Bah, Humbug!

Due to various and sundry reasons I'm currently a very crabby, unpleasant, confrontational, and lazy person to be around. Ironically while suffering from all this and making everyone around me suffer even more, I stitched up The Drawn Thread freebie All You Need is Love. Except for the Rhodes stitch (and Satin stitch), I'd never done any of the specialty ones, but the instructions are excellent and it was very easy!



The design calls for Gloriana silks which I've never seen in person, so I went with my trusty DMC. I wanted the hearts in shades of pink but ended up with more reds and purples. My favourite stitch is the Sprat Heart Stitch which is the one in the "V".

Start date: July 22 ,2010
Finish date: July 23, 2010
Fabric: 28 ct white lugana
Total time: 5 hours

My pinkeeps to date:



Edited to id: Bunnicula the Vampire Bunny is a giveaway win from Missy, the squirrel is a gift from a now out of touch friend, the hardanger is from my lazy puttering and the "S" is from the SALexandre hosted by Anne.

TUSAL July

I knew that the new moon was the 11th. Unfortunately moving and camera damage meant that I'd late. Again.


The new red addition is from the Heart Biscornus.

I will be on time for August!

Giveaway~

As promised: To celebrate 100 (now 103) followers, a giveaway.

I've already gushed about this, so I'll spare you the blatherings ;) Now, I know there are a lot of biscornu makers out there, but I also see people who have yet to embrace it for varied reasons. This is for folks who want to increase their collection, folks who want a biscornu without the work ;), folks who just want a stamp from Canada, etc.

Details here, but this is Lenka's Heart Biscornu that I modified the tiniest (ok, a lot). They are both exactly the same, but this way you get to see both sides.


To make this a bit more fun, there will be two winners. The first will win one of the above biscornu & The Sweetheart Tree's "Spring Blossoms" biscornu kit. The kit comes with everything except the stuffing.
The second will get the other biscornu.

Old friends, chronic commenters, silent lurkers, curious newcomers, all and sundry are welcome to enter.

So.

The Facts:
First place winner: Heart biscornu & The Sweetheart Tree's Spring Blossoms kit
Second place winner: Heart biscornu

The Rules:
The following two statements must be present for your entry to count:
I wish to enter (or something to that effect)
I have never stitched a biscornu, but I will soon. OR I have stitch ___ biscornus and my favourite is ____. (Hey, I'm always on the lookout for more patterns)

The Small Print:
You do not have to be a follower to enter. You do not have to blog about this to count (however I would appreciate it~)
I can and will ship anywhere. (Although if you're from somewhere I think is exotic I may beg a postcard in return~)
I will announce the winner here and send an email (if possible). You have a week to respond after which I'll pick someone else.

Deadline:
July 31, 2010. 10:00 PM Winnipeg Time

If you're still here after that wall of text: Good luck and may the Randomizer be on your side!

All Hearts

Turns out my brother had a camera buried in one of his bags... so pictures! Unfortunately it will leave with him in September, so I still have to get a new one.

I went on a biscornu kick and decided to stitch these:



Start date: July 5, 2010
Finish date: July 17, 2010
Fabric: 28 ct black lugana, 28 ct white lugana
Time: 13 hours for all three, from start to finish.

The design is Lenocka's Heart Biscornu which I modified and went overboard with.
I left off the little bits around the hearts since I couldn't figure out what they were.
I made the white side with whole hearts, and the black with broken hearts.

Side 1

Side 2

And since I find this kind of thing funny, one with a black heart!


One guess as to what the plan is regarding two of them.

100

I'll admit it: I've spent the last few weeks checking to see if I hit 100 followers. And I did this afternoon-ish! Squeals of joy and general happiness all around.

No, really. I started looking every morning and evening when I hit 98. And then one disappeared and I moped for a bit. And then it went up again, and then stayed for the longest time. And now it's a 100. Did/does anyone else do this? Check obsessively, I mean.

This will be celebrated with a giveaway. I started something, but moving put a halt to that. As declared last time, the giveaway won't be opened up until it's ready for a stamp, so hang around for a bit more...

In less joyous news, the camera has somehow been damaged in the move. Since I've managed to avoid getting a cellphone this long, there is no device in the house capable of taking a picture.

