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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Fun With Stats

Yes, It's the Year End Post of Epic Statistics!

Starting with a look at Goals for December:
1. Finish something. Oh yeah!
2. Make big plans for next year. Yep, see yesterday.

A quick look at everything I stitched this year:

Not shown are two that haven't been sent out yet. (oops)

And what I still have left:

And a look at numbers:
Total finishes: 29. One up from last year
New starts: 32!!!
Pieces started and finished in 2011: 24
WIPs at the start of the year: 15
WIPs at the end of the year: 17. Two up from last year
WIPs that didn't see a single stitch last year: 4
Oldest WIPs: 2 from 2009
Pieces completely frogged: 1

Fastest finish: A three way tie! Halloween is a Hoot, Noel and one of the can't-show pieces all took 2.75 hours
Most time consuming piece: Runekeeper Saga at 80.5 hours. I'm not counting Rose of Sharon (121+) since it was finished off during the UFORR
Pieces that took 10 hours or less: 18
Pieces that took between 10 & 50 hours: 6
Pieces that took between 50 & 100 hours: 3
Pieces for which I did not track numbers: 2
Hours put into UFORRs (approximately): 138.25
Total hours (approximately): 635.5 (That's an almost 24% drop from last year)

So the shocker is the 32 starts last year. I had no idea that I'd started so many. I guess they're like Pringles... Upon reflection I'm not very surprised that my stitching hours are down; I finished school and started full-time work so that cut into a chuck of time.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Year End? Make Plans

I had a very detailed post reviewing the year and making plans for next year and I somehow managed to lose it. Grrr.

Set in stone rules for 2012:
Only new starts from the permissible list (I still have to find out what I have fully kitted. This list will probably be up by Sunday).
Excepting DMC, no new stash. None whatsoever.

First up is the WIPocalypse: I will consider this a success if and only if I finish Ganesh. However I will be stitching on several of my WIPs/new starts as they fit in with

Pretty much the monthly plan. The preponderance of Ganesh is because I really need to finish him.

September is blank because I can't think of any smalls and December is a freebie~

Now I need to go dig up some finishes and take pictures, since I'm pretty sure I have a couple more than what I have here.

And OMG isn't that Theme-a-licious banner adorable???

Saturday, December 24, 2011

TUSAL December

Last TUSAL of the year. I can't believe that I've been doing this for two years now!


It doesn't look much different from last month. Probably because the smalls haven't been generating very many orts.

Sign-ups for next year are here.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Two Horses and A Goat

First off I have to beg forgiveness for the ginormous close-ups. It's either this or a look at how close I'm positioning these. (The answer to that is too close!) Now onto the horses and goat.

Unicorn: a horse with a horn. Favourite of the medieval era.

TitleChristmyth Unicorn
DesignerDragon Dreams
Start date December 16, 2011
Finish dateDecember 17, 2011
Total time3.75 hours
Fabric14 ct white perforated paper
FlossAs charted

Pegasus: originally the white winged horse who accompanied Bellerophon on his adventures and went on to become a constellation. Now used to refer to any winged horse. I left off the meteor(?) since I couldn't figure out how I would go about cutting around it since it's a free floating structure.

TitleChristmyth Pegasus
DesignerDragon Dreams
Start date December 17, 2011
Finish dateDecember 18, 2011
Total time4 hours
Fabric14 ct white perforated paper
FlossAs charted

Satyr: originally the companions of the Greek gods Pan & Dionysus, they became part goat after the Romans absorbed and modified Greek mythos. I left off the free floating musical notes.

TitleChristmyth Satyr
DesignerDragon Dreams
Start date December 18, 2011
Finish dateDecember 18, 2011
Total time3 hours
Fabric14 ct white perforated paper
FlossAs charted

Now it's onto the ones where I don't have all the DMC. The problem is that there's a lot of shading that's causing frustration. Also, I discovered that there are 12 of these, not thirteen. Apparently I need to head back to kindergarten.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Wreathed in Colour

A big thanks to the lovely ladies for yesterday's advice!

