No Late Knight Snacking: Third Post - Complete

Well, when I'm close to the end of the project I just can't put it down.  But on a good note... I found my knight! :D

And now time to finish it all off:

Yay!  If you look at the larger versions of the pictures you can see the sparkly on the knight.  I started to think that adding sparkly to the plumage would be too much, and after talking with my sister she agreed with me.  So no red sparkly, just silver.  But he did get more of a face.

I just giggle every time I look at the dragon's face.  He just looks so annoyed with the poor little knight.

Project Stats:
Pattern: No Late Knight Snacking
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams
Started Stitching: November 22, 2012
Finished Stitching: December 11, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. DMC Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid

I have no idea what I'm going to work on, or post, next.  So it will be a surprise... for both of us.

No Late Knight Snacking: Second Post

I worked a little bit on No Late Knight Snacking over the weekend and today.

Over the weekend I did a few greens:

Then I did whatever other colors I had on me at the time.  Even though I thought I had taken all the colors I needed.  I was actually very short, I grabbed the wrong bag.

Today I finished up all stitches on the dragon.

All I have left is my knight in shinning armor.  And back stitching.  I just really wanted to type that other part.

Project Stats:
Pattern: No Late Knight Snacking
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams
Started Stitching: November 22, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. DMC Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 85.22% complete
Stitches: 1,735 out of 2,036 complete

Storykeep - Magical Arrival: The Sixth Post

It's been a while since I've posted on Magical Arrival, or any other HAED for that matter.  So here we go.

I've done quite a bit since my last post.  Mostly reds, actually I don't think it was mostly reds, I think it was all reds.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Storykeep - Magical Arrival
Original Artist: Anne Stokes
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: January 31, 2012
Fabric: 18ct. White Aida
Floss: DMC 2 over 1
Percentage: 78.23% complete
Colors: 45 of 89 complete
Stitches: 18,599 out of 23,775

I'm going back and forth between working on this and No Late Knight Snacking.  This is one of the projects I want to finish before our next framing run, but I really want to finish before January 31, 2013.  However, my cousin's daughter really liked my Darth Vader Cookies, so, since I didn't have anything yet for her for Christmas, I'll try to stitch that up really quickly, but that won't be until Monday or Sunday when I get back home.

A Mother's Pride: Third Post - Complete

I love looking at cross stitches before the the back stitching goes in.  At first it just looks like a blob of colors running into each other...

Sometimes you can make out certain parts of the project, but once you get that back stitching in...

BAM!  It finally looks like something, and you have a completed project on your hands!

It took over two years and losing, then finding, the chart, but finally, it's all finished.  Yay!

Project Stats:

Pattern: A Mother's Pride

Pattern by: Dimensions

Started Stitching: June 15, 2010
Finished Stitching: December 5, 2012

Fabric: 18ct. Ivory Aida

Floss: Kit Floss various over 1

No Late Knight Snacking: First Post

Well, I've already finished the two colors that I said I'd do on No Late Knight Snacking.  That took me a lot less time to do than I anticipated.  I did have a small portion already completed, I was showing my cousin's daughter how to cross stitch, I gave her white Aida cloth and I was playing with this.  But even with the small amount to the left of the eye complete it only took me until 8 pm after yesterday's post.

On the left the front of the pamphlet for the project, on the right, my progress pic:

I'm using the same fabric I used for Messy... but MINE! to keep the same feel for both of them.  I'm toying with the idea of using silver blending filament in all of the knight's armor.  I found that the Kreinick blending filament works much better than the silver sewing thread I had used on Colombina and the black thread I used on Anthera.  I might also add some sparkle to his helmet plumage.

I also think I'm going to give the knight a nose and mouth.

Project Stats:
Pattern: No Late Knight Snacking
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams
Started Stitching: November 22, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. DMC Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 39.73% complete
Stitches: 809 out of 2,036 complete

What I did find interesting is that there are less stitches in this entire piece, 2,036, than are left on A Mother's Pride, 2,176.  But I won't let that stop me!

