Still stitching along...

I'm still working on the model stitch.  I'm definitely in the home stretch with it.  Technically, today is the deadline to be finished.  But I think the designer underestimated exactly how long these borders take.  I've kept in touch with her though, and she knows where I'm at and is fine with it.

I will be glad when this is done though, because I'm ready to get back to my daughter's Mira and my son's dragon.  While stitching this week I started listening to Updraft on my Audible account.  I've been enjoying it so far and it's nice to be able to stitch and "read" at the same time.

One other little tidbit, I forgot to share some gorgeous thread with you that my friend Laura got me in our recent exchange!  She got me this gorgeous skein of Bradley's Balloons by Threadworx.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I'm in love with this thread.  

I keep thinking of a using this in a blackwork styled Easter Egg pattern.  Wouldn't that be beautiful?  I just might have to take the plunge on that soon after finishing the model stitch.

A lil' update

Nothing huge to share but a bit of WIP progress.  I have gotten a bit more done on the dragon's tail.  Although I did have to stop the last time I worked on it.  I got my thread tangled three times in a row on the back, having to frog it out each time.  At that point, I figured it just wasn't the project to work on in that moment.  This is stitched with three threads.  So even with using Thread Heaven, I have to be careful about tangles.

When I got flustered with the dragon, I wanted something easy to stitch on.  So I decided to pull out my current pillowcase pair that I've slowly been working on, off and on for most of this year.  I always like to get one new pillowcase pair stitched per year.  This is a vintage pair I found on Ebay last year.  I've really been enjoying working on these the past few nights.  They are both the same, so I'll just show one.  I'm at the same spot progress wise on both.

Earlier in the week, I worked some more on the 1 over 1 skin on my Mira.  She now has hands and a start on her decollete area.  Very slow going on this, but I can't wait to get her face done.

And I also finished the stitching on the pumpkin biscornu.  I need another piece of this fabric to stitch the needlebook.

I might see about going back to the dragon tonight to see if we can make nice with each other again, lol.

We have a dragon!

After I finished my Rapunzel piece for my daughter a few months ago and then very shortly after that decided to stitch Rain Queen for her, I wondered if there could be anything my son might want.  Granted, I know mom's cross stitch isn't the coolest thing for an 18 year old boy, but still, I didn't see any harm in asking.  He browsed through my Herrschners catalog and found the Water Dragon.  It arrived yesterday and after the day's needful things were done, I set straight to it.  

I was a bit surprised at how big it is.  Here is my son holding it up over his head.

  

As you can see, the design is stamped on for cross stitch.  These gorgeous colors pop on this black fabric. And it's truly fabric ~ not Aida or linen or evenweave.  This is a quilting fabric.

As part of the kit, you also get this huge thread card.

Just a couple of days before this package with the dragon arrived, I had found a 17X17 qsnap at my local thrift store for $2!  (Insert Happy Dance...)  I had been needing one in preparation for the George Washington project.  (See sidebar.)  But when I saw the size of this project, I knew I could make use of that qsnap right away.  It was also a great opportunity to use my large floor stand.  

Perfect!

This is my progress with two days worth of work.  Water waves in the upper left corner and a start on the dragon's tail in the center.  I'll probably work on it a bit more tonight too.  I have to admit, I haven't been this excited for a project in a long time.  I'm not sure why, other than this piece is just so darn fun to work on!

Happy stitching everyone ~ I'm going to try and squeeze in some more needle and thread time before it gets too late.  ~~~

First try at Hardanger and Carrot fabric

So.

In an effort to continue growing and expanding my stitchy skills and knowledge, I decided it was time to start tackling Hardanger.  I own a lot of Hardanger books and patterns, but....Hardanger.  

Know what I mean?

I did at least understand the process and wasn't at all afraid of the cutting.  I totally understood how and why it works, so the cutting isn't scary if you understand and trust the process.  It was just an unknown territory.

And I decided to dive in.  

I'm using a pattern from this book.  Who knows how old it is?

And this is the pattern I chose.  It seemed like the easiest one.

