Pages

Monday, October 29, 2012

A very heartfelt thank you

To Stitching Sister. She has sent me a gift certificate to 123stitch to finish purchasing the floss for my mini The Eternal Promise. I was so gobsmacked when I opened my e-mail at work today and saw this. Thank you Stitching Sister. I was having a terrible morning/day and this just perked me up unbelievably. Felt bad, car problems, massive headache and then this sweet thoughtful surprise. Sometimes people are so kind. I can't wait for the day I can do stuff like this and the RAK's for others.

I will likely not be posting for a week or two since I also have massive eye-strain and shouldn't be using the computer except at work.

Love to you all
Happy stitching

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Slow stitching, Project Alpha and Stitch a longs

Well, both has-and hasn't -been a lot going on since I last posted here. The pain has kept me from stitching for a number of days in that time. Anything I do with my hands increases it and so I tend to 'use' it up, so to speak, typing at work.

There has been some progress though. I got through Glamour's rotation and was actually able to stitch a little bit on it. It is a shame that Glamour doesn't photograph well with all those light colors, because it is such a beautiful chart in reality. I nearly finished the first (last of the pattern) page.






Project Alpha: My DH loves to play war games and shooters, hence the new name for my project. At some point we intend to turn one of the rooms in our house into an all-out man cave. He has requested that Mini Soul Mates go in that room. Now we all know that I don't much concern myself with finishing things anymore, but once upon a time I was a one at a time stitcher and had to finish things. I'm pretty happy as long as I'm stitching in my poke- a-long slow way, but, since he wants it, I'm inspired to work more on this project. I will pick it up a least a couple of days a week and will hopefully finish in the next year and half. It will be at least that long before we do the man cave anyway and that gives me plenty of time. (I hope. I am slow.) Project Alpha = my focus piece. Haven't had one of those for a long while. Anyway, here is an update on Mini Soul mates after my latest week's stitching.




I've done a tiny bit more on that row since I took this pic, and hey, I've got wing tip! lol, I am so excited to see some color in there. It is no hardship to make this a focus piece as it is a pleasure to work.

And hmm, lost the rotation right there, yesterday. You see, Teresa and Molly the black lab decided to make a sort of RAK to the stitching world by having Matt Stewart's The Eternal Promise made into a mini. Teresa herself has the original and has no plans to stitch the mini so it was just an unselfish sort of gift to all of us who long to stitch the chart. I have the new release, which is even  bigger than the original, so I don't need it right?

Well, originally I was going to have it done myself and was furiously saving my pennies. At first it was all noble, I wanted it for a friend who loved the chart but was just never going to stitch anything that big. But then I got to thinking I'd be able to stitch it that much sooner if it was a mini and got pretty excited about it myself.

Here is a link to Mini The Eternal Promise.
And here is a pic if you have forgotten the pattern.




To add fat to the fire, someone went and made a Lord of The Rings SAL on facebook, then Liz got it up and going on the HAED Bulletin Boards. Oh how I longed to join! The first 'big' book I ever read as a child was The Hobbit. I have a life long interest in the LOTR. But there was no way I could afford to kit up the full sized chart, even if I used 2 yards (2 yards!) of the cheapie 14 count they sell locally. So, long story short, the mini came out, HAED is having a Halloween sale at 35 % off and I bought the chart for less than 8 dollars. Who could resist that right?

I have a piece of 18 count and after pulling floss I need about 20 colors still, and don't know when I will be able to purchase them, but, yesterday I put the first 50 or so stitches in on Mini The Eternal Promise. I have decided to forgo the Kreinik and just use white but other than that I will stitch it as charted.

I was a little concerned about how 'small' the Mini counted out as compared to the size of the original, and by how quickly it was released after the request was made. But I have so far had excellent results with my HAED charts and decided to trust Michelle's charting and go with it. I will almost certainly stitch the full sized chart one of these years. But I am limited so I am loving the idea of stitching the mini.

So, LOTR SAL, and I am waiting to see what the HAED SAL will be this year before I decide on that. I think I will not get to do the Shineysun's SAL on FB since there is now money for a pattern or to kit one up right now, but I will follow that one with a great deal of interest since some of their charts have grabbed my attention.

That is all for now stitchy friends.

Happy stitching this week!










Saturday, October 13, 2012

Weekend stitching thoughts

Well, about 3 full days without being able to stitch, and as usual my wishlist grew. Today begins Glamour's 3 day stretch, with poor Freddie having seen only about 30 or 40 stitches during his time.

