Thursday, April 7, 2016

Blooms, a Finish & new Start!

Hello lovely friends! We've been having gorgeous weather here in California. Today was the warmest day yet - 86. All the other days and coming week - 70's! Just Fantastic! This is the time of the year that I have pretty blooms to share with you. I love that the roses are all in bloom. I have a new finish and a new start as well. WOOHOO!!! I took these photos on my new IPhone. My last cell phone lasted a good 6 years LOL!

 Angel Face Rose

 ??? Can't recall the name of this Rose - LOL!

 Peace Rose

 ??? Don't know the name either of this Rose but it's Beautiful 

 Blue Bearded Iris
I've had my eye on this praying it would bloom and it did!!!

"Midnight Ride" by Blackbird Designs
Threads: GA - Onyx (1+ skeins), Garden Gate (2+ skeins) and
Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe - Lavender

This fabric is very special! This was gifted to me by the sweet Ali of With Needle Thread and Basket blog.
The fabric had  belonged to Ali's grandmother Jean. I actually won it in a giveaway Ali had. She had asked if we were to win what design would we stitch on it. It's a beautiful rich orange red color. I knew Midnight Ride would look amazing. I won! So I started this project after finishing Sojourner. When I started stitching I tried 2 over 2 and learned very quickly that the fabric count is probably 25ct. I frogged what I stitched and tried 2 over 1. Much better. Somewhere I did try 1 over 2 and 1 over 1 that didn't work.

So 2 over 1 is what I ended up stitching. I love it. I think I am going to make this an ornament and not on a box. But we'll see and will share when I am done. Oh I have plans for the rest of the fabric. Nothing is going to waste. More on that later. 
Okay so now it was time to start on HAED (Heaven and Earth Designs) - "Gingerbread House"!
oooooh Good Lord! First of all I had kitted up all the threads before. I am using a candy box to store them.
I had bought 28ct evenweave a huge cut. But I started looking at all the pages of the chart 108 of them and started having doubts. Why? Because I knew after seeing lots of you stitching on your HAED's that most of you were using 25ct Magic fabric. This Magic fabric has the grid printed right on it. Mine did not. When I bought my fabric I thought "Oh NO I don't need grids". Ahem...... looking at all those pages I decided YES I DID! I didn't want to waste tons of time trying to figure out where I left off and where I would be stitching this HUGE design. Okay what to do??? Last week I finally learned of Floss Tube. I've heard many of you mention on your blogs this Floss Tube but had no clue as to what it was. It's on YOU TUBE and there I typed in "Floss Tube" and hit enter. OMG!!! That's a whole new world or I should say another beautiful community of cross stitcher's and more.WOW! I actually found a video of how to stitch a grid on my fabric. YES I stitched my own grid. HUGE Thank You to Jennifer Apodaca! God Bless her - her video #19! I stitched my outer border all around 780 x 570. As I stitched and got closer to the end I had done extremely well. Till I learned I was off 1 thread - URG!!! Stayed up waaay to late in the evening. Went to bed and woke up in the morning (Saturday) and found my error after 20 mins. sigh....... Then I needed to stitch the lines in the inside. Took all day Saturday and thru Sunday. And that was only several lines just to get started to place that first stitch. LOL!!! So here we are:

 LOVE LOVE LOVE all the colors!

 I used Sulky Sliver Metallic thread (Joann's and had coupon). OH MY WORD! Have you tried this thread? It glides and its strong. No splitting at all. I may use this thread in other projects because its fantastic and beautiful. These photos don't capture the sparkle but it does.

Close up I started in the upper right corner. 1 over 1 Full Cross Stitch 
I gridded mine as Jennifer said to do. The inside grids I am stitching each line as she did but my squares are in 20's not 10's. Safe to say I love this project. So sorry this post is long. But so much to share.
Hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather and if you have snow - Hope you get to get cozy and stitch! 
Thank you for stopping by!
With my love and appreciation - Annette

23 comments:

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

Floss Tube is pretty rad isn't it?! I love it! But I'm still going to stick to my blog for my stitching, but tutorials are good :)
I love your new start!
and your flowers...LOVELY!

Vickie said...

Yep. It is snowing right now. :( Your flowers are fantastic. So is Gingerbread House! Wow!

Unknown said...

Love Midnight Ride. The fabric color is perfect. Your roses are beautiful. The snow is melting today - we did get six inches over the weekend (Central New York). Good start on your Heaven & Earth. It is a great choice.

Shebafudge said...

