Therapy by Thread

A Rash Confession

2012-01-27T22:41:00.000-06:00

Part 9 of The Great Escape, came out today, and I actually got it done!

Next up will be all the background detail.

The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee, DMC 317, 318, 413, 414, 415
This week's stitch is the Queen Stitch. And I do confess, I don't understand why so many stitchers have trouble with it. I found it easy. Of course, these Queens are tiny at four vertical stitches, so maybe the bigger ones are difficult? *hides from the irate mob*

Creative Juices Stagnated

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-06:00

Two weeks worth of

.
Last week was the feather stitch. This one's really a linear stitch, and I couldn't think of any way to make it a standalone. I was also convinced that I'd stitched it before so I went straight for the variations, but now I think maybe I haven't...

This week was the Cretan stitch, for which I have done a variation but not the original. This one's somewhat uncreative because I couldn't figure out how to do it in a circle.

28ct Golden Honey Cashel, Dinky Dyes Aquamarine
I've also realized that I'm much better at following a chart and making tiny modifications than doing something like this from scratch, because I worry about things like "Is this enough stitches?", "Does this look balanced?", "Am I leaving too much space?" etc. And then I remember that I do this for fun and that this is essentially a giant doodle. I have gained an even deeper respect for designers.

Leaving Out The Middleman

2012-01-23T21:32:00.002-06:00

It's the new moon! It's the

I don't think I've ever shared a picture of what I do with my orts at the end of the year. The one on the left is from 2010 and the right is last year.

This year I'm skipping the vase in the middle and going straight to the ornament. And for a change from last year's Beige Carpet Boredom I'm going to go with Finishes From The Drawers for background.

This month features olives and oranges from Adriana B, blues and greens from Lily and white from when I accidentally made a knotted mess and couldn't be bothered to untangle it.

Oh, and that's Mirabilia's Bluebeard's Princess as this month's FFTD.

Edited to add: I got the clear ornaments from Michaels just after Christmas.

Productive Hermitting

2012-01-22T22:49:00.000-06:00

I spent part of the weekend finished the next part of Adriana B. I spent the rest of the time lazing around the house. All in all, it was a lovely weekend XD.

Adriana B
18ct white aida
Adriana B is designed by Aaron Art, stitched with the Sticklounge group, for the first International Stitch and Hermit Weekend.

Self Delusion

2012-01-21T09:45:00.000-06:00

I've been running behind on the latest part of The Great Escape, and thought the next part would have been out yesterday. So I grabbed my needle, parked myself in front of the computer* and stitched away madly in an attempt to get caught up before the next one came out. The idea being as long as I didn't know it wasn't out it wasn't out. Yes, yes. I know.

The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee, DMC 317, 318, 413, 414, 415
Buttonhole Stitch. Wikipedia informs me that if it's stitched close together it's a buttonhole stitch and if there's space it's a blanket stitch. One of the great stitching mysteries is resolved! As far as the stitch goes, I've done it so many times I could go so far as to say that I'm a pro at it.

Unrelated news item #1: I've been horrible, just horrible about leaving comments. I mark the posts I plan to comment on, and a few days later realize that there are too many, clear all the posts, and then rinse and repeat. I've still gawking at everyone's work, but mostly I've been stitching. So I hope apologies in the way of frequent stitchy pictures will be acceptable. *stares with puppy-dog eyes*

#2: Thanks for the inquiries about the missing floss, but I have to head to the LNS because I've run out of the Kreinik for Lily of the Valley, so I'll just grab it them. 'Sides which, it would take atleast 3 weeks for it to arrive by mail!

#3: Three weeks and I've fallen off the no-new-stash wagon. But what a way to go! As a PSA I would like to point out that Zinio makes the magazine available at just under CAD$6. Since Joan Elliot charts retail at about $14, this is a clear steal. The other charts in the magazine leave me apathetic, but Lady Bird Fairy alone makes it worthwhile. Now all that's left is to curse the fact that I never found this website while the Flower Fairy series was coming out.

*In front of the computer because I'm unwilling to print out a chart every two weeks for a minor change that takes about an hour to stitch.
And for the curious: Part nine isn't out yet.

Splotch of Blue

2012-01-19T06:55:00.000-06:00

My New Year's start is crawling along. This is a 2012 freebie SAL by Heaven and Earth Designs. I'm stitching it on 28 ct over one, with half crosses in two threads. I'm missing one colour (which seems to be everywhere), and Michaels hasn't had it for the past month. I may have to break down and pay double price at the LNS.
SK Blue Moon
28ct Waterlily Linen, 2 over 1 half crosses

Blooming

2012-01-15T22:06:00.000-06:00

The plan for this month was to work on Palm. In typical fashion, I have not touched that. Instead I've continued to work on Lily, who has flowers in her skirt and therefore counts.

Lily of the Valley
32ct Waterlily Jobelan

Old Hat

2012-01-12T06:47:00.002-06:00

I'm a day behind on TAST and plan on being so. I like to see what others have done (and there is some gorgeous work) before I try my hand at the stitches.

Buttonhole/blanket stitch. I've stitched this endlessly for hardanger and went straight to the variations this time. I'm in love with the right flower and I have no idea what that weird square thing is, but now I have space for some fancy standalone stitch...

28ct Golden Honey Cashel, Dinky Dyes Aquamarine
I spent about two minutes wondering if I should be doing more of these stitches (some people are doing entire samplers per stitch), but then I thought unprintable words and decided that it's my random sampler.

On that note can anyone come up with a good name for this? I belong to the Leonard of Quirm School of Naming. I also tried labeling the stitches. Should I continue with that or skip the words and leave only the stitches?

Leonard of Quirm, for those of you who haven't read Sir Terry Pratchett (and why not?) is the fantasy equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci from the Discworld series. He's known for making incredible inventions and giving them horrible names. My personal favourite is The-Going-Under-The-Water-Safely-Device for a submarine.

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty

2012-01-11T07:15:00.000-06:00

So after all the enthusiasm for Lily and the interest in seeing more of her, I feel slightly guilty at this next one. But only slightly.

This is a SAL offered by the Sticklounge group. It's in 6 parts and the last one was just sent out. It's one of those finish a part before you get the next types, so I spent the weekend stitching madly to try and figure out if I could get it done before the deadline for when parts stopped going out.

Part 1 took 11 hours. I don't think I need to worry too much.

Adriana
18ct white aida
This utterly lovely piece is by Nolda van Hezewijk of Aaron Art. I was completely suckerd in by the colours. A shout-out to Kielrain who's the enabler for this one.
And yes, this is a Loophole Exploitation.

The End Is Not Nigh

2012-01-09T06:46:00.000-06:00

I started this sometime last year, October maybe?. I had a mad yen to work on her over the new yearand since she's a pre-existing WIP, she counts as fair game for the WIPocalypse.

Took her all the way to this, before I switched to something else for the weekend.
Lily of the Valley
32ct Waterlily Jobelan
I plan on stitching her without the wings, and have to figure out how to change a pale blonde to a tanned brunette..

I Must Be Strong

2012-01-06T11:46:00.000-06:00

A while back Kim was giving away some stash to a good home, and when I saw Tradewinds and Heartfelt Chatelaine I pretty much threw myself at the keyboard to hammer out a message.

Imagine my surprise to find that she'd also thrown in English Cottage Sampler and Father Winter. More TWs for my stash!

And you know what I else I realized as I was pawing at everything? Tradewinds is a kit. Meaning the Loophole Exception applied to it too...

