Thursday, September 23, 2010

Needlework designs copyright

Well, here is a subject close to my heart - both as a stitcher and hobby designer.  This site addresses it well:

http://needleworkcopyright.blogspot.com/

Happy Stitching!!

Stacy

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Another Baby Afghan

I finished another baby afghan.  This one is for my cousin Jen's baby boy who is supposed to make his appearance in November.

The pattern is from The Best of Terry Kimbrough Baby Afghans from Leisure Arts.  I've done several different patterns from this book - it's a great resource!
















Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Wild Menagerie

Wild Menagerie is done!!  I finished it Sunday night (well, early Monday morning to be precise).

Here's a picture of the finished project:












My next project will be La Belle Dame Sans Merci  from Heaven and Earth Designs.

Happy Stitching!!

Stacy

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Wild Menagerie update

Well, I've finished 2 more pages on Wild Menagerie. That leaves just 2 pages to go - the pages with the least stitching on them!



This means the tiger and lion are completely done. The leopard just needs to have his nose finished.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Thursday, August 19, 2010

English Cottage

At times, I can be a sneaky devil. ;-)

My in-laws left town right before our county fair began. I have a key to their house. I decided that I was going to enter Miss Hathaway's Garden in the fair. I stitched this for my mother-in-law. On my way to the fairgrounds with 2 other pieces I was going to enter, I stopped by my in-law's and "borrowed" the English cottage picture.

My results from the items I showed:

  • A blue ribbon and best of section for the crocheted doily
  • A blue ribbon for the cross stitch sampler I designed
  • A blue ribbon, best of section and first place rosette for Miss Hathaway's Garden

Last night, I returned the cottage picture to my in-law's house. This time, I really felt like a burglar because the park they are in only had 1 or 2 houses with lights still on! ;-)

When I re-hung the picture, I left the ribbons hanging on it. Ron and I are waiting to see how long it takes for either of my in-laws to notice!

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Wild Menagerie update

Well, I've finished pages 2-9 on Wild Menagerie. That leaves 4 pages to go. Page 10 is almost a full page of stitching but the rest of the pages are considerably less.


Here's a picture of my progress thru page 9:


I have rolled the scroll frames and made a few stitches on page 10.
Happy Stitching!
Stacy

Monday, August 9, 2010

Lions, Tigers and Bears, oh my!

Ok, my WIP doesn't have any bears. There is a tiger and a lion though.

Saturday night, I finished a page in the pattern for my Wild Menagerie WIP. I had already made working copies of the next 2 pages (I highlight my progress and destroy the copy).

When I started to double check the area for the next page, I saw a nose on the pattern that wasn't fitting in properly. I had to sit there and stare at it for about 5 minutes before I realized that I had already stitched that page! It was great to realize that I had 1 more page done than I had thought!

That means that I have pages 9-13 left to stitch. I made some progress on page 9 last night but didn't bother to take a picture.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Saturday, August 7, 2010

New WIP

Well, now that I've finished the Rune Sampler, one of my UFOs is now a WIP. The project getting my attention now is Wild Menagerie. Here is a current picture:

The reason that it's sideways, is because that's how I'm stitching it. The material wouldn't fit horizontally on any of my scroll frames, so I rotated the fabric and the pattern 90°.
You can't see it because it's wrapped around the top scroll frame, but I have the tiger completely done. As you can see, I'm making good progress on the lion. The confetti stitching at the bottom of the photo will eventually be a leopard.
Happy Stitching!
Stacy

Rune Sampler finished!

Yeah!! I finished the Rune Sampler on Wednesday night. Here's a picture:

I've already picked out the mat that I'm going to use when I frame it. Now I'm just waiting for some frame samples to arrive so that I can pick out the perfect frame.
This project was started on 1-1-2010, so it took me 8 months to stitch. There were other projects that I worked on since the first of the year, so really, not a long time to do this one.
Happy Stitching!
Stacy

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Rune Sampler progress

Well, I have managed to do some cross stitching between working on quilts. Here is my latest progress picture for the Rune Sampler.




Hopefully, I can get this done in time to enter in this year's county fair! I guess I'd better get to stitching on it more!

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Another Quilt Top

The quilting bug has bitten me hard! Lately, all I've wanted to do is work on quilts.

Linda from the Stashbuilders yahoo group, posted a photo of her One Block Wonder quilt to that list and it inspired me to try one myself. I just finished adding the borders last night.

