Firefighter Logan: Fourth Post - Framed

Where have I been this last month...  Nowhere exciting, just super busy.  So I decided tonight I would make at least one post in December before the new year, even though most of you will see this in January.

I gave my nephew his cross stitched name on his birthday.  He seemed to like it, and, as usual, my sister, his mother, helped me frame it.

So that's all I have for now, hopefully I'll have more time in January to get some stuff worked on or done.

Happy New Year everyone!

You Are My Gift: Third Post

Just a short post today.

My nephew was finally born last Tuesday, November 12, 2013.  Or 11-12-13 as we write it in the states.  I was finally able to finish up the stitching on You Are My Gift, which I did today.

Now I just need to put them together.

Completed Project Add: Beaded Flowers - African Violets

I believe this is the second flower I beaded, it went to my mother.  At their old house there was a greenhouse window in the kitchen where my mother kept all different colors of African Violets.  So it seemed like the perfect gift, a new violet that she didn't have to water.

Project Stats:
Pattern: African Violet
Flower Design: Dalene Kelly
Arrangement Design: Me
Started: 2007
Finished: May 22, 2007
Beads: 11/0 Czech Seed Beads
Wire: 26 ga. floral wire and Artistic Wire

Since this was the second one I ever made I look at it and cringe.  There is so much I wish I could go back and fix on it, but my mother likes it, and that's all that matters.

You Are My Gift: Second Post

I started working on the second ornament for my sister's Christmas present.  I actually did all of the cross stitches on July 3rd.  However I got derailed shortly after.

I started with the stocking and eggshells:

Followed by all the greens not in the baby dragon:

And this shot is practically the same as the other one, all the cross stitches are done, all that's left is backstitching.

I worked on the backstitching yesterday after I finished Logan's name and finished it up this morning.

I am so glad I'm done with this.  I still really didn't like working on this fabric.  I really like Picture this Plus' fabric, but this weave was just too tight, it was difficult for me to stitch on it, but it looks good.

Project Stats:
Pattern: You Are My Gift, Ornament #2
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams
Started Stitching: July 3, 2013
Finished Stitching: November 4, 2013
Fabric: 40ct. Legacy Newcastle Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2; Kreinik 1 over 2; Fuzzy Stuff 1 strand
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 740 out of 740 complete

As I mentioned before these are going to be ornaments, hopefully ball ornaments, I've seen some really nice ones online, hopefully I can do as good a job as some I've seen.  So, one side will be the cross stitched dragon and dragonlet, on the other side will be my nephews' names and birth dates.

I did the first one on July 1st, it only took an hour or so:

I tried to use the text "You Are My Gift" as a base and make this look like the same font.

Now I just need my second nephew to be born, yes he's still being stubborn, and I can finish the second one.  Oh and I guess I should assemble them, I think it'll be easier to assemble both of them at the same time.

Firefighter Logan: Third Post - Complete

I realized as I was working on the N I didn't mention one change.  I've made all of the letters the same color.  In the sampler they are multiple colors.  To the right is the pillow for my Nephew's room.  The color's a little off, the carpet looks green... it's not, it's gray.  I was thinking of using a blue fabric, but my sister thought it would be better to just do the letters blue.  Honestly I don't know what color the letters would have been if I had used a blue fabric.

I took this when I was over at my sister's house on Halloween because I wanted to show the plaid border I've talked about.

Quite a bit of this letter is visible.

This letter gets the fire extinguisher it was designed with.

While it may be the same design I did tweak it a little bit.  In the  pattern, the yellow band and the nozzle were both unstitched.  I decided to use the same pale gray I used for the hose nozzle and I had the yellow the same gray initially, but changed it to the yellow to add more color to the letter.  Also, the original color of the fire extinguisher was orange, I have seen a few orange fire extinguishers, but the majority I've seen are red, so I changed the color.

And here it is outlined.

Finally I added a border on the bottom to match the paid of the pillows.  On the window valance there's a red bar above the paid and that's what I designed.

Now I just need to frame it, luckily there are some sales coming up at work.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Firefighter Logan
Pattern by: Firefighter's Sampler
Started Stitching: October 11, 2013
Finished Stitching: November 3, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. White Evenweave
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 4,173 out of 4,173 complete

What shall I work on next?  I guess I'll have to figure that out.

Completed Project Add: Crochet - Frias

Here's another completed project, this time a crochet.  My family's next door neighbor made lots of filet crochet and I always loved it.  She even had a pattern to make names into doilies and has made them for everyone in our family.

Here's the pattern I found, our neighbor's pattern was much more ornate.  I made this for a previous manager of mine.  She got married so I made her a crocheted doily with her married name.

It is supposed to be a rectangle, but it was my first attempt, so I was pleased that it somewhat resembles a rectangle.

