Heathwitch’s Stitchcraft

Follow Your Heart

This is the last of the Lizzie*Kate pieces I’ve been stitching this Spring (though one other still needs to be blogged about at some point!). “Follow Your Heart” turned out to be one of the fastest finishes ever, at a mere five hours, and was stitched on 28ct Zweigart “Jubilee” evenweave, in antique white. I did no colour substitutions on this one, and only modified the charm at the end (and that only because this one was a lot cheaper than the official charm, and what with my wedding coming up very fast… *gulp*!).

Next up should be a very cute, very tiny little spring chick from the front of a recent Cross Stitch Card Shop magazine which, although working up nicely, is reiterating to me again how much I’m moving away from aida — so much tougher than evenweave or linen… Still, hopefully he’ll be making an appearance here soon!

Cherish, Dream, Live

A more recent finish was yet another Lizzie*Kate piece (hmmm, perhaps Spring 2009 should be henceforth known as the Lizzie*Kate Spring…) — this time, “Cherish, Dream, Live”. I started this piece back in February, opting to stitch it on 28ct Zweigart Cashel Vintage Linen in “Country Cream”, but then I got sidetracked by other pieces (with closer deadlines — such as Best Dad and My Best Friend’s Bra). And so, this piece took two months to finish but only 9 hours of actual stitching time.

Despite the delay in stitching, this one came out rather nicely — and it was a breeze to do, too!

Currently, I’m working on what will probably be my last Lizzie*Kate piece for a while (“Follow Your Heart”) and also a new BAP… More to come on these soon. :-)

My Best Friend’s Bra…

Some of you will remember that I blogged back in March about a piece I’d finished, that I couldn’t talk about — the infamous electric-blue-thread-on-black-evenweave piece. Well, said piece came back from the framers at the start of March — which meant I was then able to present it to my best friend and heart-sister, Jo. :-)

Jo has been one of my rocks for many years, and while she was organising my hen party (held on April 4th) I was busy stitching her a whimsical but heartfelt little chart, courtesy of Sue Hillis Designs. Andrew suggested stitching it on black evenweave to give it some more “oomph” and, having never stitched on the stuff before, I thought it would be an interesting learning experience.

And y’know what? Black evenweave — in this case 28ct Jobelan black — isn’t that bad. Once you get used to the way the light catches it, and the interplay of the shadows on the fabric, it’s remarkably easy to work. The downside comes when you pause in your stitching to pick up a piece on a paler fabric, and then return to the black later — that’s when your eyes protest.

Oh, and your eyes also protest when you think, “Hmmm, some electric blue thread would work wonders on this..!” and proceed to use said electric blue thread — DMC’s Light Effects E3843, to be precise. That’s what the slogan is stitched in. I also changed the colour of the heart on this — opting for some DMC Colour Variations again, shade 4180, rather than three different shades of pink. I think it worked out quite nicely:

The backstitch on this piece took the most work — it alone doubled the stitching time! In the end, it was completed after 11 hours’ stitching, but it was so worth it. Then it went to the framers’ for around three weeks to be laced, matted and framed. Here it is fully finished and framed:

As for Jo, well — she loved it! I had great delight in presenting it to her during my hen party — right after returning from the Italian restaurant but before the complementary and beauty therapists pampered all us girls. :-)

The Cat’s Whiskers!

Here’s a nice quick finish to share — at just under 2″ x 2″, this piece took 4hrs 30min to stitch on 14ct white aida. It became a thank you card for a friend.

The chart for this came originally from Sue Cook’s Quick-to-Stitch Cross Stitch Cards, and had some modifications — for instance, I changed the colour of the background (from teal to blue) and chose not to include a seed bead for the tag on the collar (I felt it looked good enough without it). In addition, I backstitched the whiskers instead of using the recommended flexible wire! I had to improvise on where they were, but I think it worked out just fine.

Best Dad

Last week, I finished my most recent WIP, “Best Dad”, which was being worked on 28ct Zweigart Cashel Vintage Linen in Country Cream. Andrew worked wonders framing it in time for Dad’s birthday.

Here’s the finished cross stitch, newly washed and ready for framing. It took 8 hours and 10 mins in all, but I did decide not to stitch the border as shown on the original Lizzie*Kate chart as we both felt — what with the double matting we’d decided upon — that it would detract from the piece.

Andrew then self-framed it, using two pieces of card for the mounts (which he measured and cut himself) — one in a deep blue, the other in a shimmery cornflower blue. They work very well together, it must be said! If you like, you can click this image for a larger version:

And Dad himself? Well, when he unwrapped his gift and saw it, he was very touched. You could tell; for a long while he didn’t know what to say and got a bit teary-eyed — and that I got a massive hug (Andrew was out at work at the time). Later in the week we also took him to Glastonbury Abbey for the day, which is a bit of a trek for us but so worth it — Dad had wanted to see the Abbey after watching a documentary on the dissolution of the monestaries on the television, and Andrew and I need no excuses for visiting one of our favourite towns! Still, I am so glad that we managed to make his 71st a little extra special. :-)