A finish And New Starts

First up is a small finish.

I fell in love with the idea of doing a memorial piece in memory of my daughter Jade and it seemed appropriate to stitch a piece made as a memorial. My DH helped to pick the lovely bright blue and I am very happy to have stitched this piece.


Here is a pic of the finished piece.

You will have to click the pic as usual to get a better view.

There are two new starts to talk about.
The first is DH's Dragon Rip by Stokes. He experimented with  28 ct. evenweave and didn't really like it, so decided on 14 ct. aida. He stitches with really tight tension so he is doing it with 4 strands. Here is a pic of him with his fabric.

That is the top of his head at the top above the fabric.

DH wanted me to make a new start with him so I picked Glamour, which I was planning to begin on our anniversary in September. I am doing it differently this time. 18 ct. and working the background in 4 over one tent stitch, or rather basketweave stitch and will probably do regular 2 over 1 crosses for the main picture. I could take a pic but the background stitching and my fabric color are so similar I don't think it would show very  well.

And to wrap up, a pic of He Who Must Be Obeyed.

Happy Stitching this week.

Exhausted, but thrilled for DH

A very sweet friend RAK'd Dragon Rip to my DH. Thank you so much Teresa, it touches my heart that you would be so kind and generous to him and to me.

Scroll down to see a pic in my last post.

He is excited to start and so naturally we got a bit of extra money today, the same day he got the chart (that never happens to me), and after work we made the long drive to pick up fabric and new longer scroll rods. I bought my 18 ct. aida for Glamor and he bought fabric for his exciting project. We were able to use a 40% off coupon on one of the pieces.

I didn't check behind him and we were home admiring our stuff when we realized he'd bought 18 count almost the right size but hadn't added the extra 3 inches around the edges. Hmm. So i now have 18 count for Tree of Life, but we will have to go back and get fabric for him. Poor baby, I'm so disappointed for him. I keep thinking I should have checked because he isn't used to buying stitching fabric.

I got to stitch for only one day, no stitching yesterday due to the back and the same today plus I'm too tired now that I'm home. Bath and bed for me since I am going in to work early tomorrow.

Ah, a post with no pictures.

Confessions of a stitching geek (long post)

It's true, I am a stitching geek. I spend way too much time thinking about stitching, planning to stitch, looking at others stitching projects. Just this morning I was looking through the older Finishes pages on the HAED bulletin board. They go back a long way. I had to stop because I was afraid I'd start to add things to my wish list.

But that isn't what I meant to talk about! Let me tell you about my past week. On Monday it was back to work after vacation for a bit of a long day. I really wanted to do up a sample of half cross on 18 count aida since I couldn't find one, and since I had to pick up a script for hubby at the Walmart pharmacy I also got a cheapie 18 ct. bookmark to experiment on. Which with my neck pain was a mistake since stitching on it put me down for the night. No stitching on Tues. a tiny bit on Wed. on Cheryl's Bouquet, like 25 stitches. Same Thurs. but a few more stitches.

Friday morning, about 15 minutes before I left for work, huge back spasm. It passed, I felt sore but was sure it was done, so I went to work (early again), cause hey, an extra 2 hours would have been nice. About 3 hours in, barely able to walk around for the weird back pain I was having,  another spasm, this as I was walking down the hall, right in front of my bosses boss. So embarrassing. Then another, and another, and then I came home and DH had to help me up the stairs an into the recliner.

Now what, pray tell us Karen, does this have to do with stitching?

After much resting, and some pills and a few hours I was sore, still stuck in the recliner and bored, bored, bored. The laptop, that I still haven't quite gotten used to, to the rescue. I went to Facebook and found that Michelle Sayetta was playing freebie fairy in a big way. I dutifully checked my E-mail, saw no freebie chart, and went back to Facebook to see what everyone else was getting and congratulate them. Since Facebook thoughtfully sends all that posting on the HAED SAL and the HAED Addiction groups to my E-mail I figured I'd go clear that out. And just luckily came across this from Michelle.

Isn't she pretty? She is available here.
Winter Rose Fairy by Zindy Nielsen
She was a brand spanking new release on Friday, so obviously she wasn't on my wish list.

She is so pretty and really cheered me up. I've never done business with a company quite like Heaven and Earth, they are truly amazing.

This did make me realize I should add a favorite next to my name though. See, I feel guilty for getting such a lovely new pretty. My DH says he'd like to have Dragon Rip by Stokes. He has said it multiple times. He even says he will stitch it, which I have doubts there, but he can stitch beautifully.