I actually finished this a few days ago but the camera wasn't at hand.

I am not looking forward to cutting all these fiddly shapes out!

TitleChristmyth Fairy
DesignerDragon Dreams
Start date December 10, 2011
Finish dateDecember 14, 2011
Total time4 hours
Fabric14 ct white perforated paper
FlossDMC 319 instead of 890
Kreinik 101 instead of 100

Friday, December 16, 2011

Gratitude & Acknowledgement

Lisa (who's currently in Cambodia and posts pictures of that exotic locale) sent me this cute little keychain!

So ages ago I won Barbara's giveaway of this year's JCS Ornament issue. And when it never appeared I figured that CP had eaten it (it happens more often than is acceptable). So I was delightly surprised to spot this in the mail. Now in addition to the Christmyth series I've got a whole bunch of designs in this that I want to stitch!

Which brings me to an important question I've also been meaning to ask the readership. How do you deal with the following situation: you won something; it was mailed out; it never arrived; you aren't asking for a resend (really what kind of greedy-guts are you?); you don't want that person to think you got it and are being rude by not saying thanks. So how do you say: Hey, I know you said you mailed [item] out, and that was awesome of you, but it didn't arrive and I want you to know that I'm not being rude, but I wanted to make sure that you don't think I'm a non-acknowledging person, but in no way am I making some sort of "send me something, since that got lost" demand. So yeah, what's the proper etiquette in this scenario?

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Spelt In So Many Ways

Whether you want to call it a griffin, a griffon, or a gryphon, this half eagle, half lion is still very cute.

Apologies to folks getting a little tired of this series, but I plan on continuing as long as the interest holds. Meaning, similar posts for the foreseeable future.

TitleChristmyth Griffon
DesignerDragon Dreams
Start date December 9, 2011
Finish dateDecember 10, 2011
Total time4.25 hours
Fabric14 ct white perforated paper
FlossAs charted

Friday, December 9, 2011

Come On Baby, Light My Fire

I did all the cross stitching on Sunday. Then it took me almost a week to do the backstitch. I blame the winter, which results in a cold house (regardless of the furnace), which results in a cold stitching spot and cold fingers. I'm been trying to hold off on using the portable heater already (only -20s now, I want to wait until it gets to -30), but I think it's time I just went ahead and used it.


I couldn't figure out what was making this Christmassy when I looked at the chart. Some of the others are obvious (carols, stocking etc). Even after I stitched it up I couldn't figure out what a giant gem had to do with Christmas. In fact, this post was actually asking about it. But I just realized that the phoenix is carrying a star! Better late than never ;)

TitleChristmyth Phoenix
DesignerDragon Dreams
Start date December 3, 2011
Finish dateDecember 9, 2011
Total time4 hours
Fabric14 ct white perforated paper
FlossKreinik 28 instead of 202. All else as charted

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Here Be Dragons

One Christmyth Dragon, actually. One in a series of thirteen freebies by Dragon Dreams.


I can tell that the dragon is twisting around and carrying mistletoe, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how it's twisting.

The Kreinik coverage is atrocious but I don't feel like frogging it and stitching in two strands, so it will have to suffice. This is my first time with perforated paper and other than being awkward to hold, I have no issues. I probably will be a wreck when it comes to cutting, specially since this is such an irregular shapes, but that's for much later.

Now I'm off to work on the phoenix.

TitleChristmyth Dragon
DesignerDragon Dreams
Start date December 3, 2011
Finish dateDecember 3, 2011
Total time3.25 hours
Fabric14 ct white perforated paper
FlossAs charted. Backstitch in 310

Friday, December 2, 2011

A Brief Glimpse

of the headless horseman.

So I tend to save the backstitch till the very end and then show a before and after picture because I like seeing the difference the backstitch makes. I even did this for Dragon Ride which is a Teresa Wentzler, but that was before I started blogging (or taking pictures). I wasn't too bothered by that. So of course it would be soomething like this that makes me contemplate backstitching as I go!

