Here Be Dragons

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


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

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

Now I'm off to work on the phoenix.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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...