Giant blob finished - on to make it something else...

Ok, so I took a picture of the cats, crosses and half stitches finished. I suspect I will have to spend as much time on the backstitching.... oh, well !

Today is migraine day, so light is painful... not good for computers or stitching or anything. Yesterday I had my first Aquacise course, and it was so much fun ! I can't believe they consider that working out? Jumping around in the water and such, it's more my idea of fun than anything !

I still love Sew and So: I ordered threads and patterns yesterday, and I got them in my mailbox today !!! Now THAT is good service.

I got the Crescent Colours threads for Curly Q Ewe (so timing was essential here, as we are starting on Friday), only 1 was missing (out of stock, not missing missing). I have to say I love those colours !!!!

And I also got Bent Creek's Spring pixie ( I had the 3 others, but I plan on stitching all for of them in the season...), Lizzi Kate's Spring stack, and Easter Sampler.

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Une photo des chatons avant les points arriere...

Comme j'ai la migraine, c'est pas ideal pour computer ou broder.

J'adore toujours Sew and So, j'ai commande des trucs hier et c'est arrive aujourd'hui ! Finalement j'ai decide de broder Curly Q Ewe avec les Crescent Colours, et donc le timing etait essentiel. Il ne me manque que le vert... Ca viendra plus tard ! J'adore quand ils envoient ce qu'ils ont directement, quitte a faire plusieurs envois.. Ca c'est du service !

J'ai aussi eu Benk Creek Spring Pixie, et 2 Lizzie Kate.

Hier j'ai eu ma premiere session d'Aquagym,e t c'etait super fun ! J'arrive pas a croire qu'ils considerent ca comme du sport, sauter dans l'eau en gigottant, ce'st plutot du divertissement pour moi !

PSPete is alive !

This is PSPete, the happy little PSP console. This character is born when I made a felt mascot version of him for DBF's PSP. I also made the pixel logo you can see here on the top right, and transformed it into a cross stitch pattern.

It is stitched on plastic canvas as it's part of the Valentine stocking project, to decorate DBF's heart bag, along with the big blue "S".

I have to say working on plastic canvas is hard on my fingers. I then lost the will to stitch, started 2 new projects before giving up totally around 11pm.

After a very prolific week end, I'm sure you are expecting me to slow down a bit during the week, and you are right. Tonight is swimming night, and I uually come back very tired from it. So no much stitching. I have sore fingers, so it's good timing.

I suppose I'm a bit in limbus for the moment, waiting for Friday to start Curly Q Ewe... Of course I should focus on the Love Cats, but well, you know how it is...

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Voici PSPete, la joyeuse petite PSP. J'ai cree ce personnage sous la forme d'une mascotte en feutrine pour DBF il y a environ 2 ans. Depuis j'ai fait une version pixel (celle qui est en haut a droite de cette page), et une version point de croix.

Brode sur canevas plastique, ca fait partie du projet "St Valentin", et ira decorer le sac en forme de coeur de DBF, avec son "S" bleu.

Travailler sur le canevas en plastique est dur pour les doigts. Ensuite j'ai perdu la motivation pour broder vers 11h du soir hier.

Apres un week end prolifique, il fallait s'attendre a une semaine plus calme. Et comme j'ai piscine ce soir, et les doigts en compote... c'est un bon timing.

En fait, j'attend vendredi pour commencer Curly Q Ewe, et entre deux je sais pas trop quoi faire. Je sais que je pourrais finir les Love Cats, mais ce serait trop simple....

New tutorial !

Just a quick not to say I just made a tutorial for this bag I made yesterday. Check it out !

Work of the week end...

Quite a few things to show...

First, the Love Cats. They are finished in crosses, and only lack the flowers and leaves at the top of the swing. Of course, they will require some serious backstitching to look like something.....

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Quelques trucs a voir....

Premierement, les chats amoureux. Les croix sont finies, a part les fleurs et les feuilles au dessus de la balancoire.

Bien sur, le tout ressemblera a un blog geant tant que les points arriere ne seront pas faits.

Then there's a big... blue S.

The plan is to make the heart bags, with big S on it (blue for DBF, pink for me... Our initials if you are wondering, yes, both our names start with S, it's freaky).

I thought it would be more versatile to do it on plastic canvas. So I used a blue thread for the outline, and a DMC variation for the inside. Yes, all those different colours are just one thread, I find it amazing.

I was going to put little hearts in the S (that is just slightly smaller than the original, btw), but This was it will be reusable, and it looks more "pure".

I included the back picture because it looks so neat ;)

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Ensuite, nous avons... un grand S bleu ! Ca fait partie du plan "sacs St Valentin". Je dois faire 2 grands S (un bleu pour DBF, et un rose pour moi, he oui, nos noms commencent tous les deux par S, c'est etonnant). Alors j'ai pense que de faire ca sur canvas plastique serait plus versatile.

L'image est un peu plus petite que l'original, et j'ai inclu la photo de l'arriere, car c'etait si propre !!!)

J'ai utilise un fil bleu pour le contour, et du DMC variation pour l'interieur. Un fil, tant de texture, c'est incroyable !!! J'allais mettre des petits coeurs dans le S, mais comme ca c'est plus pur et reutilisable pour un homme.

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Finally... a finish ! And the journey of a mind, I heard some of you like that....

This morning I was a bit depressed. Filling the "S" was no fun, the Love cats were no fun, I craved to start something, but it wasn't wise...

I started thinking about how I was going to travel to France a few times this Spring. after such boredom now. In parallel, I thought about How School of Needlework was nicely framed, and I had no idea what to do with "Stitcher's prayer".

I wanted to do something special and stitchy with it. But I already have the pouches I need... then it struck: Daylight lamp. It's long (well, high), and the design is long... it felt like a perfect match !

And here is how it took form: a portable Daylight lamp drawstring bag. Before you ask, yes, I did take pictures to make a tutorial. It will come soon.

It's doubled with grey fleece (leftover from a jumper my grandma made me), and I added some padding for extra protection during transport. And the bottom is squared.

