Completed Project Add: Cross Stitch - Magnetic Puppies

While I was working at Michaels, the first time, I ran across a cross stitch book with a bunch of puppies in it.  I thought it would be fun to make two Dachshunds for my sister. She had two, a short haired girl (who just recently passed away) on the left and a long haired boy on the right.

There were two problems with my plan.  One, the Dachshund in the book was just brown so I had to change it into a black and tan.  Two, there wasn't a long haired Dachshund pattern, so I took the Cocker Spaniel pattern, shortened the legs, lengthened the body and tail, and changed the color.

And viola, here's the outcome:

I figured it'd be best to make them into magnets.  So I got some cross stitch plastic, stitched them, cut the plastic down, then added a self stick magnetic backing.

I've actually made four sets of these.  Two for my sister, her fridge died and she forgot to take them off and the people who took it away took them with it.  And two for my mother (at the time I originally made them, my nephew wasn't born, so these were her only grandchildren, or grandpuppies), she lost one set, but found it when she moved and gave me back one set, so I now have one set as well.

Original Pattern: An Encyclopedia of Puppies - Modified Dachshund, Pebbles
Pattern by: American School of Needlework
Original Started Stitching: March 2005
Original Finished Stitching: March 2005
Fabric: Darice 14 ct. White Perforated Plastic
Floss: DMC, 3 over 1
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 614 out of 614 complete

Original Pattern: An Encyclopedia of Puppies - Modified Cocker Spaniel, Rocky
Pattern by: American School of Needlework
Original Started Stitching: March 2005
Original Finished Stitching: April 2005
Fabric: Darice 14 ct. White Perforated Plastic
Floss: DMC, 3 over 1
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 985 out of 985 complete

When my mother told me she'd lost the one set I gave her, she told me to just give her the new set as a Christmas present.  I thought, it's kind of boring to know what you're going to get so I decided to make a new magnet for her.  The new magnet I made was an Irish Setter.  Growing up, my eldest "sister" was an Irish Setter.  My parents got her about 4 months before my human elder sister was born.  I didn't like the coloring in the pattern, I thought it looked too light, so I just changed it to darker DMC colors.  I've only made one of these at this point.

Original Pattern: An Encyclopedia of Puppies - Irish Setter, Heidi
Pattern by: American School of Needlework
Started Stitching: November 2009
Finished Stitching: December 2009
Fabric: Darice 14 ct. White Perforated Plastic
Floss: DMC, 3 over 1
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 1,157 out of 1,157 complete

I haven't been able to find a webpage for the company or the book other than used versions, so the link goes to Amazon.com, for now.

The Red Fox: First Post - Complete

This is on the of the projects I started, and completed, during my long absence.  It is the piece that goes with The Lion.

I don't have a whole lot to say about it, except I stitched it on 32ct. Woodland Lugana by Picture This Plus.

The first color:

The rest of the colors in the foxes:

 Then I added in the rocks:

Now some foliage:

And finally the backstitching:

Project Stats:
Pattern: The Red Fox
Pattern by: Gloria & Pat
Started Stitching: April 9, 2014
Finished Stitching: June 28, 2014
Fabric: 32ct. Woodland Lugana
Floss: DMC 2 over 2
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 5,169 out of 5,169 complete

So, that's it.  PTP had their Christmas in July sale, so I finally bought a bit more fabric, including the fabric for The Wolf, which will be the next one of these you see.  Hopefully I'll also have another post of Faces of Faery 88 by the end of the week, and I might also have a completed project add for tomorrow.  Whee!  So much posting after so long.  'Till then!

Faces of Faery 88: First Post

Where the heck have I been?  I do apologize for my absence.  I have been doing some stitching, not alot but some.  Mostly a little bit here, and a little bit there.  I do have a few progress pictures to post, quite a few framed pieces to post, but we'll start here.

I think this may be the most popular Faces of Faery out there.  What can I say, I can't blame people for wanting to stitch it, I love it too.  I like working on charts that others have not done before, but this one I couldn't resist.  You may have noticed my love for dragons, hence my decision to do this particular one.  There are other Faces of Faery out there, specifically 221 & 174, that aren't charted that I'd love to do.  There are a few more I like; 95, 180 & 78, but not nearly as much as the first two.

This chart is 6 pages, two of which are hardly worth mentioning.  So I decided, since there are so many large chunks of color, to stitch all 6 pages simultaneously cross country.  Since it's easiest, at least for me, to start with the largest quantity of stitches, I went with the color that had over 6,000, yikes.  It was a flesh color.

However, the two large chunks of the color were very... VERY far apart, so I did a little bit of the second most color, 939, to make sure I counted correctly.  I did, yay!

Then I finished the rest of the 939.

Ahh... there's the little guy.

I guess I could have posted there, a whopping 10,523 stitches done, but I was being lazy on the posting and didn't.... I'm sorry.  However, I did two more colors are here's where she is right now!

She's starting to really come along.  I don't think she's going to be put away quite yet.  I'm enjoying it too much.  We'll see how long it takes me to get bored.  I promise I'll be better about posting for the rest of the year.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Faces of Faery 88
Original Artist: Jasmine Becket-Griffith
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: October 4, 2013
Fabric: 28ct. White Evenweave
Floss: DMC 1 over 1
Percentage: 44.73% complete
Colors Stitched: 4 of 89 complete
Stitches: 13,778 out of 30,800 complete

A Request:

Now despite my recent absence I have a request for my friends over in the London area, or just someone in the UK that can tell me weather.  My parents are going on a trip next week and will be staying in London for a few days.  I'm insanely jealous!  I was hoping to be able to give them a bit of information on what weather they may end up encountering.  You don't have to be too specific, but just generally, hot/cold, humid, rainy, stuff like that.  Thanks in advance for any information.  I'm sure they'll appreciate it.