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

Owls In Love - framed!

Hello all,

Christmas has definitely arrived early for me!

Remember Owls In Love? Remember my mum was going to buy me the frame for Christmas? Remember I said I wasn't going to wait until Christmas to frame my piece? Well, I kept my word and spent his morning putting Owls In Love into its frame. And here it is:

And a close up of the corner. If you look carefully you can just about make out the silvering which covers the whole fabric.

I kept to the monochrome palette choosing a 22mm Pedroza Grey distressed frame with a dark grey top mount, bright white bottom mount and anti-reflective glazing. The grey fabric was very difficult to match up - sometimes it has hints of lilac or blue or green depending on which colours are next to it or under which light you are looking at it. So apologies if the colours don't look too good on your screen - I can assure you they are perfect together in real life!

I am absolutely over the moon with this whole piece and once again have to send a big thank-you to ezeframe.co.uk for making the online ordering process of mounts and frames so easy. It really is a dream website to deal with.

The question is..... do you like it? It doesn't bother me if you don't - all tastes are different.

I have two more small framed pieces to show you, but they can wait until my next post.

6 days until Christmas - hope you're not feeling too stressed!
Rachel x

Owls In Love - finished!

Hello all!

It's Happy Dance time!!!

Yep, Owls In Love is finished! In my last post I estimated 5 hours to finish this project. It was in fact 4 hours 55 minutes - not a bad guess then?!

So, without any more yapping, here are a finished Hedwig and Errol, along with all the usual boring details:

Owls In Love

FluffyFuzzyPatterns (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct Cloud Grey Aida with silvering by sewitall.com 2 over 1

Stitch count 250 wide by 152 high

Started - 16th October 2015

Finished - 6th December 2015

Total stitching time - 54 hours 55 minutes

Oh boy, did I enjoy stitching this design and watching the owls take shape! You would have thought that stitching three shades of grey on grey fabric would have been boring but it wasn't. Quite the contrary. It was actually very relaxing. I loved every stitch, LOVE the fabric and would happily stitch the whole piece again, right now! Don't you think browns on brown would look good? Just a thought!

The mounts and frame have already been ordered and should be delivered by the end of the week. I know they are supposed to be a Christmas present but do you honestly think I'm going to wait another two weeks to frame this piece? I think not!! Honestly, this is more exciting than Christmas itself!!!

Oh, and while I was ordering the frame for this piece, a couple more just "happened" to slip into my basket. You know how it is! I'll show you all of the finished-finishes as soon as I have framed them.

My stitching for the rest of 2015 now consists of finishing the LK December Stamp and trying to finish a couple more January/February Challenge pieces. Wonder how I'll do?

In the meantime, thanks for joining me in my blog postings and thanks for all of your comments. I know a few of you have really been waiting to see this project finished - I hope you are not disappointed, although you haven't seen it framed yet!!

Back soon!

Take care one and all,
Rachel x

Owls In Love - 50 hours

Good morning, good morning, good morning!

Just a quick post today to show the next update on this project.

I'm getting really excited as these owls are so close to being finished. I reckon about five more hours to stitch the branch and fill in the final colour on the left owl's tummy and they'll be done. Yippee!

After 40 hours

After 50 hours

I'm definitely going to stay with and finish this project. My mum's offered to buy me a frame for Christmas so there's no way this project is going into my Box of Shame / The Orphanage to collect dust! I'll be back very very soon with a great big Happy Dance!

Happy stitching everyone!
Rachel x

Owls In Love - 40 hours

Good afternoon everybody!

Important things first.....

Wow! Heather and I are overwhelmed with the amount of fabulous positive and generous comments she has been receiving about her work. In fact she's getting more comments than I usually get! Thank you all so much. It really does mean a lot to her. Now, am I allowed to play the jealous mother and go sit in a corner and sulk??!!

Regarding Heather's stitching, there's been an interesting development.....

.....unbeknownst (posh word) to me, my darling daughter already has her own live blog! Of course, she wasn't going to tell her mum but as she has respected our strict on-line rules I'm OK with it. It's not been going long, only has a couple of posts and contains no cross stitching (yet.) But it is amusing. So if you're interested, pop over to All The Little Awesome Things and have a bit of a giggle. For a while I will link to her blog when she posts about her stitching just in case you're interested but don't want to follow her - afterall, we don't necessarily want to know what goes on inside the head of a 14 year old girl..... or do we??!!

So, now onto my stitching, which is obviously FAR less important!!

I have another Owls In Love update for you. Over the last few days I've been able to put in long evening sessions on Errol and Hedwig. As you can see, the second Owl (whom I am assuming is the female) now has the top of her head, but more importantly those very cute eyes! Even without a body, they've definitely brought her to life and given her a personality.

After 30 hours

After 40 hours

(and with more accurate colours of the fabric!)