Why does the universe tempt me so!

And So Begins Loophole Exploitation

2012-01-05T21:55:00.000-06:00

5 days in and I'm already using my loophole in permissible starts. Remember that bit about new starts as long as I have the fabric and floss?

I've decided to participate in Take-A-Stitch-Tuesday hosted by Sharon of Pintangle. More info here.

28ct Golden Honey Cashel, Dinky Dyes Aquamarine
This week's stitch is the Fly Stitch, which I've done several times, so I played around with it a bit: various sizes, upside down, but my favourite is actually the square.

Like the Real World

2012-01-04T22:05:00.000-06:00

This part of the Great Escape featured the Wheat-Ear Stitch, which went on and on and on. Just like the wheat fields in Manitoba that go on and on and on for miles as you drive by.*

The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee, DMC 317, 318, 413, 414
I found the Wheat-Ear Stitch very easy, but there are a billion of them in the wings, and I was sick by the twelfth one.

*Full confession: I've never seen fields of ripened wheat. I only seem to go to rural Manitoba in the winter, when all you can see is miles of bare flat land. I'm just extrapolating the miles of wheat.

Ominous Signs

2012-01-01T20:13:00.000-06:00

16 hours in and I really hope the rest of the year isn't going to be like this!

First a look at last year's goals... Let's just say I missed every single one and leave it at that!
1. Work at least 100 hours on Ganesha (He didn't get a stitch last year)
2. Finish at least 10 of my carry-over WIPs
3. End the year with less WIPs than I started
4. Make one (themed?) pinkeep a month
5. Finish Sleepy Hollow so I can wrap up that contest (I haven't forgotten, just...not feeling Halloween)

So let's make this year's overall goals somewhat more achievable, shall we?
1. Finish Ganesh
2. Sort my life out to where I want it to be

As stated this is my list of permissible new starts. Of course, anything that I have the chart, 90% of the floss and a suitable piece of fabric is fair game. Hey, I have to keep my options open;P

Celtic Autumn     Sweeping Cobwebs     Misaki     Japanese Octagon Box     
Here Comes Treble     First Bass     Egyptian Sampler     Deco Spirits     
Cirque des Trianlges     Cirque des Carreaux     Cinderella     Blue Moon

And my New Year's start was from the list. Yay I've stuck to it!

Blue Moon
28ct Waterlily linen, half stitches in 2 strands
15 minutes in I went to snip some thread and realized that I'd been stitching with the wrong colour. 334 instead of 333. A feeble attempt to fudge failed when I realized that the later is a pale blue while the former is a vivid purple! Frog and restitch and one hour later I finish the 333 only to realize that I somehow don't have the next colour. And since I already highlighted the chart in preparation I'm going to have to wait till work tomorrow to reprint the chart.

It was when I went to note down the hours etc. that I realized that I haven't finished my last two New Years starts. (Legends of Dragons and Spring Queen) Is this yet another sign?

Add in some personal stuff that's making me seriously reevaluate things...

Well, it's a good thing I don't believe in signs and superstition. This year is going to be exactly what I want it to be and nothing is going to stop me!

Fun With Stats

2011-12-31T15:31:00.000-06:00

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.

Year End? Make Plans

2011-12-30T23:11:00.004-06:00

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???

TUSAL December

2011-12-24T22:11:00.000-06:00

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.

Two Horses and A Goat

2011-12-18T18:26:00.000-06:00

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.

Title	Christmyth Unicorn
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 16, 2011
Finish date	December 17, 2011
Total time	3.75 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As 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.

Title	Christmyth Pegasus
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 17, 2011
Finish date	December 18, 2011
Total time	4 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As 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.

Title	Christmyth Satyr
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 18, 2011
Finish date	December 18, 2011
Total time	3 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As 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.

Wreathed in Colour

2011-12-17T09:52:00.000-06:00

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!

Title	Christmyth Fairy
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 10, 2011
Finish date	December 14, 2011
Total time	4 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	DMC 319 instead of 890
	Kreinik 101 instead of 100

Gratitude & Acknowledgement

2011-12-16T10:27:00.000-06:00

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?

Spelt In So Many Ways

2011-12-10T19:33:00.000-06:00

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.

Title	Christmyth Griffon
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 9, 2011
Finish date	December 10, 2011
Total time	4.25 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted

Come On Baby, Light My Fire

2011-12-09T06:40:00.000-06:00

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 ;)

Title	Christmyth Phoenix
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 3, 2011
Finish date	December 9, 2011
Total time	4 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	Kreinik 28 instead of 202. All else as charted

Here Be Dragons

2011-12-03T21:48:00.001-06:00

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.

Title	Christmyth Dragon
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 3, 2011
Finish date	December 3, 2011
Total time	3.25 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted. Backstitch in 310

A Brief Glimpse

2011-12-02T17:01:00.000-06:00

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.

November Achievements & December Goals

2011-12-01T06:08:00.001-06:00

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.

More Feathers

2011-11-26T21:41:00.000-06:00

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.

TUSAL November

2011-11-25T21:19:00.000-06:00

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.

Eye See

2011-11-24T22:17:00.000-06:00

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.

Finish The Set

2011-11-19T21:32:00.002-06:00

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~

Title	Intermediate Whitework Ornament
Designer	TWDesignworks
Start date	November 13, 2011
Finish date	November 19, 2011
Total time	6.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct white lugana
Floss	CC Bandana, WW Lucky, MH 42011

Happier News

2011-11-13T18:41:00.001-06:00

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

Title	Beginner Whitework Ornament
Designer	TWDesignworks
Start date	November 12, 2011
Finish date	November 13, 2011
Total time	5.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct white lugana
Floss	CC Bandana, WW Lucky, MH 42011

Too Exhausted To Be Frustrated

2011-11-11T22:21:00.001-06:00

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.

Better Sit Down For This

2011-11-04T21:46:00.002-05:00

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.

Title	Noel
Designer	Log Cabin Needlework
Start date	November 3, 2011
Finish date	November 4, 2011
Total time	2.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct waterlily jobelan
Floss	CC Bandana, DMC 319, MH 42011

October Achievements & November Goals

2011-10-31T23:09:00.000-05:00

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)

Not Going Crazy

2011-10-30T15:34:00.000-05:00

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...

Out of Season

2011-10-28T06:42:00.000-05:00

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.

Title	Celtic Spring
Designer	Lavender & Lace
Start date	December 26, 2010
Finish date	October 27, 2011
Total time	66 hours
Fabric	32 ct white lugana
Floss	DMC as charted
	Kreinik 26, 28V
	MH 252, 2011, 2055

A Mishmash of Items

2011-10-26T22:47:00.000-05:00

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!

Trouble Ahead?

2011-10-17T11:56:00.000-05:00

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)

The Best Laid Plans

2011-10-15T21:16:00.003-05:00

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?

Title	Shepherd's Purse
Designer	Shepherd's Bush
Start date	October 8, 2011
F hoursdate	October 15, 2011
Total time	16.25 hours
Fabric	28 ct Putty Cashel
Floss	As provided in the kit

Easy

2011-10-07T22:39:00.000-05:00

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...

Toddle On

2011-10-05T21:01:00.001-05:00

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.

An Experiment

2011-10-04T21:52:00.000-05:00

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.

Title	Halloween is a Hoot
Designer	Heart in Hand
Start date	October 2, 2011
F hoursdate	October 2, 2011
Total time	2.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct Laurel linen
Floss	Random DMC from stash
Other notes	Half crosses in two strands over one

Snooze On

2011-10-01T10:21:00.000-05:00

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...