A Mother's Pride: Second Post

One color, two symbols, down and one/two to go (oh yeah... and back stitching):

I'm torn right now.  I really want to finish this up, but I'm a little tired of beige and brown at the moment.  I'm tempted to take a day or two off to work on No Late Knight Snacking... but this is SO close!  The more I think about it the more I think I will.  I will only do two greens on it before coming back to this.  A Mother's Pride will get finished!

Project Stats:

Pattern: A Mother's Pride

Pattern by: Dimensions

Started Stitching: June 15, 2010

Fabric: 18ct. Ivory Aida

Percentage: 80.81% complete

Stitches: 9,162 out of 11,338 complete

A Mother's Pride: First Post

This is one of my Dimensions Gold Collection kits.  I lost the chart a while back so I couldn't stitch it.  I finally decided to buy a new kit to get the chart, and I found the chart a few days after I got the new kit.  Oh well, now I have two and I can lose one again.

Here's where it was sitting at while the pattern was lost:

I had decided to focus on the background because I found it the most annoying.  I don't know why but it took me a while to convince myself to work on it.  There was just something about the background that made me not want to stitch it.

Finally, I've overcome whatever obstacles my brain was creating and have taken a pretty decent stab at the background, so this is what it looks like now:

I now have technically two colors left, but four symbols.  Half are regular cross stitches and the other half are half cross stitches.  I was hoping to get it done by the end of the week, but I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to, I still have over 40% of the project to stitch.  But that doesn't mean I won't still try.

Project Stats:

Pattern: A Mother's Pride

Pattern by: Dimensions

Started Stitching: June 15, 2010

Fabric: 18ct. Ivory Aida

Percentage: 59.74% complete

Stitches: 6773 out of 11,338 complete

Completed Project Add: Cross Stitch - Pink and Purple Flowers

Okay, so last year my parents moved nearby and as they go through boxes they keep giving me back the stuff I had left at their house when I left home for college and never returned.  Much of it I'm throwing away, but I found this little gem:

Can you believe this?  1990!  I actually remember making this piece.  I already knew how to cross stitch by this time, but a friend was over, she saw my mother working on a larger cross stitch piece and she wanted to learn.  So my mother had tons of books with these little patterns to stitch, lots of Aida floating around and cases and cases of DMC thread.  We each picked a pattern and some thread.  She learned to stitch as I happily stitched away on my own.  This was definitely during my "purple" phase.

Hope you enjoyed going way back in time with me on this one.  Sometimes it's fun to take a look back.

I have a Dimensions project that I'm working on that I've added to the stuff I want to complete before our next framing run.  That might be my next post.

Messy... but MINE!: Second Post - Complete

Can you believe it?  Two finishes in two days!  It's very exciting.

Okay, I have a ton of pics... well 6.  I just took pictures and continued on.  It took less time to stitch the remainder of the project than I thought.

First picture.  This is the original coloring of the bear:

I showed it to my family, my mother's response was noncommittal  however my sister flat out said he was the wrong color.  Honestly it was bugging me too, but I convinced myself that it was okay.  But with her response I pulled out everything and tried again.  When completed I sent her the following picture to ask for her opinion:

Yes, that is Whitey.  I originally wasn't going to post this pic, but I think it turned out cute so I decided to.  Of course my sister's response was he needed eyes and a nose.  Sigh.  I don't know how most people stitch, but I try to do all back stitching at the very end.  So he will remain featureless for the time being.

I then went on to put in all the color that didn't have the Kreinick filament or braid, nor had any back stitching:

And finally the GOLD, and silver...

Finally the wording that makes it make sense:

And finally the black!

Project Stats:
Pattern: Messy... But MINE!
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams
Started Stitching: November 8, 2012
Finished Stitching: November 20, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. DMC Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid

Right before I started working on this post I texted the finished picture to my mother and sister.  My sister's response made me giggle, "I think if your room was messy with piles of gold we'd all let it slide."  I wish!

