Overthinking Things

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?

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

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

Red Dragon

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

February Achievements & March Goals

Goals for February:
1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings!!! That would be a big fat "No".
2. Stitch on the UFO RR Done and it must go out soon.
3. Finish Masquerade (if I ever get around to Michaels/LNS to get that thread! Woohoo!
4. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection No.
5. Stitch on The Runekeeper Saga Got a fair bit done.

Goals for March:
1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings.
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs
3. Finish Celtic Spring
4. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection
5. Stitch on The Runekeeper Saga

Needs Some Bling

Which has to wait since I have yet to purchase said bling. Here she is with all the DMC stitched.


Celtic Spring
32 ct White Lugana
These flowers have 4 yellows, 3 greens and are missing some beads.



And as for my studying this reading week... well, I'm sure I can pass the courses.

A Castle, Some Greenery and A Rant

The 4th round (I can't believe that it's already half way through) was Theialin's My Lady's Chateau.

It arrived as this:


And I really really wanted to stitch the castle. But I've been stitching all my favourite parts on everyone's UFOs. Admittedly I don't think this is a bad thing, because the idea is to give these UFOs a nice boost. But...am I depriving someone further down the line the chance to stitch a part they have their eye on? Am I over thinking things???


So I stitched the castle and tons of boring greenery to make up for my self-induced guilt. Which leads to the rant:

This is a Dimensions chart, so multi-coloured symbols. That I can deal with. But a "E" next to "E"? and "r" next to "r"? And a light green heart next to a black heart? (There was also a blue heart, but thankfully in a different part of the chart). Aaarghh!!!

Actually, now that I look at it I got a crazy amount done! Maybe I should apply this "guilt" thing to my own works...

A Purple Cloak

Two days of solid stitching later, I'm done the cloak.

Celtic Spring
32 ct White Lugana
I'm debating what to do about the gold. I'm keeping it for the cloak, but I'm not sure I like it for the dress. Since the dress is a paler purple it looks like the gold just fades in (from what I can see of the model and pictures online). So I'm thinking about using a purple metallic in the dress...decisions, decisions.

Any folks who've stitched her have anything to say?

Old Mail and New Mail

Ages ago Christine very generous decided to pass on Midnight by Lavender Wings.


And yesterday the second part of my winning from the Ink Circles SAL arrived. Rachel offered a GC to Anita's Little Stitches which Anita doubled, so toss in a bit more dough and I get this pile in the mail:


I now have all three Cirques. And Dani is to blame for Art Deco Spirits, and Justflo for 12 Days of Christmas. I kinda want to stitch 12 Days for this Christmas, but we'll see how it goes.

In other news I am now officially on Reading Week, a time to study for my exams on Feb 28-Mar 4. Sadly this won't happen since I plan on getting caught up on my stitching and reading (and cram on the last weekend).

A Moon of Milk and Cream

I started with the DMC conversion but switched out most of the colours since they looked far too different from the model. My favourite part:

Title	Masquerade
Designer	Ink Circles
Start date	January 19, 2011
Finish date	February 12, 2011
Total time	38 hours
Fabric	32 ct Pewter lugana
Floss	White, 745, 844, 3053, 3740, 3825, 4230

Blame Andie

Somewhere in my massive (and ever growing and clearly not-to-be-finished-in-this-lifetime) list I had Celtic Spring.

And then Andie posted this last December...

So I went to stash and started it the same day!


Celtic Spring
32 ct White Lugana
I'm only planning on stitching the lady and not the background/text. I plan on stitching her, and this conversion of Autumn. The colours are so vivid and rich. I don't care for Summer and Winter and unless I find a killer conversion they're not on the list.

And that brings my WIP count to 16. I think.

TUSAL February

Unless last month where I was bemoaning my lack of threads, I really wish I didn't have this much this month!


All that yellow is from a marathon frogging session with Spring Queen.

On a cheerful note: Congratulations and be prosperous (or Kung Hay Fat Choy as friend finally trained me to say after a lot of "Say it like I'm saying it" and "But I am saying it just like you!"). Cute bunnies from last year:


Brittercup - Love Bunnies (from the Bunnies Galore leaflet)

Boring Beige Blob

I've been telling myself that I haven't had much progress on my New Year's start. But I realized a while ago that I've actually made a ton of progress. Unfortunately it's all beige and just a blob.

