the mermaid and the star

I showed this little lady as a WIP recently. She is now finished and although I'm still not sure about the heavy black outline it does look more balanced now the border is on. I'm glad it's finished, I wasn't really enjoying it much. The wave was particularly tiresome as the darker blue floss was sort of woolly and kept breaking. Her scales are a bit of a cheat as I used variegated floss and I think it looks pretty nifty. The image is a copyright free image I found online.

She's going to hang out in the bathroom with this Sailor Jerry mermaid I did ages ago. She was stitched on a bag but the bag never gets used so she is going to be framed and hung on the wall instead.

Splish splash x

crewel work trees

This post was going to be titled something like 'too crewel for school' but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it :)

My first go at using crewel wools on linen, I used a pattern from this book and the threads are Appleton crewel wool which comes in the most delicious colours. Not too bad for a first attempt- I was going to leave it in the hoop and put in on the wall but Stu thinks it is 'too boring' hmmmph! So I guess it will be patched onto something instead.

I've also finished this- just a wool tapestry using a DMC pattern for Jakethepeg's bedroom. It was one of those patterns that is printed directly onto the fabric and has got me thinking how supereasy it would be to design your own tapestries this way. Am thinking maybe a sugar skull or swallow cushion would be a simple enough design to start with... watch this space

Door bunnies

These are little door plaques that I made for our guest room (V.I.P Suite) and our bedroom (Servant's quarters). I guess I have bunnies on the brain with it being Easter and Bowie bunny just hopped into my head and wouldn't leave until I stitched him, I think he would make a cute stuffed toy for Jake too so will be added that to my list of things to make.

I really need to work on my lettering though- it's fine here where it's supposed to look a little 'off' (and is in that weird textured glow in the dark floss) but is something I really cannot get right. I feel a sampler coming on ...

yes sir, I love to fill stitch

A little baby vest embroidered with the Lucha Libre wrestler from the Sublime Stitching craft pad. There was much deliberation over whether the nose piece should be orange or green, in the end I agreed with my fella and I think that maybe, just this once, he was right ;)

Oh and there absolutely has to be an action shot, right?

wise little owl

This is a little felt owl I made using a pattern from the Doodle stitch book, I have also got the stuff to make the raccoon featured in the book as well.

photos of what I've been up to

This post is going to be heavy on pictures and short on words - just a quick catch-up of my most recent stitches...This is a work in progress- not sure about the black outline (a little heavy?) but hopefully it'll look better when there is more detail added

A real simple tote using a sublime stitching 'viva las vegas' pattern

a make-up bag with day of the dead skull, sublime stitching again, I'm stitching the skeletons on the back- Jake seems to like it :)

a kokeshi doll card- this was a freebie kit with a magazine. I might use this pattern again with different colours on a bag

Christmas tea towels - I was stitching close to the wire on these and they only just got posted in time

Currently on the go are: a Pop-eye baby vest, a Sublime lucha libre baby vest, Skeletons for the back of the make up bag, the mermaid, leigh bowery in x-stitch (he's been on the go forever) and a knitted bag

I also have a few finished things that I haven't photographed yet so will have to update soon with those

Regaining my stitching mojo

Well things have been a little quiet around here (by which I mean here on my blog, my homelife has been anything but quiet as you can imagine)

Since having Jake it has taken me a while to get back into the swing of things craft-wise. For a few months he seemed to be in my arms 24/7 (when you are breastfeeding you never seem to put your baby down!) so there really was no time for crafting. Then things started to calm down a bit and I found I had my evenings back.

So where have I been?

.... well there was the small issue of motivation; I just didn't have any, after a day of looking after Jake I was tending to flake out in front of the telly with a large glass of wine . Until one day I was on Facebook (probably whilst breastfeeding, again) and I clicked into a link Mr X-stitch had posted to his blog, I spent a bit of time there and then revisited all my usual haunts in the crafty blogosphere. I realised how much I missed it and that, cheesy as this sounds, it was time to be 'me' as well as 'mum'.

So I picked up a UFO that had been languishing in the bottom of my craft box for ages- this Mitch O'Connell pattern from Sublime Stitching (I'd stitched the outline a long time ago and then lost interest). It might not be the best thing I've ever done but boy, does it feel nice to be stitching again! Crafty mates- I have missed you- it's good to be back :)