I did run water over him to try and wash away some of the sizing, but didn't soak him or anything. It feels a little less stiff so perhaps next time it will go a bit easier.

I've sent an e-mail to HAED to find out if The Eternal Promise has been requested as a mini. I may save up and have it done as one if it hasn't. After we finish saving up for DH's game in November. Until then I can't spend a penny extra.(It was really hard resisting buying a bag of Halloween candy!) But I am thinking Eternal Promise would make a nice mini, and then I could afford to kit it up. And might actually finish it someday.

Right now I am day dreaming about what I will kit up next. I am going to be measuring up to see if I have a piece of 18 ct. that is big enough for The Black, which would make kitting it a snap, and very inexpensive . I think the 18 ct. is large enough but I may have to settle for only 2 inches around instead of 3. But that isn't the piece I am speaking of kitting up.

The options are Eternal Promise (of course), Pals, QS Christmas Venice nights, Day/Night, mini Ariadne, the Spangler from the freebie SAL. There is also the three charts I bought a couple of years ago before the budget stopped budging. So that would be A gift for the unicorn king, (restarting) Anal Nathrac and SK Lost Melody.

That is, assuming I don't cave and join the Shineysun SAL for next year on fb(Just Raven would be my choice at the moment), or if HAED does a SAL for next year and has something I don't want to resist. Maybe I can figure out how to do one of those polls like so many others do? And let you guys help me choose.

There is also the problem of QS dragon soul, which, if you looked at the pic, you probably saw that there is a page line, which has never happened to me before. I've read about it, seen pics of it, and am still clueless as to why this happened. So I will either begin stitching block by block only or going straight across as I am on mini Soul Mates and Needle Maiden. Thoughts on that? It will definitely require some changes in my already begun projects.

And speaking of Soul Mates, I haven't worked out yet how I'm going to give her more time and still stick with my rotation. So back to the drawing board on that. Suggestions welcome.lol.

All that is based on actually being able to stitch again soon at my normal rate. Will have to wait and see what develops on that front.

Off to look at other people's stitchy blogs.

Happy Stitching everyone!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Advice needed, and an update

Well, today is the day in the rotation when I should be working on Frederic the Literate. Unfortunately the neck shoulder area is out of commission again, as happens with depressing regularity. The pain had gotten so intense by lunch that I was calling DH to ask him to have the heating pad ready for me when I got home. So poor Frederic is not being worked on this evening. But...There is a small problem with Frederic's fabric.

 It is so stiff that it makes my left hand cramps to work on it for just a little while. I've never had this happen, usually I can wad up a piece of stiff aida a few times to loosen the starch, and it is fine. It has never happened before and if I could work in a hoop I'd probably love that.  Any advice on how to loosen this up short of washing? I've never washed aida before a project so I'm wary of that. So, any advice would be appreciated.

The new rotation is going along just fine. I'm considering giving a good deal of extra time to Mini Soul Mates though since DH would like to have that one in his man cave when we actually make him a man cave next year.

Here is a pic of the Blue and White sampler after I fixed my boo boo at the end of its rotation. I finally did remember to take a pic this morning before work.






And here is a pic of Basilisk after its rotation ended yesterday.




Click as usual for a better view. I was almost able to finish the next row, but not quite. I do love stitching this pattern even if the confetti makes my slow stitching even slower.

The RAK thing is still going on for HAED over on face book and they still have a sale on if you are taking part in that. I wanted to but didn't join because I simply don't have the funds right now. It looks like everyone is having great fun though and you still have time to join if you'd like to.

That is all for tonight.

Happy Stitching everyone.





Sunday, October 7, 2012

An Important notice to my friends

Yesterday someone from FB told me they had gotten a malware report when they visited my site. As you can imagine I was pretty upset. I have checked it thoroughly on both of my computers, which have different anti-virus software, have also checked on a third. I asked on Blogger and also had a friend  I used to work with check as he keeps high security on his laptop since it has sensitive information to his job on it. So far we have not been able to detect any problems at all. If you should notice something please let me know right away but for now it appears to be clean.

Nevertheless I felt it would be irresponsible not to tell people. Two people have suggested it may have been her anti-virus software but I have no way to establish that and I felt everyone has the right to know.