I think it's the border. It's just repetitive and boring. Upon reflection I should have just left the border without backstitch and just done the horse and man.


Sleepy Hollow
32 ct Thunderstorm

He's now going back into storage since the light at night is too lousy for me to work on such a dark(ish) fabric. Next up is something bright.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

November Achievements & December Goals

Goals for November:
1. Stitch at least two Christmas ornaments Stitched yes. Finished no..
2. Work on Sleepy Hollow Yes, but this one's kinda funny (funny-weird, not funny-haha). I stitched a little here and there, so I didn't post a picture since it didn't seem like there was any progress. Boy was I surprised when I checked the last SH post! Picture tomorrow.

Unplanned things:
1. Started that HAL Angel

Goals for December:
1. Finish something.
2. Make big plans for next year.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

More Feathers

Part 6 of The Great Escape. This wraps up the breast feathers. I believe it's the wings next time.


The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee, DMC 317, 318, 413, 414

The penultimate breast feather is the Oyster stitch. This was... weird. I spent the whole time convinced that I was stitching it absolutely wrong, even though I wasn't. I think it was the multiple wrapping.

The last row is the Breton stitch. This was alright, I guess. It's a very narrow stitch and takes a lot of individual stitches to look good. There are 10 Oysters and about 30 Bretons as a comparison.

Friday, November 25, 2011

TUSAL November

Sign-ups for next year are here.


All that blue is from that Hardanger Angel mess.
And that blob of white is from when I frogged some practice stitches to make way for said angel.

Now I'm off to stitch the next part of The Great Escape.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Eye See

More of The Great Escape.


The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee, DMC 317, 318, 413, 414

Sprat's Head stitch in between the eyes. I've done this once before and it's a pretty easy stitch. I've never done the Jessica stitch before; I just know that Chatelaine stitchers mention it all the time as being not too much fun. Personally I loved it! I think it was the circular symmetry. And the Diamond Eyelet in the middle was old hat. Yawn.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Finish The Set

We have snow that is here to stay and the sun sets before 5 o'clock. I'd say winter is here to stay.

I had a rather slow week, stitching-wise. However I did manage to finish Intermediate Whitework Ornament in the same colourway as Beginner Whitework Ornament.


Lots of new stitches in this one. The centre is the plaited stitch and it's surrounded by diamond eyelets and queen stitches. I know that a lot of people complain about the Queen stitch, but I found it pretty easy.

The innermost red is the three-sided stitch which for some reason has you going over the same leg twice with one strand instead of once with two strands. Presumably there is a deep and meaningful reason behind this, but I can't for the life of me figure it out!

Plait stitch (over 4) bordered by Double Leviathan stitches are next. This was pretty easy too. Then the satin blocks to anchor the drawnwork.

And then I hit a snag. The instructions don't tell you which way to stitch the Hem stitch, and since I've never done it before I had to stop and look up pictures on the internet. And I didn't get back to stitching for a couple of days.

Once I figured that out, it was Rhodes squares in the corner. I left the drawn work until the very end.

The outermost border was supposed to be plait stitch over 2, but I found it too tight and frustrating (even with one strand) so I just quit while I was ahead and stitched regular crosses.

Finally (whew!) the cutting. I accidently cut off once of the vertical threads and had to reinsert one. I think it went pretty well, since you can't tell where the fix is! Otherwise I had no more trouble with this than anything else. I guess all those small hardanger pieces paid off.

And that is my epic working of IWO. In the future I'm more likely to stitch BWO simply because when I finish that I don't have to worry about placing fabric behind drawnwork~

TitleIntermediate Whitework Ornament
DesignerTWDesignworks
Start dateNovember 13, 2011
Finish dateNovember 19, 2011
Total time6.75 hours
Fabric32 ct white lugana
FlossCC Bandana, WW Lucky, MH 42011

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Happier News

After Friday's unhappiness I am pleased to show off a much more successful endeavour. Beginner Whitework Ornament by TWDesignworks.


