Stitchin Away

Remember that time Spidermom wrote a blog post about a Yarn Mountain that was in serious need of de-stashing?  Yeah...about that...I have a tendency to be easily distracted when it comes to crafts.  I set out to do a lot of practicing crochet technique this summer, making small projects.  I promise I really did that, for a little bit.  But then...I found an afghan hook looking sad and unloved on a clearance rack and raced home to pull out my favorite craft book EVER, the Readers Digest Complete Book of Needlework from 1979 that I rescued from a thrift store (not the Stinky Thrift, but a rather fancy one on the other side of town, we'll call it the Not Stinky Thrift)

I followed instructions for basic Tunsian Stitches and made a little pouch., which, to the amazement of my family (i.e. NinjaBoy) it looked like it had been knitted!  How could I not have to play with that for a while?  So ERL bought me a book on Tunisian crochet and the completely awesome Denise Interchangeable Crochet Hook set and I'm now working on two projects, one for a friend, and the other is actually for me!

Anyway, that is my excuse for not following through with my goals even after I publicly set them!  This post is supposed to be about stitching, of which I have been doing TONS.   I am crazy for embroidery.  I've always touted the relaxing qualities of crochet, but I'm starting to think that embroidery may top it.  It can be dangerous, however.

This wicked iron burn is from cutting out a transfer on the ironing board while the iron heated up.  Duh.  That's my first craft related injury in a long time.  The kids all think its cool and NinjaBoy said its gonna be an awesome scar.  Thanks buddy, but there goes my dream of becoming a forearm model.

The embroidery binge was started by being contacted by the fantastic artist Spooky Pooky to do a personal swap, after she saw this piece that I made for a Doctor Who swap over on Craftster.

Lady Cassandra is a bizarre and often forgotten villain on Doctor Who, but one of my favorites because she is just so very weird.  It's a 4" hoop and all my own design, of which I am very proud.  It makes me laugh, and for those of you who don't watch Doctor Who and are thinking "nerd alert! nerd alert!" behave and give it a try, its really so much fun.  Kids even like it, and you know kids have the best taste in TV. ;)

As far as other people's desings go, I am in love with Aimee Ray's designs and picked up Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection which I highly recommend and adore.  Stitched this hoop up for lanikins for a birthday gift (late, because she's really hard to make stuff for because she's an incredible artist).

I love this tree, and had some fun with different stitches (sorta, still consider myself very much a novice!).  Tree trunk is stem stitch, flowers and circles are back and satin stitch.

How bout some artsy shots?

I have a new camera, but am still working on using it to its full potential and I have really weird lighting in my house and/or I have no patience to wait for optimum light to take pictures of stuff I make.

Stay tuned, more projects almost finished in the works and cross your fingers next post will be wound free!