I'll admit I'm fudging a bit on this project because I decided to just start it on a whim.  So I didn't have the pearl threads called for.  So I'm using regular DMC cotton, three threads.  This is just a learning experience, so I'm not picky.  I will probably turn the finished product into a Christmas ornament.

But we're not finished yet.  Not nearly.

I'm using such contrasting colors in order to make everything easier to see.  And it's already painfully obvious that I need sharper scissors.  I need a pair of scissors specifically for Hardanger.  But for now, like I said, I'm just trying to learn and I'm not being picky.

I will also say that one of my first impressions is that Hardanger is even more time consuming than cross stitch.  This piece, once done, will have satin stitches, woven bars, and dove's eye specialty stitches.  And the initial stitching part isn't too bad.  (Once you realize that one square on the pattern is equal to two squares on your fabric - and they *don't* tell you that.  You're just supposed to know it by some special mojo osmosis or something.)  But the cutting and then the weaving - oh my mercy, it does take up the time. 

I'll get it done though.  Because I'm stubborn like that.  In the world of stitching there is so much to learn and so many ways to expand your skill set.  I love that.

I have a new project that I am going to start kitting up.  This was on the cover of Cross-Stitch and Needlework magazine last year in the Fall issue.  As soon as I saw it, I fell in love.  I love it all ~ the colors, the pattern, the edge work ~ all of it.  It is intended to be a jack'o'lantern pattern but truthfully that doesn't jump out at me.  I have to look at it a bit before I even see the little faces.  I just think it's a stunning set.

I went to 123Stitch to see about finding the fabric.  I don't want to change anything on this.  I was it exactly as shown, so the 30ct Weeks Dye Works fabric in the color, "Carrot," is exactly what I want.  

And let's just say....CHA-CHING $$$$$$.

The entire set requires two pieces of fabric 16X16, two that are 12X12, and two that are 14X14.  Now, of course, they are not sold in those exact specific sizes.  So to get what I need, I'll have to buy two that is 13X17 and four that are 17X26.  

And that, my dears, will run close to $110!!!

Wowsers.

So I'm just going to go at it a little bit at a time.  Eat the elephant one small nibble here and another there.  I really can't wait though.  I'm just itching to work on this.  

That's all now my dears.  I'm off to stitch a bit and read some stitchy blogs.  

Hugs and kisses and busy needles to you all!

:0)

Well, this kind of snuck up on me...

In 5 weeks I'm headed to a retreat in the Smokey Mountains.  It's a trip that's kind of traditional for me and one that I look forward to all year long.  There are two gift exchanges at this retreat.  One is a gift box full of stitchy type notions and the other is a stitched ornament exchange.  So I know all year I have to stitch something for this retreat.  But for some reason, this year it slipped my mind until now.  When I stitch an ornament for giving, I like to stitch two so I can keep one myself.  So my stitching schedule grew by two ornaments, lol.  The pattern I chose for this year's ornament is a dove inside a circle with a filigree, leafy type of border around it.  It's charted in blues and roses but I'm changing it up to Christmas colors.  I'm going to give them a simple finish in the clear acrylic ornament frames that 123Stitch sells.

I have a little finish!  :0)  I finished up Frosty Friends a couple of nights ago.  I want to "finish" this into a no-sew cube, just not sure when I'll have the time to do that.  But it's going to need to be before Christmas, lol.  Although truly, this design is appropriate for the whole winter.  One thing kind of perturbed me about this pattern though.  On the picture of the finished product that comes when you buy the pattern, it shows two different ways of stitching it up.  One is like I have done it and the other shows it larger, finished into a pillow.  This one has a border all the way around it, that obviously "goes" with the pattern, as in, it's a style that is consistent with the look of the pattern.  But after you buy it and open it, you find the border is no where to be found.  You don't get the pattern for that.  I just feel like the way it's represented on it's packaging is misleading.  Because it obviously leads you to think that you can stitch it with or without the border, but then it doesn't provide or even address the fact that there is no border pattern.

