7 Box of Shame Finishes

Good afternoon all!

I've been a successful busy little bee again this week, rummaging through my and my mum's collection of previously used and/or "might-come-in-handy-one-day" frames and framing a few more of my Box of Shame pieces. It was so nice to find suitable frames and not have to buy any new ones. However, it does mean that all the glass is standard and decent photos were very difficult to get.

Here we go then:

April Showers
I finished this Lickle Ted piece in 2015 and have been procrastinating about framing him since. He looked wonderful with tan and red mounts, but equally good without them. So without them it was! It's a 7"x9" gold-edged mahogany-effect frame which came from a cheapy-bits-and-pieces shop a few years ago for about £3.

Friends Forever
Sam and Peeps were also stitched in 2015 and have finally come out to be displayed. This cheap 5"x7" teal frame was bought from Asda years ago for a massive 97p! I knew it would come in handy one day!

Let's Eat Dessert
I finished this in 2016 but was always wary of how I would frame it given the amount of colours in the fabric. Surprisingly, a gold-edged mid-wood frame looked really good, so that's what I used as that's all it needed.

October Fairy
This was a piece I stitched in 2016 and (obviously) one of a set of 12. I had no idea how I would frame the series but came across this wonderful bright orange 5"x5" frame in Tiger for a massive £1. I can't remember if they stocked colours that will match the other fairies in the series but then I haven't stitched them yet so will worry about that when it comes to it!

Cats In Love
You should recognise this piece as it was a new start and finish last month. I wanted a black frame but found this black and silver 8"x10" frame which came from Poundland. I wasn't sure if it would look right but think it works really well. And it's something different to plain black for a change.

And finally...

Playful Puss 3 and 4
The first two Playful Puss pieces were stitched and framed in 2015. The other two were finished last summer so goodness knows why it has taken me so long to add them into the frame! It's a simple black frame with bright green and pink mounts to match the grass and flowers. Unlike the other this was custom made so not cheap!

So, that's another 7 out of my Box of Shame... but still loads more to go. Hopefully I'll be back with some more finished-finishes soon.

Happy stitching (and finishing!)

Rachel x

Cats In Love - finished

Good morning all,

As expected, it didn't take long to finish Cats In Love. This is my fourth finish of 2017! Don't worry, there won't be any more for a while as my remaining projects are not as small and will therefore take longer.

After a good burst of steam ironing to even out and close the stitches, here's how the finished piece looks:

FluffyFuzzypatterns (etsy)

Stiched on 16ct Lavender aida from Sewitall.com 2 over 1

Stitch count 100 wide by 137 high

Started - 1st January 2017

Finished - 22nd January 2017

Total stitching time - 26 hours 25 minutes

Requiring just under three skeins of black I'm really surprised I didn't get fed up with the monotony of going backwards and forwards row by row. But I thoroughly enjoyed not having to concentrate or count much and seeing progress with each line. Silhouettes really are a no-brainer! And, as an added bonus, it stitched up far quicker than I had estimated.

So, on my frames now (I'm keeping projects on three different sizes of frames) are two WIPs from 2015 and my new start. I don't know which project will appear on my blog next, so watch this space!

Keep those needles burning!
Rachel x

Cats In Love - 20 hours

Hello again!

Well, doesn't time fly when you're having fun! So much so that another ten hours has passed on me stitching Cats In Love. Here's where I left them after 10 hours:

And now after 20 hours (with a much truer representation of the fabric colour):

My calculations tell me I'm about 75% of the way through, although I think I'm a little further along than that. Whatever the case, I'm sticking with this until it's finished.

Funnily enough, the WIP from 2015 I've chosen to work on alongside this contains a black cat too! Guess I'm either looking for some luck or am a closet witch!

Enjoy your little x's,
Rachel x

New Start - Cats In Love - 10 hours

Good morning,

Like a good number of stitchers I began 2017 with a new start. This is a really easy piece as it's all black! The chart has been in my stash pile for a while, shouting at me to start it, but I just about managed to wait until 2017 before putting in the first stitch.

It's also a chart on which I can return to my blog name and post my progress after every 10 hours! Yey!

Here's my first progress picture then:

Cats In Love

FluffyFuzypatterns (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct Lavender from Sewitall.com 2 over 1

Stitch count 100 wide by 137 high

Started - 1st January 2017

I had a huge choice of coloured fabrics I could have chosen to stitch this on, but opted for Lavender for two reasons; firstly I didn't want the predictable sky/love/sunset colours of blues, pinks and oranges/yellows, and secondly, I hadn't used this colour for anything else so it seemed a good opportunity to remedy that! I think it gives it a deep moonlit feel and I really like it.

I've already changed the size and position of two of the hearts and might be tempted to add a few more once I've finished the whole piece. I'm at the halfway point height-wise but stitching-wise I'm about one third of the way through. Here's a link to the original chart if you want to see what the finished piece will look like. Actually, I should not have looked at FluffyFuzzypatterns's shop as I've just seen a few more silhouettes I like. I wonder if temptation will get the better of me or not!

Happy stitching :)
Rachel x