2022 Christmas Countdown - Celtic Snow

Day 16 and it's my Celtic Snow cross stitch designed by Northern Expressions Needlework.

There's a few factors that make this piece sing:

- the gorgeous blue linen that's Midnight Tryst 28 count linen from Hand Dyed by Stephanie. It is beautiful and gives this piece a dark mysterious background. It's the shade Nicole used in her sample and the photo on the pattern.
- The beautiful soft (in colour and texture) Overdyed Silk threads from Dinky Dyes.
- All of the tiny beads that make it shine. They took an age to sew on, but they're so worth it.

Thank you everyone who's been following along and leaving lovely comments.  I really do appreciate your support thank you. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

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Christmas Embroidery

It's only a week until Christmas Eve, and I'm sorting through my Christmas embroideries.  I think Christmas cross stitch is the best kind of cross stitch. I've made a few gorgeous Christmas cross stitches over the years, but of course there are still many more that I want to do some day. 

Celtic Snow by Northern Expressions Needlework

A Treasured Time by Dimensions Gold

A mystery stitch a long by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

A free pattern by Victoria Sampler from 10 years ago. 

And in the "still to be completed pile":

My Gingerbread Flower Shop

Christmas Ornaments by Dimensions Gold

I found it very hard to stitch the Dimensions ornaments on the 18 count Aida.  So I'm going to stitch the rest of them on 32 count linen.  They may come out slightly bigger, but I don't mind.  They will be spread around the tree anyway.  

I follow a number of bloggers who have wonderful Christmas trees filled with hand stitched ornaments.  If you'd like to see more check out Katrina from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand here http://kiwistitching.blogspot.com/

and Carol from Pennsylvania here https://stitchingdream.blogspot.com/

I know there's many more cross stitchers out there, but these are two of my favourites who do wonderful Christmas stitching.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week?  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Celtic Snow is framed

My Celtic Snow is back from the framers and hanging on the wall. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.  The frame looks like brushed stainless steel. It's very simple, but it lets the embroidery shine.

It was hard to get a good photo. That darker section in the bottom left hand corner is my reflection.

The beads look even better now that the linen has been stretched.

Although it's possibly a Christmas piece, I'm going to leave it on the wall for a few months now. We're going into our Southern Hemisphere winter, so it's not too out of place.

You can read all about this embroidery in my earlier post from a few weeks ago here.

Celtic Snow

On Tuesday night I finished my Celtic Snow embroidery. It's a wonderful design by Nicole of Northern Expressions Needlework.

my Celtic Snow by Norther Expressions Needlework

I've been working on this piece since July 2014. Although I have done other things in between, it's been a long journey with this one. It's the biggest cross stitch I've done in the last 10 years. It's 15" x 15".

with an A4 piece of paper for comparison

I always stitch with a hoop because it keeps the tension even. I did all the stitching before I started adding the beads because I knew the beads would prevent me from using the hoop. After I'd done all the beading in the centre with the hoop, I put the piece onto my roller bars so I could continue to add the beads. It wasn't easy working on the roller bars because the linen is quite a loose weave, but I got there in the end. there are 1,400 beads in this piece!

When I'm attaching beads I always go through each bead twice to make a X. That holds the bead straight. I also keep all the beads going in the same direction. That did result in some unpicking because sometimes I accidentally turned the piece 90 degrees. There's no obvious top or bottom, the design is symmetrical. In these cases I tie a piece of coloured cotton at the top, but I must have ignored that at times.

I really felt thrilled when I woke up the next morning and took it off the roller bars. I gave it a light press, took some photos and dashed off to the framers. I took along a piece of dark fabric because I knew their padding was white, and I didn't want white behind the linen, I wanted a dark colour.

The framers will be finished in about 3 weeks and I'll be excited to see how it looks.

For the embroiderers out there:
- the fabric I used is Midnight Tryst 28 count linen from Hand Dyed by Stephanie. It is beautiful and gives this piece a dark mysterious background. It's the shade Nicole used in her sample and the photo on the pattern. Nicole used much finer linen, but I've given up on anything finer than 28 count. If I'd chosen 32, 36 or 40 count linen I don't know if I would have ever finished.
- I used the recommended Overdyed Silks from Dinky Dyes - lovely pastel shades.
- I couldn't get all the exact beads, so substituted to those available locally.
- I bought the pattern from 123Stitch.  It's really cheap - less than USD 20 - so I just don't understand people who rip off these designers by posting the pattern online.

This was the 4th and final item on my Finish Along list for Q1. It means I'm another step closer to getting back to my la passacaglia which I'm excited about. I'm now an administrator of the group on facebook (Millefiori/ la passacaglia English Paper Piecing) so I keep seeing everyone else's progress. I'm itching to get back to mine, but have one more long term project to finish first. Aren't I being good?

2015 Finish a Long - Q1 goals

This is the first time I've entered one of these Finish a longs. I don't particularly like 'stretch goals', but since it's Adrienne from On the Windy Side running it this year, I have decided to dip my toes in the water and see how it goes.

I wrote lists of my stitching goals and quilting goals a few weeks ago. That made it quite easy to pick my projects for the Q1 Finish a long.

So here they are:

1. Halloween mini. This quilt is quite small (about 15") and is the closest to done, so will probably be the first finished.

2. Kaffe Christmas tree. I have backing, binding, and batting, I just need to hand quilt it and put on the hanging sleeve and binding. Shouldn't be too hard to finish this one.

3. Mini Medallion. Again, I have everything I need, I just need to do it. I want to put a hanging sleeve on this one too.

4. Celtic Snow. I want to put one embroidery project on this list because I have so many I want to work on and need to get some finished. This will keep me focused on getting one done. There are literally 1,000 beads to sew onto this one yet. Yes, that's right, 1,000 beads. I'm not going to start working out how many I need to do each day to get it done, I just need to start sewing them on.

So that's me for Q1. Let's see how I go!  Thanks Adrienne for the motivation and accountability.