Here's the fabric I used:




and here is the quilt top:

I may appliqué some of the original fabric onto the borders. I haven't made up my mind yet. I know that as soon as I get a little extra money, I'm going to have to rent time on a quilting machine...the finished tops are literally piling up! This one makes six that need to be quilted!
Happy Stitching!
Stacy

Friday, May 28, 2010

Latest Quilt Top


I was trying to make a dent in the number of 2" squares that I have - this quilt top is the result. The pattern was inspired by a scrap quilt that I saw on Quiltville. The only problem is that the tub the squares are stored in doesn't appear to have less squares than before! I really don't know how I ended up with all these 2" squares but I guess I'm going to have to find another pattern to use up more of them.
Happy Stitching!!
Stacy

Baby afghan


Here's a pic of the latest baby afghan I've made. The parents already know they are having a boy, so I used blue yarn. The pattern is from The Best of Terry Kimbrough's Baby Afghans, Leisure Arts.



Happy Stitching!!


Stacy

Rune Sampler update

Here are a couple of photos of my progress on my Rune Sampler.


This is the completed top half before I rolled the fabric to start working on the bottom half.

Here is my progress on the bottom half. I'm really hoping to get this done in time to show in our local fair in August.
Happy Stitching!!
Stacy

Monday, March 29, 2010

Sewing

How's this for an oxymoron? I love to sew, I love to hand quilt, I hate to hand sew. ;-)

I managed to make myself do some hand sewing yesterday. I have 3 wallhangings that needed hanging sleeves and now they have them!

One is a Santa wallhanging that's been done for over 2 years but w/o the sleeve, I had no way to display it.

Another one already had the sleeve but I'd attached it too far from the top. Now it's nearer the top where it belongs.

The last one was a kit that I had won online. I had started to put it together but it involved curves and it didn't work out too well. I gave the whole thing to my sister in defeat. Last year, guess what I got for my birthday? The completed quilt! As soon as I buy the hardware, this is going to be hanging along the stairway to my sewing room.

Happy Stitching!

~Stacy

Saturday, March 27, 2010

My website now has a store!

I've just finished updating my website to include a Store.

Items currently available are: leaflets (cross stitch, crochet and knitting); books (cross stitch); cross stitch accessories; and thimbles. Soon, I will have a couple of my original patterns available as well.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy
http://home.comcast.net/~rjcsmc/

Friday, March 26, 2010

Progress update




Here is an updated photo of my progress on Rune Sampler. This was taken before I did any stitching last night so I have made even more progress than this photo shows.





Happy Stitching!





~Stacy

Monday, March 15, 2010

Rune Sampler update

Here is my progress on my Rune Sampler as of 7 March 2010. The runes stitch up quickly but the border is so detailed that it takes full concentration. This represents the finish of page 1 of 4.


I have been working on it since, but this is the most recent photo.
Happy Stitching!
Stacy

Great needlework quote!

I was watching Lark Rise to Candleford (BBC tv series, season 1) last week and heard this quote:

"Because for a needlewoman, embroidery it's like the poet taking up the pen. It expresses her deepest longing."

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Cats & Quilts



I don't know what the fascination is between cats and quilts, but apparently my cat, Spooky has it! She burrowed under the quilt that I am working on and this is what I could see of her.

Stacy

Monday, January 18, 2010

Thread Crochet

Lately, I've been on a thread crochet binge. I work on these projects while watching TV with my DH or while riding in the car.


This is a doily that I did from an issue of Magic Crochet. Finished size is 32in. in diameter.




I've also been making crocheted snowflakes. Here are the first 10 that I've crocheted, starched and dried.

These are from the book 101 Snowflakes from American School of Needlework.





Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Rune Sampler progress

Here is my progress so far on Rune Sampler from Dracolair Creations.


Here is a detail photo of the corner medallions.


Here is a detail photo of the border.

Happy Stitching!
Stacy




Wednesday, January 6, 2010

First stitches in 2010

On the 2MuchXS Yahoo group, there is a challenge to start a new project every Jan. 1. Since I finished Flight of Freedom, I had a set of scroll frames free so I decided to join the challenge.

My start on Jan. 1 is Rune Sampler by Dracolair Creations. Here is what it will look like finished:





Here is the progress that I made on Jan. 1:








and here is my current progress:




Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Last of my 2009 finishes

Well, I've finally gotten around to getting the photos off my camera, so here are the last of my finishes for 2009.

This is a washcloth/hot pad that I crocheted in afghan stitch. It was one of the items that I put in a basket for my mother's Christmas gift.

This next picture is a bunch of ornaments that I've stitched over the years. None of them were done this year, I just remembered to take a photo.



My mother is always saying that it "smells like snow" so when I saw this pattern, I just had to do this for her. This was another item in her Christmas basket.

I made this doily for my grandmother for Christmas. She's hard to buy for, but loves handmade items so I gave her this plus a hand-knitted scarf. (I forgot to take a pic of the scarf.)



My last finish for 2009! This is Flight of Freedom, a Dimensions kit. This is for my DH who has a love of bald eagles. The flag, eagle and branch are whole cross stitches. All the rest is half stitches. It was especially fun to do the cording and tassel on the left edge of the flag.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy