5000 Poppies; at the Flower and Garden show

 So the other day I went to the Melbourne International Flower and Garden show.

Really the display gardens at the show were on a whole average and there was only a handful. I enjoyed the day because flowers and I went with friends but they really need to ramp up the 'garden' bit of the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. 

But on to the highlight, the '5000 poppies' group had an awesome display created by Phillip Johnson / Phillip Johnson Landscaping. I'll let the pictures speak for me:

Tartan Thistles Scissor keep

Something finished for the new year!

I sort of don't really like the finished product but it'll do the job (hopefully) of stopping me from loosing my little scissors... once I eventually find a pair again to attach.  My house seems to absorb scissors like it's nobody's business hence the need for some scissor keeps.

This is another kit from Textile Heritage (Art Pewter Silver Ltd) like the Tudor Rose one I completed in August 2014. After I finished an gave away the rose I decided I wanted/needed one for myself. I like tartan and purple so this one seemed like a safe bet at the time. I might have to do a Tudor Rose for myself in the future since I liked the finished product  significantly more than the Thistle.

I haven't had a lot of free time to stitch lately and I don't think that's going to change. I did think I might get some more stitching time by taking it to work and doing a little bit of work during my breaks. Valid idea but didn't really work.  First I accidentally stitched the 'grey' stem on the thistle with the white instead of grey.  In my defence the grey in the kit looks very much like a shade of green, at no point did I look at the 'grey' and go 'yes you are clearly the grey in this kit'. Instead it was 'well you're not any of the other colours, must be the grey...' I notice fairly quickly so only had to pull out around 10 minutes of work. Frustrating none the less. 

I also managed to get a drop of green tea on the Aida, hazards of stitching during my tea break. Fortunately not on the design but it convinced me that stitching at work wasn't really going to work. Green tea sure can stain.

On a whole this stitch was actually fairly dull. Doing the tartan background felt way too much like hand sewing (which I might possibly hate) and there was a fair bit to do. I'm not really a fan of hand stitching, that's one of the reasons I have a sewing machine.  Nothing in the design really stood out, this is probably part of why I'm ambivalent about the finished product.  

The tassel I made is fairly average and set too low. It should be sewn in much closer to the cross stitch. Again I stitched up the hole used for stuffing like a noob. It looked pretty average. One day I'll have to get some finishing advice for projects like this so it can look nice all round. 

But after all that complaining it's done and will be organisationally useful so time not wasted. 

 

***And here it is in my handbag on the way to work with my random golf ball!***

Oregano Pot-Pourri Sachet

It is DONE.

I swear this piece is/was cursed. I can see some little old lady witch dancing naked in the moonlight with this kit on her alter cursing it before gifting it to her rival all the while cackling internally. (Yes I know witches aren't really like that but I love the imagery) Almost anything that could go wrong with this piece did. Even blogging about it is torture! It's freaking tiny so I was NOT going let it win. 

Fun issues encountered while cross stitching;

1) I spilt coffee on it... twice. Fortunately a bit of diluted bleach and a cotton bud fixed it up nicely.

2) I miss counted the stem - realised too late to really fix so just worked around that one.

3) I had to frog the bottom left hand leaf THREE times! It has something like 40 stitches. 40 stitch in almost a square. I swore at it so so much when I did this and threw it in the bottom of a bag. It took months before I was willing to look at it again.

4) left it folded in the same place for too long and now have a probably permanent fold line straight through the middle and along one edge. Ironing got rid or a lot of the crease but it's still visible at the edges.

5) missed a few random stitches and had to come back to them - not a great mistake but annoying none the less.

6) I had to unpick the pink border twice. Got three quarters of the way around and realised the stitching wasn't going to meet. Had missed one stitch in the upper right corner. Unpick, try again. Missed a stitch in the lower right corner... third try was the charm.

I also decided to stitch the pink border all around in half stitches then go around again for the full cross stitch; This didn't really work the way I'd hoped due to the fact the whole border wasn't made up of full cross stitches. On the first round I did all the half stitches so when stitching the other way around at every half stitch point you see on the front at the back I've had to stretch the thread over two or three lines. Not optimal stitching and the back is a mess. If I'd left the half stitches to the second go round it would have worked significantly better. Hindsight.

The only bit that went right was the word 'oregano' which turned out quite nice.

Further issues encountered while trying to turn it into a sachet;

1) I hadn't really intended to turn it into a sachet in the beginning so I did the stitching as per usual, starting from the middle of the aida. Turns out that if you want enough aida for the sachet you needed to start from the corner around 2.5cm from the edge. Found this out after I spent several good minutes fiddling with the finished cross stitch trying to work out how turn is into a sachet before giving up and reading the instructions. Another lesson in reading ALL the instructions before starting.

2) could not find the right aida to use for the other half of the sachet. I needed 14 count aida to finish the stitching up as a sachet. I have plenty of random bits of 18 count adia, 14 count aida...in cream, black aida and various evenweave fabrics. No 14 count. I had to buy some especially for this... I'm sure I had some, I guess now I have more.

3) decided to hand stitch it... I hate hand stitching so I really have no idea why I thought that was a good idea. I feel like I stitch like a deranged 2year old. The inside is really rough, though it does mostly look okay on the outside.

