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she looks beautiful! congrats on the (what feels like) a very fast, very stunning finish!

Lovely finish

Great finish and shes gorgeous

All of your work looks fantastic and I really love Big Ben

Good Lord, you did that quickly!! Delightful design and beautifully done.

Thanks everyone again for your kind comments - seeing the design in the light today (well, gloomy day in London) and still quite happy with it.

The Big Ben is indeed the John Clayton international design - here on SewAndSo.

The framed design my grandparents now have is called English Valley Cottage and is by Dimensions.

Here's a few more of the unframed backlog - up to maybe 2/3rds of the ones I have stitched.


As for hiding the hobby as a male stitcher - my family knows about it but that is it. Obviously you all understand the addiction and satisfaction gained from it but it isn't something I feel comfortable mentioning to workmates etc. I'm sure most are mature enough to respect it but there are a few that would take delight in giving me grief about it.

Whether we blokes like it or not there is a perception out there from some about males doing needlework (or at least before retirement age). Heck I can even remember buying a ticket to the show at Olympia one year and getting asked by the guy on the door to the ticket queue if I understood that it was a stitching show with a look of disdain when I said yes and continued in. Didn't exactly help me feel more comfortable as a 30-something yr old bloke wandering around solo in a very female dominated show... lol. Clearly it hasn't stopped me from stitching, just very few people know that I do.

She looks fantastic.
I am a "never get around to having it framed girl" and have a pile like yours with several of the same designs in it. I see you have done JC's Sunday Cricket, I have that to do in my stash.

Midge wrote:I see you have done JC's Sunday Cricket, I have that to do in my stash.

Actually that cricket one was the second one I ever did, the first being that All our Yesteryears one. It is a nice design but from memory mine looks a bit grubby/scruffy (to me at least) from being stitched in a hoop and having so little experience at the time. I know I am a lot neater nowadays anyways and always use a frame so you learn. There are several I will never bother to get framed due to change in tastes or were just experiments for experience.

Looks lovely (All of them !! )

Beautiful work.

Wow, what a fabulous lot of work you have done. I love your choice of projects too.

It is a bit disapointing seeing such great work have to wait patiently to be framed, but it's amazing to see them all together displayed like that... they are so different and unique but they go together so well at the same time..

Faith

I have just looked over your pictures of your work and I can tell you, they are stunning. I am so jealous of your output. Don't tell me the the back is as neat as the front or I shall hide my head. Seriously. these should be seen, well done indeed.

Wow you have done some brilliant work there.Love the Sunday Cricket one,who or what make is J C? .

topbiddy wrote:Don't tell me the the back is as neat as the front or I shall hide my head.

lol... thanks for your kind comments. Of course they never look as nice from the back although I do try to keep it neat. Here is what this one looks like, using the pinhead stitch to start/stop where I couldn't use a loop start. I try not to carry more than a couple of stitches and always run it under existing stitches when I do.

Cockneystitcher wrote:Love the Sunday Cricket one,who or what make is J C? .

Thanks! Yes it is John Clayton - here it is on SewandSo.

Well my head has gone into hiding. Awesome

Wow ,i start with a loop and don't carry my stitches far and it don't look like that...Got a bit carried away with looking at your pics and meant the 2 boys one,bottom left playing golf?..Going off to meet Topbiddy now to hang our heads

Hee hee, thanks. To be fair this design has no backstitch which helps the back look extra neat too, but from now on will always use that pinhead stitch on linen rather than a short tail run under existing stitches which is what I do on Aida.

Cockneystitcher wrote:Got a bit carried away with looking at your pics and meant the 2 boys one,bottom left playing golf?

The golf one is part of a series of 3 by Anchor (I have the other two but not stitched yet). That particular one is called Good Swing on SewAndSo. The other two are Where Did That Go (cheap sale price now, not when I bought it grrr!) and Four

It looks great when done but did have a horrible amount of fractional back stitch on it which being on Aida was nasty to do. Which is why the other two haven't been done just yet!

Since I've been turning this into a show and tell thread, here are a few more of mine that were framed as gifts. These I gave to my Mum back in Aus which she hangs in her lounge. I have also given her the third in the Michael Powell series called Pots Of Flowers which she has similarly framed but I don't have a photo of it yet.




This one is part of a series of four, I haven't stitched the other three seasons as yet.

Your stitching is just STUNNING and you should be very proud of it