Had two days off of stitchy goodness, woohoo! On Sundays, I try to have all of the housework completed (laundry, dishes, vacuuming, dusting, tidying up) and all errands run by no later than Monday, which is my Friday. I do this so that I can spend my two precious days off doing whatever it is I want, which is generally stitching. I laid on the couch Tuesday watching the entire Matrix dvd collection and stitching. Wednesday was my usual Wednesday trip to Stitcher's Paradise. Had a blast there getting caught up with The Girls and stitching until my fingers and eyes started to hurt. :)
At any rate, here is what I managed to get completed in two days:
I've got a fair amount done, considering how intensive the stitching is. I am going to have to find some other less taxing projects to do. I think I need a break from this one already. When I got home last night from Stitcher's Paradise I had quite the raging headache, so I didn't stitch any at all last night, which was a bummer. I am really enjoying this piece and I am having loads of fun with it, however, it is very intensive and it's sort of like running a marathon. Proper pacing procedures must be followed! LOL!
At any rate, I need to bolt for the door. Need to finish getting ready for work. Have a good day all! :)
Managed to get a bit of work done on Rhiannon, but as of right now, it still looks like a grey blob :P~. I'm pacing myself a lot more this go around and I am not making any mistakes (knock on wood!). This particular piece is going to be a process, and there's no need in rushing. In some cases, I'm stitching it literally in a 10 x 10 square, just to make sure that all my ducks are in a row. Right now I'm in the lovely outer borders where there is plenty of solid block stitching, so it's not *too* bad. I will however, have to get used to doing that when I get to the confetti stitching in the middle of the piece.
I have found yet another pattern that I want in addition to Cynthia on the Heaven and Earth Designs website. This one is called Shimmering Night and it is a fundraiser for Japan. The artwork is by Ching-Chou Kuik and it is listed as a Quick Stitch. DH says I can get both when we get paid, woohoo! I will have to come up with a name for her. :)
At any rate, here she is:
Tomorrow is my usual Wednesday trip to Stitcher's Paradise and I can't wait. I so missed going!
I must bolt for the door, right now, however. Breakfast and a stitching marathon await me. This time it's The Matrix trilogy. Fun! :D
Continuing with the Alice in Wonderland theme, I can tell this project is going to be huge in more ways than one. Yesterday, I forewent my usual Wednesday trip to Stitcher's Paradise as I wasn't feeling too hot, and I decided to stay home and stitch instead. Well, it turns out that I had found a mistake and that had to be frogged. Then I got oh, so hopelessly lost! I literally could not tell when one thread was tied off and another began. So, I ripped everything out and literally started over from scratch. I had Teh Hubmeister print out the first page again and I started that over fresh all over again as well.
It seems to have worked, as I have been stitching merrily away ever since, with nary an issue. Here are some lessons I have learned so far:
1. SLOW DOWN. Really, you would think this one would be a no brainer, but apparently, insofar as I am concerned, this is not the case. I think one of the issues I was having was that I was trying to rip through this piece, trying to break the sound barrier, and this is where I got lost and consequently in a fit of pique, ripped everything out and started all over again. (PMS played a part in that decision in no small measure as well, I'm sure! :P)
2. Print out the master floss list. Trying to work off of the Droid phone, while convenient, will not get you all of the supplies you need. And with 68 colors of floss, you're lucky you only had to go back to Hobby Lobby for only five!
3. Make sure you like the colors of the project. This is very, very important. You will be staring at these same shades of brown and grey for a really, really, REALLY long time. Jules would tell you to just start another one, but I want to see if I can get through this one first! :P
4. A support group is a must. Yes, this is one stitch at a time, but it can be overwhelming and frustrating and encouragement and sympathy go a long way in helping the process along!
5. Good lighting is a must. You have to see what it is you are stitching, and you have to be able to see to read the chart!
6. If you give the piece a name, make sure you pick the right one. As God as my witness, I had originally intended to call this one Morrigan, then I changed it to Elizabeth. Oddly enough, the Fleetwood Mac song Rhiannon kept playing over and over in my head and this time the name stuck. If I were paranoid, I'd say I had such issues with her because she didn't like the names I had chosen and wanted to be Rhiannon! o.o
Here is what it's supposed to look like, eight pages of solid stitching later:
Here is what I have so far:
If I manage to make it through this project with my sanity in tact, I have picked out my first purchase from HAED. Her name is Cynthia and the artwork is by Ching-Chu Kuik. I LOVE the colors in this one and I think she'd look gorgeous on an opalescent fabric:
I will leave you all now with some Fleetwood Mac and the hope that you all are having a good day today! :)
Don't have much of an update as I've been busier than a one legged man at an ass kicking contest at work and I really needed to get all the floss for my All Hallow's Eve HAED. I took some more pages out of Jules' book and went to Michael's armed with a 20% off total purchase coupon to purchase a thread case, some plastic bobbins, thread color labels and of course, DMC. I also went to Office Depot to get the floss key laminated. Why did I do this? Well, this is a big ol' honkin' project and the floss key will get used quite a bit. I don't really want to have to keep printing out the same floss key page, and this way it won't get torn up. And as a special added bonus, it cost only a 1.50 to have it laminated. Yay! I also joined the Heaven and Earth Designs message board last night, so you may find me posting there as well. I've read up on a ton of info so far and there is a lot of inspiration to be had there as well! :) At any rate, here is what constitutes as organization in my world: Design: All Hallow's Eve Designer: Heaven and Earth Designs for Jessica Galbreath Fabric 18 count aida in Antique White Fibers: DMC
Well, I must be off. I have today off and I really want to get on the couch and veg with some stitching. Hope everyone is having a good week! :) --- Respectfully submitted, C.
Since my Bunny's Bloom post, I've been thinking about trying out a smaller count fabric. Working something small and fairly uncomplicated gave me the courage to try. It was nice knowing that I wasn't tied down to some horribly huge piece that was going to take months to finish. Today, while obtaining my ubiquitous Wednesday stitching fix at Stitcher's Paradise, I picked up a tiny monochrome design by Kelmscott Designs, a Miniature Monogram Hornbook-Margin Marker. I decided to stitch it on a 36 count to see how it went. I had to take frequent breaks and I now have a mild headache, however, I managed to get it completed in one sitting:
