My most adorable hour spend hand sewing EVER.

Stitching Update

Courtesy of writing my exam this morning, I earned some stitching time tonight. This is Jen and Joe's Te Amo after another 5 hours work. I love how quickly this is stitching up!

Stitching Update

So, last weekend, for the first time all term, I got totally caught up on my course for school. The university had some "technical difficulties" which meant those of us taking it on line had to wait a week before our first lectures were posted. And there's homework due 3x/week for this course, so I've been playing catch up for weeks. But... since I did get totally caught up by Sunday, Monday was stitching time!
I can't show one of the things I finished for a couple of weeks yet until I know it's been received and opened, but I can show you what I got done on my project for me: Teresa Wentzler's The Unicorn:



That's after 10 hours of stitching time, and it still doesn't look like much, but this is what it should look like when it's done! (With the usual provisos that the photos on the website never look close to as good as they do in person, of course!) I've seen it done, once, and it was just as stunning as I'd always imagined.

Some quick photos

I've spent a fair bit of time the last two weeks getting the downstairs bedroom setup as a study/library/craft room. And now, at last, I have a dedicated stitching space, complete with a new stitching chair! :) I have to get another footstool, and given how long I've been looking for one I like, I think I may end up making them myself. But I'll wait until it's warm enough to use the garage to do that!

I decided to let myself do some stitching for myself, mixed in with all the obligation stitching. I've joined a TW stitchalong and decided to start The Unicorn. Below is a photo of it after 5 hours of work. It's a few of the flagstones of the path, and it doesn't look like much, but I'm pleased with the progress.



Next up is Jen and Joe's wedding gift. Given that they're approaching their third wedding anniversary, I need to get cracking. In my defense though, I only got my hands on the pattern last fall. It's Arelate Studios' Te Amo, and Jen had planned on stitching it herself for their wedding. I'm starting in on it once I hit post. It's a quick, fun stitch, and doesn't need nearly the level of light and comfort of the TW. I expect it'll grow much quicker than The Unicorn! :)



And finally, a photo of our stockings from Christmas morning. We don't tend to do a lot of gifts for each other anymore, but I always look forward to seeing what Brian's come up with for my stocking. Mine's the bear one on the left (hanging on my dresser so it's there when I wake up in the morning), and Brians' are the two on the right. I stitched the farthest right one for him a few years ago and still love how it turned out.

Wahoooooo!

First up: "The Aftermath"











And now: "The Payoff"




Teresa Wentzler's Fantasy Triptych
Completed July 19, 2009

Wohooooooo!!!

Photos to come after I give it to the mom tomorrow:

The baby sampler is done!

I had the day off today (one last vacation day to use or lose by Oct.) and I just finished it. The last section went astoundingly quickly. I wish I'd gotten it done in time for his first birthday, but it's done now!

Yahooooo!

Remember the never ending border on the baby piece I've been working on on and off for about 8 months? No? That's okay, I've been deliberately trying not to bitch about it online... But... It's d-o-n-e DONE! I got in the last of the back stitch sometime late this afternoon and even continued on to the grass-from-hell backstitching. Which turned out to not be too bad after all. I think I might even manage to finish the grass given a long afternoon to work on it. So it may not look like a lot of progress, but to me it's two huge obstacles done! Wohoo!

Other than that, not much news. Still sick (and I strongly advise against flying with strep throat *and* and ear infection) and I have no stamina. We went to IKEA yesterday because they've got a whole line of their organizational stuff on sale 50% off this weekend and I felt like getting my papercraft stuff more sorted out. Sadly, I was fully out of steam just from walking through the lower level, taking shortcuts and having no wait at checkout. By the time we came home, I needed a nap, and you can guess how the organizing went. But today I got a start made on it, and can now easily find/pull/use/return specific types of card making/scrapbooking stuff when I need it. Each technique etc. got it's own little organized box. (IE Ribbons, embossing, inks, punches)

Hallowe'en Exchange

I was invited to participate in a Hallowe'en stitching exchange this year, and the packages have to be mailed out tomorrow. This is what I'm sending off to New Zealand. I know the recipient doesn't know my blog, so I felt safe in posting it here! The pattern was a freebie that Joanna generously sent me when I realized how early the mail date for the exchange was and that I wouldn't have time to do the piece I'd planned!

