Welcome to my Blog

Hi, my name's Jane, and I thought I would start a Blog as a journal to my life of stitching.

Some of you will know me from the Shepherd's Bush Bulletin Board (Jane M), where my love of SB has grown even more with the encouragement from the ladies of the board. They are by far my favourite designer in cross stitch, and over the past years I have collected quite a stash of their products. Most of their charts, kits, charms, and buttons I have, and am still always keen to see what their next release will be.

I hope this journal will be a way of communicating what project I'm doing at any given time, the progress I'm making, and what I think of it (good or bad). I may even go off the track a bit, and comment on other things in my life - who knows?

I have a link to my Epson photo albums, where I always keep a pic of my latest WIP, and other albums of interest too. So please take a look when you can. Any comments about my blog will be appreciated too.

The regulation of my blog entries will vary. I plan to post entries not too far apart, but it all depends on what I'm doing, and how far my progress is going.

My latest WIP is SB Little Witch. I haven't added anything to it lately. Here's a pic of where I'm up to:

I must admit, I have made a mistake with the vine. I'm one stitch less (that really annoys me). So I will have to make her legs one stitch shorter :-) Just love the fabric that comes with the kit - Vintage Country Mocha. It has a really mottled look to it and such a devine colour. The thread colours are lovely too, with some of them variegated. I really should get back to her, as it's not a big piece, and wouldn't normally take too much time to do.

The last finished item I did was another SB one. It's from their Americana Folio chart called Uncle Sam Pillow. The fabric they used is called Home Sweet Home pillow cut, which I found at a shop on the Internet for 50% off. Just love a bargain. The houses are already on the fabric, and you just stitch your design in the centre of it. I love Americana designs, so I enjoyed doing this one.

I ended up changing a few of the threads from DMC to Sampler Threads to get an older look to it. I worked with Old Red Paint, Old Blue Paint, and Soot. The DMC 822 cream used may be substituted for a richer looking cream, in keeping with the aged look (which I wish I had have done myself, but didn't).

Well, that's all for now. Hope you drop by again sometime for my next update.