My cross stitching corner

So we have moved to Perth and as part of the move we now live in a house instead of an apartment and we have added a rescue dog to the family. 

I have just finished setting up my cross stitching corner and I love it!!

Here she is empty:

And here she is in use! (Complete with dog by feet.)

My very first cross stitch I designed

So the second x stitch I made my husband for his 30th birthday was designed by moi. It was a piss take of his favourite expression "I'm in the desert to do two things: mine iron and pump iron!" Funny because it's not true - the closest he gets to pumping iron is fiddling with toilet pumps in the iron-rich ground (he's a plumber).

The x stitch is now hanging up somewhere at Area C mine in the Pilbara, Western Australia.

Finish! Alien cross stitch

Cross stitch #1 for my husband's birthday is complete:

Very quick and easy to stitch, and hopefully it will be similarly easy to frame - I found a good generic frame at Big W on the weekend for it.

And now I need to get back to my current cross stitch - the second one for my husbands birthday which I am designing myself! It has been so much fun working with graph paper and counting numbers and choosing colours. Hopefully the finished result is just as fabulous as the process has been.

New start and new experience

So my husband's 30th birthday is next month (I can still remember his 19th birthday when I ate so much pizza I got the shakes, gosh time flies) and I'm making him two cross stitches, one that I'm designing myself and one by a lovely lady who designs under the name Scarlett Stitches on Etsy.

Today I went to spotlight to take advantage of their 40% off fabric sale (which thanks to a feisty Facebook campaign by a few ladies, was expanded to include cross stitching fabric). I purchased my first lot of Belfast linen, 32 count. I love the look of it! I want to stitch everything I do from now on this type of fabric, it looks fabulous and a lot less blocky than aida.

I was so excited I began working on my husband's first birthday cross stitch.

It took me a little while to figure out the extra counting required for stitching "over two" but with the help of a diagram from a web page I got the hang of it quickly enough.

I don't think there'll be any looking back from this experience and I look forward to acquiring another form of stash - the fabric stash!! 

Kitty Litter update

I think the lesson I need to learn from Dimensions Gold kits is that I need to do them in one sustained effort. When I did Teddy Bear Gathering, for example, it was my only project and I did not run out of threads. Kitty Litter had a start back in 2011 and then was neglected for some years and I'm having all sorts of trouble with thread shortage.

This is where I am up to, having just completed the second of three pages:

The half stitched background is where I have started running out of threads, here:

And here:

Half stitch background is very mind numbing and time consuming, but at the same time perfect for a television show that demands more concentration than I can usually give it. I find the half stitched background below the basket was more difficult to do because it demanded four or five strands (blended/tweeded of course) and it was tough work pulling it in and out of the 18 count aida.

I'm onto the third page now and hopefully it should all be done by the end of the year. I am going to wait until I'm up to the backstitch stage before I do an audit and write to Dimensions again and beg for more thread.

New stash - Birdcage and Alien

Okay so let's just forget my vow not to purchase stash until November. It was obviously a lie. Collecting stash is more instant and in some ways more satisfying than a new start or a completed project. A life without collecting stash is a life I can't bear to live.

So, keeping true to my hit list, I purchased one of the products that has stopped being sold on a lot of websites, leading me to believe that it was out of print: The Birdcage by Design Works. My fear of missing out on this one grew to the point that I had to hunt it down for once and for all.

The price was reasonable ($36 AUD inc shipping from USA to Aus) and the time was right (I got paid on Thursday). So I am really looking forward to throwing this pretty lady in amongst my stash.

Next up, I also purchased a subversive style cross stitch kit from Etsy. This is for my husband's 30th birthday present and it is based on one of his favourite movies of all time, Alien, which features a female protagonist kicking butt, so it gets my approval.

Here is the design I am going to start soon (if I can wrench myself away from Kitty Litter, I am loving Kitty Litter!).

Oops I did it again!

I purchased new stash this last week despite my vow not to purchase anything until November. My bad.

First was an out of print pattern by Helene Tran that I LOVE and could only find in kit form as a cheap knock off from Hong Kong. Luckily, a member of a facebook group had a copy of the pattern and was willing to sell it to me for $5. What a bargain.



