Paris Market

Ok, this has taken me a lot longer to getting round to than planned.  I was finishing off my exams to try up the end of my degree, then I had a couple of friends from home (Oxford) to stay at my uni place (Nottingham).

Anyway, let's takl about Paris Market, my current project.  On my 1st blog there is a picture of when I first started it, about a month ago.  So now I'll try and remember all the things I've messed up along the way.

Week 1
I started in the centre, where there are shop windows and awnings.  Several times I ended up stitching the opposite way to I usually do, so the stitches were lying in different directions.  Much unpicking and resewing.

Week 2
Taking more shape now.  I decided to do the two large parasols so I could reach the edge of the picture.  I did the maroon on the red parasol with the stitches the wrong way, yet more unpicking and resewing.

Week 3
Did a lot this week.  Worked up in to the top right hand corner, and finished that one face of the building.  A lot of grey.  Too much for my liking.  But I also like large patches of colour- very quick to do, and with not much effort needed...

Week 4
I worked on getting to the bottom right corner so now I can see how tall the picture is and that I had centred it correctly.  The biggest fail of so far: did all the browns and the creams one stitch too high so I had to unpick about 3.5hrs worth of work.  Made me very sad.  This also highlights the importance of counting...

Trip to Hobbycraft

So, I took a friend to Hobbcraft yesterday to get her set up with some cross stitch.  It was an interesting thing seeing someone else pick something out.  But in the end she got a relatively simple design (seeing as it is her first major project) "Butterfly Profusion", totally coincidentally a Dimensions design.  So she got the pack and a frame for working from, it was great.

I can spend days in that place, not only looking at the needlecraft but all of the random crafty things.  I have got a lot of cake making things from there, another hobby of mine.  As well as this I have got a lot of my sketching things.  I don't really show people my sketching, I think it's a tad meh.  This trip I got away with only spending £7, on 3 collapsable storage boxes for my DVD collection.  They are lovely bright blue, pink and green.  Might need to go back and gt a couple more (a steal at £2 each when they are 32 litre crates), I do have abotu 250 DVDs...

When we got back she was noting of some stuff for our exam tomorrow (Bioethics, so many moral issues), and I had already done that, so I was waiting for her to go over past exam questions so I sorted all her threads, put them on the thread holder, assembled the frame thingy and centred the design (i.e put the first stitch on for her).

Anyway, not much done myself in the way of stitching for the past couple of days due to impending exam chaos.  That's tomorrow at half one.  Have to write 2 essays in 2 hours covering topics like cloning, GM microbes, animals and crops, environmental ethics, stem cells and gene therapy.  Sounds thrilling right?

Update potentially tomorrow post exam and then post cinema and I'll get started on telling  you about the Paris Market I've started and my progress.

Toodles x

Welcome

Hi, this is my first blog (if you hadn't noticed).  I decided to make a blog purely for self indulgence if I am honest with you (seeing as I have no idea who you are it is quite easy to be honest).  This comes from I am a cross stitcher with no friends which I can discuss my love of stitching.  I have recently got a friend curious and am taking her to hobbycraft to get materials next week, but that's a blog in itself. 
So, where to start?  Let's try my mission statement.

Aim
The aim here is to keep up to date with my stitching work.  I'll blog on my current projects with problems and triumphs and maybe give some tips on the way.  If anyone actually decides to read this I might make a thing of reccommending other stitchers so they can get some stitching kudos as well.  But that's a dizzying dream up there in the clouds.  I don't know if there is a desire out there for cross stitch related blogs.
What would make my blog different?
Well the simple answer is: I don't know.  I have been told I have a dry wit so maybe I can make this seems slightly more commical.  I think there are a few blogs out there devoted to cross stitch but I guess each person's style is different.
Ok, let's get started.  This is the intro so let's start with me:

The Stitcher
I'm a 21 year old student (though not for much longer) studying Biology.  Stitching has been a hobby of mine on and off since I was about maybe 8 or 9.  This started with helping my grandmother I think in some cross stitching.  She is blind now (due to diabetes) so she cannot do anything like this anymore but she does try and take a look at my work: she can see colours and shapes but it's all a blur. 
Here's me, not a great picture :S

I seriously got back in to the stitching in January 2009 when I purchased the "Enchanting Geisha" kit by Dimensions (http://www.eksuccessbrands.com/dimensionsneedleworks/Products/Enchanting_Geisha_35206.htm) (they are my favourite design company at the moment).  This piece is 12 x 12 inches on 16 count aida.  I took it back to university with me after the Christmas break and since then most of my spare time in front of the tv or when alone I spend stitching.  I will devote a blog to each of my main finished pieces later.  After this, I started on the "Cherish Wedding Heart" by Janlynn Cross Stitch Kits.  This was for my cousin's wedding and it was a rush to finish but well worth it.  After that, I went back to good old Dimensions and did the "Butterfly Forest" kit (http://www.eksuccessbrands.com/dimensionsneedleworks/Products/Butterfly_Forest_35223.htm).  This brings me  up to now. 
The Current Project
Currently I am doing the "Paris Market" by Dimensions yet again (http://www.eksuccessbrands.com/dimensionsneedleworks/Products/Paris_Market_35256.htm).  This is 15x 11 inches on 16 count aida, by far the biggest design I have done in terms of stitches (Butterfly Forest was similar in dimensions but on only 14 count aida).
I've been going for about 2 weeks now, but here's the starting image, when I had just centered the design on the fabric.

Where Now?
Ok, as I said I will update on the progress of Paris Market and generally ramble.  All questions will be answered too, not that I am expecting any.

Happy Reading xxx