Surprisingly, the bag ended up the other way around from what I originally intended. I wanted the design along the bag, not across it. What happened is that when I sew the 2 fabrics together and incased the cord, I used the lines of the fabric as guide, and forgot the design disposition !!!!

I'm happy I made the mistake though, it looks better like that, the words are horizontal and all...

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Pour finir... un "finish", sous la forme d'un sac de transport pour ma lampe Daylight. Avec un peu de cheminement de la pensee, j'ai entendu quelque part que certaines aimaient ca.

Ce matin, j'etais un peu deprimee. Les projets n'etais plus amusants, remplissage du S, les chats en fils courts... l'ennui quoi !

Puis j'ai pense au Printemps et mes multiples voyages en France. En parallele, je me demandais encore que faire de "Stitcher's prayer", qui est trop long pour rentrer dans un cadre conventionnel et finir sur mes murs.

En plus je voulais faire quelque chose de special, pour ma broderie. Comme c'est long, comme ma lampe est haute... ca faisait parfaite combinaison !

Avant qu'on ne me pose la question, oui j'ai fait des photos pour faire un tuto.

Ce sac est double de polaire (restes d'un pull que ma grand mere m'a fait), et il y a du mattelassage entre deux pour encore plus de protection.

Le paradoxe est qu'a l'origine, les rayures et la broderie devaient etre dans l'autre sens, mais je prefere le rendu comme ca.
Je crois que je me suis basee sur les rayures pour coudre la doublure et le trou pour le cordon, et j'ai oublie l'orientation de la broderie !!!

The finishes display

First, here is my Valentine's heart project. I finished it last Sunday (see post here). I thought it would be fun to display it on a heart.

So I found heart shapes on the net, and started cutting and sewing.

I then crocheted the lace you see around it in pink thread. This step took all week, because it was quite a long piece of lace !!!

Note that everything is sewn by hand this time, for precise finition.

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J'ai enfin fini mon coeur commence dimanche (voyez le post ici). Apres avoir coupe de la feutrine selon une forme de coeur trouvee sur internet, j'ai passe la semaine a crocheter la dentelle en fil rose. Et j'ai tout cousu a la main pour plus de precision.

On Monday I bought a frame for School of Needlework from Hobbycraft. I chose a brown that was close to the browns in the design.

I still need to choose a place where to display it in my house !

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Lundi j'ai achete un cadre pour School of Needlework, avec un brun proche de ceux du projet.

Je dois encore choisir ou je vais mettre le tableau dans ma maison...

Now for the general blabbing...

You might have noticed the banner at the top of the page inviting you to visit my newly revamped website.

In the past few days, I managed not only to add daily news, but I also decided to share my "Coup de coeur" (crush) of the day. Something that made me go "waouh" when I went through my daily surfing.

So I advice you to add the rss feed of my website so you can get all the latest infos !

I know it might be a bit confusing, it's like having 2 blogs, but the thing is I try to prepare for spam attack. If I can do without comments on neutral stuff on my website, it would be annoying to loose advantages on the blog.

In a perfect world, the web traffic wouldn't be swamped with spam, my blog and website would still be in their original place, and we would be a lot happier ;)

Petra, it's so good to see you back ! You're right about Margaret Sherry's cats: I now have a ginger and a grey blob on my fabric, and it's not really cat like ;)

Stitcherw, I guess that with practice, we recognise the cats even half finished !

As they are direct adaptations of watercolour drawings, I guess that's why the backstitching makes all the difference !

This week end, I intend to make some Valentine decorations. I've started early today by going food shopping at 8.30am, even before breakfast (which I took over there). It's such a nice change from last week: nobody there. It's amazing to think that just a few hours later the car park is so packed you need 20 min to leave it !

First, I guess I would have to clean up a bit... it's not really inspiring to have stash all over the house !!!

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Et maintenant, le blabla general...

Vous avez surement remarque la banniere vous invitant a visiter mon site recemment modifie. Ce n'est pas simplement un changement de deco, j'ai aussi decide de mettre la'ctualite broderie, ainsi que les coups de coeur du jour, un truc qui m'a particulierement plu lors de mon surf quotidien.

Je vous invite a ajouter le feed de mon site a votre reader de blog. Je sais que ca peut etre confusionnant d'avoir 2 "blogs", mais je couvre mes arrieres en cas de spam qui ferait desactiver mon site.

Mes petits chats avancent, ce sont desormais 2 blobs... il faut dire que ca ne ressemblera pas a grand chose avant de faire les points arriere. Comme ce sont des adaptations directes d'aquarelles de Margaret Sherry (qui ne brode pas du tout), ca me semble normal.

Pink Canary, j'ai brode les petits chats sur aida car je trouve que le rendu sera plus "moderne", et plus comme je veux. J'aurais peut eter du prendre du 16 count, mais bon... bof.

Ce week end, je pense faire des decos de St Valentin, apres un rangement serieux. Tant de trucs de broderie dans tous les coins, ca n'inspire pas trop !!!

J'ai ete tres matinale, j'ai ete faire mon shopping a 8h30, au saut du lit, sans petit dej, que j'ai pris a la cafet du magasin. Asda fait un English breakfast pour 1 livre50... quasi rien !

Et quelle difference avec la semaine derniere: personne quasiment, alors que quelques heures apres c'est tellement bourre de monde qu'il faut 20 minutes pour sortir du parking !!!

Love Cats update 1

Here's a total change in style... This is the Margaret Sherry freebie from this month CrossStitcher. It's very weird to stitch: big fabric, short length of threads (leading to spending more time finnishing/rethreading threads than actually stitching), fractionals, and later... backstitching. Because of the 14 count aida, it feels like doing a kit for starting kids ! Oh my !

Now that my School of Needlework is finnished, Pink Canary and I were thinking about doing another SAL. After seeing Curly Q Ewe (from LHN) on 2 blogs yesterday, I felt the need to stitch it. I even read that Pink Canary was planning on stitching it... so there you go... If you want to stitch it and join the fun, you are welcome !

