My stitching buddy

This is Charlie my 15 year old Westie, having a doze on the sofa beside me. I'm going to stitch tonight and he'll be keeping me company

 

And this is what I've been working on lately - Four horses of the Apocalypse from Kustom Krafts. It's 39% complete in this picture

It's my blog-o-versary today

This blog is 5 years old today... I'm having a rough day today with a lot of pain so there won't be an inspiring post but I hope to be feeling more human again soon.

Blumenweise im Raster is going away for a while

I set myself a target of 75% this year and reached it last night. Four Horses of the Apocalypse is my focus project for a while now.  

How to find the designer for a cross stitch pattern

  if you find a picture of a finished piece and cannot identify who it is by...  

   1. Right click on the photo and choose "Copy Image Location"      

2. Paste the Image Location into a Google Image search and hit the Search button      

3. You will get a results page like this, click on "Search by Image"      

  4. You will get a results page a bit like this, you can then hunt through the links to find out more information. This doesn't always work but it's worth a try       And how to tell if a chart is an illegal copy or breach of copyright   1. Scans from magazines are almost always a no-no. It is safest to assume the worst. You can usually see if it's a scan from a magazine by the typeface, quality of type, page numbers, columns and adverts alongside patterns.   2. Any chart posted on a commercial photo gallery site, particularly Russian galleries is almost always a no-no. The photographs on these sites often point to files uploaded to file sharing/cloud sites. Russian websites end in .ru   3. Websites where you earn "points" to enable you to download designs.  These aren't always illegal copies but there is an infamous Chinese site like this that is full of illegal copies   4. Charts posted to forums, facebook pages & blogs. Most free designs are available from shop websites & designers own sites and it should be possible to post a link. Some designers use blogs but you should be able to tell if it is their site by the other content. French designers tend to use blogs a lot and there are some gorgeous genuine freebies on those sites.   5. Any site that has a large quantity of computer generated charts from photographs and artwork that doesn't mention the photographer or artist. A lot of these sites harvest images from the internet with no thought to who owns the image. Just because it is on the internet does not mean it is "free". Even if there is no charge for the pattern produced it is still breach of copyright.   6. Charts with no copyright notice as this has been cropped from them by the person sharing.   7. Any cartoon or film character or trademarked logo. This includes but isn't limited to: Hello Kitty, Spiderman, Smurfs, Disney, Coca-Cola, football teams, Snoopy, Betty Boop... You will never find legitimate free designs as designers need to pay a license fee to the copyright/license holder   8. A special note on Pinterest - this has become the new medium of choice for illegal charts but you will find many gorgeous genuine freebies from up and coming designers.   9. Publications & patterns from 1928 and earlier are in the public domain and can be scanned & shared.    Whilst these aren't hard and fast rules - they will weed out many of the illegal patterns  

Work in Progress Wednesday - 31st July

This is what I've been working on this week, it's now 71% complete. My aim for this year was to get it to 75% and then move on to the next project in my pile of WIPS. It may be that Four Horses of the Apocalypse sees daylight sooner than I expected.

A new adventure in finishing today...

I'm hoping to turn this into a cover for the folder that I use to organise my household affairs. It's a new adventure as I've never done a book cover from fabric before but I'm sure it will all work out in the end!

July Stitchathon is over!

  And here is Blumenweise Im Raster @ 67% complete :)

There are some things that make painful days better

A yummy red velvet cupcake for afternoon tea (thanks Costco)

And new stash found at the Swallowfield Car Boot Sale & the new buttons from the Community Furniture Project.

I found another treasure

Another treasure found in the curio/junk/antique shop in town. The maker is BB Wells. I found out he is Benjamin Blake Wells who was born in Dunstable in 1817, he lived at 431 Strand and had his shop there (the address is on the scissors) and died in 1881. The case originally had a thimble but this was missing. I love the wear caused by stitcher's taking the scissors out of their case over the years. They were probably gold plated but this has almost completely worn off.  

I don't give a hoot!

  This is going to be my "I don't give a hoot" owl because there are definitely days when I don't ;)  

I changed a few things - I used a dense blackwork fill pattern for the eyes, added a tummy in yellow and changed the feet & beak. He looks very 70s to me and I love him! 

Stitched on 28ct white monaco with various hand-dyed threads Sarsparilla (Gentle Art), Ohio Lemon Pie (Gentle Art), RIP Purple (Olde Willow Stitchery) & Nabimbi Sunset (Windy Hill Designs - from the Rainforest Dyer's Collaboration Pack). He's finished into a small pillow so he can be displayed in a box/shelf I found the other week.

You can find the chart for sale here from Coma Stitch on Pinterest

Gorgeous Give Away on Snowflower Diaries Blog

You could win 1 of three packages of 10 gorgeous threads from Nina and rick-rack braid - just click the picture to find out the details  

Finishing Frenzy July 18th

It's been so long since I stitched this quaker stocking that I can't remember the designer name but today I turned this into a stocking to hang up at Christmas time. One more Finished Unfinished Project (FUP) bites the dust!

Pre-Stitchathon picture of Blumenweise im Raster

There's a Stitchathon over on the Cross Stitch Crazy Board from tomorrow 15th July to 21st July. Here's a picture of Blumenweise im Raster today at 64.5% complete. I'll be counting my stitches - will you?  

Thursday Finishing Frenzy - 12th July

First gather your materials, I chose two toning fabrics, ribbon and a wooden button to make a book bag from this Brightneedle design stitched over 1 on linen

Cut your fabric pieces, I used the following:

2 strips of light fabric to go on the bottom of the bag (back & front) 23cm x 7½cm

1 piece of light fabric 23cm x 14cm to make the main part of the back of the bag

2 strips of dark fabric to go on the bottom of the bag (back & front) 23cm x 7½cm

2 pieces of dark fabric to make the lining 23cm x 29cm

2 pieces of dark fabric to make the handles 23cm x 5cm

Iron all the pieces of fabric

Pin the light strip and the dark strip, right sides facing, in place on to the stitched piece and sew together along the bottom & top edge

Iron the piece again, repeat the pinning and stitching with the back piece. Pin the two lining pieces right side together and stitch together along three sides, leaving the top open

Fold the two handle pieces right sides together and sew together on the long edge, turn right side out and iron flat

Place the lining, inside out around the bag with the right sides together, handles pinned in place. Sew together around the top edge leaving a gap of about 2-3" open

Pull the bag right way out through the gap, iron again

Add a ribbon to wrap around a button and sew the opening shut with small hand stitches. Sew on a button and it's all done 

New Stash!

I was a little bit naughty and bought some more fabric - thanks to Crafty Rahenna for the superb transaction, she included the Good Huswife chart to offset postage from Texas.   Behind you can see a display box that I found in the local charity shop for £4.00, I'm hoping to eventually have a few season pieces to put in here at different times of the year - better get stitching!

Work in Progress Wednesday - 10th July

Here's the latest update on Blumenweise im Raster - progress is slow lately