I decided that I had to stitch Mab's counterpart.


Spring Queen
32 ct White Lugana
Winter Queen was the first Mira I ever started and finished. I absolutely adore her! She's Queen Mab to me because I was reading Jim Butcher's Dresden Files about the time I was wrapping her up and it just clicked. I can't honestly call Spring Titania because she hasn't really appeared in the books much.

Initially I hadn't planned on stitching any of the other queens but Spring eventually grew on me. I don't think Summer's pose fits in, and I just dislike Autumn's colours, so they're a guaranteed no-way.

Spring has been flipped so that she and Mab will face each other. The pipe dream is to finish her this year and get them both framed.

January Achievements & February Goals

Goals for January:
1. Start and finish my New Year's Day small Done and done.
2. Start my New Year's Start Yes, but there isn't any progress worth posting
3. Finish Mushroom and turn it into a drawstring bag Done and it's off with the happy owner
4. Start Cirque des Triangle No.
5. Start anything else I feel like since it's Guilt Free January! Woohoo! Masquerade, and I've gotten as far as I can go without that last cursed thread.

Goals for February:
1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings!!!
2. Stitch on the UFO RR
3. Finish Masquerade (if I ever get around to Michaels/LNS to get that thread!
4. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection
5. Stitch on The Runekeeper Saga

To Frog Or Not To Frog

Just a tiny bit more on Masquerade this week.

Masquerade
32 ct Pewter Lugana
But this is my issue: The model moon looks something like that.

Mine is a very clear yellow/white. I'm trying to decide if the contrast is too much and whether I should frog and go for a paler yellow. Any opinions/ideas?

The Winner

So did anyone think I'd forgotten my 150+ Giveaway?

Well, you were half right. I thought it ended tomorrow!

All names were thrown into the Hat of Destiny!!! (lie: I stick with randomizer. I could claim to be eco-conscious, but it's actually sheer laziness) and the winner is
.
.
.
How about a peek at what I'm up to?


Oh, you want to know who the winner is?

That would be Kathy from Kathy's Stitching and Other Comments, who, if you don't know, posts (along with gorgeous stitchery) the most amazing pictures of her dog Rory.

Kathy, drop me a line (and I'll get you winnings out as soon as I finish it, find an envelope, battle my way to the post office...)

Talk About Customer Service!

Ages ago I saw a cute tic-tac-toe Valentine pattern finished, then someone had it few days (and I can't remember either of these stitchers, mea culpa!). An email to the second netted the name: Erica Michael's Hugs and Kisses.

Now this is where it becomes a quest, a tale of excellent customer service and a ridiculous realization.

The quest: I emailed the designer, who didn't have it anymore but suggested a store in Indiana who might have it. So I emailed them.

The customer service: House of Stitches from Indiana had it and sent it to me. Let's recap: I'm in Manitoba, chances that I'm going to Indiana are nil, chances I'll buy anything there are also nil. They send it to me no charge and even threw in a freebie from The Workbasket. If they treat a non-purchasing non-returning customer like this I wonder how they treat their regulars!

And the ridiculous? Turns out that the lady (I can't remember her blog name and am not putting up her real one) who told me the name of the pattern had sent it to me as a jpg. Something I realized five minutes ago when I went to see if I could find her name!

Benefits of Doing Laundry

1. Clean clothes
2. Find lost items (such as memory cards) when you turn out pockets before throwing sweats in the wash.

I'm really enjoying Masquerade. I think it's because I can see the part of it grow (as opposed to my other starts where you really need to get a massive chunk in to see any "picture").


Masquerade
32 ct Pewter Lugana

I love the fact that the moon is actually made of milk and cream which are pouring out of bottles!

Sadly this will be on hiatus in just a little while since I ran out of 844 and don't want to count too far out into space.

A Quick Decision

I participated in an SAL over at Ink Circle Stitchers last year (Cirque des Cercles owes that SAL a big thanks) and part one of my winnings arrived today. (well, probably yesterday but I didn't get to the mailbox until today)

I had the option of picking a chart and it was a no-brainer: I went for Masquerade. I'd thought that the ornament version in JCS was cute, so a full size version? Score!

Of course, about five minutes after I ripped apart the envelope I checked my stash on the off chance, and... well, I went ahead and started it! Definitely the shortest in-hand to start time ever!

