Messy... but MINE!: First Post

I really need to stop jumping from blog to blog.  I find so much fun stuff to stitch!  I found a bunch of free Dragons to stitch over at Dragon Dreams.  They're great!  I'm definitely going to have to stitch them.  I might have also bought of few of their charts as well.  I guess when you're a fantasy freak and you come across a place called Dragon Dreams you're doomed.

Here's my first Dragon Dreams x-stitch.  I've never been the neatest person in the world, so Messy...But MINE! is the perfect project for me.  I have decided to make a minor change or two.  Grasped in the dragon's claws is a brown teddy bear.  I have my own teddy bear.  I've had him since I was 5 years old.  His name is Whitey (don't laugh at his name, I was five!), so I'm guessing you probably figured out that he's not a brown bear.  I'm going to change the pattern to look like him, and since Whitey will be 28 years old this Christmas he's not really white anymore.  Instead, he's going to be a combination of grays and beiges.

I've also decided that, despite my distaste for it, I'm going to add some gold blending filament to all the yellow that's supposed to be gold.  I think it'll add a nice little kick that will be worth the little extra time it'll take to stitch.

Last change is I've decided to stitch it on some 28ct DMC Linen that I bought back when I worked at Michaels.  I think it will add a little extra medievalness to it.  So I've gotten pretty far on it, ready for the ton of progress pictures I took?

First Color
Added one more green
And yet another green
Two more... GREENS!

And here's the final pic of the post (and possibly blurriest):

The dragon is done except for the black of his pupils and nostrils.  I will do those right before I start playing with all the backstitching.  He looks a little demonic without the black, but know it won't be long before that black is added.  Well, I'm off to play with a little treasure!

Project Stats:
Pattern: Messy... But MINE!
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams
Started Stitching: November 8, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. DMC Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, or 1 over 2 Kreinick #4 Braid
Percentage: 73.79% complete
Stitches: 1,886 out of 2,556 complete

Anthera: Second Post

Well, the eyes did take me as long as I thought they would.  All day Wednesday in fact.  Well, part of that was due to the fact that I had to take out about 90% of the left eye, I hate it when I make a stupid counting mistake.  Here it is all fixed and done:

Yay, no more of the black filament, which doesn't look as cool as the silver, but oh well, I am not undoing it again.

So I started to work on the top curls, but I guess my body decided it hadn't been sick for a while and Thursday was the perfect day.  So, I didn't get much stitching done, and I think I slept for about 3/4 of the day.  So now it's Friday, I'm still feeling a little weak from my illness, but it doesn't take too much energy to stitch, right?  At least this picture isn't as crooked.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Anthera
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: November 13, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with black filament
Percentage: 77.26% complete
Stitches: 2,766 out of 3,580 complete

I'm going to have to take a break until Monday on Anthera.  My grandfather is going to be in town so I'll be spending a bit of time at my parents' place visiting, and I can't very well work on my mother's gift while she's in the same room.

Anthera: First Post

Well, after the disappointment of not being able to finish Colombina, and further disappointment of the thread being out of stock where I normally order it from, I've done quite a bit on Anthera in just one day.  Almost 34% of the total!  I'm feeling much better about being able to finish both of these in time for the holidays.  I pretty much have no doubt that I will get them done in time.  To the right is a reminder of what it looks like.

First up, here's a pic of the fabric and a portion of the thread I'm using, Caron Waterlilies Salt & Pepper.  The fabric is very lightly dyed, I was actually impressed that the difference in colors was visible in this picture.

Next up is the center of the piece.  Basically the "body" of the butterfly.

And this is where it is now:

The bottom part is done.  I'm going to start on the eyes and get the filament out of the way, which, if Colombina was any indication, will be the most annoying part of the piece.  Luckily there are less stitches around the eyes that need the filament than on Colombina.  I'm hoping to get enough done today that I'll have to bore you with yet another post tomorrow!

Project Stats:
Pattern: Anthera
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: November 13, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with black filament
Percentage: 33.85% complete
Stitches: 1,212 out of 3,580 complete

Colombina: Third Post

I've been a bad, bad girl.  I started two other projects while I swore to myself that I wouldn't start any until after I had finished one.  So this will be a quick post as I have tons of things I want to finish by the end of the year, and less time to do it in.

On the other hand, I'm incredibly close to finishing Colombina.  Here it is after I completed one side:

And here it is right now:

No, your eyes are not deceiving you.  I have not completed the last curl.  Why, you may ask, am I posting with the project being merely 79 stitches from being complete?  I'm glad you asked, I ran out of thread!  Can you believe it?  :(  So off I go to buy one more skein, and while I'm at it I'm going to order an extra skein of the color I'm using for Anthera, just to be sure.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Colombina
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: September 28, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with silver filament
Percentage: 97.84% complete
Stitches: 3,579 out of 3,658 complete

So we'll see what happens first, will I get far enough on Anthera to post before my thread arrives to finish Colombina?  I feel like I'm writing a cheesy cliffhanger for a television show.

Colombina: Second Post

I'm sorry I've been a bit dark recently.  Honestly I was working on sewing a Halloween Costume, which, in hindsight, I realized I should have taken progress pictures and posted those.  Unfortunately I did not.  Anyway after that was finished for last weekend's party, I lost my job on Tuesday, so needless to say, Not much has been done.

