Misty Kites and a Box of Delights

I dug one of my favorite wips out of my workbasket and resumed stitching this week. Misty by Seba Designs has been neglected for over a year because I poached the floss for another project and then had to wait for a mail order to come in. By then I was on to other projects. I love the colours in this fabulous design. I’ve used Janie’s Christmas #148 (Dinky Dyes) for the blackwork and and a variegated green (dmc) for the cross stitch.

Misty by Seba Designs

Box of Delights part 2 was released this month, and I thought I had better hurry up and show you because part 3 is coming out in about a day, give or take a time-zone or two. I took out the french knots that I stitched in part one, and replaced them with pretty gold beads. I’m just knot a fan of french knots!

Box of Delights SAL by Blackwork Journey

In my last bit of stitchy news, I’ve revamped my popular blackwork kites bookmark pattern and made the design more versatile. These blackwork kites with a whimsical kite-tail border, can be made into a card, a box top, a needle-book cover, or pop it into a small hoop to decorate any wall.

Blackwork Kites

A Finish, and A Start

It is said “measure twice, cut once”,  but I didn’t listen to this wise adage, and my fabric for SAL Dentelles was a wee bit small. Just small enough that I had to choose between the last two bands of stitching.  It was a tough choice, both are beautiful. This is my finished sampler, stitched in variegated silk floss hand painted by Silks4u:

To see the other completed projects, with all bands stitched, pop over to Broduese Bressane’s Blogspot.  There is a slide-show of the finished lacy samplers.

One stitch-along is finished, and another is starting. “Box of Delights” by Blackwork Journey is an embroidered box of chocolates, a sweet design! You can find this project in the freebies section.

I am stitching with some beautiful silk flosses by Silks4u, that were tucked into my last order as samples (it was such a lovely surprise)  – variegated for the fill patterns, yummy plum for the outlines, and gold for accents… and I measured this fabric twice! 😉

This project is promoted in conjunction with Slattery, the award winning Patissier and Chocolatier from Manchester, UK who have produced a special box of their chocolates copying the original embroidery designs. How cool is that! They look absolutely delicious. You can see the chocolates if you go to the Blog section of the Blackwork Journey website, and read March’s Blog.

 

 

Sal Dentelles Filigree Band

A simple blackwork stitch turned the seventh band of our Sal Dentelles sampler into a delicate lacy filigree.

 

I think this is my favorite part of the sampler 🙂 But there are two more bands to stitch, so I have time to change my mind!

You can see a gallery of the other works in progress, at Brodeuse Bressane’s Blogspot.

Sal Dentelles Seventh Band

SAL Dentelles – Seashells and Lacy Blackwork Scallops

The fourth band of our lacy sampler is scalloped like pretty seashells.

Seashells and blackwork scallops

There are some beautiful samplers in progress; the stitchers in the SAL have chosen some gorgeous fabrics and flosses to work with. There is a blue and white version that I just love, it is so very pretty. Pop over to Brodeuse Bressane’s Blogspot and take a look!

SAL Dentelles: Lacy Like a Doily

Our lacework sampler is looking very lacy and dainty with the second and third bands added. I am reminded of the doilies that mom crochets. 🙂

To see other works in progress from the stitch-along group, pop over to Brodeuse Bressane’s Blogspot.

Freedom SAL Final Stitches

The Freedom stitch-along is finished and I love how it has turned out.  It was so much fun to stitch this pattern, there is so much variety in the stitches and it was fun to decide how to place the squares for my own unique design 🙂

Look for the pattern in Seba Design’s Etsy shop soon!

Freedom SAL VI

    Freedom’s fabulous squares were fun to stitch, but the most fun in the stitch-along comes from seeing what the rest of the group is stitching. So much variety in the fabric and floss, and each design is very unique, especially with this design. There are some gorgeous colour schemes, including some very vibrant colours, an elegant variegated goldwork, and a traditional blackwork that has vivid pops of reds throughout the design.

You can see these works of art in Seba Design’s Facebook group.  Anyone who is interested in blackwork is welcome 🙂

Freedom’s final squares were released today, and I am off to sit and stitch them 🙂

Freedom SAL V

We stitched nineteen lovely squares in the Freedom Stitch-along this week, after the distraction of some Christmas Bells 😉

The eyelets and fans were my favorites:

I’m counting the empty spaces that are left on my fabric (eighteen) and thinking that the next installment of the SAL could be the final one.That makes me a bit sad, but It’s only a few short weeks until the next Stitch-along starts, this one hostessed by Esther of Brodeuse Bressane, another extremely talented designer, and a very fast stitcher!

Freedom SAL IV

This weeks squares for Seba Design’s Stitch-along, Freedom  were large squares and long rectangles in a beautiful mix of blackwork, cross-stitch, and (my favorite) eyelet stitches. I love the texture that the mix of stitches gives this design.

The most challenging square for me was the one with many half stitches, but the result is beautiful and really pops:

I really like the big flower blossom

but my favorite square is the flowering tree

If you ‘d like to join the stitch-along, you could easily catch up with the group.

Freedom SAL III

Snowy, cold days are perfect for staying inside where it’s warm and stitching blackwork, so I stitched this week’s squares for Seba Design’s Stitch-along, Freedom. The squares were actually rectangles and cute corner pieces.

I really like the squares with the eyelet stitches, but my favorite design so far is the little flower in a pot. So adorable!

I love the randomness of this design, it’s so much fun to stitch. Only a few days to wait for next week’s squares… waiting…waiting…waiting…  😉

Freedom SAL II

We added colour to our fabric in Seba Design’s stitch-along, Freedom. We stitched all of the small squares this week, 31 cute little designs in blackwork with some cross-stitch and specialty stitches to add texture.

Stitching on aida cloth instead of even-weave was very challenging for a few of the squares, but not completely impossible.

I did change floss colours, but not to the silks, as they didn’t come in the mail before I started stitching. Claire is stitching Friendship Quilt V in another stitch-along, and I really like the orange and purple combination in her quilt blocks, it’s very pretty. So I started with purple and orange, and added gold and variegated pink and green.

I didn’t follow a plan when deciding which pattern to use, where and what colour. I started with one colour, and then randomly chose a box to fill and pattern to fill it with, though I did make sure that I wasn’t stitching the same colour in adjacent boxes.

It’s fun to stitch, I really like this design! I’m looking forward to next week’s patterns. I wonder if we get the little rectangles next?

Freedom SAL Small squares

Freedom SAL

Freedom SAL Borders stitched

The very talented Banu of Seba Designs has released the start to her new blackwork SAL, Freedom, and everyone is welcome to join and stitch along.

We are stitching all of the borders first, and then each week we’ll be given designs to fill the boxes. We can use whichever designs we choose, and place them as we like. Should be lots of fun!

My outline is stitched in variegated gray and blue, but I’m dithering on the rest of the colours, so the ones shown here will probably change at least six more times. I have an order coming in soon, and there’s silk floss… need I say more?!

Although the designer has explained that there will be specialty stitches and recommends stitching on evenweave fabric, I am stitching on aida. This is a very loosely woven fabric though – it starts to fringe itself the moment you pick it up – and I’m hopeful that it will be fine.

I’ll let you know how that turns out!