The measurements of this little cursed piece is something like 10cm x 15cm for the whole sachet and 9.5cm x 11cm for the design.

I have two other similar kits to do... I don't think I'll be picking them up any-time soon. Also I'd take better photos in the daylight BUT it's done and I'm done. I really have nothing left for this piece. I'll put some pot-pourri in it and throw it in a draw and that will be that.

My City in Photos (1)

Tudor Rose Scissor Keep

This little guy is a kit I brought the other month from the quilt and craft show. I've been tempted previously to pick up the kit at other events but at $15- it's somewhat pricey for me. But that time, being on a craft fair spending spree, I finally caved and got it along with the cute scissors I've attached to the finished product. 

Made in Scotland by textile heritage the kit contains aida, floss, cord, needle and chart - also a little story about history of the Tudor rose. The included needle was slightly smaller than usual. I liked it because it let me use just that little bit more floss each strand letting me feel like I was getting a bit more mileage out of each stitch. It may have also made me less likely to try and keep stitching that last itty bitty bit of floss for that last annoying stitch. Or not. Not really sure on that one, just felt that way a couple of times.

To finish you need the scissors and some stuffing. For no good reason I have a random bag of stuffing laying in the middle of my living room. It's been there for several months...lets not judge. But the stuffing plus the pre purchased scissors meant that once I started I had everything I needed to finish close at hand.

I'm not sure what brand the floss is but it was really soft and easy to work with. Precut to the appropriate lengths.  The chart said to start from the corner,  being a rebel I started from the middle of the flower. Ultimately I don't think it made a difference as the aida was more than sufficient in size. 

The cross stitching was straight forward. I only had to unpick half a row of the gold crosses on the back because I stitched the crosses the wrong way to all the rest. Always a fun revelation.  I also did the bulk of the back while travelling on public transport.  I don't think I'll make that a regular thing as I feel it negatively affected my work making the crosses messier than they otherwise would be.

I was tempted not to do the back stitching (or not all of the back stitching) on the rose several times. It just looked so pretty at multiple points that at any point I felt I could stop and it'd still look finished.

Then I was done with cross stitch and ready to turn it into the pin keep rather than a decorative piece of aida. This is where the instructions fell over a bit. I really needed them to dumb it down a bit just for me. Mostly I assume because (or hope because) I've never made a scissor keep before. I assume the instructions would be sufficient if you already had an idea what you were doing. Maybe a few more diagrams?

Anyway after a bit of trial and error involving things like stitching closed the bit my cord need to go, trying to put the tassel and cord on the inside of the keep instead of the outside and pulling my cord out several times I got there. One completed scissor keep 6.5×6.5cm approximately not including the tassel or cord.

I am mostly happy with how it turned out. The side I stitch up after stuffing the keep is rough and fairly messy and as noted above I'm not really happy with the stitching I did while on the train/bus but ultimately it turned out quite nice. I'd do another one if the opportunity presents.

White Orchid Cross Stitch by Dimension

I picked up this little weekend kit from Savers on Friday for a whole $3. It was a bit of a risk because it came in a sealed bag so I couldn't tell if the kit was all there or if someone had already started it and made a mess. But fortune favours the brave and my $3 was well spent. The kit was all there including; designer mat (their words) & backing board, glass, thread, needle, aida and 4 frame clips. Please excuse the picture, it's really hard to photograph with the glass and the light.

If I’d read the description at the back of the kit before I purchased it I may not have brought it just on grounds of ridiculousness. The back of this kit reads "You give yourself to others all day long. NOW it's time for you. Reward yourself with a simple Daydream that lets you express your creativity, talent, and good taste."
I laughed and laughed and laughed! So wanky.

Despite the questionable description this was one of the better kits/charts I've encountered.

The thread came seperated in cute little loose knots;

So cute. - I'm easily pleased :)

The chart also had listed how many lengths of each colour there was so putting them in order was painless.


My only issue with the chart would be that it was a bit small. While this is nothing a photocopier wouldn't fix the chart could have easily been a size or two bigger since the instructions were on 2 x A4 double sided pages but the chart only took up one quarter of one page.

But other than that one gripe it was a really good kit. Had enough thread, design was nice but still quite simple to complete in a weekend.

The finished product looks quite nice, though I've managed to get a little bit of stray cat fur stuck under the glass that will be easy enough to fix when I get around to it.

Progress shots;

Floral Cards Kit from the July Cross Stitcher

I've had a nice box I picked up at my local craft shop sitting around for a while. I always intended to cross stitch some flowers to go in the top but hadn't yet got around to it. So when I saw the most recent copy of Cross Stitcher (to hit Australian shelves - July 2013) on the magazine rack at the start of the week with a free kit of three flowers I knew it was perfect.

I started stitching the same day I purchased the magazine. The flowers were quite quick to complete, easily manageable in a few evenings while watching a movie or 2. I didn't really like the idea of putting the finished designs on the provided cards. Dull, and I generally don't give cards so ultimately useless. So the box I fortunately had on hand was perfect.

The designs didn't quite fit the box vertically so I cut 2 strips from the cards provided with the kit and edged the design. A bit of tape and the designs trimmed down. All done.

Very happy with the end result though I may still stain the wood of the box with some colour.

Design by: Angela Poole
Design size: 4x6cm each