Here's what I got done on Colombina before all the chaos of Halloween costumes and employment issues.

I've done a little bit more, the two curls closest to the center on the left hand side.  I'm planning on getting this done next week.  Without work to hinder me, I should get it done rather quickly.


Project Stats:
Pattern: Colombina
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: September 28, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with silver filament
Percentage: 73.23% complete
Stitches: 2,679 out of 3,658 complete

Colombina: First Post

As I mentioned in my last post I started working on my Mother's Christmas / Birthday present.  There's two pictures so she gets on for Christmas and one for her Birthday in January.  My plan is to get both stitched and given to her on Christmas, then have them framed in time for her Birthday, but since they're going to hung up at her house I want her to help pick out the frames and mats.

I started with Colombina, as I guess would be obvious from my post title.  Here's a picture of it on the right.

I couldn't find the exact colors I was looking for in fabric so I eventually decided to try hand dying my own fabric.  I took 28 ct. evenweave fabric, cut it in half, one for Colombina and one for Anthera.  For Colombina I dyed the fabric a dark gray.  Then I used a dying technique I found online using black dye.  This is what I came up with.

I don't think it looks too bad for my first attempt.  The thread at the top is the variegated thread that I'm using, but in my usual fashion it's a  little washed out.  The thread is Caron Waterlilies in the color Ash.  My initial intent was to have a silver thread along with it to make it sparkling.  However, I was so excited to get started I completely forgot about the silver.  Before I knew it, I already had quite a bit done, what I've started to call its mustache.


I was a little bummed but it looked really good and I didn't want to take it apart so I figured I'd just do both without the shininess.

I talked to my sister and told her what happened and she asked why I didn't just start using it from this point on.  I told her it would look funky with the one part not being stitched, then I realized that my weird sense of stitching the mirror images gave me a way to have some fun.  I decided to just add the filament to the parts that surround the eyes on the masks.  So I did those next.

Unfortunately it doesn't show up very well in this picture  but everything stitched in the picture that wasn't stitched in the last picture has silver in it, and it looks pretty cool, even next to the same color without the silver.  I also found out what a pain it is to stitch with the stuff.  It took me forever to get these four lines done.  Now I'm kind of happy I initially forgot the silver.

The rest of this will be stitched with just the variegated thread, no silver, so hopefully it will go a bit quicker from this point.  I am, however, worried about running out of thread.  Only time will tell.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Colombina
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: September 28, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with silver filament
Percentage: 54.84% complete
Stitches: 2,006 out of 3,658 complete

Completed Project Add: Cross Stitch - Paladin

Here's the finished project add I was referring to in the last post:  A very simple piece, but I think he's striking and wonderful.  Such a proud looking dragon.

Pattern: Paladin
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs

Started Stitching: June 23, 2010

Finished Stitching: June 25, 2010

Fabric: 28ct. Lava Cashel Linen

Floss: Hand-Dyed Silk 2 over 2

Story about getting this framed:

My sister and I went to the Michael's near her place and went through all the fun of framing this.  When it was ready to pick up we went back, and for some reason our mother was in town and went with us.  Anyway, my sister went to grab something while our mother and I stayed at the counter.  They unwrap it and I'm looking at it thinking, okay, that's the right frame and mats and... hrm... something's not quite right.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's basically correct.

My sister gets back, takes a look at it and instantly says, "Isn't that backwards?"  I look again and, sure enough, he's facing the left!  That's what was so odd, then I look closer and I realize I'm looking at the back of the piece.  They framed it with the back out!  I'm not sure to be beaming with pride that they thought the back of my piece looked so good that it could be mistaken for the front or be annoyed.  I went with the former and shrugged it off.

The framing manager couldn't believe it and was going to give the framer a good talking to.  They fixed it at no charge, of course, and it is how we see it today.  Now I really wish I had taken a picture of it backwards, I would have posted that here as well.

Moving on:
While I was gathering information for this post I went to the website for Fire Wing Designs and found this was part of a whole series of goodies, the Signet Series.  The artist had created ten other patterns in the same style... what can I say, it was love at first sight.

I ended up buying all but two of the ten remaining patterns in the Signet Collection.  One pattern of the eight I purchased is actually 4 different patterns of small 3.5" x 6" pieces that, I think, I could finish each one in a night.  I might end up getting one of the other patterns, but the eleventh is a snake and I'm more into dragons, so I, more than likely, won't purchase that one.

My favorite out of the remaining dragons is Samurai.  He's going to be my next project for me out of the eight I just bought.  Hopefully he'll only take three days like Paladin did.

New project add for this year:
When we were growing up, my sister and I had a black and white bathroom.  So first we started decorating it with black and white things, orcas and the like.  We finally got a pair of black and white comedy and tragedy masks, and after that we started decorating the bathroom with masks.  When our parents moved closer to us my mother kept her "Mask Bathroom".  So I decided to make the two Signet Masks, one with a black background and light thread and one with a light background and dark thread.  Hopefully it will look as good in real life as it does in my head.

And the thread arrived in the mail on Friday so I've already started on it.  I will post progress pictures soon.