Of course, I had to do something until Feb 1st. I really like to stitch vintage nowadays. So I was thinking about "Ye old coffee shoppe".

Problem is... I didn't find any fabric I wanted to stitch it on. I really want to stitch it on cream, but I used all my cream apparently. Of course, I could stitch it on flax, but when I started School of Needlework, I remember I also wanted to stitch it on cream, and ended up stitching on flax because I couldn't find any 32count cream linen in shops. So I ordered some from Sew Discounted, with a bit of luck it will come before the week end...

So for the moment, I concentrate on the Love Cats, and on crocheting a special lace for the Valentine project.

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Voici un changement de style total... C'est un freebie de CrossStitcher, les petits chats de St Valentin. J'ai du mal avec ce projet: une grosse toile aida, des fils trop courts (ce qui fait qu'on passe plus de temps a terminer le fil, renfiler que de vraiment broder), des fractionals, du point arriere... J'ai quand meme l'impression de faire un truc pour enfant debutant.

Maintenant que School of Needlework est fini, Pink Canary et moi allons faire un autre SAL: Curly Q Ewe. Je l'ai vu fini sur 2 blogs, et Pink Canary avait ecrit sur l'un d'eux qu'elle voulait le commencer... donc voila ! Si vous voulez vous joindre a nous, pas de probleme !

En attendant le 1er fevrier pour commencer, je voulais faire un autre vieux LHN. Je suis tres "vintage colonial" en ce moment. Donc je voulais faire "Ye old coffee shoppe", mais aucune de mes toiles ne m'attiraient. Je veux du creme. Seulement voila, a force de "vouloir du creme", j'ai utilise toute la toile que j'avais.

Je pourrais utiliser du flax, mais j'ai deja fait ca pour School of Needlework, et je ne veux pas me frustrer une deuxieme fois, donc j'ai commande de la toile a Sew Discounted. Avec un peu de chance, elle arrivera avant le week end...

Donc en ce moment, je brode les Love Cats, et je crochete une dentelle pour mon projet St Valentin.

The school is finished !

I'm having a hard time at the moment, what with work and all... leaving me very tired... so it took forever to finish this !!!

Meet Irene and Mary. They are best friends since... birth. Of course having moms who are best friends since childhood helps.

They are always together, and sometimes Abigail spend time with them, but she has a lot to do with little Lizzie and all.

Now the whole class has finished their star, what will they stitch next?

I know they will end up in a frame I picked up at Hobbycraft yesterday... not sure where in the house I will hang it out...

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Les temps sont difficiles pour moi en ce moment... avec le boulot et tout ca... ce qui me rend fatiguee le soir, et donc l'ecole a pris un temps fou a etre finie !!

Voici Irene et Mary, les deux inseparables. Ca aide que leurs meres sont amies depuis l'enfance... Abigail passent du temps avec elles, mais la plupart du temps elle doit s'occuper de la petite Lizzie...

Maintenant que toute la classe a fini son etoile, que broderont-elles?

J'ai deja achete le cadre pour ce projet, mais je ne sais pas encore ou je le mettrai dans la maison...

A big tease...

It's nearly complete... All but... the 2 missing students !

I have to thank Pink Canary for the motivation to finish this project, otherwise I think it would remain in the UFO drawer...

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Presque fini.... Tout sauf... les deux eleves manquantes.

Je dois remercier Pink Canary pour la motivation pour finir ce projet, car sinon il serait reste dans le tiroir avec les non finis...

The 3h non-stop Valentine Stitch

As you already know, I spent the morning on my website... I have to say it can still do with little improvements I left for later, but everything should be there, and people friendly.

Chiloe, my blog won't move for the moment. I'm not sure I solved the spam problem. If it comes up again, I might have to remove the comments from the main site, and as it is supposed to be quite static, I don't expect the comments function to be of great use.

If you look closely, you might notice the "In the news" section. I will try to give news about the stitching world and such. Because it's on wordpress, you should be able to subscribe to it like a normal blog. Of course, I said "try"... it would be great if you were willing to participate and point me to interesting news too !

Back to the main subject: stitching. I only got into stitching at 9pm. A couple of Buffy episodes later, and it was finished, and past midnight ! It's a freebie from Erica Michaels over here. Of course, it calls for all Rainbow Gallery threads, and I used only DMC: 4145, 926, 3687, blanc, 310, 318, 4210.
And I made the whirly things 926, because black was too dark.

The fabric is cloudy pink 28ct evenweave (the same as Gingerbread Cottage).

It will end up as a Valentines decoration somehow....

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Apres une matinee sur mon site, je n'ai brode qu'a partir de 9h du soir, et 3h apres, ce petit modele etait fait !

C'est un modele d'Erica Michaels dispo ici. J'ai utilise des fils DMC 4145, 926, 3687, blanc, 310, 318, 4210. Les spirales sont en 926. Le tissu est du 11fils unifil rose parchemine.

Ca va finir en deco de St Valentin, bien sur !!!!

AngelSan Creation, the new website

These past days I spent some time redesigning my website... You can now have a look and tell me what you think, if there are bugs or whatever...

School of Needlework for slow people

No update yesterday... and virtually no much progress stitching wise... what's happening?

Well, two things: first I feel generally sluggish and tired, so it's hard to take the needle at all. I don't know what's happening, but it seems to be a sort of tiredness wave.

Then I finally started to work on a re-design for my website. I've had it for... many years, and it looks like a treasure chest where you have to dig to find something.

As on the net, nobody digs, and stuff that are not "right there in flashy letters" aren't seen at all, well... you get the idea.

For the moment... my blog will remain here. Actually, I think it would be a sensible thing to do... Just in case spams come back on my website.

So this week end the plan is stitching, scrapbooking stitching and webdesigning. Don't know the proportions yet...

Now, School of Needleworks... Pink Canary showed her progress, and she was further than me, so I had to work on it... And as I didn't feel like making up a story, I stitched the title.