Now I'm off to try my hand at Intermediate Whitework Ornament

TitleBeginner Whitework Ornament
DesignerTWDesignworks
Start dateNovember 12, 2011
Finish dateNovember 13, 2011
Total time5.75 hours
Fabric32 ct white lugana
FlossCC Bandana, WW Lucky, MH 42011

Friday, November 11, 2011

Too Exhausted To Be Frustrated

I started this angel as part of a HAL and it's just been so frustrating. The instructions say to stitch the outline first. I started too close to the edge so I had to rip out an hour of work.

The second time I managed to squeeze in one side with a margin of ~6 threads. See bottom left.

I finally finished the outline and started the inner part only to realize that it didn't line up with the outline. See the upper right.

Sniping the outline is not an option because I'm running low on the floss, so I have to figure out where the error is and then unstitch. And I can't find the error.

The current plan is to stitch the inside and thereby find the error.

I knew there was a reason to start things in the middle.


Friday, November 4, 2011

Better Sit Down For This

Longtime readers should have figured out by now that I start seasonal stitching as the season in questions ends.

You should all be sitting down since I've finished a Christmas design. In November.

Crazy.


TitleNoel
DesignerLog Cabin Needlework
Start dateNovember 3, 2011
Finish dateNovember 4, 2011
Total time2.75 hours
Fabric32 ct waterlily jobelan
FlossCC Bandana, DMC 319, MH 42011

Monday, October 31, 2011

October Achievements & November Goals

Goals for October:
1. Get the last two UFORRs out. Done.
2. Finish Celtic Spring Done!
3. Start something Halloween. Started and finished Halloween is a Hoot.

Unplanned things:
1. Started and finished Shepherd's Purse

Goals for November:
1. Stitch at least two Christmas ornaments
2. Work on Sleepy Hollow (yes, after Halloween)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Not Going Crazy

Friday night I was all gung-ho to stitch the next part of The Great Escape but it didn't show up. I decided that I was confused about which week it was and mourned my dying memory.

Imagine my surprise when it showed up today! I am vindicated!

Here is an overexposed and atrocious photo in celebration.


The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee, DMC 317, 318, 413, 414

Straight stitch is dead easy. But the counting? There was so much frogging and I'm still not sure if that left eyebrow is in the right place. On the other hand I can always redo once the eyes are stitched in...

Friday, October 28, 2011

Out of Season

Last night I took two hours to finish off Celtic Spring.


I left out the border and letters. I also decided to do the scrollwork in her dress in purple since I think the gold just fades right into the light purple. Admittedly I may have picked a too-dark purple...


I love how shiny her cloak edge is!


What else? My now almost habitual switching of beads. Charted she has 2 purples and 2 golds; I just used once each. And I went with all purple beads in the dress and all gold in the cloak. I think the photos make the purple stand out, but in actuality they blend right in.



TitleCeltic Spring
DesignerLavender & Lace
Start dateDecember 26, 2010
Finish dateOctober 27, 2011
Total time66 hours
Fabric32 ct white lugana
FlossDMC as charted
Kreinik 26, 28V
MH 252, 2011, 2055

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

A Mishmash of Items

Starting off with mail from Kati.

You know how they say that some people can flog a dead horse? My guidance counsellor once told me that I could flog a dead horse and then keep flogging it until it became a skeleton and still keep going. Why bring up this point? Because CP still sucks. This took a week to travel across 3 provinces. And my mail from the US is over a month late. Hilariously the government letter arrived and a duplicate arrived the next day. *Heads back towards that accursed horse*


So after admiring the charts I headed to my stash to see if I had any suitable fabric for Fine China. I was two seconds from pulling open my fabric drawer when I noticed three of my WIPs stare at me accusingly (one very close to a finish). I couldn't handle the guilt. I've managed not to start anything by avoiding my stitching area. This has the unfortunate side effect of preventing me from adding the ~100 beads necessary to finish off Celtic Spring...

Onto the second item on the agenda: this month's TUSAL.


The gold is from Celtic Spring, who as I've mentioned is waiting for beads. And there aren't that many beads either.

