WIPocalypse February Update

I haven't done much stitching due to having a new person in the house. My eldest niece has moved in, so I've been spending time with her. I have started to teach her to stitch as well and she seems to like it. Hopefully I can get some pics of her piece soon.

For the WIPocalypse here is my update on the Anniversary Sampler. I wanted to make sure I had enough fabric so I went ahead and started the outermost border, as usual I worried for nothing as there is plenty of fabric LOL

Here are the pics:

This is a closer pic of the stitches I added. The light green/blue (502 I believe it is..too lazy to go get pattern to check LOL) is the outermost border. There will be another line of the darker green/blue but it is only 3 more stitches wide, so I am sure I have plenty of room.

I did do a bit more of the blackwork middle border, not a whole lot but some. There will be larger blackwork bits in the empty space as well as specialty stitches in the center of the blackwork flower shape.

Measi of Measi's Musings is running the WIPocalypse. You can see the list of other participants and check out their progress HERE. Thanks Measi!

Wednesday Stitching

After I did the yard work, cooked dinner and such I was stuck in bed. So I pulled out the Delft Card and worked a bit on it. I got the flower half way backstitched. Hopefully I can do more tomorrow and get a picture put up.

Stephanie has completed the backstitching on the rose part of her design and it looks fantastic! I am so proud of her! She has learned very quickly and does a great job. She seems to really enjoy doing it as well. She should put a new WIP pic up soon (on her blog), or even a finished pic as she is very close to finishing it.

I got an email today from Olga, from Olenka's Stitches, in response to my post asking for assistance in picking a color for the words on Frogging Aound. She included a chart where she made the background green (the lightest shade from the pictures I put up of my hand-dyed fabric) and then added the word "frog" over and over in different color recommendations. She did this so I could see what the words would approximately look like in each color. I was very touched that she would take the time to do this for me, just because I asked for help! Thank you so much Olga, I really appreciate it! 3 of the colors she had chosen are in the variegated thread I decided to use and they show up well. It was really sweet of you to chart those different colors for me Olga, it helped a great deal. I could see how the different shades in the variegated I chose would definitely make the words show up as all three shades were the easiest to read on your created chart. Thank you thank you thank you! I hope to get back to the frog in a couple days. I want to finish the card first so I can get it in the mail to UK in plenty of time to allow for possible delays.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how many people posted comments or sent emails in response to my plea for assistance. Thank you all so much! I really appreciate the help. I've told people that stitchers tend to be wonderfully caring and generous people, and I still think that is the truth!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments, they make me smile every time I get one. I am very touched by how many of you read my posts and respond with an encouraging comment, it is truly one of the best things in my life. Thank you!

Stitching On A Wednesday

I have been stitching. On the Cross Stitch Forum I volunteered to make at least 1 stitched greeting card. One of the members has joined Relay For Life and would also like some stitched greeting cards to sell to raise additional funds for cancer research. Since I will have to send the card overseas (to the UK) I have to finish the 1 I said I would make (and hopefully a second one to go with it) by June 21st at the latest, to ensure she will receive it by the date needed. So I put Frogging Around on hold, went through all my UK stitching magazines because they contain the only greeting card charts that I have, and found a chart I liked. It is one of 4 from a series called Delft Cards". They were published in Cross Stitch Collection, March 2010 issue. I love this magazine as it always has at least 3 charts (or more!) that I want to stitch in every issue! I am hoping to get 2 of these cards done on time. Here is a picture of the one I've started already. I would say it is just a tiny bit away from half-way done already, and I've only stitched for 4 hours on it, so it shouldn't take much longer.

Delft Cards
14ct Aida using DMC Floss

My sister-in-law also wished to stitch a card. So she picked a chart from Jean Greenoff's "New Cross Stitcher's Bible" and started stitching. This is only her third stitching piece and I have to say she is doing a fantastic job! Her stitches are nice and even, well shaped, and great tension. Here is a picture of the front of her card so far. This is only about a few hours stitching time so far, she stitches quickly too!

 


Tudor Rose
by: Jane Greenoff
DMC on 14ct Aida
Stitched by: Stephanie C.