The fabric is 32 count Pewter lugana, and I'm going with the DMC conversion.

I have to mention that I love Tracy's charts: they're large-print so it's very easy to see, split over multiple pages which means no wrestling with a a bulky chart and no rips along fold lines and do not have similar symbols that I could mix up in the middle of the night.

Still haven't found the memory card. The picture is courtesy of the internal memory.

You've Got To Be Kidding!

Somewhere after removing my memory card from the computer, putting it in my hoodie pocket, wandering upstairs, throwing my hoodie over a chair, wandering back downstairs, and then back to the hoodie to get the card so that I can put in it the camera...

I lost it.

Seriously?

It's not along the route.

Which means I need to find a shovel and a machete and go exploring in the jungle that is my room.

Wander Around

The third round of the UFO RR was MissStitchy's Enchanting Geisha, who reached my house as this:


And will be leaving as this:


Originally I planned to stitch her hair, but the relentless black drove me away, same with part of the kimono. So I went to the background, got tired of the half stitches and stitched some of the coloured bits in the kimono. Apologies to whoever gets trapped with the black ;)

The colours are very pretty and being Dimensions there's a lot of odd colour/strand number combinations, but the effect looks lovely.

Creature of the Day

Today's post is all about that hippocamp. When Riona had it up as part of her giveaway I threw my name into the hat with fervour (ok, so I throw my name into just about every hat, but still) because it's a limited edition Dragon Dreams and it's so cute! Lucky for me I won, and it arrived a few days ago accompanies by all the other booty.


And before anyone cries foul, hippocampi can be winged or not.

A Little Bit of Fall

Melissa mentioned that she likes fall colours. So I took that theme and went with it. (Which was kinda funny when I realized that she had sent me a fall-themed piece too).

The pattern is a modification from this freebie from Tantes zolder. It ended up as quite the giant biscornu. And I was so tempted to keep that bag. I didn't get much of that fabric and I really wish I had!

Confession Time

I've done very little stitching this month. When you add in the fact that a huge majority are starting something new every day right now, it's just a lousy start to the new year.

Now don't get me wrong, my mojo's just fine and I've got a billion things planned. It's just finding the time...

Part of the confession is that I've got quite a few things to talk about but again, the time.

Let's start off with what Melissa sent me in exchange for a biscornu (picture of that tomorrow):

A very cute Quaker scissors holder. Now if you're thinking that design looks really familiar, it's Tis Green!(I'll have to admit that once I realized that I had my own Tis Green I was more open to the idea of passing mine on).
And this darling stork scissor! This makes my 5th pair of scissors (not counting my pinking shears and regular shears). Nothing compared to some of you hardcore scissor collectors but a lot more than I thought it'd end up with!

Mostly Green

With a touch of red ribbon:
Pictured above are what will become something for my 150+ giveaway.

There is only one requirement:
Leave a comment saying that you'd like to enter.

The fine print:
Deadline is January 24, 2011 11:00 PM Winnipeg time
International entries welcome.

In the Nick of Time

I just managed to stitch the Mushroom bag. A very good thing since my brother flies out tomorrow morning.



The short drawstrings are as per his request. The inside is a barely patterned black. It actually doesn't close since the batting makes it too fat at the top.

A perfect indication about the eye of the beholder: When I gave it to him I gave him a heads up that the top was very wonky and that the opening was a bit of a tight fit and that the top was wonky. He couldn't care less and was too thrilled by fact that it held his DS and was custom made for him.

TUSAL Version 2.0

I checked Google Reader only to see a couple billion TUSAL posts which reminded me that I should dash off to get a picture of mine. The TUSAL has been revived with a vengeance by Daffycat, who explains the requirements better than I ever could.

As a note of interested: this is the ONLY SAL that I keep up with faithfully last year. I still haven't figured out what to do with the orts but this achievement must be documented and preserved!!!

TADA!

Nah. Just kidding. That was my jar as of December 31,2010. All the orts from that year.

This is the sad reality of 3 days of stitching.
Let's see. Red is from Love
Black, green and white from Mushrooms
Yellow from my New Year's Start...

In utterly awesome news I see that I've got 150+ followers! What does this mean? Just about what it always means! A giveaway. As soon as I figure out what...