Item three is that my letter from my penpal arrived. I'm crafting my response back. (Ok, I've pulled out a piece of paper.)

Final item: I've decided to make some ornaments for Christmas. I'm not sure why since I don't celebrate Christmas and I've never had a tree and I don't plan on having one and I have no idea where to hang them. But I'm going to make them. I've already got Cool Christmas, and I'm thinking that I'll make things easy by picking some quick finishes. This way if this Christmas mania leaves me there's still a chance I'll have finished the designs.

So far I've scrounged up Daffycat's Reindeer Trio, some of Teresa Wentzler's freebies, Log Cabin Needlework's Noel, gazette94's Noel and Dragon Dream's Christmyth series.

Does anyone have any other small could-be-finished-quickly designs? And despite having several "Noel" I'd prefer secular ones. And this sudden desire to have several small finishes has nothing to do with the fact that it's almost November and I have half the number of finishes I had last year!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Trouble Ahead?

I tackled part three of The Great Escape . And since people unanimously demanded biweekly pictures that's what'll happen. Along with my babbling about the stitches :D


The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee, DMC 317, 414

Two completely new stitches this time: Sorbello (third "band") and Cretan Catch (bottom "band"). When I glanced at the instructions I thought that the Sorbello stitch would be more difficult but it turned out to be easier than the Cretan Catch. I think the Sorbello stitch is very pretty. I'll have to remember it for future use. I'm apathetic about Cretan Catch

So I may be about to hit a snag with my grey owl. There aren't that many grey DMCs. I'm aiming for an owl with maybe 4 or 5 greys. That's two up there and I'm not sure there's sufficient contrast. (Admittedly this photo is taken in atrocious light.) I'm going to let it sit until the entire owl is done and hopefully it will look cohesive.

In unrelated news I'm wondering what's going on with my mail. The government swears it sent me a letter two weeks ago and I haven't received it and I'm waiting for some mail from the US that was mailed a month ago! Curse you Canada Post! (I think CP's sloth can be added as a certainty along with Death and Taxes)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

The Best Laid Plans

This post has been in draft mode since the 8th. It got updated every other day but I never took a picture, so I never published the post. I was about to this morning when I realized that I could hold off and just show a finish this evening.


This is Shepherd's Bush's Shepherd's Purse (Talk about lots of apostrophes!). I stitched it as a wallhanging and therefore have flipped two of the bands upside down and moved the letters. I can't decide what to do about the button. In the original it's used to tie the purse closed, but I'm not sure it works for a wallhanging. Any comments/suggestions?


See that band under J-R? Swedish Weaving. I hate that band. And that blue Satin band? It wasn't symmetrical. Very obviously not symmetrical, so I had to frog it. Grr....

Let me take a moment to grumble a little. The threads arrived in one hank. There was Deep Raspberry, Deep Rose, Light Rose, Deep Lavender and Lavender. It took me about 10 minutes in the sun to differentiate the lavenders from the roses. But Deep Raspberry vs Deep Rose? It's a toss up. I just ended up picked one. And then Deep Green and Brown. Not something you'd think I'd have problems with. Except they looked exactly the same to me! I guess I was more irritated because I'd just opened up a Maia kit with had all the colours already in the thread sorter. Really for the cash I'm forking over for a kit is it unreasonable to expect things to come ready to stitch?

And sometimes the instructions referred to purples when it meant lavender. Is it too much to ask for someone to proofread? (Maybe I have an older kit and the newer ones are better?)


Once I started stitching though, all was well. This is a pretty quick piece with crosses and specialty stitches. I think the sheep are kinda weird. Admittedly I've never seen a sheep close up in real life (in a car when I'm driving through deserted countryside, yes) and I don't understand the love the stitching world has for them. Anyone care to enlighten me?

TitleShepherd's Purse
DesignerShepherd's Bush
Start dateOctober 8, 2011
F hoursdateOctober 15, 2011
Total time16.25 hours
Fabric28 ct Putty Cashel
FlossAs provided in the kit

Friday, October 7, 2011

Easy

I just got around to part two of The Great Escape .