September Achievements & October Goals

2011-09-30T21:40:00.000-05:00

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

TUSAL September

2011-09-27T21:09:00.000-05:00

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.

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

2011-09-25T21:39:00.000-05:00

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:

Title	Tree of Stitches
Designer	Abi Gurden
Start date	August 6, 2011
Finish date	September 25, 2011
Total time	23.5 hours
Fabric	28 ct White Jubilee
Floss	Caron Waterlilies Bermuda Reef, Weeks Dye Works Peony, MH 42010

Rapid Growth

2011-09-23T22:09:00.000-05:00

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...*

It's Not Really A WIP

2011-09-21T21:36:00.001-05:00

The Great Escape is the new SAL from Abi Gurden of The Stitch Specialists.

And since it's only a small part every two weeks (which doesn't really take very long) it's not a proper WIP...

Not really...

Is anyone buying this?

I finished two things so I deserve a reward?

Whatever justification I come up with, the reality is that I've started it. I have dismal luck with ongoing SALs. I lose interest at around the halfway point and then wait for about six months after the end to finish. Maybe I'll have better luck this time.

Initially this was going to be a white owl on a dark background (Hedwig!) However this requires that I have a piece of dark fabric of suitable size that is not earmarked for some other project.

Second option: try to make it look like a sketch, so greys on white.

The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee
Part 1 is the Montenegrin stitch in DMC 317. It's incredibly dense and kinda odd, but still easy. It's much more interesting very close up than afar.

Needles on FIYAH!

2011-09-18T12:07:00.000-05:00

And since I had to use a beading needle the plural (s) applies.

As part of IHSW (which I have been participating in for ages but not promoting. oops) I finished The Sweetheart Tree's Spring Blossoms Biscornu late last night.

I initially put it away because the backstitch was annoying but when I picked it up I was in the zone and just raced through it!

And in what may become a trend, I made changes. The flowers are supposed to be outlined in grey but my attempts came out revolting so no outlining. And the provided beads are tiny. Now I'm all for the 40000 series for anything that has blocks of beads (I'm looking at you, certain Mira charts) but for isolated beads they were just too tiny and disappeared completely. So out came the bead stash and I replaced everything.

And then I couldn't find three of the paillettes so I had to improvise. And finally (whew) instead of using all three colours in the beaded border I used two.

Both sides are the same except the flowers are pink vs white. I actually prefer the white side. I also interfaced the stitching to see if it make a difference during assembly. I don't think it made much of a difference until I was stuffing the biscornu and I couldn't really tell how full it was. I think I may have overstuffed.

Title	Spring Blossoms Biscornu
Designer	The Sweetheart Tree
Start date	July 31, 2011
Finish date	September 17, 2011
Total time	16.75
Fabric	32 ct White Belfast & 32 ct Angel Blush Belfast
Floss	Floss as charted
	MH 2004, 2022, 40479, 42010, 60479

Happiness Is

2011-09-14T22:25:00.000-05:00

Having your mojo come back with a vengeance and driving you to a lovely finish!

I fell for Sapphire when she first came out. I've already mentioned how I don't know anyone with a September birthday and that I don't like the May fairy. But the May birthstone is an emerald and there's enough green in Sapphire that I'm going to claim her as my "May" fairy.

I left off the wings since I don't care for them. I had to very slightly modify her left shoulder to compensate. And I left the vines/trailing frond things until the end and decided that she looks just fine without them.

I didn't like the coverage of the original Kreiniks. The "L" line is kinda thin. So I just dug through my stash and replaced two of them with thicker ones. I didn't have the required orange in any thickness so I randomly grabbed one. In the interest of being ~~cheap~~ frugal, I chose not to buy the Caron Waterlilies. Instead I stared hard at my computer screen trying to figure out what DMC the 175 looks like. It's only there in the cage base. The rest of the cage base is in 930, and the model makes the 175 look a little darker than the 930. So I went with 930+310 as a replacement for 175. (I have no idea how others do this sort of thing, so I thought I'd mention my way).

I was also under the impression that I had all the required beads. This was not so. I had half a pack of the green ones, so I used them for the isolates in the kimono. I also had the same colour in a smaller size, so that ended up in the sleeves. Every other bead was chosen by eyeballing online pictures and my bead stash. I ended up with two purples in the dress, although I don't think it's at all noticeable. I originally went with the ones in the "flowers" which didn't look good in the purple border, so I had to pick a different purple for that. I'm not sure they're any good either, but I don't have any other purples and I am disinclined to head to the LNS.

One of the results of changing the beads and the metallics was that I had issues with the hair. The contrast between the red+purple and the orange+yellow looks fine in the model, but my changes made them too strange. So I ended up switching the purple beads in her headpiece with red ones, and the yellow beads in the orange fronds with orange beads. This left a bunch of purple beads in her hair. I just replaced those with one of the browns from her hair. And I quite like the result. I think there's a slight difference between the original's face and mine, but I like mine, so it's all good!

Title	September's Sapphire Fairy
Designer	Mirabilia
Start date	May 20, 2011
Finish date	September 14, 2011
Total time	61.5 hours
Fabric	32 ct Waterlily Jobelan
Floss	DMC as charted
	DMC 931+310 instead of Caron Waterlilies 175
	Kreinik 026, 003HL, 152V
	MH 252, 2011, 2031, 2033, 3053, 18014, 42031

Head's (Not Quite) Up

2011-09-06T21:31:00.000-05:00

Hey Joysze! Enjoy~

September's Sapphire Fairy
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan

Magic

2011-09-02T21:10:00.000-05:00

My second UFORR arrived home yesterday.

Palm is a Dimensions kit that I started when my stash was not at hand. Big thanks to the ladies who worked on this: arthenice, Theialin, MissStitchy, Rachel, Frog, Rahenna, pds and Measi.

I sent this out:

And the magic of the UFORR returned this:

Palm
14 ct Khaki Aida
Isn't that just incredible? I have a feeling this will feature during the 2012 Wipocalypse.

August Achievements & September Goals

2011-09-01T08:52:00.000-05:00

I usually review goals on the last day of the month. Would you believe that I didn't realize that yesterday was the last day of August?

Goals for August:
1. Finish and send out Denise's winnings. Denise, I'm sorry, but this is just not happening
~~2. Stitch on both UFO RRs.~~ Possibly? I'll be honest, I'm getting confused so let's say yes.
3. Finish Spring Blossoms Biscornu. No.
4. Finish off at least 2 of my in-progress bags. No.

Goals for September:
1. Dye some fabric.
2. Work on Sapphire

Let's try and set goals that have a chance of being achieved.

Not What You Were Expecting

2011-08-29T22:18:00.000-05:00

First off I have to apologize to everyone waiting for Namaste to be coloured in. I started to. I promise. I even filled in one of the purples and got halfway on the other (there are 3 colours per motif) but then I lost interest.

And then Sapphire just said “Hey, how about this kimono hmm?” And I thought “No, not just yet. But let’s get that obi done.” And so she went from this on Saturday morning:

to this tonight:

September's Sapphire Fairy
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan
Now since I still “feel” her I’m going to keep going and possibly get to the kimono, but keeping in mind that I “felt” the purple on Friday night, who wants to make a guess on which piece of stitching my next post will feature?

TUSAL August

2011-08-29T16:56:00.000-05:00

Another new moon. Another picture.