Exhaustion, Drama & No Stitching.

Well, almost no stitching this week, since we were busy packing up and moving 20 minutes away. Moving day was ok, but unpacking was filled with drama, yelling, screaming, hissy fits, damaged hardwood and sulking. (Why yes, it was the guys).

I did have a morning of just sitting around and when I looked for my WIPs, I realized that I'd packed all my floss. Just my floss. My WIPs were in a basket beside me, my floss was in a sealed cardboard box. So I grabbed the only kit I had and started it. Pictures of Dimension's Palm when I find the camera.

My feet still hurt like crazy and I have to put away my clothes. Possibly there will be more stitching time this week, or I may still be unpacking.

Ciorcail

Now while working on CdC has been fun, I'm getting tired of it. I might do a couple of hours a month, but the Saturday updates are done. A big thanks for all the encouragement! And I'm glad that people have enjoyed seeing it so much.


Cirque des Cercles
32 ct Lemon Whip Lugana, DMC 115
I think that my stitching will be a bit slower. I stitched less than an hour a day this week. During the winter freeze I easily do 3 hours. But the hot summer weather makes me just want to go outside and lie in the sun and read.

Title: Gaelic

June Achievements & July Goals

Goals for June:
1. Finish Bluebeard's Princess Done!
2. Get caught up on the Hardanger Bag SAL No. Got up to part 3, and then put it away.
3. Start Runekeeper Saga Done.
4. Work on whichever piece wins the poll Done. Quite a bit of progress too.
5. And now that I've discovered the poll options, go crazy with the power!!! No. Completely slipped my mind

Other things I did that were unplanned:
1. Started and finished the stitching on The Pink Bag. Now I just need to assemble it.

Goals for July:
1. Stitch Bent Creek's Shamrock Row
2. Finish another part of the Hardanger Bag
3. Finish at least two colours from Runekeeper's Saga
4. Finish Minx's skin
5. Work on Cirque des Cercles, if I can squeeze it in

Cerchio

I had some comments about how this was a piece unforgiving of errors, and I thought "Well, it's not like I make mistakes" and "I'm a careful counter"

Do you see where this is going?


Cirque des Cercles
32 ct Lemon Whip Lugana, DMC 115

The leftmost motif in the uppermost row is in the wrong place. It's should be the next left motif. Not a problem since I'll just switch motifs.
Then I stitched the "fixed" motif one row too low. Frog and redo. One row too high.

Two hours since last week and into the pile.

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. - KJV

Title: Italian

A Fantastical Start

I had a new start. BUT I was good. Sort of. It's one I've been planning for a while, so it was a WIP without stitches, right?

I've only ever seen this finished once, but as a fan how can I not stitch this tribute to all fantasy/RPG cliches?

Dragon Dreams' The Runekeeper Saga:


It's got it all: a Hero, a Wizard, a Princess, the Companions (Bard (although I think he looks more like a Thief), Elf, Knight), a Castle, a Dragon, a Unicorn (Ok, that's a bit uncommon), a Sword, a Crown and of course, the Evil!

I'm going to get the border out of the way first. I was going to stitch block by block and have 12 mini HDs, but I've decided to have some fun instead. I'm going to go by colour. And post a picture after each colour. It'll either be very interesting to see the pictures appear as colours increase, or we'll all get sick of seeing strange blobs!


The Rune Keeper Saga
28 ct Antique White Lugana
And I've made changes. You can't really tell from the model, but the inner borders are different for each motif. Except that you can barely see the light ones. I'm just going with my favourite (Bard's) for all of them.

Kreise

Since I'm going to be posting a picture every week, I can at least try to make the titles more fun. I have passed the halfway point. Woohoo!


Cirque des Cercles
32 ct Lemon Whip Lugana, DMC 115
Title is German for circles. (According to Google anyway. Any Germans out there?)

TUSAL June

With Yoyo (our host) disappearing due to computer issues(?), and me being too lazy to look up the new moon, I just wait for someone to post and then post mine. This is 3 days late:



The pink is from The Pink Bag

(In my defense the new moon in May was the 14th, so I thought it would be around then this month too...)
But July is 11th, and I shall be prompt!

Pink!

