Celtic birds - finished!

Today, the 16th of May, 2012 is a special day for 2 things: 1. Gregory has lost another tooth (which reminds me: one pound off housekeeping money to reimburse Tooth Fairy...), and 2. I finally finished the Celtic bird cushion that I started months and months ago, although in fact I only worked roughly 10 days on it in total. Now all that`s left to do is to turn it into a cushion but I have plenty time for that, since I decided to give it to my mother-in-law for Christmas. And here`s the last photo that looks like all the previous eight (I promise I won`t post any more of it):

Nana`s gift for Mothers` Day

Just a quick update on today`s update - since I`m feeling rather prolific! The shamrock is not a mere sheet of plastic canvas any more: it`s a necklace-with-medallion type of thing that my son will probably VERY categorically refuse to wear but I`m sick of making badges for him for every occasion. And (drum roll, please) I managed to finish Nana`s prezzie as well:

Actually, this wasn`t too big an achievement after all, considering how tiny the stitched motif is... to be quite honest, it was a bigger challenge to a) find a photo in which all three of us look more or less normal and b) try to squeeze said photo into this limited space. Oh, and in case you think the stitching is SOOO tiny you can`t even see it, here`s a close-up:

St Patrick`s Day

Now and again I seem to arrive at such a busy phase in my life that I almost hyperventilate with panic. Take this week, for example. I just put my Mum on a plane on Sunday (after spending her last day here frantically stitching my Granny`s birthday present!), but not before she dropped a bombshell on me: why don`t we spend the spring holiday in Hungary? So Gregory and I are leaving on 1 April - while my poor Hubby has to stay and work - for ten days in Budapest, including Easter, yay! ("Yay", except for the part where my Hubby`s not coming with us :((( ). Someone a bit less anal retentive than I am would probably not even blink if they were told that they`re travelling in less than 3 weeks; me, I`m blind with panic. I just spent the last two days booking tickets, confirming passport numbers, printing boarding passes, then sending e-mails to a number of friends to inform them re: arrival... and then the REAL panic hit: what prezzies to take, and what`s to be made for here before I go? Well, to keep them in chronological order: the first thing was an Irish shamrock for Gregory for St Patrick`s Day at the school on Friday:

It took me almost a day to get the chart right, I basically copied a tattoo on graph paper and I only realised when I started stitching that I had to put quite a lot of fractionals in it, which otherwise would not be a problem but this time I was working on plastic canvas so that I can turn the design into a badge... well, you see the result, my knotwork is a wee bit wonky at places but hey, at least it`s done, one box can be ticked. My next task will be to stitch something to go in the lovely little poppy-decorated frame that came as a freebie with one of my magazines a couple of weeks ago - this I`ll make for my mother-in-law for Sunday. And then I`ll have about two weeks to make something that I can take in my suitcase (as opposed to posting, cf. my earlier rantings) for my Mum and Gran for THEIR Mothers` Day present - for here`s an interesting (albeit useless) piece of information for you: in Hungary, Mothers` Day is the first Sunday in May, then the last one is Children`s Day, and the first Sunday in June is Teachers` Day - I think this latter is especially recommendable, although we don`t have Fathers` Day and that`s pretty shameful... On the other hand, we still celebrate International Women`s Day on 8 March when men give flowers to women and generally try to be a wee bit nicer, if only for a day... Och, well, that`s the way of the world but enough of this blah-blah, time to go back to my stitching!

new project in-between birds

I`ve created a new Facebook page, called (surprisingly...) Cross Stitch A to Z. For the past few days I`ve been so busy making new friends over there that I quite neglected my wee blog - I realise this ashamedly (is that a word?) now. Besides, I didn`t have the usual amount of time to sit in front of the computer anyway, thanks to the mid-term break and a boisterous 6-year-old running all over the place but we survived (albeit barely) and now I`m here again. So here`s the story of the past week in photos:

I got this far with my birds when I was forced to stop: partly because after the dark blue I also ran out of the dark green, so I couldnt`t finish the knotwork anyway... and when I thought that nevermind, I`d just get on with the hundreds of yards` worth of backstitch, I fell in love with this...

How beautiful is this picture? It is called Shire Horses, originally by Coats Crafts UK, but I found the pattern in the World of Cross Stitching issue 114.

I started it on Friday night and this is where I am just now:

14 February - Happy Valentine`s Day!

If I`m honest, I`m starting to panic a bit: after the dark blue, I`m about to run out of SEVERAL colours. When the sky`s a bit cloudy, I`m thinking, "Not fair!" (not the sky but life in general, you understand...). When the sun comes out, I`m thinking, "Good! At least it`ll make my trip worthwhile and I don`t have to go to Kirkcaldy for just ONE skein!". And whatever the weather, I`m stitching like crazy, like the proverbial old dear who`s knitting faster and faster to finish the jumper before her wool runs out... Not that you can see much of a result of all that "fast" work... can you?

11 February update

Just a quick photo attachment this time - sorry, sore head, sore tooth... and we didn`t win the lottery AGAIN so I think I`ll go to bed. At least my birds` knotwork frame is growing (although if I wanted to continue in the negative vein, I could say that my dark blue, typically, ran out just before I could complete the circle - the eagle-eyed among you might notice that there`s cca. 10 cm missing at the bottom... and, I`m afraid, it`s going to be missing until the next time I`m in Kirkcaldy to get one (=1) skein of DMC 791). Anyway, I can hear my bed calling, so here`s this weekend`s photo:

7 February update

Good news: the cold is almost over, I`m on my last few tissues. Bad news: my wisdom tooth, the fourth one that still hasn`t grown out completely, decided to give it another go last night, so I hardly slept a wink, now my whole jaw is throbbing. But even this has a silver line in it: since I can barely swallow, losing some weight should be as easy as... pie... yumm...!
Last time I hinted that I have a knitting project as well. So here are the details: a few weeks ago I found this knitted sausage-snail cushion on Etsy, in a shop called WaveSong (how beautiful is that?) and I`ve been itching to try to make one myself ever since.