The pretty blue is from Tree of Stitches. And I have no clue where the red perle is from!

Not Appearing In This Post

2011-08-26T20:46:00.000-05:00

are any pictures of Alphabetissimo, Egyptian Sampler, Celtic Autumn, Sweeping Cobwebs or Cirque des Triangle. This is excellent since I've pulled all those out, almost threaded the needle and then put them back. I've got way too many WIPs that are nowhere near finished.

Instead I've successfully finished all the black stitching on Namaste.

Namaste
32ct white Lugana
Now to start filling in the colours...

If You Could See What I Have Done

2011-08-21T21:46:00.000-05:00

This wraps up one of the UFORRs I'm participating in. The other has 2 pieces to go. This is Rahenna's Amaryllis in Bloom by Dimensions.

As it arrived:

As it goes out

I'm not sure how visible it is, but I've done a fair bit of the half crosses in the background.

In odd news my SD reader is acting up. It doesn't register my SD card when I insert it, but the computer will read the card when it's in a camera that's attached to the computer. Weird.

Benefits of Outsourcing

2011-08-19T22:22:00.017-05:00

So I've been showcasing other people's UFORRs for the past year. Today I'll show you the other side while I celebrate the first finish since April! (Are you shocked? I'm appalled by my lack of finishing!)

This was Rose of Sharon when I sent her off: Dress done, arch and flowers not.

Rachel, Theialin, Tali and Kris worked their magic, and returned this:

Isn't she gorgeous? I'm so, so happy that she's done! And the fact that I got to stitch my favourite part and left the not-so-favourite bits to someone else? I'm smirking all the way to the finished drawer.

There are so many greens and pinks in the foliage it isn't funny.

Title	(Red) Rose of Sharon
Designer	Mirabilia
Start date	March 6, 2009
Finish date	She returned on August 17, 2011 so I'm counting that as the finish date
Total time	I put in 121 hours and have no idea how many the ladies put in
Fabric	32 ct Ivory lugana
Floss	Conversion as given here

And now for a lot more pictures of that lovely dress!

Something A Bit Different

2011-08-16T21:58:00.000-05:00

I saw this on a couple of blogs, and since there is a serious dearth of stitchy pictures (forgive me!) I figured I might as well play along. According to the US NPR this is the list of Top 100 Sci-Fi, Fantasy books.

Quite a few of the books that I've read was for high school. And I read a lot of the really old classics as a kid.

Bold – read or listened to the audiobook

Italics – partially read

Underline – want to read

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien – I like the books but I find that I have to work hard to read them. And I must commit sacrilege and admit that I love the movies more.

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card – I haven’t read any of the “Ender” sequels but I have read all but the last “Bean” books

4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert – Only the original

5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin – I’ve read the first 3, and since GRRM takes such a long time between books I haven’t felt like reading and then getting frustrated with the wait.

6. 1984, by George Orwell – Ah, high school…

7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury – Ah, high school…

8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov - I've also read the "4th" book, but none of the other sequels/prequels.

9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley – Ah, high school…

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman – The book is fun and so is the movie. Cary Elwes is gorgeous!

12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan – Gave up after book 9(?) when an hour after finishing I couldn’t remember what had happened. I’m just going to look up spoilers once the last books comes out (has it already come out? The 3^rd part of 3?)

13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell – Ah, high school…

14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore – My brother’s been after me to read this forever. And since we actually have a copy I really have no excuse…

16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov

17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss – I’ve heard good things about this one

19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley - This is such a classic!

21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood – Tried reading this for high school English and then again for Dystopian Fiction at university. Couldn’t finish it. My papers tended to be deal with the other books and say “oh yes, we also see this in THT.

23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King

24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke – I remember reading this and being confused. And then I watched the movie and was still confused. Possibly 12 is not an age to appreciate ACC?

25. The Stand, by Stephen King

26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury

28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman

30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess – For that Dystopian Fiction course. The movie is quite fun too.

31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams

33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey – I’ve actually read most of the original stuff by AM.

34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller

36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne

38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys

39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells

40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings - Some good old-fashioned generic fantasy. I finished the Belgariad, but couldn’t finish the Mallorean since it’s just a repeat of the first.

42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley – I’ve checked this out from the library a dozen times and never gotten past the first 10 pages.

43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson – I adore, adore, adore Warbreaker which is available for free on Sanderson’s website html or pdf (scroll half way down). Elantris is pretty good too. Sanderson writes amazing magical systems. I’m saving Mistborn for when I need a really good pick-me-up.

44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven

45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien – I found LotR a dense read. This was too much.

47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White

48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke – I think I read this during my hardcore sci-fi phase.

50. Contact, by Carl Sagan

51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons

52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

54. World War Z, by Max Brooks – Love, love, love this! I got goosebumps reading it. It makes a very ridiculous premise utterly plausible. The audiobook is good (narrated by tons of excellent narrators including Mark Hamill) but abridged which is infuriating, and I’m still waiting for the fully unabridged version.

55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman

57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett – I’ve read every DiscWorld novel, except the Tiffany Aching ones. Pterry is a god among men.

58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson

59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold – I’ve devoured all of them except Cryoburn and Cetaganda . Cyroburn because I haven’t gotten to it yet and Cetaganda because I keep forgetting to check it out from the library.

60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett – See comment for #57

61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind – The first book is utterly enjoyable. Towards the end I wasn’t enjoying the preachiness. But I finished it, unlike the other epic fantasy of that time #12 WoT.

63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke – Yet another book I’ve checked out of the library a dozen times and haven’t read.

65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist – I hate the narrator for the audio version of this. I may look for a paper version.

67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks

68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard

69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb

70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson – Like Mistborn #43, I’m saving this.

72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne

73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore

74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi

75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson

76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke

77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey – I tried reading this at the wrong time.

78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin

79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire

81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson

82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde – I’ve only read the first book, which I quite enjoyed, but I can’t seem to get into the sequels.

83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks – I recommended this to my brother without having read it myself (I never do this but I couldn’t think of anything else that fit his request that he hadn’t already read), and he’s been reccing it back.

84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart

85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher – OMG I want to build a shrine to Jim and I already worship at his feet. The Dresden Files is excellent stuff too. But if I ever feel like an incredibly long comfort read then I head to this. Plus Kate Reading is an amazing narrator.

87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe

88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn – This, along with the Thrawn Duology, was responsible for my high school worship of the Star Wars Extended Universe. I’ve read most of the EU up to the New Jedi Order. Then I learnt that one of my favourite characters was offed in Legacy of the Force and that was the end reading new SW. The Rogue/Wraith Squadron is pretty fun too.

89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan

90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock

91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury

92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley

93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge

94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov

95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson

96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville

99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony

100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Now I'm really tempted to go back and read some old favs...

Out of Season

2011-08-11T22:37:00.000-05:00

My Tree of Stitches is growing rather slowly, so I thought I'd share a picture of my newest biscornu:

This is The Sweetheart Tree's Spring Blossoms Biscornu. Yes, I started a spring stitch in the middle of summer when everyone is gearing up for fall & Halloween.

I decided to stitch both the top and the bottom at the same time. However I'm finding the leaves annoying. See how I have two colours extruding? Counting just the green cross stitch is impossible and I have to backstitch as I go. I am not a fan of having two colours going at the same time. I suppose I could end and restart everytime but that seems excessive.

In fun news, I received an absolutely wonderful letter from my secret penpal (organized by the ever impressive Parsley).