I spent most of this week working on The Pink Bag from Dutch Treat Design's Pink Collection. I won the chart from Paulina (who's kinda disappeared...anyone know anything?). She also threw in the required Anne Cloth.


The Pink Bag
18 ct Anne Cloth
It was interesting working on the Anne Cloth. It's 18 ct, but the stitching is over two. The fabric is very soft and distorts if the stitches are pulled too tight. And since my fingers are usually a bit dry, I kept getting caught on the fabric.

The design called for Perle cotton in various colours. But since my Perle collection is black, red, blue and ecru, and I wasn't going to buy them just for this, I used 4 strands of regular DMC floss.

Start date June 1, 2010
Finish date June 12, 2010
Total time 13 hours

Changes:
Where the pink lines cross is supposed to be eyelets, but the ones I did distorted the fabric far too much, so I just did Rice stitches. Rice stitches are new to me, but the instructions were good and the stitch itself is very easy.
I didn't like the called for 502 and used the softer 320.

Front:

Back:

Flap:

I won't be finishing this as a bag. I'm thinking a hussif or something similar pending a suitable finishing fabric.

Samedi de cirques

Kristen and I decided to make Saturday our day for sharing CdC progress. I was good last week, not so much this time.

Eerie Beauty

Now, this is probably just me, but I find that BP's face, that high forehead, her colours, the fabric, all add to give her a slightly eerie feeling. My brother says she looks unearthly. I even had the notion that she could be the wicked sea witch to my more innocent MotDB...


Bluebeard's Princess
32ct Laurel Linen
Start date March 11, 2010
Finish date June 6, 2010
Total time 62 hours

She has an insane amount of bling. I used everything as recommended except I switched out the (too expensive) gold beads for some I had in my stash.

When she first came out, I was bothered by her forehead and the border. I have moved beyond the forehead, but I still dislike the border. Also, my other mermaids are free floaters, so she fits in better by herself.

I think the sea pegasi are cute, and I'd love to stitch them separately some other time.

The votes are in!

And folks want red circles! (except for those who wanted something else LOL).

I give you:


Cirque des Cercles
32 ct Lemon Whip Lugana, DMC 115
I thought I'd been posting more pictures of CdC, but apparently not (I'll do better). This is it as of 10 minutes ago. I worked on the upper right motif today. Getting a mini HD with every motif increases the enjoyment factor.

I try not have a very dark stitch right next to a very light stitch, which is probably unnecessary but makes me happy. Right now that dark patch in the middle of the light red in upper rightmost motif in the house that Jack built is bothering a tiny bit me. The upper left of the motif is dark, and the lower right is light except for that patch. However in the big scheme it's not important, and shall not be tampered with.

Canada Post not at fault!

Way, way, way back in February(!) I had my first giveaway, which Angela informs me has arrived. And while I'd love to blame Canada Post, I can't. They actually delivered in less than a week. I, on the other hand, took way too long.

The tale is a tragicomedy, involving a sudden crazed dislike of the initial backing fabric and finish, a frantic restitching of the piece, a somewhat satisfying finish and a whole lot more angst. But I won't bore you with that.

Angela sent me the most wonderful email and has such a lovely post about it. I've just been smiling all day (and read that email over a dozen times)!

I suppose it's true that we are our own worst critics.

A couple of pictures of what I sent:



I had a lot of fun trying out new stitches for the finish. The initial is in outline stitch.


I've learnt a few things from this:
I should have the entire giveaway ready, and only have to write a note and put the address on the envelope. Otherwise I'd just procrastinate like crazy!

And there's nothing, nothing like finding out that the recipient likes what you made.

May Achievements & June Goals

Goals for May:
1. Finish Weekend in Paris Yes! Now to find a frame. And since she's 5x7 it isn't going to be expensive!
2. Finish the Red Rose of Sharon dress Done.
3. Start a Hardanger bag Done.

Other things I did that were unplanned:
1. Stitched Bunny Ornament, Love Bunnies & Bunnies in a Basket

Goals for June:
1. Finish Bluebeard's Princess
2. Get caught up on the Hardanger Bag SAL
3. Start Runekeeper Saga
4. Work on whichever piece wins the poll
5. And now that I've discovered the poll options, go crazy with the power!!!