My stitching mojo's coming back!

Finally!

I just haven't been in the mood/able to stitch in months. But Friday night we put on a couple of shows we'd recorded and I pulled out the birth announcement with the neverending border. Saturday I worked on it a fair bit more. And Saturday night, I finished it! Not really, of course, 'cause it is the never ending border, but I finished all the major stitching for it. The best part was that it all lined up with itself. Phew, what a relief. Now I just need to fill in all 30+ mini-motifs and stitch the edge border... And, just for fun and a change of scenery, I did a full line across in the middle. How's that for daring? I even managed a little more on it during Sunday's gaming. Which was an absolute blast. I think Will's definitely up there on my list of favourite DM's! I'm so looking forward to Memorial Day Monday when we finish this 'honking big adventure'!

Loved the new Dr. Who (and I was so pleased to see the Ood back again) and BSG has me drooling for more and wanting the week to be over already. Now if only I could force them to run new episodes all year of that quality and never stop...

Photos!!!

Did I mention it snowed this morning?




And since I have a new camera, I've been playing around with it of late. This is called "So Hungry!" ...




Playing with macro focussing...




And depth of field...





I had to include a photo of Brian!




And what photo roundup would be complete without photos of Percy?



And cheating to create a vignette look with a macro lens. Really, just playing around!



Finally, my mini-happy dance! I finished the middle section of TW's Fantasy Triptych this morning. Now I'm trying to distract myself from it so I put it away and work on more of my obligation stitching. I still owe for two babies (with number three coming any day now) and a wedding...

More Photos

Another shot of my Lilies. They've really been spectacular this year, and and have opened in a colour sequence. Just as one colour is dying off, another starts to open. Unfortunately, these seem to be the last of them. :(


Stitching Update:
As promised, this time with photos...
Fantasy Triptych is what I've been focusing on lately, and it has just grown by leaps and bounds. May I present to you the start of the rocks under the castle?



And a shot of the full progress so far. I am so sick of greens right now, but there are many more in the rocks, so I'm not done with them yet. I debated stitching on across the bottom and finishing up with the trees all together, but decided I wanted the change. Besides, there's not much point in doing the backstitching until I can do all of it for the trees, and since they extend up into the rocks...


Next up is the receipt for all the floss from my floss fairying! It was a fun photo to take, especially since I know how much it will be appreciated. Remember all my readers out there, I'm always happy to buy and mail!



Okay, so there's one last photo from my garden. I was playing around with working on my macro shots again...



Also, in answer to Jan's question, I haven't started getting my blog links together yet, I've been too busy stitching. At the same time, I haven't had a single person ask to be on it! Please, leave me a comment and I'll be more than happy to link to your blog!

Lazy Weekend

This weekend has been long and lazy. I like it like that. :)
I had Friday off work, so we slept in and then went to a matinee of Live Free or Die Hard. Which rocked. If you're looking for an action movie, I can whole heartedly recommend this one. Then we came home, relaxed and caught up on some TV we'd recorded. We also, finally, started data entry on doing a proper index of Brian's comic collection. 100+ down, thousands to go! And I started a new cross-stitch project. It's a Christmas present, so I won't be showing photos anytime soon.
Yesterday (Saturday) I drove up to Connecticut for a slot zero for a convention in two weeks that I'll be running at. It was a fun mod, and one line just made it all worth while. You want us to ask the Baron for WHAT????
Today is Canada Day, and we've celebrated by just relaxing together. It's really ironic that today (Canada Day) is the first day we can submit for our American greencards. Since it's a Sunday, we have to wait until tomorrow. I've been working on stitching again since I had no ill effects on my hand from Fridays attempt, and I'm getting massive progress on Fantasy Triptych. This I'll have to photograph and show everyone, I've gotten a huge section done on it! We mostly watched Babylon 5 since we're trying to run through it before the new movie comes out at the end of this month. Wohoo! And I'm busy rereading the Harry Potter books before the final one comes out in three weeks. I'm about a third of the way through the fifth book (Order of the Phoenix) since Thursday, so I'm doing fine on that.
Next up: Brian's bbq'ing steak for dinner, and I'll be watching the French Grand Prix (and probably stitching some more...)

