The After Holiday, Holiday Post

Because I have a lot of pictures of great stash and fun stuff!
First is a surprise RAK I received. Thank you Renee, I love it to pieces. Another Charting Creations chart that I just fell in love with. I can't wait to stitch on this one, but I will wait. I plan to start it around March. I want to find some special threads, or possibly special fabric for it. The chart is available here if you are interested in seeing a much better representation of it than the quick phone picture from my computer screen below.

I love the swirling lines and the hearts and obviously, Family.

I had planned, for this blog post, to tell you all about how I'm planning to stitch from my stash and not buy new stash that I really don't need. I still plan all that but it doesn't sound bad at all when you see the rest of the blog post!

My SS gift. I was overwhelmed with my Secret Santa package. It weighed a ton and my SS, as we said in my youth, went off. I love it. Last year's SS package was the same. I can see I am dealing with some seriously professional Secret Santa shoppers here! Merlin even got a pressie!

The cloth is 18 count aida, and a whopping big piece of it. I'd show you a pic but it is on my phone, and my husband has it with him right now at work. Whopping Big. Someone knows me very well.

Husband and I bought each other a gift and had planned to split any money left after our other shopping to each pick out our own 'gift'. But then Dean had to go to the vet and that was the end of that for awhile. We both worked a lot of overtime though, and the week after Christmas found we had enough money to go ahead and have a little fun. Not as much as originally intended but enough to have fun with.
I got myself this. Please note that there was an amazing sale on at Hancock Fabrics that day, and while we were driving out there they sent a 25% off of total purchase to my phone. I promise I only went in to get 2 or 3 skeins of sparkly floss for an idea I have for when I start my crazy quilt.

So a late Christmas gift that I got to pick out myself. I've been wanting the stocking collection for years. I'd still love to have the first collection, but it isn't as if I need it!

And lastly, I've had a bunch of these on my Amazon.com wish list for ages. A friend of mine received 5 or 6 of these as a gift from her son and new daughter in law last year and I've been fascinated since then. Hers were brought back from China when her son went there with his bride to spend time with her grandparents. Mine came from Amazon. Here is a link if you are interested.  Be warned that another seller on there has it for twice the price. It is Prime eligible.

I have been hesitant to buy a Chinese cross stitch kit. I've heard both wonderful and bad things about them. I've also seen for myself that some of them are blatant rip-off's of copyrighted works. I decided that I wouldn't ever try one, until I realized they have a small selection on Amazon. I am thinking and hoping that Amazon would yank anything that was copyright protected as soon as they became aware of it, and that this should make it a reasonably safe place to purchase from.

It shipped from Amazon, and even with the Holiday was here in about 3 days.
Now for the pictures of the kit that I took.

This Kit is huge. 120 X 57 cm, or 47.2 X 22.4 in. But isn't nearly as big as some I have seen on Facebook. It is 11 count aida and the cloth is very nice. A little stiff, but not so stiff that you can't stitch on it (Remember Frederick?).
My right wrist is hurting this week so I'm not stitching much, if any this week, but I've played with the floss and it too is really nice. I am going to thread up a needle (it comes with 2) and do a few left handed stitches to test it out, but it feels great in hand and looks lovely. As you can see it also lists the colors in a DMC conversion and they appear to be very close, and even spot on, on the few I checked out. I love the cards by the way, I really dislike the ones with holes but this you can take the hole bunch out and put them back in an instant, no tying off or anything. Really like that.


I have some stitchy news and pics to share with you next time. This has gotten long and picture heavy so I will save that for a later post.



Happy Stitching everyone!

The Better Late Than Never Blog Post

Yes, I've deliberately been putting off posting, week after week.
I've been in a lot of pain and only stitching one or if I'm lucky two days per week.
The problem comes from a task I have to do at work since about August and has grown and grown since then. I think I've got a handle on it now, but I'll have to wait and see.