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Pas beaucoup de progres ici... Pink Canary etait en tete (et l'est toujours), et comme elle a fait les lettres et que je je voulais pas faire de petite histoire en ce moment... Donc j'ai borde le titre.

Deux raisons pour le manque de progres: la mouche tse tse m'a piquee, et j'ai du mal a me concentrer et tenir une aiguille le soir, et je me lance dans le remodelage de mon site.

Comme il est vieux, il ressemble plus a un coffre dans le grenier, et il faut fouiller pour trouver des trucs. Seulement voila, les gens ne fouillent pas sur internet, il faut leur indiquer tout en lettres flashantes, et donc voila... Un peu de rangement ne fera pas de mal !

Very mini bunnies... heart

Ok, I was talking earlier about hearts and miniatures...

This is the first heart... The design is a miniature sampler (IV) from Homspun Elegance. Lili will recognise it, the bunnies, but without the "ABC"...

It's on 32count vintage blue linen. Over one, of course... So it's 3cm. And it fits the felt heart !

The idea is that I have a few of these hearts... And tied together they will be a Valentines/Spring guirlande for the livingroom.

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Premier coeur d'une guirlande St Valentin/Printemps.

C'est un design Homespun Elegance, Miniature samplrs IV, en 14 fils, sur un fil. C'est vintage blue de Zweigart.

Evidemment, il va me falloir faire d'autres coeurs comme ca...

Just an update...

Yesterday I started a secret project. As the recipient comes by my blog from time to time, and the design is so oriented sh will know it's for her... I have to hide it. I don't plan on stitching on it full time, so I should be able to show some stuff anyway. In the meantime... you can guess the project. It's something from Lesley Teare in CrossStitch Gold, but it's not flowers.

I started a miniature as well... I had cheap felt hearts a while ago, but if I want to stitch something on it, it has to be 3x2cm max ! restrictions restrictions...

And now that Pink Canary has shown her progress on School of Needleworks, I feel like I have to continue that project as well... It's a sort of SAL. I am way too influenced by you all stitchers... it's scary...

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Hier j'ai commence un projet secret. Comme la personne a qui il est destine vient par ici de temps en temps, je suis obligee de le cacher, car elle saura tout de suite que c'est pour elle !!! Tout ce que je peux dire est que c'est un projet de Lesley Teare dans CrossStitch Gold, et pas des fleurs.

J'ai aussi commence une miniature: J'ai eu des coeurs en feutrine pas chers, mais assez petits, et dnc la broderie ne peut faire que 2x3cm.

Et je sens que je vais me remettre a School of Needleworks car Pink Canary vient de montrer le sien, et je sens qu'on fait une sorte de SAL improvise. Je subis bien trop vos inflences, c'est effrayant...

Snowflakes finished

Ok, so this week end... I stitched on Snowflakes. As I said I would. And I finished it.

You might notice that I left out the outer line, and it's obviously deliberate. First, it avoids technical finishing problems. Frame something with an outer stitched line, and spend a lot of time stretching to get it straight. Try making it into a cushion, and sew exactly parallel to the stitched line... Hum...

The second thing is that I wanted the design to "breeze" more. So more open space around the design.

I will finish it as a cushion for my sofa, as I left my big cushions at DBF's (Winter wonderland and Forest Snowfall). As I only finished stitching yesterday around midnight, I wasn't going to start a big sewing project ;)

Next, I might continue Cinderella, but I also have ideas for Valentine's day, and other Spring/gift related stuff, I have to get myself organised !!!

And don't forget, if you are on MySpace, come and join my friends list !

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Voici Snowflakes fini. J'ai eu juste le temps de finir a environ minuit hier ! Vous remarquerez l'absence de la ligne exterieure. Je voulais laisser le projet respirer, et en plus ca enleve les difficultes techniques d'encadrer/faire un coussin tres droit.

Je vais en faire un coussin pour mon sofa, vu que j'ai lessay mais deux grands coussins (Winter wonderland et Forest Snowfall) chez DBF.

Maintenant, j'aimerais bien broder Cinderella, mais aussi des projets de St Valentin, de Printemps, et des cadeaux.

Et n'oubliez pas, si vous etes sur MySpace, rejoignez la liste de mes amis !

MySpace, anyone?

Ok, I finally caved in... and created a MySpace profile. So if you are a MySpace user, please come and visit http://www.myspace.com/craftysan
I'm still very confused, so any help or pointing me to other crafters is welcome.

Now, you will ask me... why did I go to MySpace? Well, DBF has put some of his songs on it. GO and listen to his soft tunes !!!

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J'ai finalement craque... et cree un profil sur MySpace. Alors allez a http://www.myspace.com/craftysan
Tout ca est encore tres confus, mais j'aimerais y rencontrer des crafteuses !!!

La raison pour laquelle j'ai ete a MySpace est que DBF a mis certaines de ses chansons dessus. Allez ecouter ses jolies balades.

Now, that's an idea....

I was having a break from Snowflakes (I hate making borders, and this one is... very detailed), checking the discussion on Lili's blog about why we are stitching, and what would become of it when we die, would we care and such, when Teejay mentionned an idea she had:

Scrapbooking your stitched pieces.

Now, that sounds like a good idea for the stuff still lying around in drawers... I have papercraft bits I would probably never use otherwise... so there you go... I might try that.

In the meantime, go to Teejay's blog, "The Passion of My Needle", to see how she's doing it !

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Je faisais un break de broderie sur Snowflakes (je deteste les bordures, et elle la a trop de details!!!), je verifiais l'etat de la discussion sur pourquoi on brode sur le blog de Lili, quand teejay donne l'idee du siecle:

Mettre ses broderies en scrapbooking.

Voila quelque chose que je pourrais faire, surtout avec les trucs qui trainent dans mes tiroirs, et les elements de papercraft que j'ai deja.

Donc visitez le site de Teejay, "The Passion of My Needle", pour voir comment elle fait !

Pre week end update: Cinderella and Snowflakes

Well, it seems yesterday was a regular blogfest... I have to admit I had fun !!!!