So now I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  I have a few projects I want to finish before we go on a framing run which will probably be early next year.  I want to do the piece that's similar to this one No Late Knight Snacking, as well as SK Magical Arrival, a bead weaving project, Colombina, Lost Dragon Sampler, and Tales of Wonder.  I highly doubt I'll be able to get all of these done.  But it will be fun finding out which ones I do get done.

Anthera: Third Post - Complete

Success!  Anthera is done, I finished it up last night.  Now... I did have to be a little creative on the last three stitches, I almost ran out of thread.

I did the left half first:

Then I completed the right side:

Project Stats:

Pattern: Anthera

Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs

Started Stitching: November 13, 2012

Finished Stitching: November 19, 2012

Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave

Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with black filament

Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 3,580 out of 3,580 complete

Now all I have to do is wait for the thread to arrive for Colombina then take a few moments to finish it up.  The tread should arrive by the end of the month, or early part of December.

Messy... but MINE!: First Post

I really need to stop jumping from blog to blog.  I find so much fun stuff to stitch!  I found a bunch of free Dragons to stitch over at Dragon Dreams.  They're great!  I'm definitely going to have to stitch them.  I might have also bought of few of their charts as well.  I guess when you're a fantasy freak and you come across a place called Dragon Dreams you're doomed.

Here's my first Dragon Dreams x-stitch.  I've never been the neatest person in the world, so Messy...But MINE! is the perfect project for me.  I have decided to make a minor change or two.  Grasped in the dragon's claws is a brown teddy bear.  I have my own teddy bear.  I've had him since I was 5 years old.  His name is Whitey (don't laugh at his name, I was five!), so I'm guessing you probably figured out that he's not a brown bear.  I'm going to change the pattern to look like him, and since Whitey will be 28 years old this Christmas he's not really white anymore.  Instead, he's going to be a combination of grays and beiges.

I've also decided that, despite my distaste for it, I'm going to add some gold blending filament to all the yellow that's supposed to be gold.  I think it'll add a nice little kick that will be worth the little extra time it'll take to stitch.

Last change is I've decided to stitch it on some 28ct DMC Linen that I bought back when I worked at Michaels.  I think it will add a little extra medievalness to it.  So I've gotten pretty far on it, ready for the ton of progress pictures I took?

First Color
Added one more green
And yet another green
Two more... GREENS!

And here's the final pic of the post (and possibly blurriest):

The dragon is done except for the black of his pupils and nostrils.  I will do those right before I start playing with all the backstitching.  He looks a little demonic without the black, but know it won't be long before that black is added.  Well, I'm off to play with a little treasure!

Project Stats:
Pattern: Messy... But MINE!
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams
Started Stitching: November 8, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. DMC Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 73.79% complete
Stitches: 1,886 out of 2,556 complete

Anthera: Second Post

Well, the eyes did take me as long as I thought they would.  All day Wednesday in fact.  Well, part of that was due to the fact that I had to take out about 90% of the left eye, I hate it when I make a stupid counting mistake.  Here it is all fixed and done:

Yay, no more of the black filament, which doesn't look as cool as the silver, but oh well, I am not undoing it again.

So I started to work on the top curls, but I guess my body decided it hadn't been sick for a while and Thursday was the perfect day.  So, I didn't get much stitching done, and I think I slept for about 3/4 of the day.  So now it's Friday, I'm still feeling a little weak from my illness, but it doesn't take too much energy to stitch, right?  At least this picture isn't as crooked.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Anthera
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: November 13, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with black filament
Percentage: 77.26% complete
Stitches: 2,766 out of 3,580 complete

I'm going to have to take a break until Monday on Anthera.  My grandfather is going to be in town so I'll be spending a bit of time at my parents' place visiting, and I can't very well work on my mother's gift while she's in the same room.

Anthera: First Post

Well, after the disappointment of not being able to finish Colombina, and further disappointment of the thread being out of stock where I normally order it from, I've done quite a bit on Anthera in just one day.  Almost 34% of the total!  I'm feeling much better about being able to finish both of these in time for the holidays.  I pretty much have no doubt that I will get them done in time.  To the right is a reminder of what it looks like.