I'm still working on Lady Victoria as well.  I hope to have her finished soon.  I can't wait to start her silk ribbon roses.  Sorry, no pic.  :-(

I took a Christmas stitch that I did last year and turned her into a pillow.  My intention was always to make her a pillow for Christmas this year, so after stitching her last year I just put her away in a project roll.  But this week I got her out and finished her up.  I am **super** pleased with how this turned out as I've never done anything like this before.  I can't "sew," not in the traditional sense with a machine, so this was all done by hand.  But it wasn't difficult or even terribly time consuming.  I started one day and finished the next.

And one more little extra I want to share. ~ Earlier this year, I stitched and made this little pouch.  It had been sold as a cosmetic case, but there is no way it would work for that.  It doesn't even close up in a way that would work for that and it's rather tiny.  So I put it away (procrastinating) with the intention of turning it into a needlebook at some point - which it's the perfect size and design for that.

So I finally took the whole 5 minutes needed this week and stitched in some felt and added in my needles.  I really love it.  A filled up needlebook makes me terribly happy.  :0)

That's about all I have for now.  Happy stitching everyone!  :0)

WIP update

Just a little update for my 1950s-esque Christmas lady.  She's a pretty quick and easy stitch but will be cute as a button once she's done.  I decided to change her shoes just a bit and give her high heels.  The pattern made her look like she was on her tiptoes, but I thought she'd be better suited with some heels.

 

 

I don't think I'm going to do the backstitching on her hands/arms until I finish the ornament she's holding in her hands.  It shouldn't be long now though and she'll be finished.  :0)



Stitching with a purpose

Well, another year has come and gone (basically) for my stitching charity.  Our group has done so well.  In the span of one year and two months we have done projects for a Ronald McDonald House in Tennessee, a Habitat for Humanity family in Illinois and a domestic violence shelter in Florida.  I think that is pretty darn good.  I'm proud of us.  We're currently taking a break for the Christmas season and we will get back together with new plans in January.

 

Potholders I did for the domestic violence shelter:

 

 

 

In my own personal stitching news, my needles have been flying.  I wanted to finish Honeybees by the end of November, but then ended up putting it to the side to work on Christmas ornaments.  I did nine of them.  Pretty good considering this is the first year I've ever done ornaments.  I did 6 sleds - 4 for my family to keep and 2 for an exchange at the retreat I went to.  I did Quaker quilt patterns for the exchange and Eskimos for my family.

 

 

 

 

Then two more ornies for my own tree and one for my charity.  Christmas cardinals, one for me and one for the charity.

 

 

And then a pink snowflake for our tree.  This was my first time doing true finishing and I'm very excited about how it turned out.  For a first try, I think it's pretty good.

 

 

 

Then I did a Christmas pattern based off of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  There is a whole series of these based off of the book.  I eventually want to do all of them.

 

 

 

I'm now working on a Christmas piece that I'll frame.  It may or may not be done by Christmas, but I'm sure it won't be framed by then.  So it will be put out for display next year.  This is what it will look like when done.  (She's bigger than she looks.  Way too big for an ornament.)

 

 

My current progress:

 

 

So you can see, I'm still doing Christmas themed stitching.  I have new projects to start after the New Year, so I'm eeking out the last of the holiday stitching that I can.  :0)

WIPs update and calloused fingertips...

I'm in full blown charity stitching mode right now because my charity has a deadline fast approaching.  So I had to put down Honeybee Happening for a while.  But here is where I got to before I needed to stop.

 

 

At this point it was no longer practical to keep it on my scroll rods.  So I took it off and started working with a hoop.  This also means that I could *stop* using those hateful waste knots, lol.  I hate using that method, but it's the only feasible way to use my floor stand.  I am so close to being finished with this, I can taste it.  As soon as my charity stitching is done I'm going to get back to this one full steam ahead.  I really want to have it finished by the end of November.  I have a lot of other things I'd like to work on in December.

 

I already showed you the small Christmas banner I did for my current charity project.  I'm now also working on a set of potholders for it as well.