Tree of Fantasy

2011-08-07T21:58:00.000-05:00

When I first saw pictures of Tree of Stitches I thought it was a pretty neat design. And then I had a vision of it in Caron Waterlilies Umbria (#204 here) on muddy green for a Halloween tree and I knew, just knew that it had to happen.

Unfortunately Umbria melts into only green fabric I have in stock completely. So I went in a completely different direction.

The trunk is in Weeks Dye Works Peony and the foliage in Caron Waterlilies Bermuda Reef which is a lovely green/blue. I haven't quite decided what colour the owl and rabbit are going to be, but I'm sure it'll be something unnatural and cartoonish.

Tree of Stitches
28ct white Jubilee, Caron Waterlilies Bermuda Reef, Weeks Dye Works Peony
Since I'm in the mood to do so I'm going to review each part.

After the cross stitch trunk and branch the first stitch was the Leviathan Stitch (aka Smyrna but I like the word leviathan more), which I've done a couple of times and is rather fun. The next was French Knots (Colonial Knots were an alternative, but I went with French). I found following the chart for the placement difficult so I just winged it to look like the diagram. (This would come back to bite me late). While I'm not going to rush out to stitch something entirely in French Knots, I've definitely gotten more comfortable and I don't think I'll be avoiding it anymore.

Next is eyelet stitches. I did this one with one strand and having done tons for hardanger this wasn't any issue. The next was Rice stitch and while I had no problems with the stitch I have to confess that I just don't like it. Not sure why. About five seconds after the last rice stitch I realized that I have extra space between the french knots and rice stitches. The model has no such space. I might go back and add in a few eyelets but I'm going to hold off until the whole tree is done. If it looks lopsided then I will add something, if not why bother?

Tree of Stitches is by Abi Gurden. It's still available over at the Yahoo Group Stitch Specialists. It'll be up until September which is when the next SAL (an owl) begins.

Wonderous Wings

2011-08-06T22:08:00.001-05:00

Continuing the trend of UFORR stitching (it's been two months since I posted a picture of my own work. Are you shocked? I'm flabbergasted), this is Theialin's Butterfly at Night. What information I can find is conflicting, but it appears to have been designed by Maria van Scharrenburg for Lanarte. While it's not on their website anymore it does appear to be available as either a kit or as a leaflet along with its sister design.

As it arrived:

As it goes out

I love those wings. The translucent part where the moon shines is achieved by full crosses with one strand. While the darker outsides are two strands. You can hardly tell that some of those translucent colours are the same as the ones in the larger area!

This takes care of the postal strike backlog. Now I'm back on track with two still with me. However! I'm setting them aside for a bit so I can work on something of my own.

July Achievements & August Goals

2011-07-31T21:57:00.000-05:00

Goals for July:
1. Finish and send out Denise's winnings. Let's just put this off for another month, shall we?
~~2. Stitch on both UFO RRs.~~ Yes, but I want to put some more hours into them.
3. 3. Work on Namaste. Sadly no.

Unplanned things:
Started Spring Blossoms Biscornu by The Sweetheart Tree

Goals for August:
1. Finish and send out Denise's winnings.
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs.
3. Finish Spring Blossoms Biscornu.
4. Finish off at least 2 of my in-progress bags.

Another July TUSAL

2011-07-30T23:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right. July has 2 new moons. There are 13 new moons this year. I was going to read up on why so I could try for a witty joke, but I'd rather get back to my book.

A weird shot resulting from using the flash in the middle of the night.

While I Wait For Perfection

2011-07-25T18:10:00.000-05:00

I'll make do with average.

I am currently working on a new bag*. A really nice green and black one with yoyos and trim. The key word there is working. The outside is done. I just have to make the lining and then assemble it. However I've come to realize that I have issues attaching outer shells to linings. Somehow that's where it all goes wrong.

So while I dither on that, I made this:

This is what happens when you take an old sweater that's too big and cut it up. I think it was supposed to be red, but now it's more of a really faded pink. Not something I want to carry anywhere I'm trying to impress someone, but perfectly fine for when I want to hit the drugstore.

The top of the bag (originally the bottom of the sweater) folds over and widens the bag out, but I probably will keep it unfolded.Since all that pink was boring I tacked on a flower. (Thanks Nima!)

The inside is this yellow/gold that I quite like. Sadly I didn't have much of it so there's only one pocket. This is a bit of an issue since I carry a lot of smallish junk and I like to put them in pockets and this pocket is too small to hold everything.

As a bonus, I finally learnt how to use the fancy stitches on my machine! Woohoo. I remember reading that it's better to stitch stretchy fabric with a zigzag stitch...

There's no closure, since I couldn't figure out what kind I wanted and was too interested in finishing to put it off. I initially hadn't planned on boxing the corners but once finished the bag really needed it, hence the outside. And yes, the flower and the triangles are attached with white thread. I really wanted to take it out today and couldn't find my red thread. That will be fixed eventually.

While I very cunningly remembered the zigzag stitch for stretchy fabric, I seriously underestimated how much the stuff I carry weighs. The result is that the strap stretched out to a ridiculous degree, hence the knot. There's no way I'm undoing anything, but if anyone has any creative suggestions to shorten the strap that'd be appreciated!

*Technically I think I have 4 bags on the go...

Rejoice!

2011-07-24T21:20:00.001-05:00

For I have returned! I have battled demons and monsters and persevered and am back!

This one is Lindsay's Beguiling Tiger. I got a bit of a shock when I received it since (keep up with me here) I'd seen a picture of it the previous stitcher had posted and since it looks so detailed I'd assumed that it was a bigger piece. Not so. It's 5x7 on 18 ct. The second shock was when I realized how tiny the holes looked. Apparently I'd gotten used to the 14 ct of the previous designs...

As it arrived:

As it goes out

Now this isn't anything near how much I usually stitch on a round but I was running horribly late so I just sucked it up and sent it on.

And then I pulled out the next RR and somehow it was "click". I may have a picture by the end of the week...

...

2011-07-18T23:26:00.000-05:00

[Tumbleweed rolls by]

Just In Case

2011-07-07T17:03:00.002-05:00

If there's someone out there who's trying to get a hold of the Joan Elliot Bookazine, pre-orders for the second printing are being taken here.

Pretty bad but clickable pictures of everything in the book:

TUSAL July

2011-07-01T21:54:00.000-05:00

Four posts in three days! Talk about your freak occurrences.

I like this view of the jar. The colours are quite varied.
And that dark blue is from Smoky Mountain Cats.

June Achievements & July Goals

2011-06-30T21:46:00.000-05:00

Goals for June:
1. Stitch, finish and send out Denise's winnings. Stitched but not finished. I blame the postal strike for not forcing the deadline.
~~2. Stitch on both UFO RRs.~~ Done and mailed out.
3. Finish something. Anything! Ahahahahahaha. No.
4. Leave comments (since I don't think I left a single one in May). Can't remember, so we'll say no.

Goals for July:
1. Finish and send out Denise's winnings.
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs.
3. Work on Namaste.

A Clowder of Cats

2011-06-30T11:45:00.000-05:00

Yes, you read that right. A group of cats is properly a clowder. And here I thought nothing could beat a congregation of crocodiles.

This is Measi's Smoky Mountain Cats. I think it's by Sherry Vintson for Pegasus Originals Inc, but it isn't on their website.

