If you would like to write me more in private, please send me a line at OneStitchNirvana@gmail.com

Friday, July 22, 2011

The Beauty of Backstitch

Hi everyone and thanks so much for stopping by - both today and all the other days.
I am so glad that you take the time to leave comments on my posts and I am ecstatic that I now have 51 52 (!) followers! You are the best! I am so happy and very, very humbled - thanks!
This makes me ponder that I really need to host my very first give-away... let me think about something neat to send out!

This week has been pretty slow. I finally realized that I need to stop drinking 4 cups of tea right before bed in order to fall asleep.. duh! Interestingly enough, DH just mentioned to me this evening that he needs to stop drinking Mountain Dew before he goes to bed, because he has had problems sleeping lately too. We are like two peas in a pod, I tell you... And as you may recall, we even sleep in shifts so these conclusions were extracted completely without conferring with each other. We ARE researchers you know, LOL (yup, pretty sad, I agree...).

I learned something about myself this week. I learned that guilt can act as a great carrot for me. I haven't felt guilty about not finishing up my Halloween ornaments or my bird pictures, but I did get a sneaking feeling that I may have bought an awful lot of stash last week. Solution: stitch on it and reduce the size - quickly!
I started with Sweetheart Tree's summer welcome piece and I did pretty all right. It is not finished finished yet either, but it is stitched up.
Here is a photo before back-stitching:
...and this one is taken after back-stitching and beading:
What an amazing difference!
The kit was great, as usual from Sweetheart Tree. Plenty of floss left over, a great chart that is easy to read from (b/w), and pretty neat embellishments. It probably doesn't show in the photo, but the silver flower beads are actually quite thick - enough so that framing behind glass would probably be a challenge.

Next up will probably be the Fall Welcome piece (after all my finishing work has been straightened out, of course...), even though that chart looks more confusing. She has used a vertical dash and a horizontal dash right next to each other. Both represent orange hues for the pumpkins. I already have a feeling that this is a trap that I will fall in, head first...

I am leaving you with a photo showing a fraction of the parrot baby collection playing with a fraction of the Vera Bradley collection. You can't tell, but there a third baby there, who has snuggled up inside one of the totes. Awwww... (and sigh...)
Joysze asked a while back if Henny ever poops on my knee when she helps me stitch. Parrots poop? Naaah..... Let me just say that both DH and I do the pirouette in front of the mirror every time we are getting ready to leave the house.
Luckily, they are so blastedly cute! :-)

Take care and Happy Stitching,

6 comments:

  1. Hej flitiga syster! Du är ju snabbare än kvickast med dina korsstygn :)Jag har blivit inspirerade av dig och har packat ner någa minikorsstygn som jag ska ta med till landet i helgen.
    Det ser gansak ofta ut so du är online på skype...fast mitt i natten för dig? Kan det vara Andy som är uppkopplad? Hoppas vi kan ringas snart. Pusspusspuss

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good Morning Jenny!
    The caffiene battle is hard,Rich drinks his Mtn. Dew in the morning and I drink my diet coke then all caffiene free the rest of the day. It is a hard change to make but you will sleep better.
    The Sweetheart tree piece is lovely. There is nothing worse than stitching a kit that doesn't have enough floss! Pet peeve :)
    I have added some stash this week and have done hardly any stitiching. I need to change that!
    Have a great Friday!
    Chris

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, thank you for posting that Sweetheart Tree before and after backstitching! I had seen it completed, but I thought it looked like a pain to stitch, lots of color changes. Now I see it's mostly backstitching, and that seems very doable! It's lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just thought I'd le you know that you made my bookmark bar on my new mac book air. Mike got the car and on the way home bought me a present too. :o)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love that sunflower piece -- it's so pretty! I love seeing the parrot baby collection with the Vera Bradley collection. What a combination! (I love VB too!) So cute that a baby decided to sleep inside a tote!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh.... great idea on the tea and Mountain Dew. ;) Hehehehehehe!! Hope you're sleeping better.

    Congrats on the finish of Welcome. LOVE IT!!!

    ReplyDelete