Little ladies

My recent projects: the lovely pair of Lavender & Lace little girls, Emma and Isabella. I have started working on Emma's Garden ages ago, and I am still very nervous of touching it, as I dyed the fabric myself and I'm not a hundred percent sure I did a good job at it. Plus I am anxious in advance about the lace stitching at the bottom. Not like I can do anything about it, it's not like I even know what size 12 cotton looks like, so I cannot practice on a separate piece of fabric. Whatever, I will cross that stitch when I get there. ;-) Anyhow, I resumed working on it last week. It is done on 28 ct linen, 2 over 2. Isabella, however, is stitched on 32 ct marbled Zweigart linen, and she's done 1 over 2 to give her a more delicate look. I was a bit unsure about doing them in such different ways, but then I remembered that the designs are pretty different anyway. Isabella is a full body drawing while Emma is seen only from the waist up, so it's not like I could stitch them as a series like the Celtic ladies for example. I keep reminding myself that I should stop being such a perfectionist. I keep worrying what the end product will look like and beat myself up about every single x that doesn't look flawless. Fortunately I have learned to recognize when those moods are coming and I can remind myself to concentrate on the moment and just enjoy each coss as I stitch them. I will get there in the end.

New beginning

I think you will be happy to hear that while I struggle to deliver finishes, I have absolutely no problems when it comes to starting new projects. :) Only last week I started on a Michael Powell kit. It comes with some cute buttons. This one is called Doves. The scan shows how far I have come with it in five days. It is beautiful, I love the colours and every stitch reminds me why I love Michael Powell. I guess when the crosses are done and the backstitching begins, I will remember why I also hate him. :)

Stitchy update

My whole life is turning upside down, but it's not easy to even think about it, let alone put it into words and then publish it on the world wide web, so I'm discussing one topic at a time, starting with the easiest one. Stitching.

This is the picture I am working on right now. It's a Permin of Copenhagen kit and I just love it! I have never made so much progress in such a little time!

This is a kit my husband chose some years ago and now I'm stitching it for him. This is the one of two pieces he will be taking with him when he's leaving the place that was our home for the past 6 years. The other one is the little blonde girl watering flowers. I stitched that for his birthday the same year our baby was born.

I also started dyeing some fabric. I had to dye a piece for Emma's Garden. I bleached a piece of blue fabric years ago, but instead of yellowish, it became some ugly greyish white and I didn't like it. I halved the dyeing time on the package but still it turned out to be a darker yellow than I wanted. Never mind, I made my mind up and even started the first few stitches.

I used the leftover dye to come up with this lovely piece of aida here. I have no idea what I'm gonna stitch on it, but I really love it.

Still no progress on Deepest Love. I just put that one away for a while. I'm not ready to finish her yet.

Next time on Stitch and Serve: housekeeping and other curses.