I don't post for months...

And then it all happens at once.

A few weeks ago, my lovely husband and I were on the hunt for a new storage box for my excess threads.  You know, the ones not on my Chip and Pin bobbins.  I had been using two small plastic drawer sets, which whilst being very useful, just were not particularly pretty.  And I wanted something that looked good.

What can I say, I'm just a girl who likes pretty things.

So we're mooching around antique shops around the city, and he spots this shabby yellow drawer unit. £40 on the label. It looks sound, with no woodworm but at £40...?

We took photos and moved on.

But we didn't find anything that quite hit the mark.

All week, this cute little unit played on my mind, until the following weekend, and my husband returned to see if it was still there.

At first glance, it appeared to have gone but a bit more of a mooch and he found it. What's more, it was reduced to £35.  He was rather cheeky and offered £30, which was accepted.

Almost immediately, we set to cleaning it up, scrubbing the drawers, sanding the paintwork, priming and repairing.

He lined each drawer and we popped some scented wax melts inside to help with a slight smell of spices that lingered.

And now it's a beautiful piece of furniture, perfect to store all my threads, along with other stitchy paraphernalia.

Murderous Prose

 It's not often I stage a photo but I was so excited when I saw a designer creating this chart recently that I couldn't wait to buy it and stitch it. She hadn't actually finished stitching her own piece.

I used one of the purple hand dyed evenweave fabrics I'd shown in a previous post and the designer liked it so much, she asked if she could use my photo in her store!

I may have to stage my photos more often 😂 

It took a only a couple of days to stitch but my plan is to find a suitably gothic frame and hang it in my office at work.

A couple of wee finishes

It's been a busy summer. I've dabbled at a bit of fabric dying.

 

I've treated myself to some wooden spools.

I've been making up a few finishes that I've designed.

And found a few cool charts to stitch.

Angel's Lost Wing

 

I'd started this in January 2023 but then put it to one side to work on Outlander to complete for a friend. 

Roll on to March 2025 and I've picked it back up to work alongside a project I'm stitching along with Essie. 

According to my Pattern Keeper, this is 19% complete. 

Keeping up with the Jones's

 

I started cross stitching when I was 17. Before the Internet.  Before Instagram.  Before blogging.  I'm that old hahaha.

Back then, everything was bought from real shops, and we had a beautiful little shop called The Spinning Jenny, filled with everything you could ever dream of for embroidery, cross stitch and tapestry.  I would have loved to run a shop like that.

I started by only purchasing threads and aida that was required for certain projects but as time went on and my bobbins grew, I started buying the threads to complete the DMC range. It took many years but one of the best things I ever did. There have been the odd hiccup (certain dye changes in the greys come to mind) but on the whole, it has been a very good investment. 

But nothing really changed, other than when I discovered evenweave, and when I dabbled in hardanger, and the advent of the daylight bulb. 

I had grown a friendship group who all loved the hobby, and ideas and products were exchanged and gifted.

It wasn't until I started posting my updates on Instagram that I realised I'd been left behind in the improvements made in the hobby. New tools were available. Bright new ideas, and of course the availability of the new fandangle.

So at the end of 2024 and into 2025, I decided to update my set up. 

I exchanged all the cardboard bobbins for acrylic ones that feature colours and printed numbers, from Pip and Chip. They're not cheap but they'll certainly last, and don't they look beautiful and neat?

I was gifted a book stand for my birthday, which features a padded base to sit comfortably on my lap, and is adjustable so I can get the angle correct. 

And at long last, I was able to buy a Lowery workstand (I'm in love).  This led to me purchasing larger hoops, as I'd always worked on a 6" hoop because it was the easiest to hold. I didn't stop there... I also bought a couple of plastic snap type frames which makes working on large projects even easier. Then of course I had a go at making some "grime guards" to help hold the excess fabric, which so far is working really well.

The game changer though was this little beauty.  It's called the Pattern Keeper. It's an app available on android operating systems. I started with a month's free trial but it became quite clear that it was definitely worth the one-off payment of less than a tenner!

I love that it tells you the amount if stitches you do each day, and the percentage of completion.  But for me and my aging eyes, its the fact I can zoom in as close as I need to, highlight the squares I'm working on, and so much more!

I'm still working on perfecting my set up, and am awaiting delivery of a corner clamp for my Lowery workstand.  I've also bought a larger frame with rollers that works in a similar way to the snap frames.

Watch this space...

It's been a minute...

 

This is Venus by Michele Sayetta.  It was a free chart by Heaven and Earth Designs back in February 2024 but I didn't begin stitching it until 4th October 2024. 

My Dutch friend, Essie, are both stitching the design at the same time. A stitch-along, if you will.

According to my Pattern Keeper, this is around 35% complete. 

Essie and I are stitching one page at a time, and if one of us finishes quicker, we're waiting for the other to catch up before starting on the next page.

The vibrancy of this project is amazing and although there are a LOT of confetti stitches, it's a really enjoyable piece. 

Outlander

 

13 months and 119,700 stitches later, the final stitch was placed.