As it arrived:

As it goes out

I added the top row of cats. I'm rather ambivalent about this piece. The monochrome blue was fun until it stopped being fun and then I just wanted to randomly stitch one of the cats in red.

On an unrelated note: every now and then I look at all the amazing photos that people stage and think "I should do that. Make it look nice." And then I try for about 3 photos, quit and post whatever looks semi-decent. Hopefully people are here for the stitching (and maybe my brilliant wit) and not for my artistic abilities ;)

Shamble On

2011-06-29T17:13:00.000-05:00

You know those old fashioned zombies? The ones that shuffle along wailing for brains? They move faster than my stitching.

But it turns out that if you stitch a bit every day eventually you ~~reach those brains~~ have progress.

This is Kris' Spring Sampler designed by Sandy Orton for Janlynn.

This isn't as much as I usually stitch on a UFORR, but with my mojo? I'm sobbing tears of pride.

As it arrived:

As it goes out

Tomorrow will be the other UFORR, which had even less progress. sigh

PS. If anyone has been wondering why I haven't been leaving any comments, my commenting-mojo (if there is such a thing) is dead. But if I've ever left you a comment, if you've ever left me a comment, if I'm a Follower then rest assured that I'm visiting, drooling and coveting your stitching! (just not admitting it)

Ghoulish Behaviour

2011-06-17T06:58:00.001-05:00

My other LNS is closing. (If you're in Winnipeg that's Kathryn's Stitching Studio. I think she does mail orders too. Last day June 29).

Everything is 40% off.

This was the first dash through accomplished without a shopping list:

Looking at the charts and my bill, I've come to a realization about why I don't stitch many smalls. I don't think they're worth it. Now before I get lynched let me explain:

See those four Lizzie*Kates? They each cost ~10. And I can probably finish one in less than 5 hours. So that's $2/hr.

See that Mira? That cost ~25. And may take about 85 hours. So about $0.30/hr.

Now what about a Teresa Wentzler? The last one I bought cost ~25. And that will take at least 145 hrs.

See where I'm going with this? I'm more likely to buy and stitch larger charts (even if they stay in my drawers waiting to be framed) because some subconsicous part of me feels that I'm getting more "value for money".

Admittedly HAEDs would be "worth" more on my scale, but I don't think a steady diet of them works for me.

So what about you? Any strange and twisty thoughts influencing what charts you buy/stitch?

Black and White

2011-06-07T21:22:00.000-05:00

There's a slug outside that's moving faster than Namaste, but any progress is good progress. Except for the part where I somehow managed to combine two motifs into an unholy union and had to frog the whole thing...

Namaste
32ct white Lugana

TUSAL June

2011-06-01T22:10:00.001-05:00

Since I was under the impression that the new moon was on the 3rd, I was very very puzzled at the number of TUSAL posts today. A quick check online and it still seemed to be the 3rd (um, no. That was last month). When I realized that it's now June the lightbulb finally gave a feeble flicker.

All that blue is from a UFO RR. And yes, my jar is posed on the Joan Elliot Ultimate Collection Bookazine. It arrived yesterday and I'm still smug about it. A ton of charts, 5 that I'm definitely going to stitch, for the price of 1.5 charts? Oh, yes. I'm so pleased with myself for grabbing it. *smirks and wants to pet a long-haired white cat*

May Achievements & June Goals

2011-05-31T18:25:00.000-05:00

Goals for May:
~~1. Start something new.~~ Yes, Sapphire and Namaste
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs. Well, I stitched a bit on one and not at all on the other

Goals for June:
1. Stitch, finish and send out Denise's winnings.
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs.
3. Finish something. Anything!
4. Leave comments (since I don't think I left a single one in May).

Well, at least I met one goal.

Mission Complete

2011-05-25T17:24:00.000-05:00

We at the Organization would like to congratulate the 28 agents that completed the previous mission. (A special acknowledgment of Agent Jo who submitted her paperwork 2 minutes before the deadline)

TSCESR (The Sub-Committee for Evaluating the Submitted Reports) was unable to reach a consensus on the most suitable candidate for AWMSCTM ("Agent Who Most Successfully Completed The Mission"), and the final decision was determined by TR (The Randomizer).

Agent Denise please contact your HRR (Human Resources Representative) in order to fill out the requisite paperwork in triplicate.

We, the management, wish to congratulate all agents who completed the mission and would like to remind each and every one of you that you are a valuable member of the Organization and that there is no "I" in "TEAM"*

*Note: Management has no comment regarding the fact that there is a "ME" in "TEAM".

Conflict

2011-05-23T22:14:00.000-05:00

I refer to my posts this month where I'm either wailing about the disappearance of my mojo or showing off something new.

I'd make claims about stopping, but today's post featuring my 9 hours of stitching over the last 3 days that make up the May Long Weekend showcase both:
I have a new start
And considering that I've previously stitched ~ 30 hours in 4 days, 9 in 4 is a bit of a fall.

I'm not a September baby. I don't think I know anyone who's one. I don't care for my fairy (May), however I think that Mirabilia's newest fairy makes for a pretty good Emerald May.

She's actually titled September's Sapphire Fairy, but I don't see how that fits since (to me) sapphires are blue (except maybe the obi but that's black-blue not sapphire-blue).

I love that green kimono and the blue-black obi. I'm leaving out the wings and haven't made up my mind about the trailing vines/fronds/things.

September's Sapphire Fairy
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan
Since the green kimono is the main attraction I thought I'd get some of the black-blue out of way first. Imagine my shock when it turns out that one of the major colours is 3371, Nora's favourite brown! Not a colour I was expecting! If you squint at the model you can tell that there's brown, but at first glance? No way!

PS. I'm glad so many people are enjoying my giveaway. And if you haven't entered why not?

A Mission

2011-05-21T20:06:00.003-05:00

As hinted at previously, I present my 200 followers giveaway. And since I'm in a bit of a silly/funny mood it comes with a mission...

Your mission should you choose to accept it:

1). Go online and find a picture of Prairie Schooler's "Sweeping Cobwebs". Alternatively, check your stash!
2). Look at the rightmost frame and pick your favourite of the six motifs
3). Decide whether you prefer a pincushion, pinkeep/scissors holder, or a small bag
4). Let me know in the comments
5). Feel free to tell anyone you think is interested in playing along

This message will be locked on the 25th of May at 4:37 pm Central Time.

Good luck!

Ponderous Ponderings

2011-05-18T20:11:00.000-05:00

Rebekah very generously RAK'd me with "No Late Knight Snacking" a few weeks ago. This is such a cute chart (like all Dragon Dreams) and I can't say enough how much I love this new addition to my stash!

Ages and ages ago Nancy held a giveaway where everyone was a winner. Fast forward to last week(?) where I received these two lovelies in the mail! I just love the one with the birds.

My brief bit of stitching mojo has faded again. This is somewhat worrisome since I have two UFORR pieces that haven't seen a stitch. One's due to go out at the end of the month. That's still two weeks, but the way my stitching's been going?

This hasn't stopped me from planning a few more projects...As of now I have the following fully kitted and ready to start:
Egyptian Sampler - TWDesignworks
Deco Spirits - Mirabilia
Lily of the Valley - Nora Corbett
Cinderella - Mirabilia
Celtic Autumn - Lavender and Lace
Cirque des Triangles - Ink Circles
Cirque des Carreaux - Ink Circles

And when the charts arrive I'll have "Sweeping Cobwebs" by Prairie Schooler and "September's Sapphire Fairy" by Mirabilia ready to go as well.