Second was a kit from my Hit List! Midnight Dance by Dimensions Gold, available on eBay for $34 with free shipping from Australia. I do want to support Australian business if it can compete with overseas prices, so I felt it was my patriotic duty to purchase the kit!

Okay I should also be honest and say that I am probably going to purchase new stash soon for my husband's 30th birthday. I forgot that he had requested some more subversive style stitches for his birthday - I've been having a lot of fun perusing Etsy the last few days!

Lady Alexandra - complete!

So my beads and a custom made frame arrived late last week, meaning that this weekend I was able to finish off third piece for 2014!

I present to you, Lady Alexander in red...

Frames cheap frames

My mum told me about an op shop out her way that was stocked with old frames. Being frugal, she always seems shocked by how much I spend or am willing to spend on custom framing. 

As for me, I'm a little bit sick of spending so much money on framing. So today I popped in to the op shop, armed with a list of measurements from my stash (most of them not even WIPs yet) and I was not disappointed!

I purchased this one for Love Blossoms:

And this one for Savannah Birth Record:

This one for Paris Market:

And this one for Frederick the Literate:

Total price - $20 for the four of them.

Okay so they aren't the most beautiful frames, and I probably need to be fussier and willing to spend more time going to op shops, but I'm happy with their quality AND thanks to this purchase I have now saved about $225 on frames alone (not including matting, foam core, and other framing materials). I quite like the shabby chic look!

Kitty Litter update

I had a week off work last week and decided I just had to make some progress on Kitty Litter.

Here was my WIP when I left it a few years ago:

And here it is now:

- extra kitty head and yellow wool

- basket 

- butterfly

The 2 over 1 18 count Aida is a bit of a challenge - I find that my neck and hands get more sore after a long stint, and the thread is more likely to tangle. However, I love the coverage and the blending looks so good that I don't mind the extra effort required!

I will do another week or so on this and then switch to some cross stitches for my husband's 30th birthday. Yes believe it or not he requested some patterns! They are pretty simple but one of them will be my first ever designed pattern! Can't wait to show you!

New stash - Maggie meet Frederick

So same stash arrived just recently which I purchased a few weeks back (before I vowed not to buy any more stash - I swear)

I am really excited at the idea of hanging some more cats on the wall. The husband has declared these cross stitch kits to be "horrifying". Horrifingly fabulous I think!!

Here's Maggie the Messmaker:

Which is going to be friends with an old member of my stash, Frederick the Literate:

The two of them are based on paintings by the talented Charles Wysocki. I pledge here and now not to frame any of them until both are completed.

I purchased Frederick on sale at a crafts fair in Melbourne back in 2011. Maggie was purchased from 123stitch.com. Sadly not on sale at the time.

I'm also looking for Max in the Adirondacks but it appears that it is now out of print.

Rotation needed

Dimensions are having a 25% off sale for 4 July - I immediately racked up over $200 worth of kits in my online shopping cart, stared sadly at the screen for a few seconds before exiting the browser. Will power!!!

Speaking of, or lack of, will power, I pulled out kitty litter last night and took an inventory of thread and emailed EK Success Brands with what I needed. They emailed back almost immediately and said the floss was on it's way, and then lo and behold this morning I got up and found myself working on kitty litter instead of summer flowers. Oops.

It was so nice going back to a cross stitch without confetti. Ah. I will return to summer flowers of course but I need to figure out some sort of system or routine so that I can do a bit of both - otherwise my stitching just feels like a chore!

Vow - no more stash until November

I vow here and now not to buy any more stash or supplies until November (I live in hope that my favourite online stores might have a Black Friday sale).

Yesterday I made my last cross stitch related purchase for at least four months.

- beads to finish off Lady Alexandra

- a Pako floss organiser (so I can use it for my Summer Flowers WIP and use the needle organiser for Balloon Glow and then have both projects on the go to prevent stitching boredom)

- threads for Summer Flowers

- thread heaven for when I begin Love Blossoms

- 48 needles (so I can fill up my new Pako)

And now let the savings begin!

