Monday, March 23, 2009

Downtime is nice, but...

I'm really itching to get started on the new piece!! My test threads shipped early last week, my fabric last weekend, so I'm hoping and praying they'll be here today.

I've been having some fun, stitching some things just for me. I worked on Spanish Rouge a little bit (no pic) and Blackstone Fantasy Garden a bit (no pic) and did up two smaller pieces and finished both!


This lovely piece is called I Will Give You Five Hearts and is from A Mon Ami Pierre. One of the things I love about the French designers is their use of swirls and flourishes - they are just so pretty and fun to stitch. The pattern called for five colours I think, but I decided to do it as a monochrome and used the colour Rosebud from Crescent Colours Belle Soie. It came out very lovely and was a really nice choice I think. I used Vikki Clayton's 35ct linen in Haywains for this project.


And this beautiful little heart is from Point Passion and is called Arabesque Coeur. It is a wonderfully quick stitch, it only took me about 3 hours I think. I stitched this on Vikki's 35 ct linen again in the natural undyed colour, and used an old colour, double dusty rose. This is the colour I plan on using for Romy's Austrian Spot Sampler.

I then started a new piece, a butterfly, but I really had to question my sanity starting it on 48 ct linen from Legacy. It's not that I can't see the holes, I can see them just fine, but I can't get even a 28 needle through them without force and my poor fingers ache from the effort. So I scrapped it and decided to start Tuscany Hearts by Needlemania. I'm a little way into it and enjoying it immensely. I love the colours so much that I'm using them as charted - something almost unheard of for me!

So what else is new... well I treated myself, after the thrill of being signed by a distributor, and the release of two designs, I thought I deserved a little bit of a present. :) So I picked up a few charts, and some fabric. And I've been investigating picking up full sets of threads for use in colour selection. I've decided, even though it might be a bit of overkill, that I will pick up all of my favourite silks. I already have a complete set of HDF on tags, but the others I just have bits here and there, so I'll be picking up one new set each time I can afford to do so. I'm so excited!!

With that in mind I decided this week that it is time for me to say goodbye to my DMC hoard. I say hoard because there are several thousand skeins of it. Why get rid of it? Because I haven't used even one strand of DMC in over a year. Yes I have projects started with it, but I don't enjoy working on them so will likely never finish them. I will keep one complete set for comparisons and conversions and the rest are going to be sent to a new home. I've got a couple of places I can send them to so I know they will be well cared for. lol

And now I'm off to stitch and do laundry, and enjoy another day off. At least until the mail arrives!

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