Marriage cross stitch

And so it begins...  It is a 8 by 10 bucilla counted cross stitch number 40777 (19 colors).  Since I have two of these to make (not the same pattern) hopeful it won't take too long. 

In the bottom photo you can see my magnifying glass that helps me see the stitches it is on a stand and had a light to illuminate the project making things easier to work on as well... I am not as young as I use to be.  Sadness I use to have 20/15 vision better than perfect but with time we all get older.

The heart you see started is the middle of the cross stitch.  Haven't gotten any progress on this done as I have been sick the last few days so here is hoping I can get this one done before the term starts and I am back in classes and the craziness of life takes over again.

a few projects

Last night I started to knit a pair of what the author calls traditional Portuguese lace socks.  This is in the hopes they would help me to figure out the toe section I want to do on the fair-isle style  yellow and red socks that I want.    Those yellow and red socks I want to make have a stitch  count of 12 to 14 per inch.  That may not seem like much but when you look at a single square inch that equals 144 to 196 stitches which is an insane about of stitches per inch... If you then  compare that to 91.375 stitches per square inch for the lace pattern of the sock just started yep it will take 8 to 12 times longer to knit.  My kids got me sick last night or I would be further along on this.

The pattern for the lace socks can be found In Andrea wong's etsy store
 
Other projects started at my home.

I am doing cross-stitch contract work.  Two of them to be exact, they are wedding samplers.  This is for the same lady I have done all the baby announcements for in the past.

My middle daughter has started to make a few hand made books.  She is using the coptic book binding technique taught on a long time ago on my blog but she is using paper instead of fabric.  I think she is making six of these.  She has been real sick for a while so this is something she can do while in bed.

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There is also another knitting project on the horizon. This is a knitted Christmas stocking for my cousin Eric.   We as children: my 6 cousins and my older sister brother and myself grew up together at my Vova's house  ( grandmother's house).  She had the nuns in the area hand knit us all  Christmas stockings.  Some how a few years back my cousin Eric's went missing his was the second oldest grandchild stocking.   So I am borrowing my oldest cousin Kelly's sock to make a copy of it to give to Eric, this was requested by my Aunt Nonnie.  I could have just bought one on Ebay or Etsy for him for 40 some dollars that would have been the same pattern but it would have been made out of acrylic yarn.  Ours being the age they were are made in all wool.  So I will be making his so it will be made out of wool like the rest of them.  Won't be the original but it is as close as I can do.

Now to just buy the pattern and of course knit it.

P-51- Mustang

My husband is addicted to airplanes. So a little over a year ago my oldest daughter, China, did her first attempt at a cross stitch as a gift for him  She finished it about 1:30 A.M. on December 23 2016.   Just in time to give it to him for Christmas.  This is her first attempt at cross stitch so there is always room for improvement but as a first attempt not bad.  Her threads need to be neater on the back and she need to keep her work cleaner.  The easiest way to do that is not to take it on choir tour to work on it.  Just let it sit in one spot so it doesn't get messed up.  But over all I think he will like it.  She will have given it to him before this posts so yes this is posting Christmas Eve but she is giving it to him on Christmas Eve early in the evening.

And here is the back for those that like that sort of thing.  You can see if you look close her tails are too long.  Makes the back look fuzzy also when you go to mount this in a frame things like this don't let the piece lay as nicely in the frame.  As a first project it is pretty good all the same.  My first project like this was like 2 inches by 3 inches hers is 11 inches by 18 inches which is a ton more work and takes so much longer to  do.  I did my first cross stitch about the age of 12 seven years earlier than her wish i knew where mine was if I ever find it I will post it was a girl clown.  Hers is much more intricate not a beginner project mine was a beginner project 100%.  Neither of us started with stamped cross stitch both started with counted cross stitch stamped is easier it is sort of like color inside the lines but for stitching.  She added the name of the plane and her initials and the date after I suggested it I think it finishes the piece nicer to have that on there. Encase anyone wants to do this project the pattern is from A & L Designs P.O. Box 945 Pottsville PA 17901, 717/622-6102  that is from the pattern but i don't know if it still works or not. Item number SA003-B Sky Aces Series p-51-Mustang.  Sorry I don't know the publish date.  Looks like there might be a few other planes in this series a

•  Zero A6M2 
•  P- 38 - Lightning 
• Hurricane Mk-2
• P-51- Mustang ( shown in this post)
• F-4- War hawk

not sure if there is more than that.  she found the kit at a thrift shop  and thought her dad might like it.

There is also what is called a warrior series which includes

• F-III Raven
• F- 14 Tomcat
• F-15 eagle
• A-6E Intruder
• panavia tornado

Baby drawers birth record

Doing another cross-stitch for a customer.  This is the same person that had me do them in the past.  She just keeps getting grand babies.  I decided to show all the progress in just one post.  As most know I am not fond of cutesy items and yes I consider this cutesy.  I also discovered during this that it is getting harder for me to do this type of work my eyes are having a hard time focusing on such things so close to me.  So I do wear glasses now when my eyes are tired from doing small hand work for long periods of time.  I guess age is catching up to me.