Project Stats:
Project: Frias Name
Pattern: Filet Family Name
Pattern by: Leisure Arts
Started Crocheting: 2009
Finished Crocheting: January 25, 2009
Yarn: Size 10 Crochet thread

It's a short post, but an on time post!  Since I stayed up past midnight, and it is technically Saturday I decided to post my completed project since I've been slacking pretty badly recently.  I think I'm going to fall asleep now.

Firefighter Logan: Second Post

Two more letters down, one and the border to go!

First up is the L.  This is the one that also had a dalmatian.  Since I liked the dalmatian in the O better, I swapped this one out.  This was actually the last one I designed for the piece so I knew I wasn't going to be using the firefighter from the A.  I thought it'd be a good idea to use one of the other firefighters.  I found I liked the one on the letter P the best.

In redesigning it, I found most of the actual letter was no longer visible.

But that's okay, the firefighter is just standing in front of it.

I did lengthen the hose to drape over the L, added color on his jacket buckles and the hose nozzle.  I also changed his hair line slightly with two quarter stitches.  I did find that the black crosses on his eyes made me think he looked dead. :(

I fixed that with backstitching.  There wasn't supposed to be any backstitching around his eyes, but I wanted the firefighter alive, not dead.

I also used some blue Kreinik that I had as water spray from the end of the hose.  And he's smiling too, that makes him look even less dead.

The A was next.  As I mentioned this one had a firefighter with an ax, but I didn't really like the way it looked so I ended up taking the fireman's hat from the letter B and putting it on A's "head".  Here's the letter.

Here are the hat's colors.

And a little bit of backstitching.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Firefighter Logan
Pattern by: Firefighter's Sampler
Started Stitching: October 11, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. White Evenweave
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 58.61% complete
Stitches: 2,446 out of 4,173 complete

The N is next, I only changed colors on that one, then I also have a kind of plaid border that I created, hopefully it'll look good with the rest of the piece.

Firefighter Logan: First Post

Here's a Christmas gift I started working on earlier this month, or is it a birthday gift?  I haven't decided yet.  It's for my nephew, Logan.  Recently his bedroom decor has changed from his baby jungle theme to a fire engine theme.  I found this firefighter's sampler when my sister told me of the change.  But I was not going to stitch the entire alphabet.  I was just going to stitch the letters of his name.

When I received the pattern I found it was an incredibly old hand written pattern.  I decided to digitize it to make it easier on me when stitching.  I also found that I didn't like the letters as they were.  Both the L and the O had Dalmatians, the G had boots that kind of looked like ski boots, and the A had a firefighter with an axe, but it was difficult at first glance to tell what it was.  Also, none of the letters in his name had a fire engine in them.  So I went to work on doing some altering.

The first letter I stitched was the G.  I took the original G and made it a little bit wider.  Then I took the fire engine from the Q and put it behind the the G I made, then filled in the blanks on the engine left by the now absent Q.  I took these pictures in the same way I took the pictures for the 12 Dragonlets of Christmas.  So, first up is just the letter G stitched.

Now, all the rest of the colors, the colors of the fire engine.

And now for the backstitching.

I'm quite proud of my rework on this one.  I also added color to the windows (half cross stitches), the yellow + and the squares in the middle of the hubcaps.

Next up is the O.  This is the only letter that I did not modify at all.  Here's the O first.

And this is the one with the dalmatian that I kept.

And here he is with the backstitching.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Firefighter Logan
Pattern by: Firefighter's Sampler
Started Stitching: October 11, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. White Evenweave
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 35.41% complete
Stitches: 1,478 out of 4,173 complete

Two of the remaining letters have been entirely altered, the other I only altered the colors.  I seem to be missing two of the colors, I'll just pick those up tomorrow at work though.  I also have a border that will go along the bottom, that matches the new bedding, drapes and pillows my sister ordered.  You'll see more soon.

Nephew 2's Blanket: Fifth Post - Complete

Yay, I beat my nephew.  He's still being stubborn, but his blanket is ready for him when he decides he wants to see the outside world.

It's not the best picture, but you can see the edging on it.

Project Stats:
Project: Nephew 2's Blanket
Pattern: Pink & Blue for Baby
Pattern by: Teresa Smith
Started Crocheting: May 19, 2013
Finished Crocheting: October 27, 2013
Yarn: Red Heart Baby-Econo Swim
Percentage: 100% complete

Now it's time to work on Christmas gifts.

Nephew 2's Blanket: Fourth Post

I've been slacking on working on this for quite a while now, but since my sister believes she's going to have my nephew at any instant, I've been working on his blanket.  I must have it done before he's born!

I finished up all the rows:

All I have left is the border.  I'm already about ¾ of the way done with the border, and I did finish up the fourth skein while working on the border.  I really wanted to finish, but I needed a break, my brain and my hands were just done.  I should finish it up Sunday when I get home from work.

