Nocturne: First Post

As I mentioned in my post for Samurai I fell in love with this the instant I saw it.  I just knew I had to stitch it!

As I mentioned I loved the subtlety of the blue on blue version.  I am not changing any of the colors from the sample piece.

I started working on it last night and I already have a color finish, the inside dark purple.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Nocturne
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: May 29, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. Lunar Cashel Linen
Floss: DMC & Weeks Dye Works 2 over 2
Percentage: 11.62% complete
Stitches: 1,023 out of 8,799 complete

I think I'm going to try to get through as many of the Signets as I can.  I want to frame them similarly, so I don't want to frame them until they're all done.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do about Paladin.  Therefore, if I don't work on them, I'll never be able to enjoy the ones I've finished.  They all shouldn't take too much time, maybe a week each except for Nocturne, Eclipse and Duality.  I'm planning on making myself Anthera and Colombina as well, but not in the immediate future as they can be framed differently.

I also, unfortunately, am really liking Eva Horne's Dragonflies designs.  So the sooner I finish with her Signets  the sooner I can work on her Dragonflies.

Her Special Place: Fourth Post

I went back to Her Special Place and have the majority of her hair done.

There are still some holes, but most of the holes are the "gems" in her hair, with a few exceptions.

So I continued on and did green... wait green?  Well and navy blue:

Why this sudden change in color?  Well, all the colors I had left in her hair, most (maybe all) of those colors were also on the edges of the lily pad, like that navy blue patch in the bottom left corner.  So I decided to do the green with the most stitches just to be able to get to the edges and complete all the color.

I'm going to do the sparkly thread next.  There are over 8000 of that color so it will probably be a while before you see her again.  Nocturne will probably be making an appearance before she gets her next post.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Her Special Place
Original Artist: Selina Fenech
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: October 16, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. White Evenweave
Floss: DMC 1 over 1; Sulky 2 over 1
Percentage: 17.39% complete
Stitches: 11,239 out of 64,595 complete

Completed Project Add: Cross Stitch - Creative Dog

I'm going to try something new.  I haven't been very good about posting my old stuff, but I have many of them ready to go, I just never found the "right" time to post them.  So I'm going to make Saturday the completed project post day, at least until I've run out of things to post.

First up: I think this one goes well with my Messy... But MINE!  I did this one a few years back.  It was a full kit and I'm kind of wishing I had decided to change the pink since I'm more of a blue kind of girl, but the pink might work as a better contrast against the green.

My favorite part of the picture, which is a little difficult to see in the pic are the two green stitches on his nose.  I actually thought it was a misprint at first, then I realized he'd gotten some paint on his nose as well.  I've done that... Why does it always seem like your nose itches when you have wet paint on your hands?

Pattern: Creative Dog
Pattern by: Design Works
Started Stitching: July 7, 2009
Finished Stitching: July 17, 2009
Fabric: 14ct. White Aida
Floss: Kit Floss; 2 over 1

I do remember having a hard time framing this piece, I wanted one of the mats to highlight the pink of the border or green of the paint, but none of the colors looked right.  My sister was the main mat designer of this piece.

Nephew 2's Blanket: Second Post

I got through another skein.  This is really coming along quickly.  It took me much longer to make the last blanket.

I laid it on top of the other blanket and it is looking a little less than 50%, if you include the edging.  We'll see if I can keep up this pace or if I need to change to something else.  Her Special Place is staring at me, almost begging me to finish up the current color, then she might be put away for a little bit.  I'd like to knock off a few of the small items on my WIP, that page is really starting to get out of control! :)

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: 45% complete (approx.)

Nephew 2's Blanket: First Post

Before I started this blog I had made a blanket for my nephew before he was born.  It was the first "large" crochet project I had ever done.  I had made a scarf for my mother... I need to find that and photograph it... but never anything as large as a blanket.  It didn't come out perfectly rectangular, but I think it looks pretty good:

Well, now I have a second nephew on its way, and I know I can't not make him one too.  I decided to use the same pattern so they're the same size, and I just really like the pattern.  However, this time I'm using a different color yarn so that they can tell the two apart.  The yarn arrived last Thursday.

This time, since I know it's a boy before starting, I got the blue and green yarn called Swim.

I started working on it Sunday and got pretty far in one night (It's laying on my lap):

Today I finished one of the skeins.  It will be a total of 4 to 5 skeins

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: 25% complete (approx.)

Her Special Place: Third Post

So I've been working on Her Special Place.