Anywho here is where I left off  last time on Small Early Snowfall:

And this is where I made it to before stopping:

He is turning out gorgeous. I'm looking forward to getting back to him soon-ish.

I've started another project, a private project that I won't be posting about, so between that , and not having very much stitching time I am letting everyone know that my posts may be coming farther apart, as this one did, since I have so little to post about.

I hate it happened when it did, I was really getting into the embroidery. TAST is wonderful and I'm looking forward to getting back to that too, when I am better.

Until then I will be avidly reading everyone's stitching blogs, admiring new charts and going my slow poke way of stitching.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their own stitching.
Peace friends.
Karen

Stitching, cross and otherwise

Around the time of my last blog update I was thinking of starting a crazy quilt. One of my reader's had emailed me and we got into an email chat. She was able to introduce me to a number of resources. Unfortunately it also made me realize how out of touch I am with things in that area.

Thankfully one of those resources she introduced me to was TAST (Take a stitch Tuesday). Here is a link to the faq, Pintangle. A perfect inspiration to start practicing my stitches again, with instructions for what I've forgotten or never knew how to do. I also have several embroidery books, so either way I can get the instructions.

Now that the cross stitching world no longer feels like a safe place it is pure pleasure to sit down and practice my stitches. They also have a Facebook group especially for this, practicing a different stich each week, or whatever works for you, and posting a picture. A ton of inspiration on there.

Here is the beginning of mine, weeks 1,2,3 and 11. Possibly another. I forget.

Nothing too fancy, and I would love to do larger samplers, but I am having trouble finding time to fit everything I want to do in.

Since my husband Jason was paying to kit up my birthday chart I allowed him to pick which chart he wanted. I love his choice. It is Small Early Snowfall from Charting Creations. I received a gift certificate to Charting Creations from Nikki for my birthday and that is what I chose. Another gift certificate to 123Stitch had me ordering the pretty cat needlminder you will see in the pictures below of my new start on Early Snowfall.

I couldn't resist starting in the middle!


Until next time Happy Stitching my friends!

The Last of The New Stash, and Stitching

So with the last few dollars of my stash money I decided to order two charts I've been thinking of for some time. I've never ordered from Shinysun's Cross Stitching, though I've been aware of them for quite a long time. I had 3 or 4 charts picked out that I really wanted to do, but never did order them, mainly because I prefer my charts in PDF format and these are hard copy only.

Long story short, they had a half price sale, and with their charts being so reasonable to begin with I decided to give it a shot with my last 10 dollars. I've seen a good many of her charts being stitched and finish, and they look great, so there were no worries there, and I asked a friend that I know had ordered some what she thought and she wholeheartedly recommended them. Since it was a half price sale I resigned myself to waiting 2 to 3 weeks for my charts to arrive, though of course I started watching for them after just 7 days, 'cause hey, who can resist stalking the mailman when they have something fun coming? But seriously, with a big sale like that I thought there would be extra orders and I would have to wait longer. I ordered on 9/10/2015 and they were in my hands on 9/21/2015, so really quite good.

Enough explanation, here is what I ordered:

Okay, a poor quality cell phone pic, but I was in a hurry.
Yes, my love of black and white charts got the better of me.

The low down...The charts look great, obviously I haven't stitched anything on them yet, but they look good. The paper is above average but not the highest quality. I'm good with that since I will have to mark them up as I stitch. Everything looks clear and easy to read with one exception. The floss symbol list is small print, really small. And I really don't like that. On top of which, since it isn't a PDF I will have to scan it in to my computer if I want to enlarge it, then figure out how to enlarge it, then print it off. Not a major big deal, but an annoyance. Don't get me wrong, I can see it, but I have to look, if you know what I mean, and when I'm stitching I want it to be instant, a no brainer that I don't even have to think about. The real test, would I order from them again? Yes, certainly, and probably will!

I haven't gotten in the stitching time I'd hoped for lately, I've been ill, my husband changed jobs, and we have a new cat to go along with our 3 dogs, plus the usual work on the job.