The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee

It involves two stitches. The Feather Stitch (middle vertical), which I have done before and is ridiculously easy, and the Basque Stitch (lower right and left), which I have never done before and is also easy!

I got a bit confused because the chart had the feather stitch start in a different place than the instructions, but after squinting at the model I went back and fixed it.

So a quick question: parts come out every two weeks and I plan on stitching them the weekend they come out before the next one comes out. Now should I post pictures every time or should I save them up for one a month? There are 18 parts...

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Toddle On

Rachel's To the Beach (pretty bad picture here since I can't find one online) by Janlynn wraps up the last UFORR.

As it arrived:


As it goes out:


I had a bit of an issue with this one. A few hours in I realized that certain places weren't matching up and then I figured out that a stitch had been off. And I had picked that stitch to start from. Grrrrr.

So to wrap up: Would I do another UFORR? You bet. It's an excellent chance to work on designs I'd never otherwise touch. And sometimes you get sucked into adding to your stash anyway. Plus you can't beat having someone else get you over the block on whatever piece you're stuck on. And there's none of the stress of a trying to come up with a layout like in a themed RR.

Cons? Well, you really have to be able to keep up. The ones I've done have 6 weeks (post takes up some of that time). But if you lose your mojo it just sucks. And you may end up working on something you don't care for. I've been lucky, all the ones I've worked on are interesting in some way. Also depending on how tight finances are the postal costs can add up. If it's a well run RR then the mail will be tracked and depending on where you're mailing to it may get expensive.

So why am I not participating in another one? Have you seen my WIP list? And my next up/short list? I need to get some of my oldies out of the way.

An excellent place to go is the TWRoundRobin board, which runs both UFORRs and themed RRs throughout the year. But think about it several times because it is a serious long-term(ish) commitment.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

An Experiment

I'm thinking of stitching something over one on 32 count. But since I wasn't too sure I decided to try out a small design as a test.


TitleHalloween is a Hoot
DesignerHeart in Hand
Start dateOctober 2, 2011
F hoursdateOctober 2, 2011
Total time2.75 hours
Fabric32 ct Laurel linen
Floss Random DMC from stash
Other notesHalf crosses in two strands over one

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Snooze On

Continuing my work on UFORRs, this is Tali's Sleeping Beauty by Mirabilia.

As it arrived:


As it goes out



She's rather massive and has far more white than you'd suspect from the model. As a rule I tend to pick a colour/area and follow it through. I know some folks like to go page by page. So for her I decided to stop where the working copy cut off (about halfway through the blanket). It didn't work. Apparently I'm incapable of stopping at a page's end, I just have to follow a line of colour and finish it off.

As pretty as she is, this Mira is one that's never called to me. Her sleeping position looks awkward, and I think she looks a bit pregnant (shades of the Perreault version there!). Also my first Disney movie was Sleeping Beauty, so I expect her to be a singing blonde named Aurora.

On the other hand I've never seen Disney's Cinderella, so I'm fine with Mira's version. She's actually on the list...

Friday, September 30, 2011

September Achievements & October Goals

September was very very good to me. Here's hoping that October will be equally or even more awesome!

Goals for September:
1. Dye some fabric. Yes, actually. I just keep forgetting to post a picture.
2. Work on Sapphire. Done and finished!

Unplanned things:
1. Finished Spring Blossom Biscornu
2. Finished Tree of Stitches
3. Started The Great Escape

Goals for October:
1. Get the last two UFORRs out
2. Finish Celtic Spring
3. Start something Halloween

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

TUSAL September

Almost missed today. I can't believe that it's almost the end of the month!