Project Stats:
Project: Nephew 2's Blanket
Pattern: Pink & Blue for Baby
Pattern by: Teresa Smith
Started Crocheting: May 19, 2013
Yarn: Red Heart Baby-Econo Swim
Percentage: 90% complete (approx.)

Since I wanted to make sure the two blankets were as identical as I could make them, I borrowed the blanket I made for my first nephew, Logan.  We were all at my parents house and I took them with me to work on, I was laying them both out on the floor and Logan started helping me smooth them out and get them flat.  Then he laid down on his blanket and just started saying "I love my blanket" over and over again:

I became rather speechless and insanely happy, so I took a picture and I gave him a big hug.

Completed Project Add: Bead Weaving - Pink Playboy Bunny

This project was made for a friend I worked with.  I made her this and she made me something in return.

She liked pink and she liked the playboy bunny, this is what I came up with:

I am not going to link to the Playboy site in my project stats.  But I believe he turned out well.  Or is the bunny a she?  You know, I never thought about it until now.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Playboy Bunny
Pattern by: Me
Finished Beading: November 14, 2007
Beads: 11/0 Delicas
Thread: White Nymo Size B
Percentage: 100% complete
Rows: 104 of 104 complete
Beads: 2,548 of 2,548 complete

Beaded Chip 'n Dale: Third Post - Complete

I'm happy to say that I've completed Chip 'n Dale!  I took some time off after my last round of working on them, but picked it up two days ago.

I actually only did two rows the day after my last post on them, which looked like this:

As of August 21, 2013, 102 Rows

 When I worked on it yesterday I did 21 rows to bring it to this:

As of October 19, 2013, 123 Rows

 And today, I did the final 21 rows:

As of October 20, 2013, 144 Rows - Completed

I think they look cute.  I'm quite happy with the way they turned out.  Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to display these guys, I have absolutely no idea.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Chip 'n Dale
Original Artist: Disney
Pattern by: Me
Started Beading: March 31, 2013
Finished Beading: October 20, 2013
Beads: 11/0 Miyuki Delicas
Thread: Silamide
Percentage: 100% complete
Rows: 144 of 144 complete
Beads: 9,504 of 9,504 complete

I think the next one of these I'll work on will be Pluto.  He's my next favorite of these that I've designed.

Nephew 2's Blanket: Third Post

This weekend I was around my sister quite a bit more than I thought I would.  So instead of finishing the backstitching on the cross stitch (her christmas gift), I worked on my unborn nephew's blanket and finished another skein.

For the eagle eyed and good memory people out there, yes I took the picture is upside down, but when I flipped it right side up it looked strange, so I left it the way it was.

Project Stats:
Project: Nephew 2's Blanket
Pattern: Pink & Blue for Baby
Pattern by: Teresa Smith
Started Crocheting: May 19, 2013
Yarn: Red Heart Baby-Econo Swim
Percentage: 70% complete (approx.)

I have less than two months left to get it done, but that should be plenty of time.  Unless my nephew decides to come early.

Here Be Dragons: Second Post - Complete

What?  Another completed project?  How did that happen?

So, after my last post on this, back in early August, I did the rest of the cross stitches:

It was going so well and so fast I didn't even add it to my WIP page because I thought I'd have it done in no time...

And then I started on the backstitching and got bored, really, really bored.  There was just so much of it, and it seemed to never end.  So I put it aside and worked on other stuff.  Thursday I finally picked it up again and told myself I wouldn't be able to work on anything until it was done, so I finished up the dragon on the right with the eastern hemisphere this morning:

And tonight, the left dragon and western hemisphere:

I did leave out the 2002 that was at the bottom.  If I had stitched it in 2002 I probably would have kept it, but, since it didn't have any meaning to me, I left it out.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Here Be Dragons
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams
Started Stitching: July 11, 2013
Finished Stitching: September 27, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. DMC Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 2,998 out of 2,998 complete

I have one more little project that I started on and am only lacking the backstitching on it.  My goal is to have that one finished up by the end of the weekend.  Why so long?  I have many plans between now and then and I don't like it when I don't make my own deadlines, not that there are any repercussions, but it's nice to be able to keep a goal.

12 Dragonlets of Christmas: Fifteenth Post - Complete

Yay it's done, it feels good to finish something after such a long time.  So, after many hours of designing borders, deleting things that didn't work, and, of course, the stitching, 12 Dragonlets of Christmas is done.  Are you ready to take a look?

So this is at the bottom, you can see the border above it.  I added two poinsettias which I slightly modified from the library on my stitching program, and I added some words between them, can you read them without the backstitching?

Well, it might have been easy to guess, just look at the post title.  But here's the backstitching added:

Normally I take the picture before I "sign" it, but I specifically left a space for my signature when I designed it, so I figured I should put it in.

