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.