 

 

I chose these because I thought they would be so quick and easy.  Not so much.  They are so *tough* that I can hardly get the needle through the fabric and that's with using a sharp needle too.

 

 

I now actually have callouses on my right thumb, index finger and middle finger. -- All thanks to these potholders!  And I still have several to go!

 

 

The satin stitching on all these dots may have just shortened my life span. 

Just a bit.

 

 

I have also signed up to do another Love Quilts USA quilt square.  It has a February 1, 2015 deadline so I'll start work on that soon.  My chosen pattern will be fairly easy I think.  It's been a while since I've done a Love Quilts square and that organization was my introduction to charity stitching, so I had a yearning to continue on with them when I feel I can fit it in.  I'm looking forward to doing another square for them.

 

I do have a few small Christmas ornaments to finish after the potholders are done.  But after that, it's back to my regular stitching once again.



My stitching corner, with pictures

I'm going to share pictures of my stitching spot.  What I'm showing you is directly on my right hand side when I sit in my comfy chair.  All of this is within arm's reach to me.  Although the top section is tall enough, I have to stand to get to those drawers. 

 

 

This is the top of my storage cabinet.  In the back are four of the DMC thread storage boxes I recently got from a closed quilt shop, that I talked about in my previous post.  I already had one of these boxes and this past week I got ten more.  I have 8 total in this cabinet, 2 in another spot with the inserts taken out to hold homeschooling materials and I have one to my 18 year old daughter...for her make up storage, lol. 

 

Anyway, on with the tour.  On the top left stack of floss boxes is a primitive styled doll that I love.  In front of her are two project rolls that I purchased at the trunk show at the needle class I took.  On the top right are a large tomato and a large strawberry pin cushion.  Also a cross stitched one made by my mom's best friend.  This lady was in her 80s when I was a little girl, so the pin cushion with the cat on it is very old.  The little angel also belonged to my mom, who has been gone for many years now.  The pink cup is a Minnie Pearl cup that I purchased in Nashville at the Grand Ol' Opry.  A fun sign about *not* cleaning up my mess, lol, and the stitched towel is from my best friend.

 

The front wooden cabinet is also filled with DMC.  On top of it are three thimbles.  Two were gifts from my husband and one I also got from the Opry in Nashville.  Also my cute owl cup to hold my pens and highlighters.  To the right of that I keep my wax burner ~ I love the wonderful scents available.  On the front left is my photo album that I have started to keep of my work.  I use small, full adhesive sticky notes to write notes about my projects.

 

 

The box under the  photo album holds my threads for my HAED.

 

These top four cabinets are filled with DMC and are numbered.  And yes, a Wildflowers by Caron snuck in there too, lol. This variegated is the limited edition DMC 127 from last year.  I'm planning to use it in the Save the Stitches SAL next year.

 

 

This is the bottom of my cabinet and 4 more of the DMC storage units.

 

 

The bottom left one is the one I have had for a couple of years.  It was one of my Craigslist finds and I got not only the drawer, but all the threads that were in it. 

 

 

The two on the right hold threads as well.  But the one in the upper left I took the inserts out of to hold other items.  One drawer holds things like my med box, lip balm, etc.  The second drawer holds my calendar and my catalogs and the third drawer holds some of my every day stitching supplies and some smaller projects.

 

 

On top of that cabinet I keep my copy of the Encyclopedia of Needlework. 

 

 

It has a diagram of just about any specialty stitch you can think of ~ and that's always a good thing to have close at hand when stitching.  I'm a very visual learner so it's great to have these diagrams.



 



 

Last but not least, this is what is usually right in front of me.  It's just a little portable table with a cloth placemat.  I do everything from computer work to stitching on this little table.  That's my ORT jar in the upper left.  In front of it you can see a green...something, lol.  That's my ottoman that I'll sometimes put my feet up on and cover up with the green blanket that stays on it.

 

 

So that's it!  My stitchy spot.  :0)  It's where all my stitchy action happens. 

 

And now...I'm off to stitch...