I've been in a weird crafting mood recently.  I haven't really wanted to work on any of my projects, but I've wanted to work on something.  I did some navy blue on Transcendence and I worked on a new project which I haven't gotten far enough on to post.  Then I started working on Her Special Place again, and it seemed to be what the "doctor" ordered.

I decided to work on her hair next.  It seemed to make more sense in the overall stitching process.  There are some colors that are in her hair that are also skin tones so it'll be a natural progression to her skin.

The first two colors of her hair:

A few more colors here:

I think she's looking really good and I'm going to continue working on her for the time being.  At least until I get most of her hair done.

Since I'm working this on 28 count I knew the Kreinik #4 braid wouldn't work with it.  Thanks to Thea I was able to easily find a nice replacement in Sulky thread, color 7021.  I wanted to see how it would work, and did three stitches of it in her hair.  I think the two strands will work perfectly.  Thanks Thea.

Back to stitching I go.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Her Special Place
Original Artist: Selina Fenech
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: October 16, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. White Evenweave
Floss: DMC 1 over 1
Percentage: 10.43% complete
Stitches: 6,739 out of 64,595 complete

Dolphin Trio: Third Post - Framed

Here is the final framed piece: Dolphin Trio.

I went with a blue top mat and a dark burgundy bottom mat in hopes of bringing out some of the color in the reef, it looks black in the picture, but believe me, it's burgundy   I had a frame picked out.  It was white like this one, but it had a cool ripple pattern around it.  Unfortunately it was a discontinued molding that they had never taken off the wall.  I was bummed, it would have looked even better in that frame.  At least I think it would have.

My mother is actually going to keep it and put it in her "blue" bedroom where she has a painting of dolphins I did when I was in high school.  I don't mind, I don't have much wall space.  My family keeps telling me I'm going to need to move to a bigger place just to get more walls to hang all my pictures.  I may need to use Jo's suggestion of rotating pictures.

I know I had started this blog as a way to get me working on stuff, but the problem is it's actually working!  I've had more finishes in the past year and two months than I had in the previous 5 years.  I could focus more on my flowers and crocheting, but then I'll round out of shelf and counter space.  So many fun things to do, so little room to display.

I'm sure you're more interested in what I've been working on instead of seeing old completes again.  But never fear I will have an update soon.  It may be surprising to see what I've actually been working on.  it surprised me.  Plus I need to start working on a new baby blanket for nephew #2, that yarn will arrive next week, and that should take a little bit of my time, but I have until mid November to finish that, but I would like to finish it by the end of summer.  It's the only project with a hard deadline, until I start working on Christmas gifts.  I really should start working on those soon.

Little Snap Dragon: Fifth Post - Framed

I had some fun framing this one.  It wasn't difficult for me to pick out the mats, I did have to go through a few before I found just the right colors, and I had to play around a bit before I got them in the "right" order though.  Then came the frame.  I was stumped.  My sister was with the other framer working on getting her own pieces framed but I called her over for help.

She grabbed a few frames, including one the the most expensive frames off the wall.  And that frame, which I never would have picked on my own, looked awesome!  Dangit!  This is a huge piece and of course the larger it is the more expensive it is to frame, but none of the other frames just worked the way this one did.  So I bit the bullet and said frame it.

Without further ado, here it is:

It is huge.  I'm pretty sure I know where I'm going to hang it, hopefully it fits there.  I guess I'll find out when I get it home.

Dolphin Trio is the only piece left that I haven't posted from my most recent framing expedition.  But I still have plenty of old pieces that I still need to share.

Mini Roses: Second Post - Complete

Well, my sister liked her tulips and even knew they were tulips when she opened her gift so I consider the gift a success!

It's time to go on to the Roses.  The container for these guys have gone through quite a few revisions in my head.  Originally I was going to paint a terracotta pot white and add some little decorative swirls to it.  Then I thought of using a glass vase and filling it with decorative sand in an interesting pattern.  So I did what I normally do when I'm unsure of what I want to do, I talk to my sister. She seemed as thrilled with the terracotta pot idea as I was, and she said the sand idea could take focus away from the main part of the piece, the roses.

Her idea was to use a glass vase, and use a crackle medium.  I thought this would be a cool idea, but I didn't want the crackle on the outside I wanted it on the inside.  So I did some research and never found if the medium would work in reverse, I might test this out one day though.  While researching I came across a pinterest pin that I thought would be a great idea.

