The "no frills, no gremlins (hopefully)" cross-stitch cafe

*Louise*

blue_eyed_girl wrote: »

New WOCS has arrived this morning but I am NOT opening it until I have done some more chores and we need to take some stuff down to the tip. Looking forward to seeing the reviews for this mag over on FE's new thread - I might even give my pennys worth .

Did my jobs from 9-12 so had a sit down with my magazine.

Review

mrs-moneypenny

blue_eyed_girl wrote: »

mrs mp - love your name stitches. Are these going to be xmas pressies?

b_e_g

ive done the one for my niece to go with her 16th birthday 'success' hamper
the other one is for someone whos getting a 'new' bedroom.
so they are pressies but will go before christmas

nmm

blue_eyed_girl wrote: »

Has anyone come across brown cards (like brown paper)? Was thinking for using these (if I can get any) for the Nordic Santas.

I searched on ebay brown card blanks and quite a few came up, hopefully one will be like what you're looking for. Not so much choice for aperture ones

moments_of_sanity

blue_eyed_girl wrote: »

Afternoon everyone

mos - hope you didn't have to wait too long for your appointment at the hospital. Hope all went well for dd.

mrs mp - love your name stitches. Are these going to be xmas pressies?

Ran out of a dmc green last night for my snowmans hat so just bought one locally (90p) - too impatient to wait to get some online for less .

Has anyone come across brown cards (like brown paper)? Was thinking for using these (if I can get any) for the Nordic Santas.

New WOCS has arrived this morning but I am NOT opening it until I have done some more chores and we need to take some stuff down to the tip. Looking forward to seeing the reviews for this mag over on FE's new thread - I might even give my pennys worth .

Catch you all later

b_e_g

Unfortunately it turned out to be the day from hell! DD had an ultrasound scan as she has been suffering from abdominal pain for the last 6 months and they couldn't find the cause of it. So along we went, long story very short, they found a 5/6 cm wide cyst on her oviary and couldn't leave it I case it twisted as it would then cut off the blood supply to her ovary and she might lose it. So emergency surgery done at 3pm this afternoon and I have just got back. Luckily tho they managed to remove the cyst and leave the oviary undamaged :j. She is only 17 and was so worried about losing it but all good. She will hopefully be home tomorrow

No stitching done at all today and my head is pounding too hard to even start it now.

[Deleted User]

Hi

I am cross stitching a card and the lettering is a very small back stitched alphabet and I am unsure how to start and finish my threads as I don't want to trail them from one letter to the next.

Any help or advice would be appreciated as I am a newcomer to cross stitch embroidery.

Coxy11

Just popping in to say m-o-s sorry to hear about DD. Hope she recovers soon, sounds horrendous. Can't believe they didn't pick this up earlier from a scan???!!!

onewom - I'm no expert but would try threading back through the backstitch after each letter (ie do them individually) and keeping any tail ends of black thread very short. HTH.

Off to work but hoping to do some stitching this evening.

Have a good day all.
Coxy

mrs-moneypenny

morning all

MoS, hugs to you and your DD, must have been a shock to you both expecting to have just a scan then face emergency surgery. glad everything is now sorted and the her oviary was saved.

onewom welcome to the cafe, id do what Coxy has suggested.

moments_of_sanity

Hoping to get some stitching done today. Grandad is visiting DD this morning and she has text to say the catheter and drain have been removed this morning so she has been able to get up and have a little walk.

I haven't received my magazine yet, hope it hasn't got lost in the post :mad:

I am finding the day light quite dull at the moment and need to have my lamp on to stitch even in the day time, is anyone else finding this a problem?

flowerofscotland

Good morning Stitchers

Apologies for the length of the post but I had more than I expected to catch up on - that isn't a complaint - I love reading all the posts

FE Have you considered folding scissors for your commute They aren't particularly sharp but do the job if all you want to cut is threads. For home I would buy the best pair you can afford but then I love scissors and have quite a collection - most of them with stitched fobs attached to them. I hang them from my stitching lamp Gingher, Prym, Fiskars, Premax are all good makes and are ideal for Santa's list

Hippipal Welcome back. A lot of us use and like the plastic snap on frames with the table/lap version being highly recommended - linky

Shelly Helene Tran is the designer of the piece I have done - I remember there were a few kits brought out by DMC a few years ago although I don't remember seeing yours (which I love). Perhaps I should get mine out and consider getting it framed or make it into a cushion.....

pm Welcome back. Sorry to hear about your Dad.

Love your Panda - the background is beautiful and will really set off the lifelike panda you have already stitched. Looking forward to seeing more updates.

sweetcarer Frogs should be banned - unpicking seems to take even longer than the original stitching I suppose you just have to tell yourself you are learning.....
Spring sampler is looking lovely - such bright colours - so appropriate for the season

MoS Donna Kooler is an American designer who runs the Kooler Design Company. I remember a round robin I did which was one of her designs with teddies celebrating the 20th Century
She has done lots of designs for US cross stitch magazines so there will be no shortage of choice if you want to stitch another of her stocking designs

So sorry to hear about your daughter but pleased that she is making good progress - being young she should recover faster.

beg Your birthday card is just fabulous - aren't you a wonderful friend
Isn't it amazing how you can have hundreds of threads and still be short of the one colour you need?
The Nordic Santas will look lovely on brown cards

mrsceejay have a wonderful time with your daughter.

Will be interested to hear how you get on with your complaint about the 12 days kit

mrsmp Your 2 name plates are gorgeous - 2 very lucky girls

onewom Welcome to the Cafe. If there is only one space (square) between each letter you will probably be OK trailing the thread but you should finish off as coxy says when you come to the end of a word as the spaces are usually greater between words. Are you using 1 or 2 strands of thread? 1 strand probably won't show over 1 square if you trail the thread at the closest possible point (hope this makes sense).

Louise Thanks for the review on WOCS - my copy arrived yesterday but I didn't have time to open it; hopefully this evening will be better and I might even have time to add my comments

flowerofscotland

I would like some honest feedback please.

When I was doing my sort out a couple of weekends ago I found a piece which was given to me by a friend as she was about to throw it into the bin :eek:

I'm not sure where she got the kit - probably from a car boot sale as she goes to them quite often - but although the fabric, chart and threads were all complete there wasn't a picture of the finished item nor any instructions. So my friend stitched the dancers and then started on the background. She had completed a lot of the background when she ran out of thread and asked me for my opinion. I am fairly certain that the background should have been stitched either with one thread instead of two or in half cross stitches. She couldn't face unpicking (its 16 count aida so that would be horrendous) or carrying on and so was going to throw it out. I rescued it and it went into my UFO pile. Now I need to decide what to do with it which is where I would like your honest opinions.

I also don't want to unpick it but do you think it will look OK if I complete the background in 2 strands of xs? As it was a DMC kit the thread numbers were listed and I've got a skein the correct number (I think it is 349 but that's just from memory)

Here it is


. by stitchyfeather, on Flickr

The blank areas on the right are meant to be unstitched; the area on the left is what needs to be completed in the same colour as the stitching around the lady's head. The dancers will be back stitched so they will stand out a bit more from the background. So should I finish it or not?