Sorry about not bloging

Things been busy around here. Clint's been working a lot and I've been alone with the girls more or less. Then Ása Sóley got a cold and had troubles sleeping at nights which didn't help either. Hardly any stitching or knitting has been done. One exception, I had a get-together last Wednesday. Lot of women comming over to stitch. I can't do two things at once (stitch and talk/listen) so I started a simple knitting piece. Turnes out I couldn't even do that. I don't understand how the other women can stitch and talk at the same time. They are incredible.

Well, the knitting piece was a flower shaped washcloth from Weekend knitting (book) out of 100% cotton chenille. Very soft and very big (10.5 inches wide). It's a piece you could do in one evening but it took me about 3 days, knitting at every moment I got!

I can't show you a picture of it. One of the reason I have been off the internet is because my computer was in the shop. When I got it back it was all messed up. One of the things was that the USB ports didn't work. So no photo downloading :( I took it back and hopefully they can fix it (again).

Weekend over

I didn't finish as many projects this weekend as I had planned. Mainly because I hardly did anything yesterday.

But I did finish two more projects on Saturday. I framed my Lizzie Kate picture - Bless our home. (sorry about the bad quality, I'm on a temporary computer)



And I finished a hat I made for Ása Sóley. I never posted a picture of it here (or mentioned it) because I knit it when she was newly born and I wasn't using the internet so much. Then I put it away, not really hurried to finish it since it was for 3-6 month and it was middle of summer. It fit well now, a little too well if you ask me. Ása Sóley is so big, she is 2 standard deviations (staðalfrávik) bigger than her sistar was . I'm glad I finished it now so she'll get some use out of it. I even put little wooden pearls on it and I've never made this kind of cording before. The hat hasn't been pressed yet.



I made a list of my WIPs and UFOs here on the right. It is to motivate me to finish them. Underneath that list is another one of FO that need to be worked on. I planned to make the hardanger ornament but instead I watched SNL 25 anniversary with my husband. Everything is ready for it though. I even found my sewing kit yesterday so now there is no stopping me in that department. I also planned on making the pillow from the RR I participated in. But the fabric I planned to use was dirty!!! We've been using it to cover a sofa. Actually I had two big fabric covers and both of them had been used. Now it is all cleaned. And the Teddy bear (Galdrabangsi), I had it all ready to frame once but there was a stain in the fabric. I finally decided to wash the piece in the washing machine. I put stain remover on it and washed it in a protective bag. The stain is gone and the piece is ok! Sorry for no links I have to take care of Ása Sóley now.

The Weekend of Big Finishes

I've decided that this weekend is going to be the weekend of finishes. I plan to finish as much as I can of my stitched and knitted objects today and tomorrow. My main problem in crafts is that I love the process but don't care to much about the end (and sometimes even the end-product). Last night I realised why that is. I simply don't know how to finish, how to do the final touches. The patterns and instructions don't say how it's done so I don't know how to do it. I need help. And help I am going to get. Guðbjörg, one of my stitching friends from Allt í kross is having a stitching weekend at her house this weekend. Open house from noon until midnight (or beyond) Saturday and Sunday.

I started already. Here is a picture of the Mill Hill angel kit, all stitched up and framed.



I did cheat a little bit and started the Beginner Whitework Ornament, stitched with white silk on colonial blue 28 ct. Lugana.



At first sight the silk didn't look so much different from the cotton threads I normally use (standard DMC). But as soon as I started working with it I noticed the difference. It is softer, fluffier and shinier. It definitely feels more luxurious and natural to stitch and it is more random, if you will. Has more life in it, more character. At any rate, it is a welcome change from the good old cotton ;)

The BCS picture

Click the picture for a bigger version.

Excited

I'm so excited! I finished the hardanger piece. It was so fun to stitch. I'll be doing some more of these, that's for sure. I'll take a picture tomorrow in daylight.

I'm excited about something else as well. Yesterday I wrote about my newfound passion for band samplers. Today I recieved a newsletter from Just Nan. At the bottom was a link that said Exlusives. Intrigued, I followed the link and at the bottom of that page I found Regency Roses, a limited Edition band sampler. And it is gorgeous. I ordered it and I can't wait to get it. It comes in a kit, so chart, fabric and threads included. The threads are silks, both perle, solid colors and overdyed.

I cleaned up in my WIP list on the right. I took out the percentage bars. Since I use Firefox, I can't see the percentage on the bar so I see no use keeping them.

UFO stitching

Yesterday I picked up a color I had lost for my French Village picture (DMC 747) and the needlecraft store (Nálin) also had silk threads. I've been wanting to try silk for a little while. I am going to use it for TW's Beginners Whitework ornament. I've been getting a new obsession in stitching - Band samplers. Band samplers are samplers that consist of bands (suprisingly), where the bands have different stitch types. I have one pattern of a band sampler, A little love sampler from M-designs. The band samplers often have different kind of threads as well, silks or metallics for instance. So I wanted to try silk on a whitework piece.

I am getting sidetracked a little. This post was supposed to be about the UFO Tuesday we had last night at my club. I got couple of hours of stitching time last night and worked on my piece. If you click on the picture you get a close-up. The design can be found here.



I am done with about half of a quarter - so 1/8th of the picture. Actually I have done more work than that because I started it over. The design was made with Anchor thread but I am using DMC and I wasn't happy about the color conversions.

2 in 1 - day

Yesterday I stitch a little bit of the BCS kit in the morning and took a picture:



I had finished of the 4-sided stitch around the blackwork star I worked on last night.

Then in the evening I couldn't resist taking this piece to the next level - CUTTING.



So yesterday was 2 (pictures) in 1 day - lol, I'm so funny, he he. :)

Tonight is a UFO night at my online stitching club (Allt í kross). If I get a change to stitch tonight I will work on the French Village (see the right hand side bar). I also have couple of knitting UFO's available.

Hurray for Mill Hill

On Friday I wrote a message to Mill Hill explaining that there were about 6 green beads missing and today they were in the mail. This is good service, especially since Mill Hill is in USA and I am in Iceland. Of course it would have been best if I had enought to begin with but I wasn't expecting the beads so soon.

Not much stitching being done these days. My oldest is turning 2 years old on Sunday and plans have begun for her birthday party. I made marengs (I think that's what it's called in English - suger and egg whites) last night and today I saw this reciepe on Linda's blog. I'll think I will have to do that one as well, it sounds delicious.

BCS picture

Here you see the progress of the BCS picture as of this morning. What remains now is a blackwork star in the center and four-sided stitch around it before I move on to the cutting. After the cutting some beads are put in. I look the most forward to the cutting. That is the main deal with this pattern.

Last night I was looking at the french knot on Victoria Sampler's stitch animation and it seems as I was doing colonial knot rather than french knot! I don't think there is a lot of difference and I'll just keep it as it is.

BCS news

My Beyond Cross Stitch kit is comming along despite french knots. I couldn't do them last night but thought about them a little when I went to sleep. Then today I thought I would give them another try before I moved on and what do you know!!! I managed to do them!!! Hurray for the subconcience (? spelling)!!! Right now I'm doing white on white backstitching. You can't complain about the lack of details on this piece:)