Heathwitch’s Stitchcraft

[wip] Best Dad

And now for an update about my current WIP. Well, actually, it’s one project on from “Bloom”, because there was another piece I did this week — but I can’t share that until it’s back from the framers and in the hands of its intended recipient (’cause I know they read my blog). What I will say is (for once) it wasn’t a Lizzie*Kate piece, and that it was a steep learning curve on black evenweave, and made me worry a lot about the quality of my eyesight… ;-p

Anywho, the new/current WIP is a little Lizzie*Kate piece that I’m stitching for my Dad’s birthday, later this month. Hopefully it’ll work out a nice size so that I can finish it as his birthday card. Here’s where I’m up to so far, after 2hrs 35mins…

This is being stitched on 28ct Zweigart Cashel Vintage Linen in Country Cream; a welcome change from the black evenweave of late! True to form, I’ve been stitching while (initially) listening to music (Garth Brooks in concert FTW), and then, later, whilst half-watching Men in Black with Andrew. Goddess, that film is twelve years old — Will Smith looks so young (especially compared to The Pursuit of Happyness, which we watched last week) — and now I feel a lot older than I should do.

Or maybe that’s all those late-nights-sitting-up-stitching talking…

Note to Self…

… Black evenweave plus Light Effects thread means sore eyes. Very sore eyes.

What was I thinking?!

[wip] Wear a Smile #2

Lizzie*Kate’s “Wear a Smile” has taken me two and a half hours so far. I think it’s really showing the varigated thread (DMC’s Colour Variations 4240) to great effect.

I am under the weather today, so am taking a day in bed with some fruit, plenty of water, and my cross stitch. Who knows how many stitches may get done inbetween boughts of sleep? :-)

[finish] Live, Laugh, Love & [wip] Wear a Smile #1

My first finish of 2009 is one of Lizzie*Kate‘s Snippet designs, which I love. :-) I did some thread substitution on this — opting to use some plain DMC colours for the text and some of their Colour Variations for the decorations. I think it has worked out rather nicely — what say you?

This piece, “Live, Laugh, Love”, took seven hours to stitch (on 28ct evenweave) and will most likely end up as one of a series of thank you presents that I’m hoping to gift some people with this summer. I enjoyed stitching it that much that, once done, I immediately picked up another Snippet chart and made a start on that one last night, again on 28ct evenweave:

This will be “Wear a Smile”, and I’m doing something similar here — the main text is in Colour Variations, with the remaining text in plain colours. So far I’m about 1hr 40mins into this one, so it’s coming along nicely. I just wish I spend more time stitching at the moment as I’m really in the mood for it! LOL …

More updates coming soon! :-)

[wip] Cross Stitcher In Residence #2

Further on the Lizzie*Kate design, “Cross Stitcher In Residence” — actually, this has been sitting around here for a good few days after I reached the point shown in the photo below, but I have had a lot of other stuff going on. The PC died for one thing, and who knew that it would take over a week to get sorted? *sighs* But still, here be the current progress update:

Sadly though, it looks like I will have to take a break from crafts for a little while. :( My right hand has been sore of late, and when I began sobbing with pain on Saturday, AJV whisked me to the hospital pretty darn quick. Several x-rays later and it seems that I have a foreign body in my hand, and so will need an operation to remove it. Currently, the docs think it is the by-product of an encounter my hand had with a glass window back in 2004 (!) and that this sliver of glass has been sitting in my hand ever since, waiting for an opportune moment to wake up… Gah!

Thus, I’m currently wearing a protective bandage which is a little hampering for cross stitch. I haven’t checked to see if I can knit with it yet, but given that I will probably be wearing an even more restrictive bandage post-op, I’m not holding out much hope. :( That said, though, we currently don’t know when the op will be — hopefully, we will be able to find out later on in the day.

Best do what I can while I can then, yea? ;)