Anyone up for a SAL? A semi-serious one with a prize for the winner? We can try to mutually inspire each other. Any of the kitted ones (except Celtic Autumn) or if we've got a WIP in common? I need some sort of boot to prod me...

New Things

2011-05-13T21:25:00.000-05:00

On the day that I feel like grabbing a needle and starting something new Blogger goes down. There's some sort of lesson in that.

Namaste
32ct white Lugana
Originally I was planning on stitching this on a linen band so that finishing would be easy. Then I realized that I had to special order in the linen, or that I could just use part of a fat quarter and sew it finished.The quicker way won.

The plan is to stitch all the black first and then finish off motif by motif.

It's About Time

2011-05-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

No, the mojo is still MIA. I'm talking about my last giveaway (that one in January), which I finally assembled and sent out last month.

Add in that Kathy had completely forgotten that she'd won, and my note had gotten buried...

That's actually the first pincushion I've ever made. It's dead easy and I'll definitely be making more.

You can't really tell but the back has a pocket.

Making this was an interesting experience and I'm very glad Kathy likes it (she has a ton more pictures on her blog) and I definitely learned a lot which will be useful, since I see that I have 200 followers.

TUSAL May

2011-05-03T23:05:00.000-05:00

When the mojo is slow and you aren't really looking at any blogs it's just a lucky chance if you remember the New Moon;)

April Achievements & May Goals

2011-04-30T20:29:00.001-05:00

Goals for April:
~~1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings.~~ Done, now if CP would only deliver...
~~2. Stitch on the UFO RR~~ Done.
~~3. Finish Compassion~~ Done.
~~4. Finish Cool Christmas~~ Done.
5. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection Considering I've only finished 1 of 12, maybe this plan isn't working out so well...
~~6. Stitch Butterfly Bellpull~~ Technically I did stitch for about 15 minutes before I scrapped it.

Unplanned things:
1. Undid Butterfly Bellpull since it didn't interest me anymore
2. Started Crimson Cross 2

Goals for May:
1. Start something new.
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs

This month started out very well, and then I lost my blogging/commenting mojo last week. My stitching mojo has slowed down, but it is still alive.

Fewer goals for next month since I'm waffling about exactly what I want to do.

A Way That Works

2011-04-24T22:40:00.000-05:00

Since finishing Something Wicked I've felt like working on just about all my WIPs. So a quick touch-everything rotation may in order.

I started Autumn Winds last February, but didn't get too much done. As it can out:

When I put it away:

Autumn Winds
28ct antique white Lugana
I think the main problem was trying to figure out how to tackle her. I know lots of folks go block by block for HAEDs. I though about doing that but I find that there's always one or two stitches in the next block and the block after and it seems silly not to just finish those off too and within a few symbols I'm wandering all over the place.

But I've come up with a strategy that works:
I pick one 10x10 square.
I pick one symbol.
I highlight every instance of that symbol I think I can reach without making a counting mistake regardless of how many blocks this traverses.
After I've stitched that symbol I colour it in with a different colour highlighter.
Then I go back to my original block and pick another symbol.
Repeat until all the symbols in that block are done.
Then I look for the next block that has an unstitched symbol and go on.

This way I get to wander all over and still finish things off block by block. As of right now I have 4 blocks done, and since there's only so much over one I can do without going crazy it's time for something else.

I think I'm going to grab How Does Your Garden Grow (in the Dark)? and see if I can figure out what blues I want to use...

Wicked Enjoyment

2011-04-21T18:04:00.000-05:00

A brief frustration with symbol confusion drove me away from Spring Queen. Let's just say that the symbol key has an upside down triangle and a right side up triangle and leave it at that.

I switched over to Something Wicked with the vague idea of finishing off the text...and just finished the whole thing.

While I think this spiderweb is adorable, I wonder how a shoe that is being worn can gather it! I guess it's just magic.

I'd like to once more express my love for these cool stripy socks! IRL all my socks are the exact same black one. I bought out every pack in the store. No need to match and it doesn't matter if the laundry monster eats one ;)

In the real world spiders give me a start and while I don't head for the nearest weapon, I prefer to keep my distance. However I adore cartoon spiders and enjoy looking at spiders that are separated from me by glass/cage/etc. I am also very pleased that they have the correct number of limbs!

Title	Something Wicked
Designer	La D Da
Start date	March 19, 2011
Finish date	April 21, 2011
Total time	18.25 hours
Fabric	32 ct Peach Whisper Belfast lugana
Floss	I used the provided DMC conversion

How Things Change

2011-04-17T21:47:00.000-05:00

First off let me just say that I am shocked, shocked that it's already the third weekend of the fourth month of the year! Seems like it was Christmas just yesterday.

I initially pulled out Butterfly Bellpull since I was planning on finishing it this month, but two hours of struggling with the too-stiff fabric and the realization that I can live without this design later, I frogged the whole thing. This is a momentous occasion since this is the first piece that I've started and then unstarted. Previously I just hoarded everything by saying "The right time will come". Perhaps there is hope for me yet!

I decided to put a few stitches into Spring Queen...which turned into several hours with her. For some unknown reason I really feel like working on her so the plan is to keep on going.

Spring Queen
32 ct White Lugana
In what can only be the universe's absurd sense of humour, we has snowfall yesterday.

Pale Colours

2011-04-13T14:02:00.000-05:00

Another UFO RR piece :)

This is Arthenice's (not sure if she has a blog, I haven't managed to find it...) Angel of Spring by Lavender & Lace.

This was an interesting experience, since before I got it I was really looking forward to it. And then I got it and didn't want to stitch on it. Mostly because I had Apache Wedding Blessing arrive almost the same day and it was so much more colourful.

I struggled with the wings. Even though they have lovely venation from afar, close up it just looks all white, so I kept putting it aside. I eventually buckled down and once I got to the ribbon I didn't want to put it down!

Lesson learned: stitch the colours since I enjoy them a lot more!

Other lesson: The L&L angels are not for me. Way too pale. Admittedly only Grace and Hope were vaguely on the list, but since they're mostly white they're departing said list.

As it arrived:

As it goes out:

Questions for More Experience Hands

2011-04-12T14:44:00.001-05:00

Having spent a great deal of time coveting round pincushions I decided that since the universe had not mysteriously gifted me with one, I should make it myself. Despite never having seen one in real life I read some tutorials, looked at some pictures and went ahead.

The result is somewhat dubious and raises some questions I'm hoping someone out there can answer:

1. How do I get the seam to be the same size? I'm having trouble since it's not a straight line but a curve.

2. How do I get the arc of the circle to be smoother? So that it actually looks round instead of having bits that stick out?

3. Is there any way to get rid of those puckers or do all round pincushions have them?

Any other tips to make it look better?

I've already learnt that I need a much longer piece of thread to wind around if I want the pincushion to be divided into sixths.

Overthinking Things

2011-04-10T16:27:00.000-05:00

This is one design I knew I had to stitch as soon as I saw it making the rounds last year. Cool Christmas, found in the 2010 JCS Christmas preview. I'd never heard of the designer, Fresh Thread Studios before and they don't seem to have a home page, just a Facebook one...

I really like the non-traditional colours of this piece. But part of the overthinking is the realization that that sun is too big! There is no way a sun shining from behind a tree can be that big.

And those are some massive presents, specially the skinny ones since they're half the size of a tree. (Or the tree is really tiny, but when you take into consideration the size of the sun...)

But it still adds up to a cute finish.