First up, here's a pic of the fabric and a portion of the thread I'm using, Caron Waterlilies Salt & Pepper.  The fabric is very lightly dyed, I was actually impressed that the difference in colors was visible in this picture.

Next up is the center of the piece.  Basically the "body" of the butterfly.

And this is where it is now:

The bottom part is done.  I'm going to start on the eyes and get the filament out of the way, which, if Colombina was any indication, will be the most annoying part of the piece.  Luckily there are less stitches around the eyes that need the filament than on Colombina.  I'm hoping to get enough done today that I'll have to bore you with yet another post tomorrow!

Project Stats:
Pattern: Anthera
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: November 13, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with black filament
Percentage: 33.85% complete
Stitches: 1,212 out of 3,580 complete

Colombina: Third Post

I've been a bad, bad girl.  I started two other projects while I swore to myself that I wouldn't start any until after I had finished one.  So this will be a quick post as I have tons of things I want to finish by the end of the year, and less time to do it in.

On the other hand, I'm incredibly close to finishing Colombina.  Here it is after I completed one side:

And here it is right now:

No, your eyes are not deceiving you.  I have not completed the last curl.  Why, you may ask, am I posting with the project being merely 79 stitches from being complete?  I'm glad you asked, I ran out of thread!  Can you believe it?  :(  So off I go to buy one more skein, and while I'm at it I'm going to order an extra skein of the color I'm using for Anthera, just to be sure.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Colombina
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: September 28, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with silver filament
Percentage: 97.84% complete
Stitches: 3,579 out of 3,658 complete

So we'll see what happens first, will I get far enough on Anthera to post before my thread arrives to finish Colombina?  I feel like I'm writing a cheesy cliffhanger for a television show.

Colombina: Second Post

I'm sorry I've been a bit dark recently.  Honestly I was working on sewing a Halloween Costume, which, in hindsight, I realized I should have taken progress pictures and posted those.  Unfortunately I did not.  Anyway after that was finished for last weekend's party, I lost my job on Tuesday, so needless to say, Not much has been done.

Here's what I got done on Colombina before all the chaos of Halloween costumes and employment issues.

I've done a little bit more, the two curls closest to the center on the left hand side.  I'm planning on getting this done next week.  Without work to hinder me, I should get it done rather quickly.


Project Stats:
Pattern: Colombina
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: September 28, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with silver filament
Percentage: 73.23% complete
Stitches: 2,679 out of 3,658 complete

Colombina: First Post

As I mentioned in my last post I started working on my Mother's Christmas / Birthday present.  There's two pictures so she gets on for Christmas and one for her Birthday in January.  My plan is to get both stitched and given to her on Christmas, then have them framed in time for her Birthday, but since they're going to hung up at her house I want her to help pick out the frames and mats.

I started with Colombina, as I guess would be obvious from my post title.  Here's a picture of it on the right.

I couldn't find the exact colors I was looking for in fabric so I eventually decided to try hand dying my own fabric.  I took 28 ct. evenweave fabric, cut it in half, one for Colombina and one for Anthera.  For Colombina I dyed the fabric a dark gray.  Then I used a dying technique I found online using black dye.  This is what I came up with.

I don't think it looks too bad for my first attempt.  The thread at the top is the variegated thread that I'm using, but in my usual fashion it's a  little washed out.  The thread is Caron Waterlilies in the color Ash.  My initial intent was to have a silver thread along with it to make it sparkling.  However, I was so excited to get started I completely forgot about the silver.  Before I knew it, I already had quite a bit done, what I've started to call its mustache.


I was a little bummed but it looked really good and I didn't want to take it apart so I figured I'd just do both without the shininess.

I talked to my sister and told her what happened and she asked why I didn't just start using it from this point on.  I told her it would look funky with the one part not being stitched, then I realized that my weird sense of stitching the mirror images gave me a way to have some fun.  I decided to just add the filament to the parts that surround the eyes on the masks.  So I did those next.