I am very impressed with how neat her back is already! The rose has 3 colors in it and the leaves have 2, but even with those color changes in such a small area, her stitching is still nice and neat! There are no knots, tangles, or hanging threads. Everything is nice and neatly tied off underneath stitches already placed. The back of my 3rd ever piece of cross stitch was never this neat! Stephanie is a great stitcher already! I am so very proud of her and how quickly she learned.

Tudor Rose stitched by Stephanie; back side.

Here is the promised update picture on Frogging Around. I love the way the variegated corals look on the words. As I said earlier, I set it aside to do the card so I haven't gotten anything else done since my last entry, but I did promise a picture. This picture is also the first one that shows the fabric color so well.

Frogging Around by Jessica Willis Burr
28ct Jazlyn Irish Fields by Enchanting Lair
Stitched by: M. Hull with DMC Floss

Again, thank you all for your help on finding a thread that would work for the words. I love the look of this thread even though the flash washed it out a bit in this picture. The words show up real well and the variations of the corals and pinks add a delicate flowery touch to the piece that I really like.

When rearranging my stash I found out that I have 2 of the same Dimensions Gold kit so I decided that it may be time to make a list of what I have so I won't duplicate them and thus waste money. So I made a list of all my charts, kits, and leaflets (not counting hard cover books, digital freebies, or magazines) so that I won't accidentally buy a chart I already have. It was a lot of fun to pull out all my charts. I rediscovered a bunch that I really want to stitch, and some I didn't realize I had because they were given to me as a gift from my mother-in-law a few years ago. I have 249 charts, leaflets, and/or kits. I haven't included my freebies because I haven't printed them all out. According to my computer there are 599 files in my cross stitch folder (not counting my folder for finishes). This, however, counts each folder name as a file and I give every designer their own folder so I always know who designed the freebie. There are 162 folders. I am quite surprised at how many freebies I have! Many of them are small charts. There are also 2 folders for digital magazines (The Gift Of Stitching and Blackwork Digital Magazine). Maybe it is silly of me to create an inventory of my patterns, I don't know. I am not meaning to brag or anything, I'm only babbling about it because of how surprised I was to find out how many I actually have. I wasn't expecting it to be that much! Now I will feel guilty every time I purchase a new chart because of how many I have already and I know I can't possibly stitch them all in my lifetime. But oh man they are so much fun to look through. While doing this I found a few charts and kits that I know I will not stitch. They are all in excellent condition, the kits have not even been opened. I will post a new page on this site listing those items for sale or trade. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow. Maybe one of the items I list will be something you would like to have. 

Well that's it for me on the stitching front. Thank you all for coming by and leaving comments, I really do appreciate every single one. They always make me smile :)

Daughter Stitching and Quaker WIP

My daughter Sam started a cross stitch of a Care Bear; Cheer Bear specifically. She decided to stitch it for her cousin (My niece) Bridgette. She had all the main stitching completed. All that was left was the little bit of snow at the bottom of the piece and adding Bridgette's name, so I went ahead and finished it for her since she is leaving tomorrow to go to Wisconsin and it is possible she will not be returning. She is moving in with her boyrfiend. She took a stitching project with her but didn't have enough room for Cheer Bear so I offered to finish it for her. I got it done just a little bit ago. She did a marvelous job! The back is very neat, her neatest back yet! Bridgette has seen it as well and she points to the bear and says "bear! Mine!" LOL

Here is a picture of the completed design.

Cheer Bear With Tree Lights

© M.C.G. Textiles

I have done a bit more on my Quaker sampler. I decided to go ahead and put some color changes in it. So I chose 3 shades of reddish pink: 3831: Dark, 3832: Medium, and 3833: Light. So far I think the subtle color changes have added to the beauty of this piece. I continue to enjoy the heck out of stitching this design. I guess my feeling that I would really enjoy stitching samplers was a true one. I remember how much I enjoyed stitching the Love Home Joy sampler a few years ago. I got into it so intensely that I finished it within 2 weeks by stitching every single day, almost all day long. I loved the mini-finishes that occured with each completed motif. I loved the way each motif blended with those around them and how the colors worked so well together. This Quaker doesn't have the obvious color changes that the Love Home Joy sampler had because I am stitching the Quaker with 3 shades of the same color, whereas Love Home Joy was stitching with different shades of blue and green. I am really enjoying every stitch I put into this piece and I want to stitch all day long! Sadly I can't stitch all day long because things such as laundry and cooking have to be done LOL

Anyway here is the latest wip picture of my Quaker Sampler:

I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for stopping by and leaving comments. I enjoy every comment made and they make my day brighter and happier! Thank you all!