And here it is in all it's glory:

It really is complete.  I haven't designed anything I like for the drum face, so I'm probably not going to add anything after all.  Who knows, something might show up there by the time I frame it.

Project Stats:
Pattern: 12 Dragonlets of 2012
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams Facebook Page
Started Stitching: September 6, 2013
Finished Stitching: September 25, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. Legacy Cashel Linen
Floss: DMC & ThreadworX 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 4,175 out of 4,175 complete

Well, I hope you enjoyed watching this take shape.  I don't know why, but I really thought this was going to take much longer to stitch.  I even had a stint last weekend of no stitching since I was out of town.  And now it's about time to start focusing on Christmas presents.  It'll be here before I know it, that's usually what happens.  See you next post!

12 Dragonlets of Christmas: Fourteenth Post

It's been a while, hasn't it.  After getting almost a post a day from me did you miss me?  Yeah, probably not.  But I have one more part of my dragons done.

First up, I stitched the main color of the main border, I kind of think it looks like little dragon prints, but, unfortunately, that wasn't what I was going for.  But it has given me an idea on a possible future project.

Next I did the other green and red.  Okay, much better, at least now it looks like holly, which was my plan.

And some backstitching for the stems, I guess, of the holly.  And the corners have red snowflakes, yes red, white wouldn't show up.

Nope, still not done :D  You might see the final version in the next post for this project.

Project Stats:
Pattern: 12 Dragonlets of 2012
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams Facebook Page
Started Stitching: September 6, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. Legacy Cashel Linen
Floss: DMC & ThreadworX 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 91.35% complete
Stitches: 3,814 out of 4,175 complete

12 Dragonlets of Christmas: Thirteenth Post

Are you ready for the layout?  Here's how everything looked after I finished #10 earlier tonight:

I find it interesting that when I put them on my WIP page they ended up in the same layout by pure chance just due to the width of the pictures and the width of my blog space.

I next added in some borders to separate each dragonlet of Christmas.  It took me a while to come up with something to go there.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to do just backstitching or single cross stitches, but that seemed too boring.  After quite a bit of playing around I decided to go with a stitch I originally stitched on two previous Dragon Dreams charts, Lost Dragon Sampler and Tales of Wonder, called a herringbone stitch.  I decided to use a variegated thread by ThreadworX called Christmas Candy, and here's how it turned out:

I had purchased three skeins of the thread, but I didn't even use half of one, oh well, I'm sure I'll find something else one day to use it on.  I was kind of hoping that the border would be a little bit more random, but I think it looks nice the way it is.  Actually I probably don't need to do anything else but frame it, but... where's the fun in that?

Project Stats:
Pattern: 12 Dragonlets of 2012
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams Facebook Page
Started Stitching: September 6, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. Legacy Cashel Linen
Floss: DMC & ThreadworX 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 70.75% complete
Stitches: 2,954 out of 4,175 complete

You may notice no change in the stats, that's because I really don't know how to count backstitching as stitches, also when I added these to the program I made them as backstitches, and the program counts backstitching in inches, not stitches, it was 99.79" or 8.3' (2.5m) if you're curious.

So on with the next bit, it's going to take a bit longer than this bit.  I have no idea how long, so I'll just say I'll be back when I'm back.

12 Dragonlets of Christmas: Twelfth Post

They're done!!  All 12 dragonlets have been stitched with #10 Dragons Leaping being the last one completed.  And it is the least involved with stitching.  But really, with a leaping dragon what can you add?

I was originally not going to take three pictures of this one since there were so few colors, but I figured I might as well keep the posts the same, so here he is with all the greens... really most of the piece:

And the 15 stitches that weren't in the previous picture:

And he's done!

Project Stats:
Pattern: 12 Dragonlets of 2012
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams Facebook Page
Started Stitching: September 6, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. Legacy Cashel Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 70.75% complete
Stitches: 2,954 out of 4,175 complete

I'll show you a picture of the layout in the next post where I'll be adding some borders.  You can see I still have almost 30% of the piece left to do so there's still much more to come!

12 Draognlets of Christmas: Eleventh Post

This is going to be my last post today.  My elbow is hurting me due to a case of tennis elbow that I've been ignoring.  Not my smartest move.

Anyway, here's the second to last dragon, #11 Dragons Piping.

As per usual, the greens of the dragon are first.

Followed by everything else:

Tons and tons of backstitching.  Lots of colors, but it looks really nice completed.

He looks good, don't you think?  I think he's my third favorite.

Project Stats:
Pattern: 12 Dragonlets of 2012
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams Facebook Page
Started Stitching: September 6, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. Legacy Cashel Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 66.27% complete
Stitches: 2,767 out of 4,175 complete

I've saved the easiest for last, as least in my opinion #10 is the easiest.  I believe I'll have him finished either Saturday or Sunday, depending on how long the American Football game I'm going to tomorrow lasts.