It's Saturday morning, and I plan on stitching a lot this week end, enless I kinda give up. So we need pictures.

First, Cinderella, where you won't see any significant changes unless you want to play "spot the differences" with the previous picture.

I did try some metallic leaves in the middle. Blue and black to make green. odd but true. These a Madeira Rainbow metallics. I had Cinderella as a Leisure Craft kit (a UK company that sells Mirabilia and Lavender Lace patterns, and also kit what you need). They replaced the Kreinik threads by Madeira, because they are supposed to be easier to use. As I never really used Kreinik, I can only say it's better than DMC metallics ;)

The over all plan is to stitch the back of the dress, little by little.

But then yesterday I remembered Snowflakes is a SAL, and it is coming to an end, so I decided to work onthat this week end. Mostly.

My problem with the project was the dark fabric, and although it's a sunny morning in good old England, I would have difficulties seeing properly without my daylight lamp. I wonder how I ever lived without it...

So here is a picture, mostly for Sue W (stitcherw) who is a fan of my colour changes and encourages me to persue this project. Yesterday evening I stitched "wflakes" and the begining of the green border.

Now, a bit of discussion from yesterday...

The first bit was how we are "fashion victims" as stitchers... I'm a first victim, I'm so inspired by you all... But i can't help but notice you also are under influence ! Otherwise, how would we explain that at some point most blogs show samplers only, or Mirabilia, etc... ?

Pink Canary pointed me out that she got the new Joan Elliott book, "Women's world in cross stitch". When I looked from UK sites, and even the David and Charles (editor) site, it's said to be out in March 08. But apparently it's already out inthe US??? how come?

Zohrah, glad to see you back (a little bit) and that the cross stitch bug called you home... I know how hard it is to resist a magazine when they show something we like on the cover !!!

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Beaucoup d'action sur le blog hier... j'aime ca !!! Avant de commencer mon week end de broderie... des photos !

Tout d'abord Cendrillon. Et a moins que vous ne vouliez jouer au jeu des differences, vous ne verrez rien de notable par rapport a la photo precedente. En fait, j'ai essaye les metallques avec leseuilles du milieu. C'est du Madeira a la place du Kreinik demande. Une substitution faite par Leisure Craft, qui fait des kits avec les Mirabilias et Lavender Lace.

D'apres eux, ces fils sont plus faciles a utiliser car totalement metalliques. Tout ce que je peux dire c'est que c'est plus agreable que les fils DMC metalliques ;)

Hier je me suis souvenue que Snowflakes est un SAL, et que ca se terminait bientot. Donc ce projet va venir en priorite... Depuis la derniere fois j'ai brode "wflakes" et commence la bordure verte. J'avais arrete ce projet car je ne voyais pas bien les trous dans ce tissu fonce. Mais ma lampe Daylight a regle le probleme. Comment ai-je vecu sans?

Maintenant, un peu de discussions...

La premiere etait le fait qu'on etait "fashion victims". On peut dire que je suis hautement influencee par les autres blogs, et cela entraine souvent des achats impulsifs. Mais je constate que les autres sont pareils, car on peut voir la population des brodeuses faire les memes projets quasi en meme temps, des samplers, des Mirabilias...

Pink Canary a eu le nouveau livre de Joan Elliott, "Women's world in CrossStitch", et le plus bizarre est que l'editeur (UK) annonce la sortie pour mars, alors que les US l'ont deja !!!

Pour Pink Canary...

peux-tu m'envoyer ton adresse email pour reponses perso s'il te plait? mon adresse est angelsan1 at gmail dot com

Friday wanderings

I know... what's with all the posts? Well, I just thought it would be easier in the categories and such... So if you just arrived, there are a SBQ post and a review just below ;)

You might have noticed that I added extra "I'm stitching" designs on the left sidebar. If I'm mostly stitching Cinderella, I haven't given up hope of stitching the others, especially "Snowflakes", which was for a SAL. I will provide a pre-week end picture of Cinderella later today. Yes, I would like to rest and stitch this week end, and progress on Cinderella. With little breaks on the other projects.

At this point of year, I have loads of ideas for crafts, but I also feel more choosy. For exemple, I didn't buy WOCS magazine yesterday, despite the Sarah Kay design. I still have to finish the one from CS Crazy, and I still have 2 others better than that one. I love Sarah Kay, I grew up with these pictures, but let's face it, I don't know what I would do with the stitched piece. So...

I find myself thinking that a lot these days. "What would I do with the finished piece?" Yet another frame? Yet another pouch? And so on...

I feel it's a bit early to change my decorations to Spring. Valentine's day maybe? Does any of you decorate for Valentine's day? What do you do?

Kucki, I was thinking about making a keyring with my mini design, but it's a bit small for the keyring I have ! Maybe a visit to Hobbycraft is necessary... And you know Veronica, "stamp" is a word that came in all of our heads about the first miniature... especially with the border and stuff. but i wouldn't put that on a letter ;)

Lili, good news. Just as you get a liking to silk threads, DMC is launching the Satin threads range, to replace the Rayon range (which i know you hate working with). CrossStitcher mag says it's silk. Now, looking around... it seems it's 100% viscose. But silk like touch. The viscose would explain why it's only 99p a skein. Plus, if you are against using poor animals to make threads (like for silk)...

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Je sais... pourquoi tant de posts? Pour les categories et tout ca je suppose... Je suppose que vous avez vu que j'avais mis plus de projets en cours dans la barre de gauche. He oui, j'espere toujours travailler sur mes wips, surtout Snowflakes qui est un SAL a l'origine. Je posterai encore ce soir, avec une photo de Cinderella, meme si elle n'avance pas vite. En fait, j'aimerais y passer du temps ce week end, et faire des coupures avec els autres projets.

Je trouve qu'en ce moment, meme si j'ai des idees plein la tete, je fais la fine bouche. Par exemple, je n'ai pas achete un magazine hier malgre le design Sarah Kay. J'en ai encore un en cours, et 2 a broder mieux que celui-la. Et meme si j'aime bien Sarah Kay (elle m'a accompagnee toute mon enfance), je ne vois pas tres bien ce que je ferai du projet fini.