Unfortunately it doesn't show up very well in this picture  but everything stitched in the picture that wasn't stitched in the last picture has silver in it, and it looks pretty cool, even next to the same color without the silver.  I also found out what a pain it is to stitch with the stuff.  It took me forever to get these four lines done.  Now I'm kind of happy I initially forgot the silver.

The rest of this will be stitched with just the variegated thread, no silver, so hopefully it will go a bit quicker from this point.  I am, however, worried about running out of thread.  Only time will tell.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Colombina
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: September 28, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with silver filament
Percentage: 54.84% complete
Stitches: 2,006 out of 3,658 complete

Completed Project Add: Cross Stitch - Paladin

Here's the finished project add I was referring to in the last post:  A very simple piece, but I think he's striking and wonderful.  Such a proud looking dragon.

Pattern: Paladin
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs

Started Stitching: June 23, 2010

Finished Stitching: June 25, 2010

Fabric: 28ct. Lava Cashel Linen

Floss: Hand-Dyed Silk 2 over 2

Story about getting this framed:

My sister and I went to the Michael's near her place and went through all the fun of framing this.  When it was ready to pick up we went back, and for some reason our mother was in town and went with us.  Anyway, my sister went to grab something while our mother and I stayed at the counter.  They unwrap it and I'm looking at it thinking, okay, that's the right frame and mats and... hrm... something's not quite right.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's basically correct.

My sister gets back, takes a look at it and instantly says, "Isn't that backwards?"  I look again and, sure enough, he's facing the left!  That's what was so odd, then I look closer and I realize I'm looking at the back of the piece.  They framed it with the back out!  I'm not sure to be beaming with pride that they thought the back of my piece looked so good that it could be mistaken for the front or be annoyed.  I went with the former and shrugged it off.

The framing manager couldn't believe it and was going to give the framer a good talking to.  They fixed it at no charge, of course, and it is how we see it today.  Now I really wish I had taken a picture of it backwards, I would have posted that here as well.

Moving on:
While I was gathering information for this post I went to the website for Fire Wing Designs and found this was part of a whole series of goodies, the Signet Series.  The artist had created ten other patterns in the same style... what can I say, it was love at first sight.

I ended up buying all but two of the ten remaining patterns in the Signet Collection.  One pattern of the eight I purchased is actually 4 different patterns of small 3.5" x 6" pieces that, I think, I could finish each one in a night.  I might end up getting one of the other patterns, but the eleventh is a snake and I'm more into dragons, so I, more than likely, won't purchase that one.

My favorite out of the remaining dragons is Samurai.  He's going to be my next project for me out of the eight I just bought.  Hopefully he'll only take three days like Paladin did.

New project add for this year:
When we were growing up, my sister and I had a black and white bathroom.  So first we started decorating it with black and white things, orcas and the like.  We finally got a pair of black and white comedy and tragedy masks, and after that we started decorating the bathroom with masks.  When our parents moved closer to us my mother kept her "Mask Bathroom".  So I decided to make the two Signet Masks, one with a black background and light thread and one with a light background and dark thread.  Hopefully it will look as good in real life as it does in my head.

And the thread arrived in the mail on Friday so I've already started on it.  I will post progress pictures soon.

Transcendence: Fifth Post - Pages 19 & 20

Finally!  After days of procrastination, which was odd because I really wanted to finish these two pages, 19 & 20 are complete.  This means I've completed a total of 3 pages. Yay!  And a 2012 goal has been completed!

I had a little bit of "fun" and made a little chart of what pages I've done, or aren't stitched, compared to those that still need to be stitched.  By the way, if you're reading this through a reader it looks much cooler on my blogger page.  Okay, much cooler might be overstating it a bit.

Project Stats: Pattern: Transcendence Original Artist: Adele Sessler Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs Started Stitching: March 7, 2012 Fabric: 20ct. Black Lugana Evenweave Floss: DMC 2 over 1 Percentage: 10.06% complete Pages Stitched: 3 of 36 complete Stitches: 14,452 out of 143,296 complete

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

So, away he goes. :(  I'm waiting on some thread for a Christmas present for my mother.  I already have the fabric which I hand-dyed, first time I've ever tried doing that, so no laughing when I post it.  The patterns should be easy to stitch, and, since she doesn't know how to check this blog, I will post my progress on those.  Obviously since they're easy they're not HAEDs.  I think I'll try working on Friends Forever until I get the thread.