Guardian Angel ...cross stitch

Been busy trying to get a cross stitch done for a customer.   She always starts a cross stitch but then get behind on it so I end up doing them.   This one was not the norm as usually she makes one mistake and Ii find it and it is easy to fix and go forward. 
This one had so many mistakes before it got to me I had to frog what she had and start from scratch.  So all the work you see in this is mine although it did come to me originally with a 1 inch by about 1 1/2 inch area done.  But since I removed all that and started again... well you get the idea.  Those that follow my blog know I am not fond of doing cross stitch for contract work but this lady usually gives me tips and since I have done stuff for her in the past kind of hard to say no.  So  I just do it these days.  Of course when she picked this up she had another one for me to do.  The new one has more stitching than most so it will be twice the price of the usual ones she brings me.  Below you see the progress of the work I did none of hers is in these photos misplaced my camera for a bit so I missed that part of the process.

The angel in the original pattern had short hair and wings.  She did not want the angel with wings so I did not do that part.  Also since it was a baby girl I gave the angel long hair to fill in the area that should have had wings.

This is what it looked like when all finished

To cut or not to cut...

I got this serape about 5 years ago at a thrift store for about 3 to 5 dollars.   I held on to it becasue I love the bright colors on the embroidery.  This is vintage probably from the 60's or 70's.  I have seen similar ones on the internet for between 175 dollars and 200 dollars. It said it is made out of wool so I had hopped it would felt and make a nice thick fabric to make a pencil skirt or suit skirt out of.

May still make the skirt but it would not be as warm as I had hoped it would be becasue it did not felt at all trust me I tried several times.  So here is my question is it a bad idea to cut up this.  I know it has a ton of embroidery in it and I know I will never wear it as a serape. I would wear it as a skirt.  Should I feel bad about cutting into this piece of fabric and in that process tossing some of the embroidery.  I really would like some feedback on this. There are more photos of this on flickr sorry I had a hard time getting a good photo of it.

Finished...

This is done and none to soon.  She will be over tomorrow to pick this up.  The customer will be adding the babies name, date of birth, weight, and length to the piece.  I hope her children like it.  Always sort of weird to do things like this as other than those that read my blog no one knows I did this and the person who gets it will think that her mother made it.  I am fine with that just sort of a weird thought.  The finished image area is 11 x14 inches but the overall area is much larger if you count the white area surrounding the piece.

basket and flower

I have finished the dreaded basket and scrolled the work to finish the last little area with a bird and a flower and a few leaves.  I will post again later today when it is done.

A vine a blue bird and a hand

I was wondering if others had any idea how large or small this cross stitch is.  So I have included a photo with my left hand to sort of give you an idea of how large this is.  So is it bigger or smaller than you thought it was.

I  have made a lot of progress on this.  As you can tell I have been avoiding the basket there is a lot of work in that little space below the bear.  Almost every square has to be messed with 2 to 4 times.  I am getting to the point where I will have to get that part done as I have to scroll the work soon to do another bird, flower and some leaves still.  The owner of this is showing up Friday so much to do and so little time left.

Back of my work... Squirrel

For those who are curious as to what the back (Ann this is for you) of my work looks like on my cross stitch here you go.   All embroidery is messy to some extent on the back but I still think this is pretty neat compared to some I have seen.

Here is the squirrels progress.  If things are not looking like they pop very well I have not outlined anything yet.  I wanted to get all that would be able to be stitched without moving the scroll bars on my frame done.  Then right before I scroll I will make all the outline work and scroll to the top portion that does not have much work on it.

Teddy bear and duck

peter cotton tail progress

peter cotton tail progress, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

Haven't shown any thing on this in a little while. Thought a few of you might be interested in Peter's progress towards completion.

Birth record number 2

Here is the start of the second birth record I am doing for contract work.  This one I like a ton better than the other.  Yes it is cute but it isn't over the top cute.  It is more  sweet image that is classic is style.  This one is fun for me to work on where the other was painful mentally. 

It also has between 3 and 3 times as many colors as the first one, so it is harder to work on.  The colors are very close to each other to get subtle shading.  The other had a ton of outlining to make things pop this one only seems to have outlining on the animals to make them pop but not on the flowers and other plants to make them more subdued and more soft on the eyes to look at.

Very different in styles interesting that the same person picked both of these.  This is on 14 count aida cloth just like the last one.

 

Back of the work

For some reason people seam to be always interested in the back of a piece of embroidery to see if it is neat or messy.  To me this is a little messy to others it is neat.  What ever it is that is how it will stay since the piece is finished.  For those who cross stitch often please give me your opinions as I am curious how it is for those in the know.  As I only known my older sister's  work and mine from the back and hers looked very similar to this too.  But that was way back when we lived together as kids so I am sure hers has improved just as mine did with time.  Please feel free to click on the image to go to the big version then click again to see even better so you can check it out .

1st one done now on to #2

We went to see my sister for Easter.  So with a 5 1/2 hour drive there and a 6 hour drive back and lots of time there.   I worked on this over 40 hours in the last 5 day.  I haven't worked on a single project that much in such a sort time in a while but I am glad it is done.  The customer will add the name and date

I got this one done now on to number two.

Interesting seeing the different lighting on the embroidery from different times of the day and in different places.  The true to color one is number 10 bottom right.

This bottom one is true to color.