I did get to do one thing I'd very much wanted to, which is stitch to the end of the first row on Mini Cheshire Cat. I do love this chart, but when I started it I can't imagine what I was thinking, I started it only about 2 inches from the top of the fabric and it is uncomfortable to stitch that high with my Qsnap on. It needed only the first row to be finished to solve the problem.

It will now be much more comfortable to stitch. Such a gorgeous chart. Pity I will be putting it away for a bit. I've been setting myself some goals, and this one is probably going to come back out soon for a Halloween SAL. That is the plan at the moment anyway. I would link to the chart at Heaven and Earth Designs but I couldn't find it. The chart may have been retired.

The other wip I have to show you is Tribal Dragon from Charting Creations.

I was able to squeeze out finishing the page I was working on, which is the center page of the chart.

I was actually surprised, since it is a 'waiting' or take-along project and I didn't expect to have a page finish for another month or two at least. I guess I did more waiting around than usual! It looks fabulous so far.

I did say I'd tell you about the pipe insulation. This stuff is really cheap at the hardware store. Less than 2 dollars for a really long piece. It is in the plumping section.

At first I tried cutting it to the size of my floss list for the White Dragon chart. It worked but it rolled a little too much for me. It did slide right on the top of the qsnap, but that got on my nerves!

So I asked in my stitching group and found out that one of my friends use them. She is evidently more talented than I am! She draws the symbols onto masking tape and tapes them on. I tried but can't make some of the symbols look right. She also shared a picture showing how she cuts them in half so they lay flat and don't roll. I tried this, and it is briliant. They are light weight, easy to move around and work like a charm. I just kept my taped printed symbol page. I wish the symbols were a little farther apart and will see that they are next time, but it does work. Why didn't I think of that?

Mine aren't pretty, but they do work. That is 90 color symbols, so yay. Cheap, easier to use than the fancy ones I bought, and readily available. I immediately made up a much smaller one for Mini Cheshire Cat when it came out to be worked on.

Well, this has gotten long, and I've still things to show you next time. Until then, happy stitching everyone!

Stash Enhancement on a Stash Ban and A New Family Member and a page finish

First things first. Jason brought home a little kitten yesterday morning. He stopped at a gas station near our house that is right on a busy street and found this poor baby in the pouring rain. I am told it came right up to him and snuggled when he picked it up. lol, whatever the case we asked around and no one is claiming him, so we took him to the vet this morning to check for a chip, just to be on the safe side, and no chip. We started his shots and he will be going back to be neutered in a couple of weeks. This is not the best picture but it is hard to take a good one when you are holding a cat!

The vet gave him a clean bill of health this morning. He is quite the lap baby!


In stitchy news did you know that it isn't stash if you used a gift card and not your own money?
Yep, I am assured that if you win a gift card then it doesn't count as breaking your stash ban. That only counts if you are spending your own money. So...
From Charting creations came this as a gift.
Tribal Wolf Silhouette available here:

This is a shot of my pdf download front page picture from my computer screen. I'll be stitching this on 18 ct. black aida with white glow in the dark floss. I was shocked to see how much more difficult it is to work on black cloth for me now. This one is for my husband.

I treated myself to Mischief, since I've been thinking of it since it came out. Link here.

Isn't it marvelous?

Then there was this from 123 Stitch, partially supplies for Tribal Wolf Silhouette.

And a Lizzy Kate, and yes, I have a better picture but it won't load!

Here is the little needle threader. At first I laughed at the size but I have been using it steadily and it is good.

Now, do I have any actual stitching to show you? I do actually.
A page finish on White Dragon!

Ta-Da! And I made the Qsnap guard too, so fun all around!

I also made a little start on Mini The Ghost but this is getting long, so I will post about that next time. I also have some information on trying out pipe insulation as a needleholder, so pics and info on that and on the little ornament kit you see in the picture above.

Until next time happy stitching everyone.

