I was planning on doing some more work on the next bird today (it’s been kind of on hiatus while I was sick, because I couldn’t concentrate well enough), but then I got inspired to make a mug rug as a quick present for Judy, a colleague who’s retiring on Tuesday. Yeah, you know where…
(Yes, the picture is sideways – I took the photo this morning, but didn’t realise until now that I’d put the block up the wrong way. So rather than try and re-photograph it in the less than ideal light now, I just rotated the photo, even though it looks weird 🙂 ) Anyway, Buzzard done. …
You may have noticed a slowing down in the production of birds lately. That’s because these last few are so much more complicated than the earlier ones. With the first few birds, I could easily churn one out over a couple of evenings, but these later ones need a lot more concentration to make sure…
ight, I’ve decided my impulse to just give away all those old cross-stitch projects that have been languishing in the bottom of my trunk since I finished them is a good one, so this is the first in an occasional series of giveaway posts. I’m not sure exactly how this is going to work, and…
etzirah commented the other day that in crafts, “The journey is as important as the destination”. That is so true. In fact, for me, it’s all about the journey – the destination often bores me by the time I actually reach it. Which explains why I have a trunk full of “finished” projects, mostly cross-stitch…
(Ok, so Tartankiwi calls it a cormorant, but I’m a New Zealander – it’s a shag :-)) This one went so much better than the kestrel – all the seams lined up first time. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to make one of the birds blue, seeing as I’m using a blue background, but…
Because I couldn’t quite make up my mind what fabrics to use for the next bird, this afternoon I laid out all the ones I’ve done so far, hoping seeing the overall effect would help me decide. It’s the first time I’ve actually looked at them all together, and they look pretty impressive: They also…
I had another look at the kestrel in daylight, and having let enough time pass for the frustration at not getting it to work right to subside, and I’m feeling a lot happier about it now. The misalignment isn’t nearly as bad as I’d thought, and (as a couple of you pointed out) hardly even…
I unpicked the seam on the kestrel, and very very carefully lined the two halves back up, and pinned and basted it, and checked again that the crucial part of the wing matched properly, and sewed the seam… and it still doesn’t quite line up. So that’s it. I’m giving up and accepting the fact…
Nope, that definitely doesn’t line up. Even though I spent ages checking and double-checking and was sure it lined up properly before I sewed the final seam, I must have moved it slightly while I was sewing it and now it is just off enough to be totally noticeable (to me, anyway), so I’m going…