A method to my maddness

I have a bag where I keep all of my threads for various projects.  

Many of these threads are on rings, with each ring being matched up to a certain project.  But recently I've been having trouble always remembering which ring is for which project.  Some of them I know by sight, but others I've found that I have been getting them confused.  So I needed a way to label these individual rings.  But how to do that?

I decided to take an extra thread bobbin and write the name of the project the threads belong to and then attach the empty bobbin with the name onto the ring.

It's taken away my confusion and it's helping me stay organized.  I wish I had thought of this years ago.

I got some happy mail today.  I had ordered this little silhouette of a lady stitching.  She is sitting atop my little box I've been making stitched pieces for.

Isn't she the cutest?

And lastly ~ I finally got my Honeybee Happening piece framed.  I might be as happy as a chubby lil' peacock can be, lol.

That's all I've got for the moment.  More wip updates to come soon. ~~~

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.

Gettysburg Address SAL

My friend Laura and I run a stitching group on Facebook called Patriotic Stitches.  We are all about patriotic and Americana themed stitching.  We are hosting a SAL starting on October 29 (although you can jump in any time after that date if you wish) for the Primrose Needleworks pattern Gettysburg Address.  (Currently on sale at 123Stitch as of 10/21/16.)  

We would love to have you join us for our SAL or simply join us in our group if you enjoy patriotic stitching patterns.  Click the link above for the group ~ hope to see you there!

George Washington has arrived

The big news that I have to share now is that my kit for the George Washington project (112 stitchers working together to create a full coverage piece of George Washington crossing the Deleware that will hopefully beat the current world record for largest full coverage cross stitch) has arrived.  I've waited a long time for this box, it's been about two years in the making.

This is how the box looked upon arrival.

Here are all my threads.  

And here is my huge panel.  That's my son holding it and he's 6'2" so you can understand the scale.  There are 112 panels all together for the whole project.  The fabric for the project is sponsored by Wichelt.

Along with the threads, these extra notions were all sponsored by Sullivans.  

And here's my pattern - 100 pages long!

So George has arrived.  :0)  We don't have a start date yet.  For the time being the only thing for me to do is wash my fabric, let it dry, and then either iron or steam it.

I've been spending a lot of time on this project.

I started on and finished the stitching for the scissor fob.  I didn't do the beading because I'll do that for all the pieces at once when they are all done.

Next I started on the biscornu.

This is where I'm at as of now.

I'm really loving this project.  It has a lot of specialty stitches ~ double running stitches, kloster blocks, algerian eyelets, and my favorite ~ the buttonhole corner stitches.  That's what gives the ruffled edge you can see on the scissor fob and all the pieces will end up having that.

I still pull out my plastic canvas fall banner whenever I'm too tired to cross stitch, usually late at night.

And this is a little mill hill kit finish that I forgot to share a few weeks ago.  I put a magnet on it and it now lives on my fridge.

I'm going to get some more stitching done on the orange accessory set tonight.  If I'm lucky I might have all the pieces finished by Halloween.  :0)

A bit of progress

I have just a bit of progress to share.  I worked a couple of days on the dragon and now I've got more of his tail done in addition to the waves.  Love these colors.  The photos don't do them justice.

I also pulled my Mira, The Rain Queen, out last night and got a bit more done on her.  Now both of her wings are finished.  She looks a bit funny at the moment, but I think I'll work on her some more today and add in some more pieces parts.  :0)

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.  ~~~

Miras and quidditch and finishes

I've started my first Mira.  It is Rain Queen.  I'm using fabric from Angel Wings Mermaid Tails and I won it as a door prize at the Nashville Retreat.  I chose this Mira for a couple of reasons.  One is that as far as Miras go, this is a fairly small one.  I didn't want to take on something huge.  And also ~ this Rain Queen looks like my daughter.  If someone were to make my daughter into a cross stitch, she would look like this ~ perhaps not with floating flowers all around her, although she would love that if she could manage it, lol.  So this will be a gift to her once it's completed.  

She works up quickly, but I had one major frogging session.  Actually, it was caused by what *I* (personal opinion) consider a mistake in the charting.  There is a vertical line charted for a thread color and then a horizontal line charted as a bead.  However, the horizontal lines are sometimes turned around so that they are vertical!  So of course, I thought that was a thread.  I was wrong.  The horizontal line gets turned around into different directions all over this chart.  I had another stitcher tell me they had the same issue.  Gah.  And grr.  Ok - done complaining.

So I had to frog quite a bit when I realized this issue.  You can see exactly where the problems were.

I also started a Harry Potter piece that I've had for a long while, just needed an excuse to get on to it.  The FB group Stitch Maynia hosted a Harry Potter themed SAL day, so when I found that out I lined this one up to start on that day.  I had already purchased fabric for it when I first bought the chart.  My fabric is a gray color, that's actually called Twilight Blue.  I wanted the background darker and gray because so often when quidditch is being played the weather is dank and rainy.  I didn't think a bright white or blue sky would be right.

This one is working up quickly as well, although I am missing two thread colors to finish.  My local fabric store doesn't have them, so I'll either pick some up the next time I leave town and go to Hobby Lobby or the next time I order from 123Stich - whichever comes first.  This pattern can be found here on Etsy.

I also finally got my approval to get onto the Flossible website!  I had been pretty confused because I applied very close to the beginning when beta was opened and then...nothing.  I really thought I'd be among the first ones in.  It was Tuesday of last week when I finally got the link I needed to get in properly.  The owner does have a post written on the site explaining what happened and why it took so long for so many of the beta users to be let in.  So it's ok ~ life happens.  :0)  I'm enjoying add my WIPs to it.  I decided to simply add projects to my account as I go instead of trying to load up all the finishes I already have.  That would just be too much.  So right now all I have on there is my quidditch piece and I'll add Rain Queen soon.

Oh!  I do have finishes to share!  This is one of the freebie patterns we were gifted at the retreat.  It's designed by White Willow Stitching.  I really love it and can't wait to get it framed.

This is a stitched piece I finished last year ~ originally started by a friend who then gave it over to me.  I finished it into a pillow using red checked picnic cloth.  I knew when I was stitching this one, that this was the fabric I wanted to use for making the pillow.  It turned out super cute.

So that's what I've got going on at the moment.  Happy Stitching everyone!!  :0)