UFO #6 and #7 update

UFO #6: I wanted to test how to do a single piece frame around an embroidery as I'd never done it before so I grabbed the shells embroidery and used that - things didn't go exactly to plan so I had to get creative however I'm glad it happened with this instead of the 8 Colour Challenge piece I want to make the frame on as I would have had a panic "attack" (a mental one without the nasty physical side effects) if things had gone wrong on that instead so it was a good idea I tested first.

I hand sewed it all - not really a strength of mine but it's a skill I want to improve so I'm doing it more often.

UFO #7: I've been quietly working away at this in between everything else - it's not been going super fast but speed has picked up since I scanned the pattern and enlarged it on my computer - it was just too small for me to easily read the many symbols on it. I've done about 1/3 of the pattern for this fish so far. I decided that in order to avoid too many miscounted stitches due to not using Aida I'd do one thread of each colour at a time unless there is a larger area I can safely do with more before doing the next colour.

Right now my priorities are:

1. Finish the 8 colour challenge embroidery so it's a completed item.
2. Finish the awning I'm supposed to make for the neighbours (but got side tracked from due to ill health)
3. Make a wall hanging out of the shells embroidery
4. Finish UFO #7

UFO #6 is completed!

This is the 6th UFO I have completed. It's Maria van Scharrenburg's  "water" themed embroidery: seashells (pattern id: 8475 F / 4915 E). It's 8 x 8 inches / 20 x 20 cm when completed and I had partially done the largest shell of the pattern before I set it aside sometime before October 2000. I can place the date so well as I'd kept the kit in it's original package and it had dog hairs in it from my last dog who died in October 2000 but it didn't have dog hairs from the dog I looked after for a couple of months in 2001.

If you wish to see the project as it progressed please check the September blog posts.

As I mentioned in earlier posts the image on the kit package is not the same colour as what I ended up with - I'm really rather disappointed as I bought the kit because of the greens and browns shown and wasn't expecting blue and pink shells. As I really rather dislike pink I'm less than happy with the result despite it being a decent pattern and if I'd known it had so much pink in it I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.

To save on searching for it the image is here:

The pattern itself is good, easy to read and the kit included plenty of floss to embroider with - I could probably manage to do most of a second version with what's left but I probably won't.

Shells 7 and 8

I finished all but the white on the brown shell after dark yesterday and as my eyes don't see so clearly in artificial light I decided to leave the white for daylight and got started on the smaller blue shell and the background bits at the bottom. All that is left is the second bit of coral and the border of cross stitches and the rest of the backstitches which I will do after I've finished the coral as I already moved the embroidery ring into position for the coral.

The observant viewer might notice the damage on the embroidery ring - that's from when I had a cockatiel 20 years ago and one of his favourites places to sit was on the ring while I did my cross stitching and occasionally he'd have a nibble on the wood. I like the ring too much to replace it and as the damage isn't rough and doesn't damage the fabric I still use it.

Shell 6

I didn't expect to finish this today as I have also been busy sewing an awning for the neighbours but it's hard work feeding a "bit" of fabric that's 7 1/2 yards x 4 yards through a sewing machine and even more hard work ironing the seams - my back doesn't like it a bit so as a result I got a lot of embroidery done. This shell was also supposed to be in shades of brown according to the packet image and as you can see it's not.

I'm going to do the shell in the middle next - fortunately it really does use browns hehe.

Shells 3 and 4

I finished the pink shell when it was too late to make a decent photo with the light available so I continued embroidering and made the blue shell as well. There was only a little bit of background to the right so I decided to add that first as well. I'm going to do some of the backstitching before moving on to the next shell - just to get some out of the way since I really don't enjoy doing it. I probably won't be adding a photo after completing the first lot of backstitches.

I'm about half way now with this embroidery if you exclude the frame of cross stitches and backstitches that need doing at the end.

Edit: I've done all the backstitching I can do so far and won't be adding a photo till I've completed the next shell which also appears to be rather on the pink side *grumble*. It's the top most left one.

And a bit of coral

The coral certainly does look a bit more greenish in this photo than it does in real life - not sure why though. Admittedly just at the bottom end there is a fair bit of darker teal but it stops about 10 stitches above the blue shell and becomes several shades of blue.

Next up: the smaller of two smaller shells below the blue shell - in the picture it looks orangy brown but in reality it's several shades of < ugh >  pink.

Seashells: second shell

Today I finished the second shell on the embroidery - it seems unfinished at the lower edge but there will be 2 more shells in front of it that will fill in the empty space.  One thing I'm noticing is that the embroidery is so much lighter than the photo on the kit. The blue shell is also a lot more blue than the picture where it shows more as a blue/green colour. I do however rather like the blue shade it is so I'm happy.

For comparison: this is the scanned image from the kit, which will also help you see where I am with the embroidery.

I have to say that I had forgotten how nice it is to do cross stitching on even weave - it used to be my favourite embroidery fabric.so I'm enjoying this very much, especially after the horrors of the uneven linen from the butterfly.

Next section I'm going to do is the coral in the background between the two shells at the top right, which will finish the top right section of the embroidery.

UFO #6: seashells

Yesterday I picked the 6th UFO to work on - It's Maria van Scharrenburg's  "water" themed embroidery: seashells (pattern id: 8475 F / 4915 E). It's 8 x 8 inches / 20 x 20 cm when completed and I had partially done the largest shell of the pattern. This afternoon I finished the largest shell and decided that it was high time I updated my bog and started keeping it updated - hopefully I can get into the swing of things again :) I'll update every time I finish another shell.

I feel much better now I've started working on older stuff and getting it done. I do still need to either frame or otherwise finish the finished embroideries but well.. that's not something I have to worry about too much yet :)