WIPocalypse!

Well, it's been several years since I've posted, or stitched for that matter but a friend of mine, Christine, posted on her blog that she was going to join WIPocalypse and after reading a bit more about it (here) I decided I wanted to join also. I'm hoping that it will give me back my stitching mojo, which has been sorely missing for a few years now.

So, I guess in lieu of doing a "progress" post for the first full moon of the year, I'm merely doing a small introduction post with a list of the WIPs I'll be working on, and maybe a few I'd like to start.

First of all, the two main ones I've had sitting around for forever and a day.

Fairy Moon - Mirabilia

This is the last picture I took of this WiP at 58.5 hours. It was taken nearly 4 years ago in April 2008! (see what I mean about getting my stitching mojo back?!)

EDIT:

Once I finished my post and dug out my stitching to get started I was pleasantly surprised. I had over 70 hours completed, but I'd just never taken a picture. I stitched for a few more hours last night and today and took this picture when I reached the 75 hour mark!

End Edit.

Summer Blooms.

This came from a magazine somewhere, I'm not sure which one. I LOVE the piece, but have the hardest time getting into it. I hate stitching it, but I know it'll be worth it when I'm finished.

Summer Blooms - 20 Hours - August 2007

What Summer Blooms will look like when it's finished! I only hope I make it there someday!

Dream Sampler by Dragon Dreams

Another one I'd like to add to my list is Dream Sampler by Dragon Dreams. I did this for my oldest daughter a few years ago and would like to do another for my younger. I've even gone so far as to buy the fabric and work the outline grid on it already. I just need to get my lazy butt in gear on this one. Here's the finished version of the last one I did.

There are others I'd love to add to the list, for example, I've already collected the patterns for Celtic Spring, Celtic Summer and Celtic Autumn by Lavender and Lace as well as the pattern for Romantic Stitcher by Passione Ricamo but I think the ones I have here with a few Christmas Ornaments from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issues I've collected over the last few years should be sufficient for now. However, I reserve the right to change my mind at any given time. ;)

Happy Stitching

Christine

A Little More Summer

Summer Blooms that is...

I finally got back into stitching a bit and have finished another 10 hours on Summer blooms. I was going to try and do a full week stitching, but the main reason I haven't been stitching lately is that I can't get into it with this pattern. I LOVE the pattern, and it's super easy, mostly full stitches with a few quarter stitches on the flowers, but I just can't get into it like I can with the others... Anyway, once I got to the 10 hour mark I gladly put it down to pick up Dream Sampler again. I had only one evening done on that when I got a call from my local library to let me know that my wait was finally over and the new Harry Potter had arrived with my number on it. (Woohoo!!) So, I started reading that last night. I should be done The Deathly Hallows in another day or so, but another book I'd ordered in at the library has arrived as well, with a third one on the way... so It looks like even though I finally got my groove back, my stitching may still be sporadic until I finish these three books. But luckily I'm a fast reader and it shouldn't take me longer than a week to polish off these three. (that's if I'm taking my time *lol*)

Anyway, here's the most recent picture of Summer Blooms at 20 hours work, taken on Aug 20 2007. I love it, and I can't wait until it's finished. (in more ways than one)

Click on the "Summer Blooms" tag at the bottom to see the previous posts about this pattern.

It's been a while

since I last posted. May 31st to be exact. Almost a month ago since I last blogged. God I'm pathetic. lol. It' snot like my life has been so full of amazing goings on that I don't have the time to sit at the computer and write a short post... I'm just a bit lazy and I'm a LOT of a procrastinator. I tend to put things off till later, and then never get around to them. I think I have about 4 or 5 months worth of SBQs to catch up on... and I keep saying next week, next week... now I've got so many piled up in my inbox that it's just such a daunting task to get around to them all.