Despite working full time it feels like I did a lot of things in May. And I think this is the first time I've hit all my goals.

A new start and a question

I first saw this on Michelle's blog where she's doing two, one in ecru and the other in blue-grey. I've done a few small hardanger pieces but since this didn't look too difficult I decided to join in.

It's a SAL conducted by Mamen (I knew two years of Spanish would come in handy!). It's at part 6 right now. I just finished part two.



I wanted to do it in non-traditional colours. This is black on pale grey-green. The photo is pretty bad, but the thunderstorm isn't great for lighting!

I knew from the start that I wanted it in not-white colours. It was a toss up between red or black floss, and I eventually went with black. The fabric? That's a pretty funny story. I was at my LNS and she had this lovely pink fabric and I was leaning towards that.
LNS: What are you starting with that choice?
Me: A hardanger bag.
LNS: Black on pink fabric? Who is it for?
Me: Me
LNS: Pink fabric?
Me: Yes
LNS: No, that won't work.
Me: Why not? It'll look great!
LNS: Definitely! It'll be gorgeous. But it'll never be used.
Me: ?
LNS: Honey, you're not a pink kind of girl. Can you honestly see yourself carrying a pink bag?
Me: But it'll look gorgeous!!!
LNS: But will you carry it in public?

We decided on a grey-green!

As to the question: I'm having trouble picking something to work on. Bluebeard's Princess is waiting for beads, Elemental Dragons is on semi-permanent hiatus, and the others aren't calling very loudly. So I thought "Why not let others choose?"

There's a poll up by the side. What would you like to see? Either finished or just a lot more stitching? Progress pictures are in the sidebar. Let your voice be heard! Exercise your right to vote!

Rose of Sharon Red Conversion

Since I've had a few people ask and to make life easier for all:

The dress:
746 becomes 666
745 becomes 321
676 becomes 498
729 becomes either 815 or 816
829/680 becomes 814
680 becomes 814/898

The conversion I've stitched is with gold ruffles.
Cream ruffles
3756 becomes 3865
3752 becomes 712
932 becomes 739
931 becomes 738

Gold ruffles
3756 becomes 746
3752 becomes 745
932 becomes 676
931 becomes 729

All credit to Princess on the Mira BB

Mail from across the pond

Cath, over at The Stitchin' Chicken, had a small contest a while back and sent me this very cute pincushion! Cue to me spending the next ten minutes trying to figure out who the designer is and where I'd seen it before (since it looked familiar). After my mental acuity failed I turned to Google which gave the answer in 0.18 seconds.


A Hug Will Do

A shot of the very pretty backing. Why is it that my local stores never have anything like this? Or if they do, why can I never find them?


And it's my very first Lizzie*Kate.

End of May Long

Well, May Long Weekend was productive in the sense that I slept and rested, but not very productive otherwise.

I did finish off Rose of Sharon's gorgeous dress.


Rose of Sharon
32ct Ivory Lugana

May Long begins with a whimper

Background for non-Canadians. Victoria Day is celebrated on the 24th of May or the Monday before it. (Hey what can I say? We're a bit strange that way~). It celebrates both Queen Victoria's and the current reigning monarch's birthday. Elizabeth II's actual birthday is April 21, but the "official" one is May 24th.

It's the only long week-end in May and is called May Long Weekend (self-explanatory), May Long, and May Two-Four (because it's around the 24th and you drink beer that comes in a pack of 24, a "two-four"). It officially begins on Friday at around 4 o'clock or whenever you escape leave work. It's when everyone goes up to their cottages and summer begins.

I had big plans: finish Bluebeard's Princess, finish all the Bunnies, finish my bag, sleep. I started beading BP around when May Long officially started (4-ish). And then I discovered that I hadn't bought one of the beads. So she's paused.


Bluebeard's Princess
32ct Laurel Linen
Some close ups of the beading so far:


The beads are the more expensive Magnifica, which lie very prettily.

Wrapping up the bunny fest

Bunnies in a Basket
28 ct opalescent whitePrevious bunnies here

Designer is Brittercup Designs of the famous cat outlines.

