Winter fairy progress

#winter #fairy progress. Still in the three whites section of the skirt. #crossstitch #stitching #pointdecroix #broderie #joanelliott

Une publication partagée par Sandrine Ociepka (@angelsan59) le 23 Août 2017 à 22h34 PDT

Smartphone pouch with Tinkerbell stitch

#crochet #smartphone #pouch with à #crossstitch #tinkerbell #fairy glued on it

Une publication partagée par Sandrine Ociepka (@angelsan59) le 21 Août 2017 à 9h15 PDT

Winter Fairy Update

This is my very long project. Started in 2010, worked on in 2015, it's back in progress.

#joanelliott #winterfairy a big project back from the wip pile. I'm in the middle of the white, that is actually 3 whites. Not so fun... The Chicory #fairy will the easier"on the go" project. #stitching #crossstitch #broderie #pointdecroix

Une publication partagée par Sandrine Ociepka (@angelsan59) le 19 Août 2017 à 23h49 PDT

New fairy

New project, the #chicory #fairy, an old #DMC #flowerfairies #crossstitch kit. #pointdecroix #broderie #stitching

Une publication partagée par Sandrine Ociepka (@angelsan59) le 14 Août 2017 à 20h21 PDT

Tansy Fairy finished

#tansy #fairy finished ! I still need to mount it in the card thingy. 20years after starting it ! 😱 #flowerfairies #stitching #crossstitch #broderie

Une publication partagée par Sandrine Ociepka (@angelsan59) le 9 Août 2017 à 22h21 PDT

Stormtrooper stitch

I made this Star Wars Stormtrooper keyring for DBF. Stitched on 16 count aida and using pva white glue to prevent fraying and stick the felt at the back.

 This method is a good alternative to plastic canvas that I can't find over here. And it offers more flexibility for backstitching and fractionals...

Animal Crossing Stitch

As I have a whole folder of medium and big stitched pieces, I want to stitch something more portable. Like charms or keyfobs.

So here is Marie from the Animal Crossing game (3DS). I used 16 count aida. I found the pattern in the numerous Hama beads patterns on Pinterest.

Originally I wanted to make a mini cushion, but I'm not really satisfied of the little Totoro I made a year ago, the character gets all out of shape.

So I cut the fabric around very close to the stitches like plastic canvas, and put some glue all around so it doesn't fray.

Now I need to add a back. I think I will put some felt, but will I stitch or glue it on?

Forever Friends Nightmare

Second freebie stitched this month. But different story. This is an Anchor kit, instead of DMC. And two (ok, three) problems occured.

First, just looking at the pattern, I could only brace myself for an arduous backstitching, out of the holes with a pointy needle. It reminded me of the old days when that lady from Anchor got mad at me for warning people of this difficulty in Anchor kits I reviewed. At least I knew what I was getting into.

Second, error in the colour chart calling for a brown backstitching on the flowers instead of pink, but never mind.

Then this is where we uncounter the real big problem : not enough threads. This NEVER EVER happened with a freebie, from any UK magazine. They usually provide more than enough. Here, at first I was stitching the teddy, and I was having just enough. Just enough is already rare. But it became desperate when I had to make the pink background. I ran out. And I had to use DMC threads to finish the project. And we stitchers know that the colours equivalence is never exact.

 So what happened ? Was it yet another mistake int he colour chart? Should have it been "stitch in one strand" instead of two?

It didn't discourage me, I started another Forever Friends freebie...

Edwina Hedgehog

At the moment I feel like stitching in the mornings, but I don't want to tackle big projects. I have a folder full of frame sized finished projects and no place to hang them on the walls without overloading them. And I would rather make cards and mini cushions and such.

I have a little collection of freebie coming from UK magazines I haven't stitched yet, so I decided to make those. Starting with this little Edwina Hedgehog with flowers. Not too complicated, except for the number of colours, and the tweaking (stitching with two strands of different colours together).

A little bit of stitching

I didn't craft much since the beginning of the year, but it's mostly the "January effect". Nice little depression every year. But I managed to get into the Easter/Spring/Stitching mood and made these mini projects.