I'll be posting a completed project that will be a tie in to the project for my mother in about a week's time.

Transcendence: Fourth Post - Pages 19 & 20

Over Labor Day weekend I was trying to get another project finished.  However, when I did the math, I found out it would be pretty much impossible to complete it in the amount of time I had to complete it.  So, I went back to Transcendence.

I was hoping to be done with both pages by now, but life and other things got in the way.  But I really wanted to share where I'm at so here we go:

The picture's a little fuzzy, but I'm sure you get the gist.  I've completed all the blues and purples.  Which means you can see the butterflies in all their glory.  All I have left now are the browns and greens.  After this picture was taken I completed one green and am halfway through another.  There are 34 different greens and browns, so lots of changing of colors, I think that's why these pages are taking so long.

With this much done I'm almost positive that the black will not be stitched, so I've changed the project stats a little.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Transcendence
Original Artist: Adele Sessler
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: March 7, 2012
Fabric: 20ct. Black Lugana Evenweave
Floss: DMC 2 over 1
Percentage: 8.39% complete
Pages Stitched: 1 of 36 complete
Stitches: 12,054 out of 143,296 complete

Transcendence: Third Post - Pages 19 & 20

I promised a post on Transcendence and here it is.  Isn't he looking so lovely?  I'm so glad I'm working on this chart.  Sometimes when I'm done for the night I'll just drape it on my legs and stare at it.  Okay, maybe I'm just a bit strange.

This upcoming Monday is a holiday in the States so I hope to be able to finish the two pages by then, but we'll see.  After that, I think I'm going to have to lock him in a safe that I can't get into.  Pages 19-21 were my goal for him this year.  I have lots of other things I need/want to get done by the end of the year including some Christmas gifts.  However, he looks so good I'm sure I'll have a terrible time resisting the urge to work on him.

Project Stats*:
Pattern: Transcendence
Original Artist: Adele Sessler
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: March 7, 2012
Fabric: 20ct. Black Lugana Evenweave
Floss: DMC 2 over 1
Percentage: 7.16% complete
Pages Stitched: 1 of 36 complete
Total Pages: 7 of 42 complete
Stitches: 10,279 out of 143,296 complete
*Just a note, my project stats for this project will always refer to stats without the black background, if I decide to do the background I will update the stats on a post when I announce that I'll be doing the background. Hopefully that announcement will never take place.

Completed Project Add: Cross Stitch - Tigers

I know I've been dark for over a month and it's because I've been in a slump.  It's been hot, uncharacteristically humid and all I've been wanting to do is either lazily lounge around or jump in my parent's pool.

This week I forced myself to work on Transcendence and I'm actually getting out of my slump and really want to work on it.  I might even have an update on it by the end of the weekend.  Shocking... I know.

In the meantime, an old finished project:

Pattern: 5416 Tigers (Discontinued)

Pattern by: Designs for the Needle

Started Stitching: October 2005

Finished Stitching: May 20, 2007

Fabric: 14ct. Fiddler's Cloth
Floss: Kit Floss 3 over 1

Don't let the picture fool you, it's huge!  10" x 28" (25.4 x 71.1 cm)  Originally I hung it next to my African Lions, but I had to move it because it just made the lions look so insignificant.  Lions are my #1 favorite animal, so I couldn't let them take a backseat.

I bought this chart... somewhere... through a catalog, I want to say Herrschners, but, honestly, I don't have a clue.  It was 5 bucks so I expected it to be much smaller, yes the size was in the description, but I didn't really read it.  I ended up buying two, one for myself and one for my sister, either for me to stitch or her.  It will probably end up being me, or possibly even our mother.

It was annoying in that it had a TON of french knots on the face of the mom, and by TONS I mean about 15 to 20.  I really dislike french knots, mostly because I can never remember how to make them.  I have to sit there with the french knot instructions and follow them carefully as I do each one.  I don't know why, but I just seem to have a mental block with them.