This took the longest and I was sick of the basket by the end. I am wondering if the flower on the left is too close in colour to the heart? I'll have to see how it looks in sunlight. On to something NOT over one.

TUSAL May

Once more, it's a day late.



Tons and tons of red from Cirque des Cercles and Rose of Sharon

1 Bunny, 2 Bunny, 3

As hinted last time I've had a couple of small finishes.

A while ago Pumpkin posted this and they were so cute that I just had to stitch them.

I'm doing the whole lot over one on 28 count opalescent white something with the DMC conversion. A few colour substitutions since I don't have all the colours.

One of these has a mistake. A pretty major one, any eagle eyed spotters?

Bunny Ornament:


Love Bunnies:


And I've just started Bunnies in a Basket.

Now the question of the day is how to finish them? They're all pretty tiny. Bunnies Ornament is going to be a scissors fob, but I'm undecided on the other two. I'm thinking a needlebook and a pinkeep, but which one for which finish? Any suggestions? Or maybe something completely different?

The mistake? The grass under the right bunny in Love Bunnies is higher than it should be. I missed a row when stitching the tail, and I didn't feel like frogging, so more grass!
And honestly? Would you know if I hadn't told you~

C'est fini

A big thank you to everyone for the encouragement and support. Sometimes it's just about having someone listen~

The weekend was very good in terms of stitching. I finished off all the back stitching in Weekend in Paris. This is a bit of an odd design since only the lady and a few of the letters are full crosses. The entire background and all the red are half crosses. They look thick because they are either 3 or 4 strands! All the half crosses actually skewed the piece a little. The corners aren't right angles but are slightly off. I'm trying to figure out how to stretch/warp it to a rectangle instead of a parallelogram.

Since I like doing this sort of thing, a before backstitch picture:


And after:

Start date January 18, 2010
Finish date May 9, 2010
Fabric 18 count white Aida
Total time 47.25 hours

And because I want more finishes I have a couple of new starts. I'm pretty sure that one will actually be a finish by tomorrow. (Since they'll take less than 10 hours I'm just going to sneak them in and out and we'll all pretend that my wagon/diet/whatever is still working LOL)

A "Poor Me", All Whine Post

Backstory: I just finished my 1st year of a 2 year program that will turn me into a lab rat (in either the chemical or biological industry). Part of the program is working a Co-op term which I started on Monday. I've only worked full time once before and that job wasn't very hard.

I AM EXHAUSTED! I wake up at the crack of dawn, wear my winter jacket (why yes, Winnipeg weather has gone back to the single digits!), catch a too-early bus for 1 hour, work & work & work, take the bus home, eat and then sleep. It's times like this that I wish I could just stay in school forever! Studying is so much more easier than working! How on earth do you who work and herd kids do it? I can barely herd myself!

So what with all the fatigue I really haven't had much of a chance to stitch anything, which is making me crabbier and more grumpy.

Did I mention the weather? Today was a high of 6 Celsius. With a windchill of about -2. In May. *Grumble grumble swear grumble*

And of course my camera batteries are dead. I think it's a conspiracy involving the camera people and the battery people to drain money from poor crabby students.

Sigh
Grumble
Grumble
Grumble

I swear I'm going to end up being the neighbourhood crazy crabby lady (without cats) who sits on the lawn, threatens kids when they run across the lawn, and complains loudly about how "Back in my day...", "...walked twenty miles in the snow in my bare feet..." and "Kids these days have no respect..." etc.

And I'm hungry. But never at lunch or dinner time. Just at random hours. eg I wasn't hungry at dinner time (8 pm) but I'm starving now (at 1 am).

Where's my rich Prince Charming who'll sweep me off my feet to live the life of luxury I was meant for?

In keeping with my grumpy mood instead of flowers and spring I'll leave you with these winter pictures cannibalized from the net.




PS. I'm just venting. I'm incredibly grateful for my job and really enjoy what I'm doing.

April Achievements & May Goals

Goals for April:
1. Go back to a rotation Not really. I worked on two things.
2. Finish Weekend in Paris I finished everything expect the backstitching.
3. Stitch Wisdom from Legends of Dragons No. It's just not calling me. Time to put it away for a while
4. Work on Red Rose of Sharon A couple of hours

April was rather slow. Too many assignments and tests. But now that school's out (YAY) but co-op begins (BOO) hopefully things will be different.