I was going to take pictures as I did it, but I forgot, so here are my finished attempts:

My mother actually helped me with these a little.  She was holding up a towel to keep the over spray from getting everywhere.  It was a little windy.  I wasn't sure which one I was going to use at this point.  The size of the bunch was going to determine that.

I was going to work on this tomorrow, but I wanted to work on something and I ended up working on this.  With the next picture I added the leaves to the flowers, wrapped the stems with floral tape and have started wrapping everything around a stem wire with 34 gauge wire.

Below everything is wrapped together, now I just need to shape it and figure out which "vase" I'm using.

Below I've arranged the flowers and found the smaller vase is the best fit.

Add a bit of floral foam surrounded by moss, add the flowers and you're done!

To get the idea of the size, the vase is actually a votive candle holder.  Now I just need to stow it away until Mother's Day this Sunday.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Mini Roses
Flower Design: Dalene Kelly
Arrangement Design: Me
Started: April 24, 2013
Finished: May 6, 2013
Beads: 11/0 Czech Seed Beads
Wire: 26 ga. floral wire and Artistic Wire

Tales of Wonder: Second Post - Framed

And now for Tales of Wonder!

I used the same frame, top mat and filet.  But this time I decided to try to pull out a little of the pink that is in the piece.

So now my problem is where am I going to put all these?  I haven't even hung up the last round that I got framed.

Lost Dragon Sampler: Third Post - Framed

Here's the first of the most recent batch of framed pieces.  The poor lost little dragon.

I decided to frame this one and Tales of Wonder very similarly, I'll post that in a few moments.  I used one of the same green "suede" mats that were used on Messy but Mine! and No Late Knight Snacking.  I did have a gold mat in the middle, but the only gold that really seemed to work was out of stock.  So the woman helping us came up with the fillet.  The bottom mat I decided to go with a brighter green to try to highlight the color in the picture.  The frame is a wooden frame with a bit of gold brushed around the edge.

Now let's check out Tales of Wonder...

A Giveaway... of sorts

Hey all!  I have a kind of giveaway, but unfortunately it is only for the Americans and Canadians out there... Sorry!

As many of you read I lost my job late last year.  Well, I returned to working at Michaels to pay my bills in the meantime.  How is this relevant you ask... well, I'm glad you did.

About once a year Michaels has what they call a "Friends and Family" event.  This allows us to give this wonderful flyer of coupons to whoever we deem as "friends" and whoever we're stuck with for "family".

If you can't tell by the picture, the two orange coupons on the left are for Michaels, and the two green on the right are for Aaron Brothers.  These coupons are only valid May 16th - 18th.  There's a 25% off of your entire order including sale items and a 55% + 15% off of custom framing orders (this comes to 61.75% off). One of each type of coupon for each store.  Plus a 40% off of your MiDesign purchase.  (This is custom flyer /  invitation type of place.  Just go to the link for information.)

Update: I just noticed that the dates for Canada are different than the US.  The Canadian dates are May 14th - 16th.  I have no idea why they're different, seems a bit odd to me, but I just go with the flow.

I grabbed 10 of these from my manager today and he told me I could have as many as I wanted.  So... are any of you in need of building up your DMC stash?  Are you thinking of starting to crochet, knit, or any other crafty type stuff?  If you'd like one of these little pretties click my form link:

Form for Coupon

Unfortunately these must be snail mailed. :(  I am mailing these from Southern California, USA, and I will probably get it out to the mail/post the day after I get the request, so please make sure you ask early enough for it to arrive in time.  I will be folding this up so it will fit in a standard envelope

I am sorry for my first, and maybe only, giveaway I am unable to include everyone.  I can tell from blogs quite a few of you are in the UK, but if you have any friends in the States or Canada you'd like me to send one to I'll be more than happy to send it their way.  Or if you happen to be visiting our continent during this time I'll be happy to mail one to you.

While my manager said I can have as many as I want I probably will cut off around 25ish, depending on my mood and postage cost.  I only have 19 followers so this shouldn't be a huge issue.  Also, this will be a first come first served situation especially if the store runs out of flyers.  I will disable the link when I've reached my limit, or there are no more left at the store, whichever comes first.  But there are definitely 10 up for grabs, I have those in my hands right now.  Okay, they're in a bag next to my stove, but you get my meaning.

Now I just need to find some stamps... I haven't mailed anything in forever.

I got all my recently framed pieces back so I'll be posting those throughout the next week or so, and I was a very bad girl and made a new start, and it's not Nocturne.  I'll be buying what I need for that with my own friends and family coupon.