C'est la pensee du moment : "Que ferais-je du truc une fois brode?" Un autre cadre? Une autre pochette? Et ainsi de suite...

En plus il est un peu tot pour passer a la deco de Printemps, peut etre devrais-je faire des trucs de St Valentin? est-ce que vous decorez pour St Valentin, au fait? Et que faites vous?

Pink Canary, tu as de bonnes idees pour mes miniatures, mais rappelle-toi, le plus grand est deja un mini coussin... Le second, je sais pas, je vais peut etre le mettre en porte-clef, ou autre petits trucs qu'ils ont a Hobby craft...

CrossStitcher parle d'une nouvelle game de soie DMC. Pourtant, en y regardant de plus pres sur le net, ce fil a 99p en Angleterre semble etre en viscose !!!! Est-ce que quelqu'un a deja utilise ces fils? Je dois dire que si ca permet de ne pas utiliser les pauvres vers a soie... ca peut etre un mieux ;)

CrossStitcher issue 196

Yesterday I bought CrossStitcher magazine. I suppose that's why it's raining lately. But I couldn't resist the Margaret Sherry cats.

Because the magazine blog displays nice pictures, I won't bother with taking some more, and will just "review".

Let's face it, I only bought the magazine for the MS cats freebie. Nothing else of interest (in my tastes). It's mostly modern/deco type of designs. I like the blackwork bears as well, but I don't know what I would do with them.

Now, the freebie... It's quite a big design. Regular size design for a Margaret Sherry cat, like the ones published in the magazines as chart.

So loads of colours provided (and the threads seem to be of the regular kind again, not just the chinese ones), and the fabric is big. there are also laods of fractionals, so we can feel attention to details.

But beware, the threads on the sorter aren't exactly in the order of the key list, so check and plan in advance. I had the problem with a previous freebie...

Otherwise, they want to finish it as a bellpull, but of course they don't provide the top thing. Once again, you would have to buy from Debbie Cripps. Apparently they have a deal with her or something... Of course you can finish it as you want anayway ;)

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Hier j'ai achete le magazine CrossStitcher, ca doit etre pour ca qu'il pleut en ce moment. Mais je n'ai pas su resister les petits chats du kit offert.

Comme il y a deja les photos sur le blog du magazine, je ne vais pas en remettre ici... et donc je vais juste donner mon avis.

En fait, je n'ai achete ce magazine que pour le kit, car le reste est trop moderne et oriente deco a mon gout. J'aime bien les petits ours, mais je ne saurais pas quoi en faire apres, alors...
Le kit est un grand kit. Comme le projet est aussi grand qu'un margaret Sherry habituel, ca veut dire plus de couleurs (avec des fils qui ne semblent pas provenir de Chine comme d'hab), et un grand tissu...

Mais si vous vous attelez a ce projet, verifiez les fils, car ils ne sont pas dans l'ordre de la liste !

SBQ of the week 9jan08

SBQ of the week: What was your favorite finish of 2007?

This is a hard one. I guess mostly because I feel my tastes changing. Because I'm more into big designs and ladies, I would have to say "Renaissance Lady". And I also have a thing for "Old Gardens".

Last month I would have chosen an LHN pattern I guess.
If we talk about total finish, I would have to say my squirel pouch. I use it all the time.

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Quel est votre projet favori de 2007?

C'est dur a dire, car mes gouts changent beaucoup. En ce moment, comme j'aime surtout les grands projets, et autres Mirasbilia, je dois dire "Renaissance Lady". Et aussi "Old Gardens".

Le mois dernier ca aurait ete un Little House Needleworks. Et si on parle de l'objet final, je devrais dire ma derniere trousse avec l'ecureuil.

The 2cm wonder

This is something I finished last Saturday, stitching it mostly at Lili's. As the tape measurer shows, the design is only 2cm square !!!! it's the second freebie "lapin", stitched over one, on 32ct green cloudy linen (from K'thylda). At this point, we have to wonder what to do with something that small...

I also made an angle picture, "3D" like DBF says, because he said it would look good and we can see the stitches better. Many French blogs already show that kind of pictures...

I am slowly stitching Cinderella. It might be in blocks, but this project is an old Mirabilia, and it's not so fast to go through it ! As a result, I don't feel a day to day progress picture would show any progress. So I will have to space those a little bit.

At the moment I find it hard to get into stitching in the evening, so I probably don't stitch as much as usual either.

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Un petit projet que j'ai fait samedi dernier, en grande partie chez Lili. Ca ne fait que 2cm, en un fil sur lin 14 fils vert avec effet. C'est tellement petit qu'on se demande a quoi ca peut bien servir...

J'ai aussi fait une photo avec angle, car DBF m'a dit que je devais aussi faire ca en voyant des blogs francais, car on voyait mieux les points. Donc... j'essaye.

J'avance lentement sur Cinderella, et je ne pense pas faire de photo au jour le jour, car on ne verrait pas le progres de toute facon. Mais ca avance...

Depressed? Be crazy ! Cinderella update... don't remember the number

This is Cinderella (from Mirabilia) as she is now.

Loads of patches of colours. Huge design. The dress might be like 70% finished, but there's a whole castle and a border to stitch....

Of course you can't expect me to go on until it's finished... But little by little, she will be finished !

Of course there is nothing crazy about taking back an UFO (if anything, this is a very wise decision...).

No, the crazyness refers to the next picture. I took the plunge and bought a daylight portable lamp. I enjoyed Lili's (she's got the fancy rolly floorstand one) during our Saturday evening stitching sessions.

Plus I'm fed up with those "no light" days we are having. Juggling to take pictures that aren't that nice anyway... Here I took Cinderella without a flash.

If you add the works on dark fabric and the miniatures (I still have to show you my second mini-rabbit project), I really needed that lamp ! Of course the portability means I can travel around with it as well...