Crescent Dreams Update and A Stitcher's Helper

Here is a side view of Crescent Dreams by Mirabilia. I changed the blanket and hat to all pink. This closeup shows the colors really well! It is being stitched on 28ct Jobelen from Silkweaver called Rock-A-Bye.

Here is what the design looked like at the end of my stitching time on Thursday or Friday. I am almost finished with all the cross stitching on this piece and will try to post new update photos tomorrow.

On Thursday June 11, 2009 I had some help stitching this piece. My niece, Bridgette, (whom the piece is for) insisted on helping me stitch. Since the ones of her helping me with the Blackwork piece from Tam's Creations did not come out, I made sure DH got pictures this time. It won't let me upload any more pics *pout* so here is a link to the photo album on the Facebook page that has those pictures (Bridgette and I stitching) in it.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=15111&id=1624692760&ref=mf

My Stitching Corner, and Progress on WIP

Here is my Teresa Wentzler Wedding Sampler progress as of May 5, 2009. I got the entire upper left block completed. Lots of confetti stitching. I wanted to get it done so I could put in the satin stitches around it. I wanted to see if I could do them as well as I did the ones in the shell shapes at the top of the column. I think I did pretty darn good and I just love the effect.

This is a close-up of the upper left corner of the Wedding Sampler by Teresa Wentzler. I just love how the rayon floss looks in the satin stitch border and I am so very pleased with the result of the confetti stitching and the satin stitches. I am very proud of myself for doing it so well.

Ohhh I am such a happy happy stitcher now! My DH bought me a LaZboy recliner. He was hoping it would be more comfortable for me to sit in when watching TV or stitching. So he set it up in the living room. For now I am using the daylight table lamp off my computer desk, but will be ordering a daylight floor standing lamp to put behind the chair to the left (so I don't stitch into my own shadow). When we got it home I was hurting pretty good from all the getting up and down trying out different chairs as well as the laying on different beds to check out mattresses at the store. I tried a Tempurpedic mattress and found that it actually hurts my pelvis. I was thinking of waiting to try the chair until the next day when I wouldn't be hurting as much, then I realized we had bought it to help me with my pain, and I remember how quickly my body relaxed when I sat in it. So I went ahead and got my Blackwork Winter from Tam's Creations and sat down to stitch. IT WAS WONDERFUL! I managed to stitch for 4 hours and when I was done I couldn't believe I had sat that long. Better yet, when I got up, my pain had actually gone DOWN while I stitched in that chair. I am so very happy with it!

DH set it up in a corner of the living room, in front of the large windows we have. He also bought me a metal music stand because I wanted something to hold my charts that would be able to hold charts that are inside hard cover books (such as the Christmas books put out every year, as well as collection books of a specific designer). We set the music stand up next to the chair on the left and moved one of the end tables to the right of the chair. This made me my own stitching corner which can be seen in the picture above.

This is a picture of the music stand I am using. I love it because the magnets stick directly to it, which makes it easier for me to use 1 magnet as a needle minder. It also holds my heaviest stitching books without any problem. The little lip on it is great for holding my scissors, thread heaven, a high lighter and other small things I use while stitching. Because of my niece I have to find a better place to put my floss box as I found out today that she will not leave it alone if it is on the end table to the right of my chair. For now, I put a small cardboard box to the left of my chair (Beside the music stand) and put the floss box on it and that seems to work just fine.

I plan on emptying out the top two shelves of the large book shelf to the right of my chair. I will place my floss boxes on those shelves, as well as my WIPs and probably some of my chart books, or magazines.

I have long admired the stitching corners or rooms of other stitchers and crafters and have wanted one of my own. If I had known just how comfortable a recliner would make me and my stitching, I would have bought one years ago! No problem though as I have one now and it is a great help.