Anyway, enjoy this post until I can get enough accomplished to make a proper post.

Transcendence: Second Post - Page 21

I've been working on finishing page 21 of Transcendence.  There are two reasons for this, one, I'm sick and tired of black from Friends Forever, and the amount of confetti† on page 21 is driving me nuts so I needed to just suck it up and do it, the rest of the pages in this row are going to be easy.  Pages 19 and 24 are almost all black background, so very few stitches.  My goal this year is to get pages 19 through 21 completed, but I really want to finish the whole row.  But that's dependent on getting my other goals for the year done.

So page 21 is finally finished and it looks awesome.  I was worried as I was working on it, but when I finally got that last color in it was incredible the way the butterflies just seemed to finally pop.  I do think that the picture got a little washed out.

I'm tempted to continue with pages 19 and 20, which I'm going to do together since 19 is a small stitching page without all the black to stitch.

But, I think I'm going to finish up the color I'm working on with Magical Arrival before coming back to this one, or moving back to Friends Forever.

Project Stats*:
Pattern: Transcendence
Original Artist: Adele Sessler
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: March 7, 2012
Fabric: 20ct. Black Lugana Evenweave
Floss: DMC 2 over 1
Percentage: 5.09% complete
Pages Stitched: 1 of 36 complete
Total Pages: 7 of 42 complete
Stitches: 7315 out of 143,296 complete
*Just a note, my project stats for this project will always refer to stats without the black background, if I decide to do the background I will update the stats on a post when I announce that I'll be doing the background. Hopefully that announcement will never take place.

† To my non stitcher friends: Confetti is a term used when a there aren't large blocks of color, just a bunch of different colors thrown together, like a bunch of confetti.

Completed Project Add: Cross Stitch - African Lions

If you were looking for updates on actual projects, sorry to disappoint, but I'm building up my finished items page.

I started this project after my freshman year of college.  I obviously didn't work on it very consistently, but I do love the way it turned out.  I don't have an exact end date on it, the only reason I knew the year I finished it was from my "signature" on it.

Pattern: African Lions

Pattern by: Dimensions

Started Stitching: June 1998

Finished Stitching: 2002

Fabric: 18ct. Ivory Aida

I think this was the first kit I ever got that was 18 count.  This is a Dimensions Golden Collection Chart.  The detail is just amazing.  I really like how they incorporate half stitches with the full stitches to create a sense of depth.  I probably have a dozen or so other Golden Collection charts, some are large, and quite a few are 5x7.  I'm am currently working on one of the 5x7s.

I am wishing that I had used the thicker version of this frame, but I framed this before I knew anything about framing.

Anyway, enjoy!

Darth Vader Cookies: Sixth Post - Framed

Michael's had their 50% off one, and 60% off two or more framing sale the week of 6/3/12, so I gathered up my finished Darth Vader, and two other things I wanted framed and took my sister and mother, with nephew and father in tow.

I have to tell you, the first time I saw the main mat I chose I made fun of it thinking, When would you ever use something like that?  Well... now's the time and here it is:

Obviously my light source is to the left, also known as the Sun.  The main mat is black linen with silver sparkles in it.  I think it makes it look like outer space filled with shining stars.  But it needed more than just the one mat.  First we started off with a red to try to bring out the light saber, but it just didn't look right.  So between myself, my sister, mother and the employee, Calvin, we came up with the dark gray mat.  The frame was 100% Calvin.  I wouldn't have even considered it without him, but the gunmetal/industrial look to it just seemed to fit perfectly.

It took a bit longer than normal to get done.  I guess after they stretched the fabric, the mat was uneven around the border and they wanted to reorder the mat to make it look better, so I was absolutely fine with the wait.  I have done the same exact thing when I was framing.  When you know how long someone takes on an item, you want to make sure they'll be proud to place it on their wall with your own work.

I hope you like it... actually I don't care, well, maybe I do a little.  This will be my first project on this blog from start to finish.  How exciting.