First a little Flower fairy. It was an old freebie from a UK stitching magazine. Stitched in one thread on 16 count aida, with a few fractionals. The backstitch is quite intricate and gives the whole dimension to the picture.

Then I made a little chicken for Easter, I still need to turn it into a cushion.

Finally an Elisabeth Design for a pin cushion. The pattern calls for a 40 count evenweave (or linen), but I used 28 count by mistake. Well, I thought the fabric colour (cloudy brown) was perfect for it. So it's just a little bigger than expected, and the leaves look a bit sprse, but never mind.

Now and then when I feel like stitching, I'm doing yet another freebie from an old magazine, a hedgehog with flowers from DMC. 16 colours and tweaking, freebie kits weren't for the newbie faint hearted in those times !

A family of mice

We are already preparing for the family Christmas eve party, when my brother and I, plus significant others will come to my parents. I'm already planning of making cookies, and the log cake. And I also made these cute ABC mice on plastic canvas for the table decorations. As you can guess, it took me quite a while !

Surprisingly, we end up with 2 Ms, 2 Ns, and 2 Ss...

Santa Archie bag

I thought  long and hard about what to do with this little stitching, and rumaging through my stuff I came across this gift bag I bought a long time ago in Hobyycraft. A bit of double sided tape, and voilà ! Archie Bag !

Winter Fairy Progress 4

Looks like every year I add a few stitches to this project. It's big, it's long, but I don't have to produce a lot of projects, so... Never mind. I worked on this before stitching Archie Santa, but didn't take a picture, and it's too big for the scanner.

Now we will have a hiatus for Christmas projects; but I wanted to document where I was with this.

Previous update and history of project here.

Stitching ?

Apparently I didn't post since last June.... I blame it on new technology, where you can  share your pictures and progresses on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with one button. So what about Blogspot? Apparently it got lost on the way. Who still read blogs these days? Not me, I'm an Instagram enthousiast.

So this post is for whoever remains, and also serves as a journal entry.

From 2001 to 2008, I was an avid cross stitcher. Then life changed, and I also wanted to make stuff I could use, and not just pretty pictures. And here came crochet. Then knitting, tatting, and other things. Last December I made an attempt to go back to cross stitch, but then I opened the folder where I had stached all the finished pièces and got depressed. So many beautiful pictures with no use at all....

But here comes Christmas. Early this year as DBF decided to make the Christmas tree last Sunday. So I stitched little Archie here. I think I will make a mini cushion.

About the project itself.... It's a Margaret Sherry design from an old CrossStitcher magazine, from a time they had one Archie design per month. I used DMC threads. And I was glad to stitch it on 14 count aida when came the moment to do the backstitch. Very challenging as non go through the holes, but I love the sketchy final result, so it was worth it.

Next: more Christmas stitching.

Winter Fairy progress 3

I had to dig deep into the blog to find when I last posted about this project. February 2010. Looks like I worked hard on it for about a week, then left it 5 years. Now that's what I would call an UFO !!!

Of course I'm in a white/very light grey/ very light blue zone, not ideal  to start stitching again after years of absolutely no stitching ! How, well....

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J'ai du creuser loin pour retrouver quand j'ai commencé ce projet. Février 2010. On dirait que j'ai travaillé dur dessus pendant 1 semaine, puis plus rien pendant 5 ans ! En prime, je suis dans une zone riche en blanc, gris presque blanc et bleu presque blanc... une joie pour recommencer le point de croix !

Sapin biscornu

Ah, the first finish of the year ! Of course it was started last year ;)

And yes, I start the new year with stitching a winter biscornu. I counted the fabric a bit short (only2 aida squares extra in some places, but sewing the 2 pieces wasn't so complicated. In my memory biscornus were harder than that ;)

I also took a picture of it flat, so you can see the pattern bet;ter. I used this pattern, but added stars.

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Premier truc fini de l'année, un biscornu d'hiver.... J"ai aussi pris la photo à plat pour voir le dessin. Le modèle est ici.

Totoro pendouillette

After mini Pluto, I made a Totoro, this time on aida fabric, to try and stitch a front and back, and turn it into a charm.

The result isn't quite as good as I expected, actually i don't know really what I expected, I suppose it's a bit bulky or something.... But I still love it ;)

You can see the flat version prior to the finnishing down here.