So I will buy it for him when we can afford new patterns. Possibly I will have it made into a mini, so that it will be a bit quicker stitch for him. Until then I made it a fav on my wish list, just in case. I've seen it as a tattoo on Stokes web site and I'm surprised he hasn't decided he wants to do that.

Well, this has gotten very long. I expect to finish Cheryl's bouquet this week if nothing goes wrong and will post a pic when it is finished.

When you can't stitch?

What do you do?

My neck is bothering me. Since Thursday. So I will post a pic of what I got done on Needle Maiden before I was hurt. It was going pretty well, what with being on vacation and all. But before I get to that, seriously, what do you do when you can't stitch for some reason.


I went back to work on Monday, but otherwise I've been planning, trying to kit up some of the floss I've gotten for my new starts in September. I've done some daydreaming, added too much to my wish list and cut it back again, looked at other's wish lists. I've been hanging out on the HAED bulletin board, hanging out on Facebook with the HAED areas, and reading lots of stitching blogs.
So what do you do when you can't stitch for a bit?

Here is Needle Maiden by the way. About 700 stitches.

More later.

Three Thirty AM Stitching Thoughts

I thought since my dog woke me up anyway, and I can't get back to sleep, I would go ahead and post a three day general update on Mini Soul Mates, answer a question or two, and see if I can soothe myself back to sleep by thinking about stitching. That last part may backfire since stitching thoughts have been known to keep me awake.

Here is Mini Soul Mates after its Sun. - Tuesday rotation.

As you can see, I decided to stick to my rotation.

Someone asked in comments if I took part in any SAL's. At the moment I try to join the HAEDless SAL each month. I took part in both of last years Freebie SAL's on the HAED bulletin board and loved them, but chose to sit the 2012 year long SAL out. I had a lot of projects and exercised a lot of will power there. lol. So the short answer is no, I'm not in any SAL's at the moment.

Which isn't to say I won't take part in any this year. I am a slow stitcher (more on that in a minute) so I'm not likely to finish anything remotely bigger than a bookmark in a SAL. However, the Christmas

ornament SAL may get done again this year, and if HAED does another Freebie SAL for 2013 I can't guarantee I won't take part in it, depending on my mood at that moment, the patterns, how my other stitching is going, etc.

Speaking of being a slow stitcher, at 100 to 200 stitches a day I now have enough to keep me stitching for 7 to 10 years depending on if I count all my projects, including the 3 charts I plan to begin as new starts this year. Obviously some days I don't get to stitch, and some days, such as working the black on Needle Maiden, I get more than 200 stitches done, and sometimes when the pain is strong or the confetti is heavy it will be less than 100.

I had never planned on 5 new starts in one year, nor could I have imagined that I would receive all of my favorite must stitch in this lifetime charts in one year. I suppose I could resist starting them all, but why? At least this way I get to enjoy them for a longer time. So, Glamour on my anniversary, Tree of Life for my birthday(Two September starts), and I will try to wait until Christmas to genuinely start QS Christmas Venice Nights.

But other than these, no new big starts for a year or two, nothing larger than say, 4 or 6 pages. Really!

Weekend Update

I was working extra hours after the Holiday, so not as much progress as I might have liked this week, but still, I'm pleased there is anything at all. First up, Sunday through Wed. was (as always) Mini Soul Mates.  As always, the pics look better if you click them.

Before:

After:

It was a bit of a push to finish the end of the row.

Next was Basilisk, which saw woefully little stitching this rotation, though it always feels slower due to the confetti, this time it hardly grew at all between Wed. and Friday. Still, I'm happy I was able to get anything at all done with all that has been going on.

I am officially on Vacation beginning Monday. I will probably stick to my rotation but there is a part of me that wants to go ahead and make a new start, and a part of me that says, screaming rotation for vacation! See how it just about rhymes? So who knows? Either way, hopefully there will be a day or two of quality stitching time in the next week or so assuming we don't melt into a puddle from the still over a hundred degree days we are having.

Hope you folks are having as much fun with your stitching as I am!

HAEDless SAL Cheryl's memorial update

Once again Chery's Memorial had its rotation during the HAEDless SAL. I didn't plan it that way but it has worked out that way 2 months running and I'm very glad of it. It is so melting hot here with days over 100 degrees that I have to turn the fan on even with the air in order to stitch.
Saturday was the ninth anniversary of my daughters birth and death and it seemed appropriate to be stitching the memorial piece those past few days, as it is in memory of her. Anyway, here is the pic.

It is three quarters finished, a few stitches over and I'm happy with the progress as I didn't have very much stitching time this past few days.