Before you ask... I bought it in hobby craft. I would have spared money by buying online, but I fear the bulb would come broken or something. As I was there I bought Cross Stitch Collection magazine, because of Joan Elliott's sunbonnet girls. They will make nice cards...

And I finally bought my tickets to go to Excel's Stitch and creative show in London. Here I used the magazines discount...

I usually miss the event due to personal timing clashes... so I hope it's good !

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Ou j'en suis avec Cinderella... il reste encore beaucoup a faire !!!!

J'ai aussi achete une "daylight" lampe, ce qui est pratique pour prendre les photos le soir, et faire mes miniatures, travail sur tissu fonce,e tc...

J'y ai pris gout avec la lampe de Lili, qui elle a la version sur pied roulant. Moi c'est la portable, pour pouvoir voyager.

J'ai aussi achete un magazine pour les petites filles style Sarah Kay, et des tickets pour l'expo a Londres du 1er Mars. D'habitude je rate l'expo pour raisons perso... mais la... faut y aller !

The dark period isn't over...

You start a new year... You'd expect a new start, some sign that the dark period you were stuck in in Nov/Dec will be gone with the year... Not so...Yesterday I was talking about my home phone not having a dial tone. Guess what? I come in at work and... no dial tone. What are the odds? At least at work I can use a collegue's phone...

Then I call Virgin Media, and they imply that because they have a normal ringing tone when they call my house, my phone itself is faulty, and I should try with another phone. Of course, I have multiple phones in my house... not.

Add to that the fact that my body aches. Going down 12 floors is a piece of cake, but a few hours later, you feel it in your legs, believe me. And carrying an heavy suitcase gives you pins and needles in your hands, and I start to feel it in my arms as well.

I'm glad my little story pleases you. I don't normally get stories from projects, but maybe it's because I was stitching just one character and it was obvious what they were doing, etc...Here it brings me back to my favourite game as a kid: school. Paradoxally, I hated going to school, but I liked teaching my dolls, and I had the whole Playmobil school as well. And no, I didn't become a teacher because I was realistic about what it meant day in and day out. Even if the kids behave, repeating always the same stuff, and having to prepare courses, spend time at home grading papers... not for me !

I was also pleased to see other people making up stories. Why don't you hare them with us on your blogs ?

For the rest of the story, you will have to wait a little bit. Yesterday I took Cinderella (mirabilia) again. I've been stitching LHN designs for 2 months now, and I felt I wanted to stitch a different style.

Kim, I totally agree with you and extra expenses with buttons and other embellishments. I would have thought that in a big city like NY you would get many craft stores? Here on the other side of the Atlantic, we have other nice things, very expensive most of the time, but if we want to do an US project, we have to order stuff online. Not always easy.

Nela, I'm so proud of myself, I understood everything you said en espanol...But I forgot what cintas are???

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Vous commencez une nouvelle annee... vous esperez que la periode noire qui a sevi en novembre/decembre s'arrete avec l'anne 2007... Que non pas...Mon telephone a la maison ne fonctionne pas, j'arrive donc au boulot et je m'apprete a appeler la companie... et pas de tonalite.

Quelle est la probabilite que mon telephone de maison et de boulot tombent tous les deux en panne en meme temps? Et voila que la companie du telephone implique que la faute vient de mon appareil, et que je dois tester avec un autre telephone.

Bien sur, le pauvre, il n'a pas supporte le froid pendant 15 jours, et a subitement rendu l'ame... alors qu'il n'en montre aucun signe... Et j'ai evidemment plein de telephones a la maison pour tester. Evidemment pas.

Enfin.... ajoutons a cela que je me sens cassee, bras et jambes, avec des picotememnts dans les mains (cause de portage de valise)... c'est pas top quoi !

je suis contente que mes petites histoires vous plaisent. C'est la premiere fois que je fais ca avec un projet, car en general le perso du projet fait un truc evident, donc pas besoin d'en rajouter...Et je suis aussi heureusement surprise de voir que d'autres font des petites histories. Vous devriez les raconter sur vos blogs !!!!

Hier j'ai delaisse le projet pour Cendrillon (Mirabilia) car apres 2 mois de Little House Needleworks, je voulais changer de style, et aussi Cendrillon m'appelle depuis un bout de temps...

Pinkcanary, j'ai hate de voir les noms que tu trouveras pour tes persos !!!!

School of Needlework update 3 from the invisible woman

"My name is Abigail. I'm little Lizzy's older sister. The one they count on to take care of Elisabeth, and that's why Mrs Ross had me sit next to her instead of my friends.

From a distance I hear them chatting and laughing, while I have to help Elisabeth in her work. Mrs Ross always compliment her on it, does she really think she did it alone?

I guess I'm in a bad mood today because Mom said Elisabeth should wear the blue dress now that I outgrew it, and wear this brown one she used to wear at my age. I hate brown... But who would care? I'm the older sister, the responsible one...."

Lili can testify this is the story I told her on Saturday, before we read pink canary called the blue one Abigail (what a great coincidence !). She can testify that Abigail was already an unhappy girl on Saturday, and my situation today didn't make her such a grumpy puss.

Older sisters I think can relate to her, like I do.

Today was "back home" day. I had to start it after virtually no sleep by going down 12 floors with an heavy suitcase because the lift was out of order.
The the trip was sort of ok, but why did they make things so that the entry of St Pancras is so far away from the entrance of King Cross? I ended up walking 3 times the lengh of St Pancras !!!! It took nearly 30 min to go from train to train, while if you could take the direct route, you'd be there in 10 min.

And they wonder why people don't like public transportation... those obviously never took the underground. I was told people in Paris have similar problems... load of walking....

Things seem ok at home, but it's soooooo cold ! Of course, the heating was off for 2 weeks ! but then, the one thing that I could hold onto to pass the day was DBF's phone call. And of course.... no tone. TV and internet work, but phone is dead. And how do you call the company in that case? You wait the following day to call from work, because there is no way I'm going to pay a looong phone call on a mobile for that.