Buy this - Tacky Bob

I first discovered tacky bob when I did the beading on Lady Alexandra. It's a very clever little contraption that I purchased from 123stitch.com:

I love it because it holds the beads in one place, I don't spill them all over the shop and it stays sticky for a long time. 

This is going to save you a lot of time. For about $8 it is minimal outlay for maximum efficiency. Two thumbs up!

New Dimensions Gold kit

Hoorah! I found a new Gold Collection kit over at EK Success Brands (the company that owns Dimensions).

The work is by artist Sung Kim. Dimensions earlier released a paint-by-numbers kit of the same image. 

The cross stitch kit includes 16 count blue Aida and contains metallic threads.

I imagine this is one where the photo does not do the cross stitch justice. While I won't be putting it on my purchase list immediately, I'll be interested to see some pics of a finished product by another keen stitcher.

Disappointing craft expo

I was really looking forward to the Craft and Quilt Expo in Melbourne this weekend. I even managed to find a crochet friend willing to buy an $18 ticket to accompany me for the wild ride.

The best part of the show was seeing the beautiful cross stitches displayed and getting ideas for what I would like to stitch:

I could have stared at them all day. Three years ago after I attended the expo I told my husband that I wanted to fill my whole house with cross stitches (his face filled with fear). I felt the same burst of enthusiasm looking at the works today.

The way they were displayed - without glass - was very effective.

Overall, however, the expo was a disappointment.

First, the lack of range. Okay, so it wasn't a cross stitching expo, but the very few dedicated stalls were packed with people, so I wasn't alone in wanting to see more cross stitch.

I went with the purpose of purchasing some DMC threads, Mill Hill beads and a Pako needle organiser. Nowhere to be found. I was told at one stall that I should try Spotlight. Derp. 

The second disappointing thing was the prices for kits. There were heaps of Design Works and Dimensions Gold kits that were on my wish list. But the prices on them were unrealistic - $20 to $30 more expensive than what I could pay for them on 123stitch.com. 

Three years ago when I attended the expo, the same kits were cheaper. For example, back then I purchased Frederick the Literate for $35. This year he was marked at $45. How a standard Dimensions kit has managed to go up in price three years on, I don't understand.

So due to the lack of range and the disappointing prices, the $100 I budgeted for didn't get spent - except for one thing. This magnifying lamp for $25, which takes batteries (necessary in my apartment, since my cats like to chew through thin electrical cords):

New stash - Paris Market and European Bistro

I think these are going to look great on our living room wall. Even the husband says they are "nice for cross stitches".

Paris Market:

And European Bistro:

Both are Dimensions Gold kits. They were on my wishlist for a long time. One morning I awoke and decided I had to have them. I should be more disciplined and wait for a sales next time I acquire stash. Purchased from 123stitch.com.

Slowly

This picture represents about 20 hours of work over the last four days (no frogging).

It's so frustrating how slowly this project is progressing. I like to see results quicker than this! 

Large online retailers versus eBay

Back in 2010, when I started cross stitching again after a long hiatus, I bought my first Dimensions Gold kit from a website called The Fox Collection. The kit cost $80. It now hangs in our bedroom, like so:

About three months after I purchased Teddy Bear Gathering, I learned to shop around online and was pretty disheartened to see the kit selling at a significantly lower price.

So let's use a recent example - Love Blossoms by Bothy Threads

Currently for sale at the following websites (Australian currency):
The Fox Collection: $67.85
Bothy Threads: $63.26
Arts and Designs: $44.42
Ebay (cheapest vendor): $43.89

123stitch - does not stock (why 123stitch.com does not stock Bothy Threads I don't understand, I have emailed them about this, no reply.)

The prices above are inclusive of shipping costs. It's always important to take into account shipping costs because they make up the price of the transaction.

Interestingly, Bothy Threads seems to be doing itself out of some thriving Australian trade, coming in second most expensive to the Fox Collection.

So, lesson learned: always shop around for your next bit of stash. You may find yourself saving $20 or $30, sometimes even more!