Goals for May:
1. Finish Weekend in Paris
2. Finish the Red Rose of Sharon dress
3. Start a Hardanger bag

Two weeks worth of mail

All rounded up in one convenient and late post.

First was this ton of ribbons from Staci. This by itself has almost quadrupled my ribbon stash. Now I can stop using that single giant roll of black (which technically matches everything) and add more colour! Canada Border Services must have been particularly paranoid when they checked this because the envelope was very chewed up when it got to me. Ah, what would we do without Ziploc bags?


Second was Why Hoard Gold by Dragon Dreams. I won this on a SAL and it winged its way pretty fast. A big thanks to Silverlotus who also tossed in the Marlitt threads, all the while telling me what a pain they are to use~


And wrapping it up this is lovely lot that arrived from Nima in Oman. A lovely piece of soft feeling fabric, beads and embellishments (some of which sadly broke in transit, but the rest are fine and very very cute) and she even threw in these gorgeous crochet flowers. She suggested that they could be coasters, at which I gasped in revulsion. Such pretties deserve a much better fate! (I am very hard on coasters. I misplace them at a ridiculous rate.) On this day Border Services seems to have been unconcerned since it arrived with nary a crease!

Going around in circles

I worked on CdC this weekend, and had a bit of progress. Mostly I've been reading, watching Shah Rukh Khan dance on a train and avoiding that massive assignment that's due Tuesday that I haven't even started. *sigh*


Cirque des Cercles
32 ct Lemon Whip Lugana, DMC 115
I did however run across a small problem: I made a few mistakes, and when I frogged them the holes were red from the dye. Any hints on how to get rid of this?

TUSAL April

A day late, but only because I thought the new moon was today.



This is the 4th and last jar in my hunt. It's mine so no one (Mum!) can throw it out and I like it (yay) so it will stay.

The blue-greens are from Bluebeard's Princess
The red is from Rose of Sharon
The flash is because I still can't take decent pictures.

I haven't been stitching much lately due to assignments and upcoming exams. And a mini-slump. I seem to have these one-week slumps. Put it down to my short attention span.
I have been visiting everyone's blogs, just no commenting whatsoever. Another mini-slump.

Maybe I should give up on this "stitch only WIPs" thing and switch to a "stash only (with needed floss) thing"... I wouldn't be buying anything, just starting lots more stuff...hmmm

A crisis that wasn't

Our epic tale begins the Monday after Easter as our young heroine takes out Rose of Sharon to work on. A few happy hours of stitching, and she picks the next symbol to work on.

"Oh, it's a blend. Let's see 814 & 898. Hmm...898 is brown."

But she hasn't used that particular brown in this design. And she knows that she has already stitched this symbol before. She hunts up a previous stitch and compares.
.
.
.
Horror! She used 498 in place of 898! Is she losing her sight? Is her handwriting that bad???

She wonders if it should be changed. She dithers. She ponders. She questions the universe. The universe does not answer.

It must be frogged and replaced. The shading will be wrong. And if she didn't it would nag her forever!

Decision made, she fortifies herself with chocolate and coffee and bravely takes up the monumental task.

30 minutes and 25 stitches later she is done. She glances around, hopes no one noticed that the epic frogging was not very epic and quickly and quietly moves on.


Rose of Sharon
32ct Ivory Lugana

Mail & lessons in geography

Paula from Spokane, Washington sent me all this as a giveaway win. I have plans for that fabric. (Well, I have plans for all my fabric, they just don't leave my mind.) Leftover fabric and everything else will be somehow involved in something St.Patrick's Day themed.

I keep hearing "from our studios in Spokane, Washington" in my head. Any ideas where this is from? I keep thinking it's Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune, but they're apparently filmed in LA...



The card about Spokane is really interesting. Of course, I had no idea where Spokane was and had to look it up. It's in Washington, which I thought was the city with the white Lincoln Statue. Not so. It's a state below BC. (I'd have guessed it was out east.)

Out of curiosity: where did you think Winnipeg was, or did you already know? Before we moved here my mum thought it was on the coast near Vancouver! And what's the weirdest misconception you've heard about your city/state/country?