Instagram Made Me Do It

I know I’ve been missing from the cross stitch world for a good long while but I can’t believe how much it has changed with the advent of Instagram. When I last had time to stitch frequently and could engage in the cross stitch world PIF's and exchanges went on but if you wanted to see what people were doing then you had to follow their blogs. In the years I have been absent I have noticed more and more blogs disappearing and wondered if cross stitch was a dying craft. How wrong could I be.

Since picking up my cross stitch needle again I have become aware of not only how much goes on in the world of Instagram but also started following a few Flosstube channels. Thanks to Instagram and YouTube I've learnt a couple of new techniques, my favourite being how to start with a loop from the front, so less spinning round of the hoops, which is great.

Just like the blogs used to, Instagram and the Floss Tube accounts are leading me astray. I promised myself that other than the Little House Needlework Petites I'd not start anything new until I’d finished Apache Wedding Blessing, one month in and that has been blown out of the water. Instagram resulted in me joining the 12 in 24 Ornament Stitch Along and now I've signed up for the Brenda Gervais Stitching Exchange organised by Holly Jones. I've also been tempted curtesy of Instagram to do the  Cottage Garden Samplings Fabulous House Series of designs. The first three are fully kitted up, with Santa's House being today's new start and the material is prepared for the other nine.

 

Santa's House Cottage Garden Samplings

I've long been a fan of the wonderful Vonna Pfeiffer and her excellent finishing tutorials, which I followed to the letter when it came to finishing my grandchildren's stockings and  in February I started watching her Flosstube videos. That was a mistake now I'm chasing down the Santa in the Forest chart and  the Mirabilia Winter White Santa is on my to buy list. That of course led me to more Flosstube channels and Teresa Little Stitcher is responsible for the HEAD chart I downloaded last week and the material and 16 skeins (yes sixteen) of 310 DMC I ordered as well. If she hadn't tempted me with her Flosstube channel I'd never have gone on the HAED website and just had to ordered the design Once Upon A Moonbeam by Pat Brennan. This morning I sat and watched  Belushi Stitches finishing her Chatelaine Evening in the Park, which looks like the one Teresa Little Stitcher is also doing so of course I had to check out the Chatelaine website - and yes you've guessed it I've found two designs to add to my wish list.

It hasn't all been shopping there has been some stitching as well. I have spent a few days working on Apache Wedding Blessing and I’m quietly confident I will have it finished and framed well before the deadline I have set myself.

Apache Wedding Blessings

 

I have also completed the third of the Little House Needleworks Winter Petites, one more to go and I will be having myself a FFO session making a series of ornaments.

 

Winter Petites - Little House Needleworks

It hasn’t all been cross stitch, there has also been a trip to London to finally see all of Moulin Rouge. The last time we went to see it the safety curtain stuck just as the second half started so we only saw the first half of the show. A year later the whole cast had changed but it was still as good the second time around. Whilst we were thre I also took the opportunity to indulge in some Street Photography when we visited Camden Market.

Sadly, it started raining just after we got there, but next time we are in London I'm definitely heading back there, it is a Street Photographers paradise.