I only have a rough idea how it might have been made so, absolutely playing it by ear, I started to knit a roughly 18-20 cm wide scarf - I`m thinking, by the time I roll it up sideways, it should give me a thick-enough sausage for cushion purposes. I still need to figure out how long it`ll need to be (Hubby reckons at least 3 metres), because the diameter of the cushion should be at least 35 cms to be ideal for average chair- and bum-widths.
So far, this is what I`ve got:

I know, I have a long way to go yet... but it feels good to knit again, it exercises other muscles in my hand for a change. Well, not SUCH a big change, you see, because I`m never too far away from my cross stitch. This is the state of my birds after the weekend:

As the picture grows, it`s increasingly more time-consuming to get round a whole circle so I`m expecting my progress will slow down too - hopefully, though, I`ll be able to finish my January project before the end of February!

1 February update

Well, it looks like I haven`t been able to finish my birdies in January... nevermind, it can be my February challenge! And to my defence, may I add that I`m full of something - yeah, I know what you`re thinking, probably THAT as well but no, I meant the cold or, scarily possibly, the flu... plus, on top of all that, whenever I`m not feeling too weak to hold the needles, I started a knitting project as well (more of that later).
Anyway, last night my nose finally stopped dripping like a dodgy tap for long enough so that I could do some stitching and here`s the result:

I`m not sure the difference is instantly obvious so I`d better explain: I finished the knotwork under the two birds and started adding the backstitch at the bottom, e.g. the feet of the blue-headed bird are now visible (I hope! If not, I`m sorry for the photo`s quality!). I`m also beginning to realise that the backstitch will take me absolutely ages - something I should`ve known from the fact that the magazine suggested getting 3 skeins (!) of the backstitch colour, which means I`m going to need roughly 144 metres (!!!) to finish it. Lovely...

26 January update

Not feeling on top of the world due to some sort of cold (that, interestingly, induced only 3 or 4 noseblows all day but I still feel so washed-out), so anyway, due to this "feeling poorly", I hardly stitched today. It is now 6 o`clock, I`m sitting here waiting for Hubby to arrive with my medicine (= pizza), and this is the state of my birds:

update on Celtic birds

Just a quick photo update after the one I put up here yesterday (24 January) morning; I was working on my birds all day yesterday and today... It`s 5 p.m. now and my eyes are bleeding so I guess it`s time to stop. This is how things stand just now:

next Celtic challenge

Here`s what I`ve been working on since last Friday... well, actually, the weekend doesn`t really count since Hubby`s got manflu, i.e. looking after him (=mostly putting up with his mood) and entertaining the 6-year-old... I mean THE OTHER 6-year-old in the house was solely my responsibility for those blessed 48 hours... So anyway, this is how far I got with my next Celtic challenge (next, as in "after the Celtic chessboard" and challenge, because I want to finish it in January - hahaha!):

And just in case you can`t figure it out what it is yet, here`s a photo from the magazine (Mary Hickmott`s New Stitches, issue 194) of this lovely Celtic cushion:

I think it`ll look stunning, I can`t wait to see the finished cushion!!!

Celtic chessboard - finished!

There isn`t much to add to the title - especially, since I very unprofessionally forgot to document exactly when I started to stitch this, so I have no idea how long it took: I`d say roughly 3 weeks but I really don`t know... According to the magazine, it`s a 100-hour project, so let`s go by their calculations.

Cross Stitcher Issue 152 (October 2004)

The main thing is that it`s done, framed and dusted, and - not because I made it but simply thanks to the design - it`s STUNNING! For the first (well, umpteenth...) time in my life I sooooo wish I knew how to play chess!!!

ambivalence

I know I haven`t written anything for ages - truth is, I feel a bit deflated these days. Not only because the creative frenzy of the past 3-4 weeks is over (and what a result I had at the festival! Details in a minute...) but also because I had a nasty surprise yesterday. You know, the backstabbing type, where somebody says something to you one day and three days later does the very opposite - I don`t have the time (I`m about to go to Kellie Castle AT LAST with my wee coaster!) or the inclination to go into details, suffice it to say that I feel slightly betrayed and I HATE this feeling! Plus the weather`s dismal - my friend Nessie (who, for some reason, started to sign her messages as Nessi so maybe I should follow her example as well), so Nessi from Australia is telling me that due to the coming spring, she spends more and more time in her garden... whereas I spend more and more of my time putting the heating on and preparing more Christmas decorations. Brrrr!

Well, actually, this last bit is not strictly true: I have so many great ideas for Christmas decorations and I can`t wait to get started but I can`t, unfortunately, for being disciplined as I am, I don`t want to start a new project until I finish what I already started. And here is the one in question:

 As you can see, the Celtic knotwork is already done, and silly me, I thought that "filling in the blanks" with black will be the easy part! Well, it is in a way because at least I don`t have to follow a pattern but IT TAKES ABSOLUTELY AGES! I thought I`d be finished by now... oh, and when the frame is done, I still have to finish the black squares which at the moment look like an intricate trellis as opposed to the visibly divided black squares of a chessboard. So, all in all, there`s still a lot more to do and all the while I`m eager to start on my wee Christmas stockings!

Anyway, gotta go now, my new friend Linda is almost here - darn, I completely forgot to write about her, the Festival, the whole weekend, everything! Nevermind, I`ll make up for it next time...