Forgetful Stitchy Blogger

Because, yes, I forgot to come back and post pictures as I said I would.
Sorry you guys. I was convinced I'd done it, then the work weekend started on Friday. I work 10 hour shifts overnight from Friday through Monday, which doesn't leave a lot of time. On top of which I came down with the summer cold from your nightmares on Saturday and have had difficulty looking at the monitor since then. I've Facebooked from the kindle or phone and that is about it.

But enough excuses, I was a bad blogger.
Phone pictures, but here they are.

This is Tribal Dragon from Nikki at Charting Creations. You will see that I have started in the middle. I haven't finished that center page yet, but since it is a take along, or waiting piece, only to be worked when I am waiting it isn't bad progress.

This was progress on it at the time of my last post.
And this is now:

So, not a lot of waiting this time around!

A little stitching on it. This one is two over one full crosses on 18 ct. aida. It is being worked in hand. This aida was a gift in my Secret Santa gift package at Christmas, you may remember it. The top picture is more accurate on the colors of the fabric.

The other picture I have for you is an example of my being very bad indeed. You remember my new start that I am going to have in September? I had planned to work on it three weeks a month? Yes, well. I think I started it in protest against my self imposed stash ban, as I told you last time.

Here is the first pic of White Dragon. A Heaven and Earth Designs chart that was gifted to me from Nikki:

This is a terrible picture, and the flash makes it even worse. This is where I had gotten to at the time of my last post. It really looks quite nice but you could never tell it from this picture.


Anywho, this is how it looks as of this morning.

The shot is a little blurry, but you can definitely see dragon toes forming. This chart is the large print from HAED and that is the actual width of the page. It is being worked on 25ct Lugana, 2 over one, half cross. My last attempt at that went really bad, but it wasn't Lugana, which seems to not be as stretchy as the DMC gridded fabric was, and so works much better for me. So far anyway.

I'm only getting 2 or three days a week to stitch right now, so given that I am pretty happy with my progress.
I accidently fell off the wagon and broke my stash ban. The Halloween issue of a certain cross stitch magazine found its way into my basket when grocery shopping. I simply forgot I was on a ban!
I am back on it now though, which is a drag, because I really want to kit up Kindred Spirits, but I am being good, and won't for now.

As you can see, not a lot of stitching happening, but enough to keep me going for a little while longer.

Until next time Happy Stitching!

Some Stitching and a Fab Chart RAK!

Okay, I can't find the camera! Again!
I'll try to hunt it up tomorrow and get you a few pictures of the little stitching I've managed. I'm actually quite pleased with the bits and pieces I've gotten stitched since our lives have been topsy turvy and crazy busy for a month now.

I did put myself on a stash ban, so naturally a bunch of amazingly beautiful patterns were charted. I was quite able to resist (Yay me!), but one really bothered me. Anne Stokes' Kindred Spirits, a long time favorite piece of art, was charted over at Heaven and Earth Designs. I have literally waited years for that piece to be charted and had my fingers crossed when she began allowing her art work to be charted by HAED again.

Long story short a stitchy friend RAK'd this chart to me.Thank you so much S.
Here is a picture of the chart:

I realize this isn't for everyone, but I do love them. Just so pretty, and well, dragon.
I hadn't realized I love greens so much, but given this chart, Day Night, and Astranaithes I have to admit a definite trend. Anal Nathrach has quite a bit of green too. Woodland Guardian, Emerald Hawthorn. I'll stop now, lol!

I was very bad though. I would have kitted this up immediately if I could have, since I simply couldn't I cheated and started White Dragon. Yep, my September start. I promise you I will kit this up and start it as soon as I can.

I've also had to make a hard decision. No new starts until something is finished, other than this one, naturally. Sigh.

Our lives are over the top full and busy right now, so I don't think I'll be posting as regularly as I'd like to, but hopefully I'll get in enough stitching to make an interesting post for you.

Until next time happy stitching my friends.