Bowled Over by Debbie Mumm (2nd update)

The past few weeks have been quite hectic for me. I somehow developed dust mite allergy and decided to remove all carpet in our place with timber flooring. I also had a few weeks off from stitching. After everything is settled down, I am happy that I can stitch again and completed Bowled Over yesterday. YAY!

Bowled Over by Debbie Mumm (1st update)

Having finished Tuscan Garden III, I decided to start Mill Hill Kitchen collection by Debbie Mumm. I bought a set of 6 small designs and all of them will have beads applied in some parts. Very exciting projects!

I chose "Bowled Over" to start as its design is the simplest and this shouldn't challenge me too much. A good start for a practice.

 

The stitching and beading have been easy so far and I am truly 'bowled over' by its simple design with full of colors.

 

Tuscan Garden III by Michael Powell (completed)

 

 

Have you ever thought of being a cross-stitch addict? I was like that in the past few weeks as I was so determined to see my first finished project of 2010 from Michael Powell design. The photos above showed the completion of full-stitches and the starting point of back-stitching. What a relief that the back-stitch only used 1 thread color (black)!

It took me 2 weeks to complete the back-stitches. It might look complicated but it was fun to do. I was super excited when I applied the last stitch. I loved the design and have decided to buy Tuscan Garden I and Tuscan Garden II so that 3 designs can be put together to make a triptych (as shown in this link). YAY!

Tuscan Garden III by Michael Powell (2nd update)

Here is the latest update of Tuscan Garden III stitch project. The progress is slow as I purposely didn't bring anything related to cross stitch during Christmas break in Melbourne. It was wise of me. Can you imagine I was busy stitching in the family gatherings?!?

Anyway, I can see that I nearly finish the full stitch part (30% to go). And... I really don't want to think about the backstitch (outlining) to do later on. I would take one step at a time for now and I'm sure I will eventually get there. This is what I like about cross stitch. It taught you so much about patience!

Tuscan Garden III by Michael Powell (1st update)

This cross stitch kit was my birthday present a couple years ago. My best friends bought this and another cross stitch kit (Elliot and Buttons Family Portrait) from a Sydney-based craft shop, Tapestry Craft. Very happy to have these as my gifts!!

I had been looking forward to do this project but there were so many cross stitch projects that I had to finish first. Anyway, I finally started Tuscan Garden III in late September 2009. It went very slow but I enjoy it so much. This is actually my first project using evenweave fabric. Slightly different compared to aida fabric. The result seems to be more delicate and shows more details.

The design contains 29 colours with 4 blend colours so I organised my threads in a cheap and simple way (shown in a photo below). I sorted my threads based on the order number.

Here is my progress so far and it went pretty well. No major mistakes and the stitches seemed to be even.

 

I would love to finish this design as soon as I can and decide if I should buy Tuscan Garden I and II for a triptych. We'll see and I will definitely give my updates on this blog.

If you want to see Michael Powell cross stitch collections, please go to this link. His talent is very unique and I adore it so much!