Oh my word! Your HaED is gorgeous!! I haven't seen that design before and am going to thoroughly enjoy seeing yours grow.

Of course, it's not a match for all those beautiful roses. What a stunning display you have.

gracie said...

Magnificent ... beautiful and love the flowers too.

Cindy's Stitching said...

The flowers are beautiful. great pictures.

Linda said...

Congrats on the pretty finish Annette. I love your new start. You mentioned Sulky Silver Metallic thread - is that what you did the grid with or is that what your stitching the design with? Your roses are gorgeous.

Linda

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri Malinovich) said...

Your roses and Iris' are amazing. I can't wait to have some blooms - not even the hyacinth's or snowdrops are up yet....
Love, love, love Midnight Ride! It looks great on that fabric and I can't wait to see how you finish-finish it!

OMG! I can't imagine stitching a HAED but I truly admire all of you that do. I'll enjoy watching your progress.

Ali said...

Just love what you've done with Gran's fabric! midnight ride looks amazing, she would be chuffed to bits seeing it being used at last lol thank you for sharing. The roses look beautiful we are just starting to see the daffs coming out now it's lovely to see a little splash of colour in amongst the grey gloom round here.

Von said...

Look at your garden, Annette!! Great sneak peek at what mine will look like in a few weeks!

Awesome stitching, as always. :)

Barb said...

Maybe it's the West coast. We are also having great weather here in Washington. Midnight Ride is wonderful on that fabric! Your roses are simply beautiful!!

Justine said...

Gorgeous roses - I remember my parents had a rise called Chicago Peace which looked similar to your mystery rose? You're off to a great start on your HAED.

Lumiruusu said...

This was a lovely post -I LOVE long blog posts! The roses are so beautiful and the HAED piece really is fulfilled with lovely colors ! ..
I do really admire all HAED stichers -how talented you are !! :)

Carol said...

I woke up to snow on the ground this morning, Annette--and more is forecast for tomorrow! I am so envious of your warm weather and beautiful roses!! Your new phone takes great photos...

What great colors in your HAED--you'll have such fun with it. I can't imagine tackling one, but admire those of you brave enough to do so :)

Beth said...

Peace rose is my mother's favorite. Perfect orange fabric for your finish. I admire your adventurous spirit tackling a HAED project! Good luck!

Hilda said...

Wondeful picts of your roses, Anette - did I ever telle you that I love roses? I wish I would live in an area where the roses will bloom that early!
I am one of the persons you can not imagine how anybody can finish such an ambitous work like all of the HAEDs. Chapeau, dear Anette for starting such a project. I am looing forward to seeing your progress!

Have another warm week of Spring!

Hugs
Hilda

thb said...

Oh Annette
I love your blooms!!! I have a real soft spot for roses and yours are looking beautiful! As it is only Spring here in the UK the blossom and blooms are only just starting to come out - but it is so nice to see some colour again in the garden - although my garden is still in the design stage so I have a lot of work to do this year lol! I will be sure to relax in the evenings with a spot of stitching lol :)

Penny said...

Wow! What gorgeous roses! I've never had luck growing them - too many pests. Love your finish! That is quite a lot of pages for Gingerbread House! I can't even imagine undertaking something of that size but it's going to be so pretty. : )

Brigitte said...

You made a great start on your HAED project. You are braver than I am, I am still hesitating over my fabric, shall I take 28 ct or 25 ct, I'm not really sure about it. Thanks for the link to the grinding video, it's great for me as I am going to grid my fabric, too.

That red fabric you won in the giveaway is gorgeous. And you chose the perfect pattern for it. It's not easy to get a nice red fabric, not too dark.

I love to see all your wonderful roses. Mine just showed the first tiny leaves and I hope that they will grow fast and show the first buds soon. But I think the growing will stand still for a while as there will be colder weather next week.

Stitching Noni said...

Love your roses... Angel Face was one that my parents had in their rose garden in the house I grew up in (sadly the house and garden are no longer there) - it is one of my all time favourite roses :o)
Love your finish - the fabric is stunning and Midnight Ride looks amazing on it.
I am in awe of people who stitch HAED's! Love the design you have started and well done on all the gridding...
Floss tube is great.... I will still stick to my blog but I do enjoy watching some of the videos (they make great viewing while I am doing the ironing on a Sunday morning!!)
Hugs xx

Weronika said...

WOW your new project is amazing and huge and all those colors! Wonderful finish and very beautiful flowers you have.

Frances said...

What gorgeous flowers!!! So pretty!
And Midnight Ride is perfect on that fabric!!!

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