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.