It is now 7:48PM central time and I paused in my stitching to post this blog. I've been stitching literally all day. I started at about 8AM this morning and just kept going. I wanted to complete the upper left hand block on the sampler, which I did. I am now working on Blackwork Winter which only has the lower right hand corner left (last page). I hope to finish it tonight. Anyway, if I were to sit in bed for that long and stitch, my back would be hurting like hell from the bending forward to read the chart. With this new stitching corner set up my back does NOT hurt from stitching! I am ecstatic about it! (Because the chair is a large one, I can easily shift positions every 20 minutes or so like I am supposed to.) This means I can stitch as often as I wish and for as long as I wish without hurting myself. This just feels marvelous!! *Happy cyber dance*

A little while ago we gave Bridgette, my 20 month old niece, a coloring book and washable markers. I of course had to take pictures of the first time she colored with markers! She really enjoyed it! Isn't she adorable?

Well I'll post again tomorrow when I will hopefully (*fingers, toes and all stitches crossed*) be doing a happy dance for completing the stitching on Blackwork Winter. Bridgette helped me with a few stitches on it, but the picture of us stitching together did not come out. I hope to get one tomorrow as she enjoyed it and so did I. The stitches came out a little crooked, but I refuse to remove them as they are the first stitches my niece has ever done! I hope when she gets older that she will be interested in learning to stitch so I can teach her how.

More Stitching and Sewing

My friend Curtis has decided that he really likes cross stitching, which I think is wonderful because he needed a hobby, something to keep him busy and give him something to do. Anyway, after the success of the santa ornament I helped him stitch, he wanted to stitch something for his mother that was not a seasonal only item. He selected a rose bud and asked if I could turn it into a sachet for her and I told him that yes I could. He stitched the entire rose bud by himself! He followed the chart, started and ended the threads, counted the stitches etc. His stitches came out real neat and straight. I did the backstitching because by then his shoulder was really hurting and he wanted it done, so I did the backstitching for him. It took me 2 days to turn it into a little bag and stuff it with potpourri. We couldn't find any red lace for the top edge so I crocheted a little trim for the top edge and used a red velvet ribbon to tie the bag so it can be re-opened and new potpourri added when needed. We gave it to his mom and she really liked it! She was quite impressed with his stitches as well. She pointed out how neat his stitches were and that gave me the opportunity to tell him "See? I wan't making it up..you did do a good job!" and he smiled one of those proud of himself type of smiles. It was really nice to see a smile like that on his face as he does not smile like that very often. Anyway, here are two pictures. One is a closeup that makes it easier to see the stitching. I'm not real impressed with the job I did on the sewing it into a bag. I could have done much better if I had planned it out before hand. But Leveda liked it so that is good.

And now the closeup:

I had to lean the bag against the phone to get a good picture of it.

As for my stitching, I have put in a few hours on TW Stroke Of Midnight and am almost done with the King Tut cow for WOCS. I will try to get some pics of them tomorrow.

Happy Holidays and Picture Catch Up

Here are the charts I got for Christmas. My DSD gave me the "Dawn, the fairy Spirit of Grace" chart from Passione Ricamo. My DH gave me Circe The Sorceress by Passione Ricamo as well as the fabric Bewitched by Polstitches Designs that is created specifically for that pattern. I am so so so happy!! I can't wait to kit them up and start stitching!

Here are the pictures of most of the crochet peices I have been doing as well. A rather large peice has no picture as it is not done yet, and a smaller peice is being used so it is not pictured either. There are 5 more angels that are not pictured, a silver one, gold one, white one and two red ones that I gave as presents.

Here is an ornament that I helped my friend Curtis make. He wanted to learn how to stitch so I helped him and he stitched this ornament for his mother for Christmas. I put it together and crocheted the hanger.

Last but not least, here is a picture of the ornament that I received in the Cross Stitch Crazy Ornament Exchange. It is stitched and finished by Jacque (momtogemma) and I LOVE IT! It has been hanging on my tree since I received it!! Thank you so very much Jacque!

Happy Holidays to everyone!!