I shall now put this project down for a couple of days while I finish Lizzie Kate's November Stamp. The outline and month have been stitched as charted, I just need to design and stitch the middle bit, although what that "middle bit" will be is still undecided. Seeing as Heather's so talented, maybe I should get her to design something for me?! Otherwise, fingers crossed I do a good job.

See you soon,
Rachel x

Owls In Love - 30 hours

Hello all!

First up, Heather says thank you for all the lovely comments you left regarding her Birds On A Wire finish. She has certainly been inspired to stitch more and is making good progress on her second project, which I'll post about soon.

As for my stitching, I have an update to show you on this gorgeous chart which so many of you seem to have fallen in love with:

After 20 hours

After 30 hours

As you can see I've filled in the owl's tummy, stitched the branch and made a small start on the second owl (which I think makes the first owl look as if he is wearing a little party hat!) This means two of the four pages have been completed so I am officially halfway through - yippee!

I'm definitely going to continue with this project for at least another 10 hours so I should be back with another update soon!

And, yes, I'm about 5 days behind with reading and commenting on blogs. Bear with me - I should be able to catch up this weekend.

Take care and happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Owls In Love - 20 hours

Hello all!

Thank you for your recent comments regarding my Stitching Retreat and this new start. They are all very much appreciated. If you do not receive a reply to your comment it is because you are a no-reply blogger so I'll say thank you here instead.

Back to stitching.....

My needle has been working hard these last few days so I'm ready to show you another 10 hours work on this gorgeously cute Owls In Love project:

After 10 hours

After 20 hours

Yes, I've stitched a lot but, remember, there are only three colours and lots of unstitched areas. I'm thoroughly enjoying the greys on grey so this one will definitely be staying out for the foreseeable future.

I'll be back soon!

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

New Start - Owls In Love

Good morning again!

I'm back with a new start!

This design is called Owls In Love from FluffyFuzzyPatterns on etsy and is being stitched on absolutely gorgeous 16ct Sparkly Cloud Grey aida from sewitall.com (not that you can see the sparkles in the photo). I started this during my Stitching Retreat last weekend but thought I would save the post until I had reached the 10 hour mark:

After 10 hours

And in case you haven't seen this chart before, here's how Hedwig and Errol will look when completed:

There are only three greys in the design and I thought maybe stitching grey on grey would be boring. But it isn't. So I'm definitely staying with this one for the time being - my other WIPs (namely Winter Owl and Spotted Owls) will just have to wait. Hmmm bit of an owl theme going on at the moment!

Be back soon!
Rachel x

New Stash - well, it is my birthday!

Hello fellow bloggers!

I've been a very naughty girl and, as the title states, received some new stash for my birthday. Note I said received, not bought, as these were presents from my mum, daughter and son (bless 'em!). So all of the following, which I just had to share with you, can be justified, can't they?? Of course they can!!

Lizzie Kate 

Monthly Flip-It Stamps (2005)
Stitch counts 47 wide by 47 high

I've noticed a lot of stitchers do Lizzie Kate projects so had to look at the website to find out what all the fuss was about. I'm not into samplers but fell in love with their 2005 Flip-It Stamps set. They will definitely be one of my 2015 WIPs. No offence to all American bloggers out there, but I am going to substitute the November Thanksgiving design for fireworks as that's much more English!

Satsuma Street (etsy)

Pretty Little London and Pretty Little Paris
Stitch counts 123 wide by 110 high and 111 wide by 104 high

All of Satsuma Street's city designs as on my wish list but as London and Paris are the most relevant to me those are the ones I decided to ask for first. The unusual colours should make them fun to stitch.

FluffyFuzzyPatterns (etsy)

Owls In Love
Stitch count 250 wide by 152 high

Oh my goodness... how cute is this??? There are only three shades of grey in the whole design and lots of unstitched areas so it should be really easy to do! Gorgeous.

EvasDesignsBg (etsy)

Dragon Eye
Stitch count 180 wide by 135 high 

This is a fantastic representation of a dragon's eye and I immediately knew that it was hypnotizing me to 'buy me or else'! So I did! There are only 11 colours in this design so would be easy to convert to a different hue if I wanted. Hmm... thinks firey reds/oranges perhaps?

Rabnann (ebay)

Dolphin Ruins
Stitch count 223 wide by 288 high

This design not only jumped out at me when I saw it but has also jumped to the very top of my to-do list. I don't know how long I will be able to resist the temptation of a new start but I doubt it will be long! I love the underwater mysterious lost City of Atlantis effect and the rippling on the dolphins' backs and marble columns. I hope the stitched picture is true to its mock up. Oooh, my fingers are itching already!!!


So that's 17 more projects to add to my to do lists - but in my justification, most of them are small. Anyway, aren't birthdays and Christmases specifically made as a reason/excuse to further increase our stash piles?? Good. I'm glad you all agree!!

As always,

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x