A quick morning post

Just because I am excited about something and want to share!
As I was sitting half asleep and checking my E-mail earlier this morning I found this lovely surprise in my mail. She reminds me of A Girl with a Pearl Earring, but has her own special magic.

A special way to start the day.
Needle Maiden has been number 1 on my wishlist (I only keep one Must Have on the list) for only a few weeks, but she has been on my wishlist since she came out.
A big thank you to Theresa, aka PuppyStitcher for sending her my way.
Needle Maiden is a Dahlig design and is available from Heaven and Earth Designs here.
Now, 26 skeins of black will be needed. That part is a bit scarey. I'm looking forward to her though. She needs starting.
Never mind about not having new starts. lol. My rotation is loose this year and there has been more than one. Besides, as long as I'm working on something I love stitching it is all good. She will be stitched in honor of two special dogs in my life, since that is part of what sent her my way. Shadow, we will miss you always, and Gizmo (otherwise known as He Who Must Be Obeyed), because they have added so much to my life.

I know she is a little dark but I love this piece. Now I don't know what vision the artist had in mind and I've seen at least two discussions about the meaning of this lady but I leave that to you to decide, a feminist statement, a darker meaning, just an engrossing piece of art?

After Easter Basilisk update

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend. Ours was not exciting but a holiday is always nice.

Last week was Basilisk week in my rotation. Here are some update pictures. I hit one patch of truly extreme confetti but it didn't last long, and it looks so pretty once you get through it.

This week is a Wild Card Stitching week, meaning I can work on whatever I want but I'm having a flare-up that began yesterday so I'm not sure what, if anything, I'll get done this week.

Mini-Soul Mates

I haven't had a lot of stitchy time lately.
I've done a bit of work on Mini-Soul Mates this past week or so. Here it is at about 2600 stitches.

Nothing too exciting to see yet, and I am a little bored with various shades of gray. Not much confetti yet either but I am enjoying stitching this. So much so that I may break my rotation and continue on with it.

It was a wild card week in my rotation so I took part in the HAEDless Stich-a-long over on the HAED bulletin board and got a few stitches in on Chery's bouquet. Here is the progress.

In sewing stuff, I muslined Colette's Sorbetto last weekend. The pattern is available here if you are interested.
It almost fit well.  It feels wonderful but I am going to re-muslin after I lower the bust dart and add about an inch of ease. There were those little ripples across the upper bust and the ease may not be needed after lowering the dart but I'll have to see. I've never yet been able to find a simple tank or camisole pattern that fit properly (for woven's) and this is very close to perfect for me. I will also add to the length because I love the length it is before hemming so I'll add extra to hem with to keep the length the same. No telling when I'll get around to that but as warm as it is here I will probably want to do it sooner rather than later.

Frogging, stitching and a skirt.

Mini Soul Mates didn't see as much progress as I'd have liked last week. There were a few days that saw no stitching at all, and one that saw me frogging much of what I had stitched the night before. Still, any progress is good progress so here is a couple of pics.

Not exactly stellar but not too bad for a week that saw a blow out, (second tire to be replaced in 4 days), a virus and Dr's visit for said virus, and then getting caught in a mini flash flood on my way to work due to the heavy rains. So, overall, I'm happy with the progress after all.

On the sewing front, hmm, I decided on Saturday to make a simple little elastic waist-ed skirt. Nothing to it, I used to do this all the time. Hour, hour and a half tops.  Ha.

The trouble started when I decided I wanted pockets in my nice cotton skirt. I figured, I won't have to carry my purse and it will be more comfy when it is 90 to 100 degrees this summer. I picked out Butterick 5336 thinking I'd use the skirt since it has nice deep pockets and I hated for the pattern to be a total waste since the reviews for the jacket (which I originally bought the pattern for) were not very good.

It looked like I had hams attached to me under the skirt! So I took out the pockets and re-sewed, now it was just, you know, poufy. Really poufy. So I took off an inch on either side of the waist and finally was satisfied with the skirt. I actually like it a lot. Here is a picture from the back.