Blue from Tree of Stitches and white from Spring Blossoms Biscornu.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

A Longish Post With Lots of Pictures (And Some Whining)

Exactly what the title says so you may either want to skip my inane ramblings and look at the pictures or grab something to drink ;D

The topic of discussion the last stages of finishing Tree of Stitches and the woes I encountered. So yes, I've finished it! *Dances in relief*


Tree of Stitches
28ct white Jubilee, CW Bermuda Reef, WDW Peony, MH 42010

All new stitches this time:


Fancy cross which is a Herringbone Square over a Leviathan. I love it! It's so pretty and I did it with one strand to make it look a bit more delicate.
Tied Windmill. Another stitch that I like! Abi mentioned that there might be a need to "nudge-and-stitch" to get the middle cross, but I had no such issues.
Leaf stitch. After the last two stitches this was kinda boring but easy. No falling leaves just because.

One look at the overall tree, and I decided that my Jerusalem stitches didn't fit in with the rest since they looked too thin. So frog and redo in two strands and the whole tree looks pretty full.

Now is the bit where I whine. A lot. I knew straight off that Horace the Rabbit and his flower were not making an appearance, but I wasn't too sure about Lester the Owl. So I gave him a try.

Snag 1: I couldn't get a decent Knit Stitch, which is what makes up his body. Several tries and I gave up. Then I dug up my various dictionaries of stitches to try and find a replacement. I tried Ceylon stitch, blanket filling and finally settled on the Triangle stitch.


And yes, he's yellow. I thought it would fit in with the otherworldly theme I was going for.

A step back and I found snag two: My eye kept being drawn to the owl. I've always planned on having the tree being the focus so that wasn't good. I still like the owl. He's just so cute. But sadly he was ruining my plans for this design. So I frogged him and his branch.

Next was trying to randomly fill the space with the surrounding stitches while not making it too crowded. I'm actually very very pleased with what I managed.

And then it was beading. Now I'm rather odd in that I enjoy beading. I find it very soothing, and in a project where the placement is more of a guideline? It was sheer joy. I went with tiny clear beads since I wanted a raindrop effect.


So what's next? I have two packages crawling their way to me. Whichever arrives first will be my next start. Until they arrive I'm off to put hours into a UFORR.

One last look:


TitleTree of Stitches
DesignerAbi Gurden
Start dateAugust 6, 2011
Finish dateSeptember 25, 2011
Total time23.5 hours
Fabric28 ct White Jubilee
Floss Caron Waterlilies Bermuda Reef, Weeks Dye Works Peony, MH 42010

Friday, September 23, 2011

Rapid Growth

Having finished off two WIPs (and started something new) I tentatively have my eyes set on finishing Tree of Stitches (so that I can start two more things).


Tree of Stitches
28ct white Jubilee, Caron Waterlilies Bermuda Reef, Weeks Dye Works Peony

Continuing my stitch by stitch ramblings from last time:


Cushion stitch. I've done this before and I love it. It's such a dimensional stitch. I stitched it with 2 strands to make it extra high.

And then the Jerusalem stitch. This was completely new to me, and I didn't like it. And after the joy of the cushion stitch I just hated it even more. This was where I stalled. Eventually I managed to drag myself to finish it off. At two strands it was too thick and at one it's too thin. Let's chalk this stitch as one I'll be avoiding in the future.


Four new stitches in this picture. Going clockwise starting from below the Jerusalem stitch. There's one called a Floral stitch. It puts me in mind of kloster blocks from hardanger. I was really tempted to add some sort of modified eyelet for the center, but since I was stitching the "petals" in two strands it would have been too thick and I was too lazy to go to the trouble.

Then the Norwich stitch (bottom right). Where has this been all my life? It's such a lovely stitch! I love it! I changed it a tiny bit to look more symmetrical.

Star stitch. This reminded me of the Jerusalem stitch. A "+" bracketed by something else, but I found this much easier going and therefore I like it a lot more.

And ending with a Rhodes square. I've done a fair bit of these before and I love the way they stitch up!

Tree of Stitches is still available over at the Yahoo Group Stitch Specialists. I'm not sure when it'll be taken down but I'm betting pretty soon since The Great Escape has already started running. So if anyone is planning on grabbing it I would suggest hurrying. You can always just hoard it for the future. *glances at Castles in the Air, the 2010 AAN Christmas Tree and others...*