Some updates and pics

I have been stitching on several projects lately and here are some pics to prove it!

Rainbow Mermaid:


Speckled Fairy:


ACEO Air:


I also started a huge non-HAED project, but I will post about that some other time.

Mood: anti-social
Song: Bio-Vital - Decoded Feedback

i'm here.... kinda

Well,

I just haven't felt like posting. I have been stitching though. I have worked on Steam Punk Fairy, Rainbow Mermaid, and Speckled Fairy over the past few days. I will take some pictures and hopefully post them over the weekend.


DH got his echo results back and everything looks ok. We're eating differently to try to lower his cholesterol, and we've both lost a bit of weight. Hopefully that will continue as I have quite a bit I need to lose.

Prayers to all those up there in the floods!

Mood: Modge Podge (sticky, you know lol)
Song: If You Leave - OMD

Spring is in the air

Howdy!

This past weekend I stitched on Rainbow Mermaid:



I also finished the third column of ten on the first page of Shannon. Sorry no pic of that one.

Mood: Steak
Song: No Phone - Cake

Determined

I'm determined to finish something! I worked again on Steam Punk Fairy last night. I also stitched a bit on Rainbow Mermaid at work yesterday. (Don't tell the boss LOL)

Here's the latest pic of Steam Punk:


I'll probably work on one of the full size charts over the weekend, most likely Shannon or Life Force.

Still waiting on DH's echo results. I think not knowing what's going on is more stressful than anything.

Mood: determined
Song: Wrong - Depeche Mode

No Pics Today :(

I worked on Steam Punk Fairy last night and got almost another column of 10 done on page two. I decided that I didn't like the way the parking was making my stitches come out on the 18ct. It seems bunchy and like the stitches weren't as neat. So from now on, no parking on 18ct with two threads. I didn't have time this morning to take a picture so that will have to wait until tomorrow. Oh, and on Tues night I hardly stitched at all. I just wasn't feeling very well.

Today is DH's echocardiogram so any prayers are well appreciated.


Mood: wiggly
Song: Check in the Mail - General Public

Blah

Still feeling sick. I'm sure not going to let that stop me from stitching though! I worked on Steam Punk Fairy last night, starting to incorporate the parking method. It went pretty well. Because I didn't have the surface area that the scroll frame provides I didn't leave the needle threaded. I just threaded each needle as I went. This took a little more time than I wanted. I'm looking into the spiral eye needles that you can thread quickly. Here's a link to their site: Spiral Eye Needles. I'll let you know what I find out about where to get them and such. Without further ado here's my progress on Steam Punk:



Mood: Snuffley
Song: Shame - Nitzer Ebb

Sick :(

I've picked up quite the bug. Bad sinus and ear infection. Yuck.

I started Shannon by Hannah Disney this weekend and I think I finally understand the whole parking thing. Last time I tried parking I was trying to do all the stitches of one color within the 10x10 block. This caused problems with the threads that were already parked lower in the block. This time I went row by row doing across each row then parking. I was able to stitch much faster for several reasons:

1. I wasn't spending time deciding which color to do next.
2. I wasn't highlighting before I stitched.
3. No threading of needles and changing colors so frequently.

Here's the progress I've made over three days of stitching:


The strings to the right are my waste knots. That worked out very well. I was able to start and stop my threads for the whole column without ever turning the frame to the back side. I only had one knot for the whole weekend. My only issue is that the lap frame I have doesn't fit into my stitching chair.

Plans are to look at floor frames, try the parking on one of my existing WIP's to see if I don't need the frame to do it efficiently. Oh, and get better quick!

Mood: green around the gills
Song: Stripped - Depeche Mode

Sniffle....

I tried to stitch on Steam Punk Fairy last night, but my back was hurting too bad. I had DH crack it (it gets all stiff right between my shoulder blades) but since it had been knotted up all day it was still quite achey. So I just watched some show on the science channel about bugs. Very interesting. Then I woke up with a raw throat and ear drainage, lovely!

Of course HAED's St. Patrick's Day sale started today and I caved. I bought:

Kuik - QS Spring Moony Night
Ravenscroft - Blue Moon
Disney - Shannon

Oh my, like I really need new WIP's!!! I'm going to do the QS on 18ct. I'm going to wait to start that one until I've finished one of the QS's I have already going.

As for the others.... I don't think I have enough fabric to start both of them so one will have to wait. Shannon is calling to me first. I want to try stitching her on my frame and parking. As of right now I stitch everything on a 6" Q-Snap cross country style (well, I finish a small area at a time, but not in measured blocks). I have small hands and I can't hold the 8" ones very easily. I would love to be able to stitch two handed as I'm much faster that way, but I CANNOT STAND to turn the work over to start and stop threads. I plan to work in 10x10 squares downward, park, and use the waste knot method of starting and ending threads.