In stitchy news today begins Basilisk's 3 days of rotation and I have so far not been able to get more than 10 or 15 stitches on it before being interrupted, but hopefully later today.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I accidentally deleted some recent comments when I was checking out my blog to make sure it was clean and I am sorry for that. I was advised to raise security on my comments so the nasty Captcha thing is back. I really don't like these but it will spare me the spam and I will get rid of it when I learn more about being safe.

Until next time, Happy Stitching everyone.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

After 6 days of rotation plus random thoughts

I'm feeling pretty good about starting it back up. On the other hand I can hear mini Soul Mates calling to me and it is not her turn.

I've just realized I forgot to take a pic of my blue and white sampler after it had a Mon. through Wed. rotation. I will do that later and for now just update on QS Dragon Soul. She is coming along really well. Here she is after today, I doubt I will stitch on her any more this evening but I suppose it is possible.






She has become a lot of fun to stitch again but after three days I am growing bored with the white, which usually happens. I love color.

Lately I keep having a strong desire to keep stitching whatever I'm stitching. But when  I switch I feel the same about the next one so it is all good.

I am very much wishing I had an all out Halloween chart to stitch, but I'm hoping that will pass after the holiday. Not sure though because I love Halloween stuff for some reason. I've been looking around for a chart, but they aren't easy to find if you are looking for something really detailed. I think I would just not be satisfied with a tiny boo and pumpkin thing right now. That usually works for Christmas, just stitch an ornament with a snowman, wreath or santa and I'm good. Oh well, just random thoughts on a very chilly and rainy Saturday evening.

I've been looking through my charts and I seriously don't know, other than The Black, what I will kit up next. I thought it would be  Eternal Promise, but that is going to be very expensive. Also, before the budget became a nightmare 2 years ago I had bought a couple of patterns. Anal Nathrac, A Gift for the Unicorn King and SK Lost melody.  Anal Nathrac has to be restarted at some point because I simply love the dragons and all of the colors, but it is unkitted and will have to be redone. Unicorn King I had planned to only stitch the top right quarter on. Since then I've been given lovely gifts, and as you've seen, I've started many of them. But there is still some to think about (Pals, mini Ariadne, Day/Night etc.) as well as some charts that are freebies from the freebie SAL's I took part in with HAED. And old and newer freebies from the HAED site. I should do some links but tonight I'm just rambling and letting you all know what I'm thinking about as regards future kitting up and stitching. Oh, and there is SK Magical Arrival, which I let DH have and he stopped working on. It is possible I will beg it back from him and work on that since I like so well.

That's all for now.
Happy Stitching everyone!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Whats wrong with this picture? or Where is the frog landing?

So it is the second day of my new rotation. First project being the blue and white sampler, that I once stitched half of, then lost in a move.

Here is a pic from when I restarted it in 2011, about 10 or 12 years after the first.





Hardly a start at all.
See that light blue sort of circle on the right? One line off so I decided to frog that bit tonight. I was so tired and achy after work but I finally talked myself into it.

Then I went on with my stitching. You know, the fun part. I'm determined if nothing else.

Here is a pic of the work from yesterday and a few minutes tonight.


See the pretty flowers coming along? I was filling in the lt. blue and as soon as I finished the one on the left side, what did I see? Look closely. Does that stem look a little short to you? Cause yep, I didn't stitch that part. It is little enough to frog, except I'm tired, except it is an easy enough pattern that I shouldn't have messed up, except I don't feel like it. Whiny is what I feel.

It isn't much to frog and re-stitch compared to when I have had to re-start a BAP, or mini Soul Mates. But for some reason, perhaps because of the aching, this one bothers me more tonight. I'm weird I guess. So instead of frogging I'm curled up here sharing a fail. Not an epic fail, or even a big deal really. I guess it just feels more productive to blog the frog than frogging that tiny flower at the moment.

I think I'm going to look at other peoples stitching for a bit.

Happy stitching everyone!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Excited update

I was going to wait until I had some pics to show from starting my new rotation today but I just had to share with all my friends.

Teresa sent me this as a birthday present. It is mini The Black.


I received him after my last blog post. I was so excited. What a great birthday present! He will be started just as soon as I finish my present black and white QS Dragon Soul. Special thanks to Teresa, not only for the gift, but for making my birthday feel special.

I saw a finished pic. of him on facebook recently and added him to my wishlist.
At present he is the only chart I know I will start next, as I've reconsidered Eternal Promise. I have too many options at the moment to know what I want to kit up next. Long story, and I will go into that another time as I'm tuckered out from work and need to start working on my new rotation tonight.

Happy stitching this week everyone.