I have a little bit of "Doctor Who" fever again now that season 3 is starting to air... (or season 29, depending on who you talk to) I really like his new companion Freema Agyeman as "Martha". I wasn't sure if I was going to take a shine to her or not because, it's hard when you're replacing a popular character... (Billie Piper as Rose) People always have some expectations on what the new character will be like. I had the same bit of anticipation when David Tennant replaced Christopher Eccleston at the end of season 1, but I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE David in the roll. I adored Chris also, and they both are wonderful as the Doctor even though they both play him very different. They're both very likable and fun and funny. Of course, the funny part is a huge testament to the writers of the show, but they just have the certain way of delivering lines that is just perfect. I think the thing I like best is they're both quite "cheeky" in the roll. I think it's perfect for the character... Mind you, this was my first experience with the Doctor. I never watch any of the original series, so I didn't really have any preconcieved ideas on how the Doctor should act. Anyway, enough about Doctor Who for now... that's for tonight when the new episode airs on CBC *grin* Now it's time for a bit of a stitchy update.

I guess I'll first mention a little bit about the rotation I'm doing. I've decided that sometimes 10 hours just isn't enough. There are some times I can get 10 hours in 2-3 days if I'm having a really good go, so I decided to do a "10 hours or a week" rotation, which ever takes longer to get to... Basically if I am stitching a lot and get done my 10 hours in a few days then I'll keep stitching till I've stitched on it for a week, but if I'm having a time where I'm not doing much stitching, then I don't switch projects until I've got at least 10 hours done... that way I am always guaranteed to get the 10 hours in.

So, the first one I started this with was Summer Blooms by Marie Barber. Here's what it looks like when I put it down after the 10 hours to start Dream Sampler. When I pick it back up I'll fill in the little spots (they're just white stitches, so it'll look a lot like the empty places do now, and then backstitch the flowers before moving on to the lower areas.

After I finished this I moved on to FINALLY start Dream Sampler. I'm stitching it on 32ct Opalescant Lugana from Silkweaver in Iris Garden. There's a bit of a story here. After I got it I placed an order for the specialty fibres that it calls for from an online store. You may remember that post, it wasn't all that long ago. Anyhow I finally got the order, with a few extra GAST freebies thrown in for good measure. (Thank you Despina! BTW , GAST stands for Gentle Arts Sampler Threads for those of you not into that kind of thing.) When I opened the package up I saw the threads and was boggled. How am I supposed to stitch with such a HUGE piece of thread!! I had ordered the Caron Watercolors instead of the Caron Waterlillies. I mistakenly thought that even though the watercolors were cotton and the waterlilies were silk, they would be approximately the same size anyway. I guess I was expecting the watercolors to be the same size as a standard DMC/Anchor/Whatever cotton thread. Well, they're not. They've only got3 srands per thread and the thread is probably twice the size of a regular one. You can see them in the picture just above. The watercolors are the ones on the bobbins and the waterlilies is the one still in the twist.

At first I never clued in and I did start stitching with them, I was having a really hard time with the stitches. The thread was so big and full, and the holes were so small (32 count, you know) Everything was puckering and pulling strangely. It just didn't look nice. If you click on the pic to the left you can see a little better. The swirls are done in the watercolors, the overdyed portion of her skirt are the watercolors and the backstitch around her wings are the watercolors. Funny thing. The skirt is actually done with HALF stitches. The thread was so thick that I couldn't fit whole stitches in there, it was just too crowded, so I did half stitches instead and it didn't turn out half bad. If it weren't for the backstitching part then I might have kept going with it, but I find the backstitching just looks horrible.