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Après Pluto, j'ai fait un Totoro, cette fois-ci sur toile aida, avant et arrière, mais le résultat me semble un peu bizarre, trop gros ou je ne sais pas quoi, mais je l'aime bien quand même...

Back to cross stitch?

It's been nearly 5 years since I've done any stitching. My last project was the little Margaret Sherry cats in coffee mugs. In 5 years I crocheted, knitted, tatted, etc.... but no stitching. Recently I made things out of Hama beads, then out of seed beads. It's all the same principle : make a picture using dots. Pixels on the computer.

And this is how I found this cute baby Pluto via Pinterest (I love it this website so much, I spend a lot of time on it, don't hesitate to follow me !). It's actually from Kandi Patterns, a great site with loads of beads pattern, for fuse beads, peyote, square stitch etc....

I intend to use this baby Pluto as a charm for my phone. So it's on plastic canvas size 14. Luckily the pattern is small, because this reminded me how much I hate stitching on plastic canvas. Not the best "back to stitching" ;) But I succeeded in the end.

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Ca fait 5 ans que je n'ai plus brodé, la dernière chose était des chats de Margaret Sherry. Mais récemment j'ai fait des trucs en perles Hama, et en perles de rocaille tissées, et c'est toujours le même principe : faire une image avec des points, ou pixels.

C'est ainsi que j'ai trouvé ce modèle de bébé Pluto très mignon via Pinterest (je suis toujours sur ce site, n'hésitez pas à me rejoindre et à vous abonner à mes tableaux !) sur le site Kandi patterns. Je ne peux que recommander ce site qui est bourré de modèles pour les perles à repasser, ou le tissage peyote ou carré.

Ce bébé Pluto va devenir un gris gris pour mon téléphone. C'est brodé sur du canvas 14 en plastique, et cela m'a rappelé combien je déteste broder là dessus. Ce n'était pas le meilleur redépart pour le point de croix, mais bon, le modèle est petit, j'y suis arrivée à la fin.

Coming soon : Sherry lewis kits

This is a news I found while surfing, and I know many of you love to cross stitch Margaret's cats and other cute animals. Margaret Sherry is now associated with Cathy Lewis (she used to work for UK magazines) to create the Sherry Lewis kits website.

The kits won't appear before February 2012 (can you stand the wait?), but there's a blog, and a free chart. That little cat could almost make me go back to the needles....

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Une info trouvée par hasard, qui raviront les fans de Margaret Sherry, ses chats et autres animaux tout mignons.


Margaret s'est associée à Cathy Lewis, qui travaillait dans les magazines américains, pour former le site Sherry Lewis kits.


Si les kits n'arriveront pas avant février 2012 (l'attente est insoutenable !), on peut quand même lire leur blog, et télécharger un modèle gratuit de chat de Noël. Je pourrais presque me remettre à broder....

Stitching? really? Mini hen

I know it's crochet month, and I think I've done my share of crochetting already, so here is a bit of stitching.

I was surfing the web, and I found that idea to make mini cushions/keyring things. The creature was super cute, and I love the idea of turning stitching into a small object. And it is small : about 3cm !!!

It was great to use the needle again, until I had to sew the 2 parts together. My initial idea was to backstitch all around, and sew like biscornus or mini matresses. And of course the sewing became hell, especially around the tail.

Well, I love the result, but if you have experience of that sort of thing, please give me advices !

Anyway, this hen is so cute I'm going to make other critters soon...

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Je sais que c'est le mois du crochet, mais j'ai déjà fait ma part je pense, et j'ai encore d'autres trucs à faire. Mais je suis tombée sur des mini coussins / pendouillettes et j'ai voulu aussi essayer. et c'est vraiment mini, car ma poupoule ne mesure que 3cm !!!

J'ai adoré reprendre mon aiguille, jusqu'à ce que je doive coudre les deux parties ensemble. mon idée initiale était de coudre comme les biscornus, mais arrivée surtout au niveau de la queue, c'est devenu l'enfer.

Enfin, j'adore le finish, mais si quelqu'un a des conseils pour faire ça plus simple, je suis preneuse!!!