It seems that my hobby has become one of my sources of income. I still teach foreign languages, but I also crochet for a living. Only embroidery remains as a real hobby. Unfortunately, as I have a lot of orders in shops and sometimes I can’t even meet the deadlines, I don’t remember anymore when I embroidered something for my pleasure. I regret it all the more because the freebie sal by Durene Jones’s pattern has finished today. I dream about the time when I will be able to do it. As always with Duren, beautiful spring colours, original composition and space for your imagination. You can find all the parts of this pattern on Durene’s Facebook page. Enjoy it! https://www.facebook.com/DureneJonesCrossStitch
What much to comment on here, you can see for yourself – a bright, cheerful, colourful design. It has everything that distinguishes Durene Jones from other designers. You embroider it and smile because it makes you happy. For this project, I use White Iridescent Aida 14 count, DMS thread, and the needle minder from Lakesideneedlecraft. Now I can’t wait when the second part arrives. I took the photos at different times of the day. The first one – in the afternoon, when the sun was shining, the second and third in the morning.
Lakesideneedlecraft Quaker Ball Sal bu Durene Jones pattern in progress: beautiful batterfly with flowers.
As you can see, I wrap a hoop so that it does not slip and I can achieve the right tension of evenweave. I usually wrap it with a simple bandage, but you can do it with any thin fabric you like.
My last SAL in progress. I am stitching it on white Belfast linen 32 count with DMC thread by the key. The colours are not usual for Durene Jones, but the butterfly looks beautiful. That is only one part of the first SAL part, and I enjoy it so much. I took these photos yesterday evening in the sunset, before and after doing backstitch. The last picture is from today’s morning.
I really don’t like french knots, but when I see how they bring alive the embroidery…well, I guess I’m wrong. This is a bush before and after adding them.
After finishing this great Garden Sal by Durene Jones design, I was looking for a suitable square frame for a long time and could not find it. Since I really wanted to have this stitching on my desktop in front of me, I decided to frame it i a hoop until I could find a suitable frame for it. What do you think about this way of finishing cross stitch projects?
The 12th part of this Sal is completed, now only boarder left 🙂 Two pictures to your attention: first one without back stitch and the second one with back stitch and Frebch knots. I know, they are not ideal, but they are.
I wasn’t here for some times just because my daughter came back home for Christmas, so we spent some lovely days together. I hope your Christmas was full of joy and that you got a lot of gifts you’ve been dreaming about 🙂
I still have a break at work so I can return to my cross stitching I’ve put down due to the lack of time. Firstly, I’ve completed 10th part of East Asian Inspirations Sal – a Fish, which I suppose, is a Carp – a symbol of luck and successe in Chinese culture.
Then I’ve completed 11th part of the Sal – beautiful and delicate landscape. Here I’d like to show you how back stitch brings stitching to life: on the first photo you can see only ome colourful spots, and on the second – specific details: flowers and birds. This is the magic of back stitch.
After that I decided to change back stitch on the 9th part – on a Dragon, because white back stitch on navy coloured thread looks like separate pieces, not the steam that comes out of the dragon’s mouth, or whatever everyone can imagine here. East Asian Dragon is a symbol of power, strenght and good luck for people who are worthly of it. I have to rip or “frogg” all the back stitch and stitch it agan with “couching technique”, in which one strand of thread is laid across the surface of the stitched area and fastened in place with small stitches of the same thread. So using this technique you need two needles with one strand of thread in each of them, and, of course, two hands. You can find a lot of films on Youtube about couching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X4LC8FGAsM
Here is the result :
I think it was worth changing. What is your opinion on this image?
Now the biggest part of the Sal is ready, only last – 12th part and a border left. I’m going to stitch them on other days off, but I’m not sure I complete it this year, so the story to be continued.
The second part – Cottage back is ready 🙂 You can see both parts on the first picture, then only Cottage back and on the third picture the same part before back stitch had been completed.
stitches & quills 