Title	Cool Christmas
Designer	Fresh Threads Studio
Start date	March 27, 2011
Finish date	April 10, 2011
Total time	9 hours
Fabric	32 ct White lugana
Floss	DMC as charted, except for 3848 in place of 3812

Are Those Canadian Geese?

2011-04-06T23:22:00.000-05:00

First installment of yet another UFO RR.

This is Measi's Apache Wedding Blessing designed by Sandy Orton for Janlynn.

The repetition of the border was very soothing and the changes in the feathers/stones wasn't too bad. I did my standard hours on it and finished a ton more than I ever imagined!

As it arrived:

As it goes out

TUSAL April

2011-04-03T22:21:00.000-05:00

Ack, I almost forgot. And after a day filled with TUSAL posts too!

Red Dragon

2011-04-02T20:40:00.000-05:00

So I eventually solved my mini slump with most of the suggestions offered. I took a short break. I bought some stash. I started two smalls.

I just finished off Dragon Dreams' newest freebie Compassion. I think I'll also stitch up Hope and hang them together.

As always, before backstitching:

And after:

Title	Compassion
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	March 28, 2011
Finish date	April 2, 2011
Total time	10.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct White lugana
Floss	As charted, except that I switched the Kreinik to #28

March Achievements & April Goals

2011-03-31T22:01:00.000-05:00

Goals for March:
1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings!!! Soon, Kathy. I promise.
2. Stitch on the UFO RR About 2 hours each.
3. Finish Celtic Spring No. Issues with deciding the purple metallic
4. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection No for the second month in a row. This themed pinkeep plan isn't doing too well.
~~5. Stitch on The Runekeeper Saga~~ Finished it too!

Unplanned things:
1. Started Something Wicked
2. Started Cool Christmas
3. Started Compassion

Goals for April:
1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings.
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs
3. Finish Compassion
4. Finish Cool Christmas
5. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection
6. Stitch Butterfly Bellpull

The start of March was excellent, what with Runekeeper Saga being finished, but I lost my steam towards the end. I think it's because I can't find a good audiobook... In April I will be between jobs, so tons of time (most of which will go towards finishing up a bunch of online classes) but there should be lots of time to stitch. Crossed fingers...

BORED!

2011-03-26T13:20:00.000-05:00

SO BORED!!!

I haven't felt like stitching a thing this week. Spring Queen is beige, I can't figure out what purple I want for Celtic Spring, there's too much black in Something Wicked, Why Hoard Gold? has Marlitt threads, the blue and grey from How Does Your Garden Grow (In The Dark)? look the same, Autumn Winds is over 1, etc etc!

So I dragged out my charts and stared at them all. Then I threw them all back in the drawer.

So I thought I'd start something new (again). But nothing I had kitted appealed to me. I don't want to start Celtic Autumn since I haven't finished Spring. I don't want to start another Mirabilia. I really don't want to start a Teresa Wenztler. I don't have any small pieces of leftover fabric suitable for a small. I don't want to cut into any of my larger pieces of fabric in case I find a larger design that might fit onto them.

Maybe I'll go to the store and kit something else up and not start that either.

Macbeth IV, i, 45-46

2011-03-20T21:35:00.000-05:00

Since I was good and finished off two semi-old WIPs, I celebrated by starting something new for the International Hermit & Stitch Weekend. (Admittedly most of my weekends are IH&SWs...)

It's been quite a while since I studied Shakespeare, and I've always enjoyed his comedies more. But when I saw Something Wicked by La-D-Da, I knew I had to stitch it.

Something Wicked
32 ct Peach Whisper Belfast
Note the green striped socks! Such a nice touch!

Only One Of Its Kind

2011-03-17T18:28:00.000-05:00

for me anyway. I speak of the 15-sided biscornu.

Last August I started a freebie 15 sided blackwork biscornu. This was to be my travel project, but after 9 squares the weather grew too cold and it disappeared into the drawer. I finally finished off all the blackwork and then had to tackle the actual finishing.

Excellent assembly photos here and here. However even with these instructions I had a devil of a time.

Not sure if you can tell but the part where 5 sides connect doesn't come to a point, but a hole. I just can't seem to tighten it up. And let's not get into post-stuffing joining bit. And the fuzzy white bits!

It's cute as anything, but way too much work. This is going to be my one and only 15 sided biscornu. (Which takes the Just Nan 15 sided ones out of my future. And let's not get into their even more complicated looking pretties!)

Title	Not sure. I just call it the 15 sided Blackwork Biscornu.
Designer	Stitch-Creations
Start date	August 30, 2010
Finish date	March 16, 2011
Total time	Unknown since I didn't time myself on the bus
Fabric	18 ct Black Aida
Floss	DMC Blanc

Epilogue

2011-03-13T17:44:00.005-05:00

I'll admit it: I read a ton of fantasy. From Tolkien to the Dragonlance series, to The Wheel of Time, to The Sword of Truth to Songs of Fire and Ice to ... well you get the picture.

I'm a sucker for traditional stories of knights in shining armour and pointy eared elves.

And I've always, always had a soft spot for the Big Bad. I think it's the vast amount of power and arrogance.

The whole package is just a wonderful escape from reality.

And the before backstitch picture?

I did something a bit different with this design: I tried to stitch colour by colour. (Tried, since I'd occasionally miss a few stitches and had to go back.) But on the whole I was rather successful. So enjoy the show about adding one colour can sometimes make a big difference and sometimes can barely be visible.

Title	The Runekeeper Saga
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	June 10, 2010
Finish date	March 13, 2011
Total time	80.5 hours
Fabric	28 ct White lugana
Floss	As charted
Changes	All the squares now have the same border

Secretive Progress

2011-03-11T17:56:00.000-06:00

It's been six months since I posted a picture of The Runekeeper Saga, and according to that post, I had a few stitches done.

Today I present everything but the backstitch:

The Rune Keeper Saga
28 ct Antique White LuganaI will confess that I took photos after every colour (except when I had to go back because I missed a couple of stitches) but never posted them. And I really have no explanation. I ... just didn't.

Since I've been on a roll, I'm going to stick with this, so hang around for 12 (hopefully) days showing the awesome power of backstitch!

Trial Run

2011-03-07T15:21:00.001-06:00

I record my fabric, hours etc in an old journal. Said journal was purchased at the Dollar Store and had a hideous faux-leather cover which I trashed as soon as I bought it. It then stayed as a hideous cardboard covered thing. Until today!

I've always planned on getting a decent cover for it, but haven' been looking very hard for the perfect cross stitch design. Today I decided to see if I can actually make a fabric cover properly before I try it out on the still-theoretical cross stitch.

I used this tutorial, since it seemed pretty straight forward (and it was dead easy!) Even though this was a trial run I didn't want it to be boring, so I drew some random swirls and stitching a whole bunch of flowers I found in the bargain bin. It very simple but I am well pleased with myself!

Edited to add that I in no way made those flowers. While I'd love to do so they're way too complicated for me and at $0.66 for all of them, they were dirt cheap.
PS. Please ignore the absolutely filthy windowsill, window etc.

TUSAL March

2011-03-04T19:54:00.000-06:00

Finals are done, my classes for the next 6 weeks are all online, and work hours will be much less for March. All this adds up to a lot more stitching and therefore a lot more in the jar next month.

The purple and yellow are from Celtic Spring.
That bit of green is from The Runekeeper Saga which reminds me that I have not shared a picture of it in ages! If next week ends up being as stitchy as I hope then I should have all the crosses done. Of course this leaves the insane amount of backstitching...