 

:0)

 

 



Very large stash acquisitions and how I have found them

 This is a long post.  But it's the story of my biggest stash acquisitions and how I got them.  (Some of them for free.)  Perhaps my tips can help someone else find some awesome stash too.
 

I have to admit that I have a lot of stash.  Like...a lot a lot.  But I have only paid full price for about 15% of what I own.  The rest, I have literally stumbled upon with some searching as well as some sheer dumb luck thrown in for good measure.

 

But I wanted to share a little bit about what I have done and how I've done it, so maybe it can help someone else find awesome deals over time as well.

 

Now first let me say, that finding rare items or huge lots of items at barely there prices isn't something that happens all the time.  You have to keep your eyes and ears open and if you're lucky, you'll end up on the receiving end of "once in a lifetime" kind of stash hauls a handful of times over many years.  

 

I've been stitching for 30 years but I have been serious about stash hunting for only about the past 6 years.  In that time, I've had two large stash influxes completely free, one very large one for pennies on the dollar and one, "once in a lifetime" acquisition again, for pennies on the dollar.  I'll explain how I got them and what they were in this post.

 

The first "method" is really easy.  It's not really a method at all, but perfectly natural and not something I do with the purpose of acquiring stash.  (I would be mortified if anyone took it as that.)  It is simply a natural outflowing that happens. 

Make friends inside the stitching community. 

Share your ideas, be generous with your own time and even your own stash through give a ways, swaps or "happy mail."  (For those that don't know, "happy mail," is the term given to patterns, kits, notions, etc sent from one stitcher to another just because it's nice and fun to share.)  My very best friend in the world, I met over ten years ago on a Yahoo stitching group.  We are the very definition of besties.  When I first met her she was a die hard cross stitcher.  But over the years her preferences have veered more toward seamstress work.  Also over those years, my passion for cross stitching has only grown by leaps and bounds.  So because I had made such a good friend within the stitching community, when she decided to "de-stash," ~ it came my way.  She has been very generous and my own stash has bulked up quite a bit simply because she switched gears but knew that I would put these things to use.  Another example of this is last year I stitched an eagle (the exact same pattern I did for my charity project, picture here) for an older lady at church ~ simply because she asked me to.  Now I won't say that I'm going to stitch for anyone at all that asks, I won't.  But I knew that this lady had been a stitcher in her younger years.  So I did it for her, because I knew that she understood the craft and would respect the work I put into for her.  I knew, that she knew what it was she was asking me to do.  So I spent many weeks on her eagle.  I gave it to her proudly and will admit to basking in her praise over my stitching, lol.  And then ~ I didn't give it another thought.  But several months later she called me to come to her house because she had the eagle professionally framed and she wanted me to see it.  I happily obliged.  But when I got there, she had a huge amount of her own stash pulled out and she gave to me.  She said that she couldn't do it any longer and she wanted it to go to someone who she knew would appreciate it.  So that was the two stash influxes I got for free, simply for being friends with someone or being nice. 

 

What goes around really does tend to come around ~ and especially so in the stitching community.

My second tip is to get to know the owners of your local needlework shops.  Forge relationships with them in person and correspond with them on their shop's social media sites.  And by local, I don't necessarily mean the town you live in.  If it is within your ability, expand what you consider "local" to about 2-3 hours (or however far is feasible for you) around you in all directions.  I literally live out in the middle of nowhere.  In order to get any decent selection in anything from food to clothes, we have to drive a minimum of 45 minutes.  In order to get to a sizable city, it's 2 hours.  So I originally started my search for stitching shops in those two cities.  I found a shop in the city 45 minutes away from me, but it specializes in needlepoint, not cross stitch.  But ~ that doesn't matter!  I still went there and forged a relationship with the owner and she sells a full array of flosses that are good for any fiber artist regardless of specialty.  Through her, I was able to get a couple of wishlist items from the last Market in St. Charles.  She had previously told me if there was anything I wanted to let her know.  Market Day kind of crept up on me this year and I ended up texting her at literally the last minute while she was on the Market floor and she got me want I wanted.  ~~  I also found a shop in the city two hours from me and got to know that owner too.  Through her I was able to take the needle class I blogged about in a previous post.  Her shop hosted it.  I'm able to go to her shop once every few months.  When I took the needle class, she had only ever seen me once in person.  But because I had made a point to talk to her when in her shop and talk to her on her shop's FB page, when I showed up for the needle class as soon as she saw me she came over saying, "There you are!!" And gave me a big hug.  She knew exactly who I was.  There are more shops in a city five hours from me.  I'll be attending a retreat through one of them this Fall.

