Freebie Friday

Clair Coult of Dunmani Designs

It’s Friday, so that means it’s freebie time again! This week I’d like to point you all in the direction of Dunmani Designs by Clair Coult.

On this website is a whole array of free designs for samplers, cards, needle cases, blackwork, Assisi work, bookmarks and a motif library for you to peruse and download. I especially love this beautiful blackwork bookmark – it’s so pretty and delicate looking that it would be a perfect addition to any booklover’s collection and looks like it will be an absolute joy to stitch.

Assissi Autumn Bookmark

Project: Assissi Autumn Bookmark
Started: 08.07.09
Finished: 14.07.09

Design: Assissi Autumn by Rhuann Designs
Materials: DMC 301, 433, 680, 898 and Polstitches hand dyed fabric from a grab bag (I suspect it’s 28-count sampler linen in Chestnut)

The design is a freebie from Rhuann Designs (one of four – one for each season) and although the example shown on the website appears to have been stitched in variegated floss, I thought I’d try using solid colours in autumnal tones and I think the completed project looks very effective. The tassle is my first attempt at making my own and uses the same colours of floss as the stitching.

This is a gift for an online friend who very kindly loaned me a book, but I’m considering doing all four seasons as a small sampler for myself at some point in the near future, as I think they’d look lovely all together in a frame.

WiP Updates

I have a whole bunch of works in progress at the moment, so I thought I’d update them all at once:

Wedding Sampler:
I haven’t got much further with this, but as the deadline is at the start of  September, I know I have plenty of time to complete it.

Bold Blooms:
This little freebie kit is a lot of fun to stitch. There aren’t many different colours in it and the effect of depth and perspective is created by using only one strand for distance and two strands for close up. I think it will look very pretty when completed.

Stitching Friends SAL Exchange:
This is a sitch-along exchange I’m doing with my new friends at The Cross Stitch Forum. The deadline is 1st September, so again, I have plenty of time to complete this one.

Rainbow Cats Bookmark:
This is a gift I’m working on for a friend who is always very kind to everyone and deserves a little treat. She loves books and cats, so I thought I’d combine her two loves on this bookmark which is a design by Carla-Jane of Raevyn Designs.

Dragon Silhouette:
I’ve designed this piece myself for an arts and crafts competition on the Crafts and Creatures forum. The deadline is the end of the month, so this is the one I’m doing most work on at the moment!

Bookmark Birth Sampler

Project: Bookmark Birth Sampler
Started: 19.05.09
Finished: 20.05.09

Original design by Kell Smurthwaite ©

I thought it would be nice to do a miniature birth sampler for my son to hang on the door of his nursery and hit upon the idea of using a pre-finished bookmark for the basis. This is a white 18-count pre-finished “Stitch-n-Mark” bookmark stitched with Kreinik Silk Mori Milkpaints 534 and 544 (two shades of pale, turquoise-blue), backed with white, sticky-backed felt and finished with a white ribbon for hanging. It has his first and middle names, this date of birth and his birth weight, along with a tiny hand and footprint motif. (Click on the picture to view the photograph full-size.)

I think it looks rather sweet and I think I might do another mini-sampler with my wedding date on it!

New charts

Butterflies Galore and At First Sight

As Heaven and Earth Designs are having an Easter sale, I couldn’t resist acquiring two new charts to add to my growing stash. HAED have some of the most beautiful designs I’ve ever seen, but they’re very detailed, so I have been a little wary of trying to tackle any of their projects. Still, when designs are a beautiful as this, who can keep from giving them a try?

Seeing as how I’ve never tried anything so complex (they use so many different colours!), I decided that smaller projects would probably be best to start with, so I settled on these two charts that have a lovely array of colours and a fine challenge, but aren’t too big.

The first is the Butterflies Galore Storykeep (bookmark), which is a small segment of a larger design by Jasmine Becket Griffith. The Gothic appearance of the girl and the jewel colours of the butterflies made this one completely irresistible to me!

The second is a so-called Peek-A-Boo, which is a segment of a larger piece that features the eyes or an eye. I chose At First Sight by Linda Tso as the delicate look of the girl’s face and the soft, smiling lips drew me in. The beautiful brown eye looks so inviting!

So, although it will be a while before I can get to these designs (due to other, more pressing projects), I am very much looking forward to my first HAED projects!

Progress…

I’ve managed to get a little more stitching done, so I thought I’d post a couple of progress pictures to show how I’m getting on with two of my current works in progress:

15-sided biscornu stitch-along:

I’m stitching this on white 18-count aida in two variegated threads – Trebla 13 for the outer squares (that’s the pink bits) and Trebla 41 for the designs (the purple). I’ve completed ten of the faces and intend to add pale pink seed beads and finish it with a decorative silver button on either side. It will be stuffed with regular stuffing and lavender to make a pomander. There are a few people on The Book Club Forum who are working on this project as a stitch-along as was done on the Stitch Creations blog (click on the link in the title to see some gorgeous finished products!).

Textile Heritage Victorian Lavender Bookmark:

I have largely neglected this one in favour of other projects lately, but once the biscornu is finished, I will try to find a little more time to devote to this one and get it finished. It will be backed with lilac felt when it’s done. The kit is lovely and the finished product will be very pretty, so I really should get back to it!

Disney Pooh’s Happy bookmark

Project: Disney Pooh’s Happy bookmark
Started: 01.03.09
Finished:

Disney kit designed by Debbie Minton for Designer Stitches.

This one was more challenging than I thought it would be – there were quite a few fractional, stitches (1/4 and 3/4) as well as French knots, which I’ve never done before. Overall, though, I’m pleased with the result. I tried to keep the back very neat as there’s no felt backing for this one, and managed very well till it came to the backstitch which rather ruined the neatness on the back a little, so I used some yellow sticky-backed felt to finish it off and it looks much better now.

This will be part of my niece’s fourth birthday present, so I hope she’ll like it!

Textile Heritage Poppy Bookmark

Project: Textile Heritage Poppy Bookmark
Started: 17.02.09
Finished: 02.03.09

Kit by Textile Heritage.

I’m rather pleased with how this turned out – especially for this being my first project on my return to cross stitching! It was nice to work with different thicknesses of thread (some is in 3-thread, some in 2-thread and some in 1-thread) for the different effects. It’s backed with red felt that matches the poppies on front. The finished bookmark is quite pretty and I’m chuffed to bits!

I gave the finished bookmark to a colleague as a leaving present – she’s an avid reader and crafter, like me, and seemed really pleased with it.