Anyway, I was in Moncton this Saturday to take the kids to the Zoo with some of the kids and parents from the local drop in play group, and after leaving the zoo I took a quick trip down to "Because You Count" to ask about the waterlilies. I had never worked with, or even seen silks before and really wasn't sure how much of a difference they were in size. Well... you can see in the first picture that the skein of thread is about the same size as DMC threads, but there's 12, count 'em 12 strands per thread, not 6!! So they're even smaller than regular floss. So, I had to throw down the money and get them. Can you believe $8.40 per skein of silk thread!! That's almost criminal. I can't believe how expensive they are. I mean, I know that going to a brick and mortar store, it tends to cost a little more because of the higher overhead, and that I consider worth it, but still... By the time I got all 3 threads and paid tax, it was over $28!! for 3 threads!!! I had wanted to look around and get a bit more at first, but the only other thing I ended up picking up were some Piecemaker needles. Everyone I talk to and read blogs from seems to be completely nuts about these needles. So I took the plunge and picked up a few. They weren't too expensive. $3.30 for 6 needles. The cheapo Anchor ones I usually buy at Walmart are around $1.50 for 4, so a bit more money, but not horrible.

Well, it's too late to make a long story short, but the punch line is that I'm now waiting for the store to get two of the three threads in that I bought -- only one was in stock. They're going to mail them to me as soon as they arrive -- at no extra cost since I already paid for them, but I'm still waiting!! Oh well, I'll survive. It's not like I don't have other things to stitch. Besides, I now have to pull out all that backstitching and half stitches that I stitched with the watercolors... All hail to the frog queen, coming for a visit. Hopefully it's a short one.

In other news I had myself a yard sale last weekend and made around $250, then I badgered my dh until he got me a treadmill -- which the $250 is going towards. Apparently I've got high blood pressure. I have since I had Rachel, but my doctor told me "oh don't worry about it, it'll go down in a while." Well, apparently it didn't. So, now I'm trying to lose weight and exercise more to see if that will help enough that I don't need meds. That's why the tread mill. I'm a bit of a bugaphobe, if that's really a word, and I'm also terrified of dogs, so walking in a rural area with dogs in every 2nd or third yard during the summer when you live with the woods all around you doesn't work all that well for me... The good thing is that I know myself pretty well in this respect and I know I could tell the doctor that I'd walk each and every day faithfully, but it just wouldn't happen. Luckily Jason knows this about me too, which is why he didn't fight me too much on the treadmill issue.

Well, that's probably a long enough post for now. I'll try and remember to post a few zoo pictures tomorrow.

Summer Blooms

I finally got started on my Summer Blooms cross stitch last night. It's been one of my top "next starts" for a few years now but I've just never gotten around to it. I've had the material cut and ready for 6 months or so, but I was always working on Waiting and wanted to finish it before starting something bigish.

Well, I had planned on starting Dream Sampler from Dragon Dreams but I ordered the specialty threads from an Online Needlework Store (ONS) over two weeks ago and they haven't even SHIPPED it yet. I've emailed her a few times asking for an update and am always told "any day now".

I know that she's waiting for her shipment from the manufacturer to come in, so I know that technically it's not her fault, but there really should be some better communication on her part. And, if she didn't have the item in stock and didn't know when to expect it, she REALLY shouldn't have had it for sale on her site.

She emailed me a few days after I ordered to let me know that she was waiting for a few of the items to come in and I emailed back asking if I could expect them in "a few days or a few weeks?" and she told that they would be in that Monday. I should have seen that was a lie right then since the Monday she was talking about was Victoria Day. (Yes, the store is in Canada). We went to Moncton that weekend for a day without the kids and I had planned on picking them up at the LNS in Moncton if it were going to be a while for her to get them in, but decided against it since her order was coming just a few days later. Unfortunately I learned my lesson the hard way. All I can say is I will NEVER be ordering from Daisy Stitches again!

Anyway, now that I've finished my rant, I'll continue with my original point. Since I couldn't start Dream Sampler, I decided to start on Summer Blooms in the meantime. Neither one is a large project. Summer blooms is 204 x 90 stitches, so not too bad since most of the area is empty. The bottom 2/3 of the cross stitch is fairly sparse, being a topiary and all.

I've got about 2.5 hours on it now. I'll post a picture when I get a little further along.