Forging friendships with shop owners can open doors for you to find out about new products and notions as soon as they come out, give you lots of learning opportunities with classes and seminars and also give you a lot of social opportunities to meet other stitchers because almost all shops host stitching days or evenings, retreats and get-a-ways.  It's definitely worth it and you usually will make some awesome stitchy friends in the process.

The big stash acquisition that I made just this past week was because of a shop owner.  Like I said before, I don't restrict myself to just cross stitch shops.  There was a quilt shop in a small community close to mine, but in addition to quilting supplies the owner also sold a full line of DMC floss.  She decided to close her shop and retire and, of course, had a major going out of business sale selling her goods at or below wholesale cost.  She and I had a lot in common because she does a lot of charity stitching too.  She's a lovely lady.  So when the time came to sell her DMC storage boxes - you the ones that shops keep their threads in for sale - she sold them to me.  I got them at half off wholesale cost and she also told me that if I needed any thread in the future to let her know and she will sell what she has to me at wholesale cost.  Now, how awesome is that?  I got ten DMC thread storage boxes from her, which I will share about those another post all it's own. 

And lastly, my last tip garnered me my biggest, "once in a lifetime" stash haul.  Check Craigslist.  Regularly.  Now of course, be careful.  Use common sense and don't meet strangers alone and a public place is always best.  But I have found a lot of really good cross stitching stash over the years off of Craigslist.  I check it about once a month or every two months.  I usually use the search terms, "cross stitch," and "DMC."  But the search that led to my biggest stash haul wasn't even mine, but my best friend that I talked about earlier.  She called me one day and told me that she had found an unbelievably huge cross stitching stash on Craigslist in a community next to hers.  She spoke to the lady selling it a few times, making plans to purchase it.  She and I split the price for the lot, so we each only paid half.  She and her husband picked it up and - it really was enough to open a small store.  It had all belonged to the lady's great aunt and when her aunt died ~ she inherited all of it.

Now I just want to interject here to say that this lady did understand what she had.  She knew that she had literally thousands of dollars worth of supplies.  But...she was over it.  She didn't want it, didn't want to take the time to sell it to get the best dollar amount and she simply wanted it gone and out of her house.  So it's really not like my friend and I took advantage of someone who didn't know what they had.  She completely understood.  She just didn't care.  In the end we got a ton of fabric - in all different types and colors.  Kits out your ears.  Patterns, books and leaflets - too many to count. Mirabilias, Told in a Garden patterns. A lap stand, specialty yarns and then even more material and more patterns and kits.  The only type of things we didn't get were notions.

And after splitting the cost with my friend, I paid....about what it costs me to fill up my gas tank on our truck.

The first thing my friend and I did was to pull out everything we knew that we did not want ourselves, things we knew we would just never use ~ and we started giving away all of those items to other stitchers.  If we didn't want something, one of us knew someone else who would.  So we gave away, mailed away, a lot of other things to other stitchers.  Then we were left with only the things that we liked and wanted.  My friend split it with me ~ giving me about 60% of the items and her keeping 40%.  She did this because I cross stitch more and some of the items she just didn't want because she doesn't do it as much anymore.  So in the end, I did end up with a few thousand dollars worth of cross stitching supplies for well under $100. 

Craigslist.

When used cautiously and carefully, it can be a very good thing.

So that's the story of my major cross stitch hauls and how I've only paid retail for about 15% of what I own.  Keep your eyes and ears open, get to know shop owners and others in the stitching community and perhaps you can find some awesome stash hauls too!

Keep those needles flying!!  :0)