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...