple small things I made for my BIL and SIL that I think they'll like, so I'll give them these next time I see them.  I modified this design to fit on a towel from Lady Kell's excellent subversive sampler. She has another one about wiping your feet, and lots of other great freebies, so check out her Kincavel Krosses site if you're interested. I used Carries Creations Berry Swirl and I really love the effect. Of course since...

I completed stitching the 12 Days of Xmas the night before we left for our visit home, but I still needed to attach the backing fabric. We had some spare time when we were visiting friends, so I started pinning then and got 3 sides sewed, 2 long and one short. I left the short side open so I could flip the piece back the correct way. I completed stitching the short side at my parents while hiding the piece itself in my stitching bag. It was complicated, but it all came out all right in the end. One end, "On...

I finished First Bass by Ink Circles on Friday. I really enjoyed stitching this one. It was a very readable chart, and with only four colours and all full crosses, it was easily done. I used Carrie's Creations in Blue Lagoon, Ocean Blue, Bliss and Jelly Fish. Hopefully the recipient will like it.  Time to get back to 12 Days of Xmas, and don't forget about my giveaway. There are still 11 days left.  And if you're looking for a good poppy chart today of all days, check out this one at Hancock's House of Happy or Lady Kell's version at...

Finally! I did it! I had to stay up 'til around 2 to finish ironing, mounting, etc. but it's finished!  Here it is in all it's glory.  Hopefully it will do well. The fair workers mentioned there were a few other pieces, so I'll be interested to see how it matches up. I'm very happy with it, and I did put it up for sale. But I know exactly where it's going if it doesn't sell.  Now I'll take a bit of a break before going back to some of my Xmas projects. Hope all your stitching is going well! And no...

With Father's Day and my mom's birthday coming up I finished a coaster for each of them. I'm pretty excited about this one, a Cyberman from Hancock's House of Happy. I added the lettering and stitched him in DMC 168, 169, 413 and 310 for backstitch and letters. Check out Hancock's site for some excellent charts and some amazing ceramics from their Etsy store. This is a freebie from Sweetbriar Needle Design. I used the colours as charted and went with French and Colonial knots instead of beads.Hopefully they both like them. :) I'm pretty sure you can guess who gets...

April was a pretty productive month, I had 2 finishes! So now I have 5 finishes out of 12, so I'm a little bit ahead. Shall we re-cap? Again, this is for Lady Kell's X-Stitching Xmas Challenge. My first finish was a rose coaster in DMC perle and DMC metallics on 8.5 count waste canvas on to ivory felt. I broke 3 needles and it's not an experience I wish to repeat. I think it was the thickness of the threads that caused the issue, but needless to say I will not be using waste canvas again soon.  My second finish...

Here she is! The finishing touches have been added, she was ironed for maybe an hour, although it felt longer.. and she's 100% complete and framed!  I also have some close-ups so you can see the detail. With the mat we were able to leave the glass in, as you can likely tell by the glare, and I think it looks really good this way.  Here are the promised close-ups.  As Joyce suggested, I stitched the strings for the mandolin right before she was stretched and placed on the mounting board. I think it worked really well. They're nice and flat without needing...

I started this subversive band sampler by Lady Kell of Kincavel Krosses last summer. It was for a thank-you for a friend that helped me out a lot when my car broke down 40 minutes from my house. I was away from home for a while and never got the piece entirely finished, and wasn't worried about it too much, knowing I would get back to it eventually. Recently I heard my friend was in the hospital for treatment and evaluation of a possible stroke! So I started back at this piece immediately and finished it up. I just need to...

One of my favourite blogs, Random Ramblings, posted about one of her friends de-stashing and getting rid of a lot of wonderful stash. I picked some gorgeous blue fabrics and an Irish Sampler pattern.  If you'd like to see what else she has for sale, here's the original post from Random Ramblings.  I've been doing a fair amount of stitching lately as well. On the CSF someone brought up stitching 10 hours on something, then switching to another project. I've decided to rotate my projects over stitching sessions. I really need to finish Angelic Melody, so I've been stitching on it every other day...

I completed a small coaster for my Grandma using LK's St Patrick's day chart. I used navy 14 count aida and backed it with a spare piece of the same. Most of the colours are just DMC, but I did use WDW Purple Haze on the bottom right section and WDW Dutch Iris on the lower bird. I hope she likes it! I did mail it out about a week ahead, so with luck it arrived before March 17th.  I have an Easter one by another designer I'd like to start and right now I'm going to start on Lady Kell's Quaker...

Last night I watched our blu-ray version of A Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars More and managed to finish my gift. I didn't work as hard on it until the last couple days since it will be received on Saturday (Feb. 4) now instead of this past Sunday (Jan. 29). It was fun to stitch this one, and Kell's charts are always fun to stitch. Also, I had my DMC colors wrong, it was 106 and 67 that I used. I actually used up a whole skein of 106. Without further rambling..   It's 2 over 2 on 28...

At the start of 2011 I signed up for the Crazy January Challenge after hearing some other members of the Cross Stitch Forum (CSF) talk about joining in. I started 15 new projects successfully the first 15 days of January as follows: 1. 2011 sampler by Kell (DONE) 2. Super Mario sampler by carladee (DONE) 3. spiral fractal by skitzz 4., 5. 2 flower coasters free chart by the Cross Stitchers Club (DONE 1) 6. Yellow submarine chart from Pinoy stitch 7. one ornament from Snowflake Elegance Ornaments Gold Collection by Dimensions 8. Angelic Melody Gold Collection by Dimensions 9. Tiger by Janlynn...