And to add to this I feel invisible on yahoo groups, so I don't know if people just don't get my emails or don't care to answer... It feels like if you are not in their little world already, far in the US, you are not worth it or something.

All in all, I'm worse than when I left for the holidays. Don't want to go to work, feel like crying... and want to be in Spring. I should start stitching for Spring soon, bunnies and all... maybe it would help?

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"Mon nom est Abigail. je suis la grande soeur de Elisabeth, celle sur laquelle tout le monde compte pour s'occuper d'elle. C'est pourquoi Madame Ross m'a mise a cote d'elle en classe, alors que je prefererais etre avec mes amies. tandis qu'elles papotent et rigolent, je dois aider Elisabeth avec ses points, et Mme Ross s'extasie de son bel ouvrage. Croit-elle vraiment qu'elle l'a fait toute seule ?

Je suppose que je suis de mauvaise humeur aujourd'hui car maman a decide que desormais ce serait Elisabeth qui porterait la robe bleue qui commence a etre trop petite pour moi. Et me voila avec la vieille robe maron de maman a la place. Je deteste cette couleur. mais qui s'en souciera? Je suis l'ainee, la grande fille responsable..."

Pink.canary, je suis sure que tu saisiras l'ironie du fait que c'est celle d'a cote de la tienne qui est Abigail.... Lili pourra temoigner que je lui ai dit ce nom et cette histoire samedi, environ une heure avant de lire ton commentaire !

Les soeurs ainees se reconnaitront surement en Abigail,e n tout cas, moi oui ;)

Aujourd'hui j'ai du rentrer chez moi. L'eurostar Lille-St Pancras est peut etre plus rapide qu'avant, mais quand on doit passer 20 min a faire l'equivalent de 3 fois la longeur de la gare de St pancras, c'est pas aussi drole. Surtout que j'ai commence le voyage en descendant a pied les 12 etages pour cause de panne d'ascenceur. Ce ne serait rien si ma valise n'etait pas si lourde....

La maison est telle que je l'ai laissee, mais tellement froide ! Forcement, j'ai arete le chauffage 15 jours... Et evidemment, le moment clef de la journee aurait du etre l'appel de DBF au soir, et a ce moment-la je me suis rendue compte que mon telephone ne marche plus !!!! Zont encore du trifouiller dans la borne de telephone, et les connaissant, ils vont vouloir prendre rendez-vous et me faire attendre de 8 a 13h alors qu'ils doivent juste me rebrancher a l'exterieur.

Alors que la tele et internet marchent... c'est la ou on est content que le systeme de cable et le telephone ne proviennent pas de la meme boite comme Free ;)

Bref, ajoutons a ca que je me sens invisible sur certains yahoo groups, ou mes messages restent sans reponse, et on dirait que c'est copinage et co, et si on n'habite pas aux USA et qu'on ne passe pas son temps a s'extasier devant le designer on ne vaut pas le moindre interet...

Donc je suis pire qu'avant les vacances, ca valait la peine, tiens !!!! ;)

School of Needlework update 2

Mrs Ross, and a pupil, I called her Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is a sweet girl yeager to learn, and she really likes Mrs ross' class.

My stitching suffered a bit from headaches and DS playing (Princess Peach)

Plus I lost DMC3828 somewhere.

This will be my last update until Monday/Tuesday, as it's nearly the end of my holidays, and I feel grumpy and kinda sick, for many reasons.

Anyway, I see Lili tonight, it will be great ! :)

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Madame Ross, l'institutrice, et Elizabeth, une gentille petite fille qui aime apprendre. Peu de broderie recemment pour cause de mal de tete et de DS (Princess Peach). Et j'&i perdu une couleur DMC quelque part.

Ce sera mon dernier post avant lundi ou mardi, car c'est la fin des vacances, et je me sens assez mal et grognon. Heureusement que je vois Lili ce soir !!!

Perso, email and language note

First, in English... note that I sometimes don't say the same thing in French and English... so it might be worth reading both sometimes if you know both languages.

Also, it seems that blogger doesn't keep people emails, so if you want me to reply to comments by email, you will have to give me your adress. Other wise I will answer on the blog.

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Notez que parfois je ne dis pas la meme chose en francais et anglais, donc si vous savez lire les deux langues, n'hesitez pas a lire les deux textes.

Depuis que je suis sur blogger, je n'ai plus les adresses email des commenteuses, donc si vous voulez que je vous reponde en prive par email, il va falloir me donner votre adresse.

Sinon, je repondrai ici.

Pimlico62, bienvenue par ici. Je ne connais pas la mercerie de la rue masurel, c'est une bonne nouvelle, apres les fermetures massives de merceries dans le coin !!!!

Comment ca se fait que ton profil blogger indique l'Afganistan comme pays si tu es du 62? ;)

School of Needlework update 1

or "the corpse of Mrs Ross" ;)

You can see the finished project on the left sidebar if need be.

As you can see I stitched the teacher's dress and part of the left table.

I use the same fabric as Stitcher's prayer, 36ct raw linen.

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Le corps de Mrs ross, la prof de l'ecole de broderie... Je brode ce projet sur le meme tissu que Stitcher prayer, du lin 14 fils.

Last finish and Happy New Year !!!

Click on the picture to see it bigger....

Apparently there is a tradition of starting a project on January 1st, so I decided to finish this one before today... Quite a challenge at the stage I was at that time !

But I had loads of time to stitch yesterday, so.. tadaaaa !

I even had to start a mini freebie in order not to start "School of Needlework" straight away...

I see many people make 2007 and 2008 goals...

I stitched 44 things in 2007. Like 2005 and 2004. I had a boom in 2006 (59 projects), but I made ornaments and such...

In 2007 I got into Little House Needleworks and more country style than before.

In 2008... I don't know... I feel like doing more personal stuff, and more experimental things, like ribbon embroidery.

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Mon dernier projet de l'annee, fini le 31 decembre !! Aujourd'hui je commencerai "School of Needlework".

En 2007 j'ai borde 44 trucs, et j'aimerais faire de nouveaux trucs en 2008, comme la broderie au ruban....