Ok, the blouse is much too long, but I just threw it on to take a pic. Ignore the construction debris, ladder, and general mess. That thing hanging from the door knob was a blouse I made a year or two ago that came out about 6 sizes too big. I cut it up one day and sewed elastic to the bottom to make something to hold my plastic grocery sacks. Took about 5 minutes. And looks it.

Back to the skirt. It is comfy and cool, I love the fabric which you can't see well in this pic so I will try to get another of the fabric up soon. It is one of only two pieces I've bought this year. My pic from the front is even worse so I'll re-do that if I don't forget. The length is perfect, exactly where I wanted it to fall. I'd show construction details but there isn't anything special. Straight seams, half-inch folded hem, zig-zag the seams so they won't ravel. It didn't even need a lining, though I may add one just for comfort.

New Starts and other updates

After pulling floss I found I hadn't enough of the right colors to start both QS Christmas Venice Night and Mini Soul Mates. Since I had more that matched mini Soul Mates that is what I have been working on this week.  Sort of blew off my rotation, though it was a smalls week and this sort of fit in.
Here is my progress so far at about 1300 stitches.

I started in the upper right corner with the far right page. Mostly shadows and wall right now.

QS Christmas Venice Night I started right after I received it, but I only got the fabric ready and did a few stitches in black. I can't justify 20 or 25 dollars in floss right now so I will have to wait to make any real progress on that one. So no photo of that yet.

Sewing note. Or is it pattern making?  Either way I finally finished drafting, or I should say re-drafting, the pencil skirt pattern and made the skirt. I am not at all happy with it. First, it looks more like an A-Line, mainly because my shape changed when I gave up white sugar awhile back. Weight the same, shape change, and now I need to re-redraft the pattern. Or really, just start from scratch, or even better, just use the skirt from the retro 60's pattern I have.  The only photo I'm going to show is a boo boo pic.  When I unpicked the seams and re-sewed them (to no avail) I must not have been paying attention. I sewed from the top down and not from the bottom up. The result? Ripples that no amount of steam pressing will get rid of.

This is pre-hem. I really don't like the hem I put in, but I've vowed to master hemming this year and am planning to try each type, and try to add variety and get better at them. Fairly ambitious for someone who only recently started sewing again, but a girls got to have goals.

Will I wear this? Yes, for around the house and running to the grocery and such. I have hardly any clothes that fit anymore, so yes, but it isn't going to be my favorite thing.
Edited to add:  The one thing I did like about the skirt was the back vent I put in, instead of just a slit. Easy, and modest.

More Angels than we know. Warning, long stitchy post ahead

On Wednesday morning I was RAK'd another chart. I was simply stunned when Louanne sent me this. I can't say how much it means to me.

I'd had a rough week and knew Wed. was going to be crazy busy and then Louanne went and made the day wonderful first thing in the morning. I haven't posted because I wanted to have time to do her justice and I've had only a few minutes here and there on the computer this week.
The pattern is Mini Soul Mates from an Ann Stokes piece of art. Another HAED, available here.
This one has been on my list forever as a full sized chart, but budget, and just plain old apprehension at starting another BAP, has kept me from it.  When the mini was released I put it on my wishlist, and I must say I'm glad I did.
Mini is relative since I'm planning to work it on 14ct. 3 over one so 16" by 24" or so. I've already started kitting this one, pulling my floss and seeing what I'll need. I hope to end this incredibly busy week by starting her on Saturday if everything goes as planned. I have been looking forward to that all week long.

Last weeks rotation was Basilisk and I didn't get a lot done, but here is an updated photo.

And finally, this weeks rotation was a wild card week, but I had scarcely any time to stitch. I did take part in the non-HAED SAL and this is all the progress I made.

More on the house

I haven't had time for a proper sititchy post, but promise to do up a good one for this weekend.  There is a lot of excitement there.  Right now, this week has been crazy busy.  Here are a few pics of the plywood sheathing going up today.  DH is working like crazy to get the house all secure and repaired on the outside.  The inside will have to wait a bit, but still, it is so exciting to finally be able to make a start on the house.