Photo Dump!

Mostly from my garden, but also one of Madison (that Brian looked at and named "Maddy-tude") and one of the piles of floss purchased for several of my friends overseas since we had a great sale last week. The packages went in the mail yesterday ladies!

Long overdue update...

First up, here's why I haven't been doing much of anything on the computer lately...



Long story short, I've pinched the nerves from my hand that run through the thumb. I'm not allowed to do anything that involves using my thumb. I even have to sleep with the brace on. But it was that or an actual plaster cast, but at least I can take this one off to shower. So:
No stitching
No gardening
No computering (but I can type slowly with my left hand)
No working in the lab at work (aw, shucks)
No stamping
No cardmaking.

I do NOT mean this to be a 'poor me' post. I'm already reading all day at work in an effort to look busy (Thank You Baen Free Library!) so I'm getting bored with that at home. Anyone have any suggestions for one handed crafts? And the non-dominant hand at that?



But, on to stuff that's more fun. I played floss fairy to several girls in the UK a while back, and in return I asked them to just send me something little and unique to their region. And here's what Kay sent me!

There's a sheep (I mentioned I loved the sheep in Wales when there as a kid), a Welsh dragon, a hand stitched card, with hand painted fabric!, and a selection of postcards. WOW!




On the stitching front, here's an update on Fantasy Triptych, which I had pulled out again and was making great progress on...



And Frog Prince, which I had planned on filling in the last of the confetti stitches the weekend I hurt my hand...




And, since we were home in April, I must post more photos of my adorable neice and nephew! I don't have any photos of Natasha since the only time we got to see her was at the funeral home, and it wasn't really appropriate... But here's Madison, hiding behind the tree in mom's living room.




And William, playing in his living room!

Stitching Update

Frog Prince is almost done the first page! It didn't look like a lot of progress when I was working on it, but now that I'm looking at the photo I can see it!




An out of season finish, and I actually managed to get the french knots done for the eyes of the bat! I loathe french knots and usually replace them with beads...


And, tada! My trip project, finished shortly after we got home:
Ferocious Beastie!

Before and After...

Minus 14 inches of hair! It's all going to be donated to Locks of Love, a charity that makes wigs for kids with cancer and other illnesses that cause kids to lose their hair.





And my brother and sister in law got Noah's Sub framed! I did this for them as a wedding gift (took me almost 3 years!) and wanted to make sure they took it to a good framers. It was worth the wait! I am, above all else, thoroughly impressed with the stretching job they did. Check out those edges!

Okay, okay, I've been a bad blogger!

Life has been very, very hectic. But I've gotten some stitching done!


My current progress on HAED's Frog Prince QS as of Monday morning after this past SAL weekend.



I've finished this Hallowe'en piece except for adding the Bat button, which I seem to have misplaced. This was completed exclusively while gaming.


A Mary Englebreit (sp?) Christmas ornament, also stitched while gaming up in Conneticut when I realized I'd brought everything to work on the Hallowe'en one except the pattern! Good thing I try to keep a quick project in the bag also.



A better photo of my framed Phoenix. It's now hanging over my TV until I find it a permament home. I need to stop working on such big pieces, I'm running out of wall space!


On the news front, we're swamped. In a good way. And we've been very sick. In a bad way. I was back at the doctor's again today for a second course of antibiotics to hopefully get rid of this sinus infection before we fly. Which we do in 10 more days. Wohoo! This coming weekend we've got a party at Deirdre's for St. Patrick's Day. You can't skip it when it's being hosted by your friend who's Irish, now can you? And then on Sunday we've got tickets to a show in the city, followed by a Q&A with the author and star. It should be neat, I'm looking forward to it a lot. Then next Friday we leave! In the mean time at work, which my Dr. would prefer I took a few days off from, I need to complete reports before we leave on 120+ analyses I've completed in the past month. So, swamped. But in a good way. I probably won't post during my trip, but look for loads and loads of photos when I get back!