I'm really not that into the Gustafson's I have started. I love the artwork, but I just can't seem to get into stitching them anymore. I figure that cross stitch is supposed to be fun and not like work, so if I want to ditch something, I can. Besides, no one will yell at me except myself. I really want to stitch on something with some bright colors and Disney's certainly have that!

We'll see how it goes.

Happy Stitching!

Mood - Blue Suede Mittens (figure that one out lol)
Song - Blue Monday - New Order

Steaming Right Along

Got a bunch done on Steam Punk Fairy last night. It really seems to go faster when I'm stitching on the 18ct vs. the 28ct over one. I'm probably doing the same amount of stitches, just the result covers such a bigger area that it feels like more.

Here is my progress as of last night:


I need to work on one of my full size charts tonight, probably one of the Alice ones. We'll see.

Have a great day!

Mood: Pudding Pop
Song: Headhunter - Front 242

No New Tale to Tell

Stitched just for a bit last night on ACEO Air - Butcher. I'm actually doing all four of the elements side by side.

Tonight of course is Ghost Hunters night. I don't watch much TV, this is really the only show I actually plan to watch. Plus it gives me some uninterupted stitching time as no one else will sit with me while I watch.

I don't know what I'll be working on tonight, whatever screams at me when I get home.

Welcome to my new followers! I hope you guys aren't too bored here. I mostly post about stitching as I like to keep my life fairly private.

Mood: still pretty anxious (DH scheduled for echocardiogram for next week)
Song: No New Tale to Tell - Love and Rockets

Bringing Winter Back Out

I worked on ACEO Winter last night. I had started this one a long time ago and was stitching a bit different then. Now I work in smaller areas and make sure I finish all the stitches in that area before I move on. I hate going back in to finish a single stitch. So what I'm doing on Winter is going back and filling in all the areas that I had stitched on before. It also makes it easier to track how many stitches I've done if there aren't any missing stitches.

Mood: anxious (don't want to share with the world why)
Song: Gold Dust - Tori Amos

New Laptop

Well, I got a "new" laptop for the office. It's one that a customer didn't want to fix (had a broken screen and a bad hard drive). We fixed it up and now I'm on Vista for the first time. I hate Vista but, I have to learn the ins and outs of it to be able to help customers with it. I expect lots of crashes and cusing.

Anyways,

I stitched on Mermaid of the Deep for the HAED SWIP/UFO stitch-a-long this weekend and here are the results:


This chart is either confetti or LARGE areas of the same color. The result is striking though.

Mood: Vistatic (NOT!)
Song: Smokey Joe - Tori Amos

Friday YAY!

Last night I stitched on Rapture of Psyche for a little while. Not too much done. Tonight starts the UFO/SWIP stitch along at the HAED bulletin board. I will be working on Mermaid of the Deep. Hopefully I will get some stitching time. Here's the list of other things that have to get done this weekend:

Haircut for DH
Find tuxedo shirt and black lace up shoes for DD's band uniform
Take DD's clarinet to music shop for them to look at cork problem
Build and paint the new sign for the new store
Finish clearing out and cleaning the old store
General Housework and laundry
Repair my small bookcase and get all the books back in it

Stitching time? Yeah right.

Mood: Gooey
Song: Six Different Ways - The Cure

They just don't get it

My whole family thinks I'm nuts because I like to watch Ghost Hunters. My DH can't even be in the room. LOL

Stitching last night was on Rapture of Psyche:


Coming along good now. If you step back from this one a few feet it looks amazing. Somehow the colors are never right on the pictures I take. Oh Well, you get the idea.

I signed up on the HAED bulletin board to do a UFO/Slow WIP stitchalong this weekend. I chose to work on Mermaid of the Deep. Its been a while since I worked on her and I'd love to get a little closer to being done.

Mood: Broke again
Song: A Mistake - Fiona Apple

Oh, The Rapture... Not

Well, as is my usual way of doing things, I totally went off course again. I actually sat down and fixed my Rapture of Psyche. I had an incident a couple of months ago where I discovered that my 613 was actually 612. Not fun. I could have cried when I found out. At that point I put away this WIP to be fixed when I wasn't so upset. I guess that ended up being last night. I frogged all the 613 and re-stitched it with the right color. I absoluetly love this painting and I really want to finish this cart. Here's a picture of the original painting call "The Rapture of Psyche" by Bourguereau:



Isn't that stunning?

I'll have to upload my progress pics and get a WIP page for it since I'll be putting it into my rotation.

Mood: Goober
Song: One Thing Leads to Another - The Fixx

Nope

I didn't do any stitching last night. First day at the store went very well, then DH and I went out to dinner, then I went to Target, then I put away all the laundry. After all that I just didn't have any time to stitch.

Tonight I plan to put away Life Force and pull out another of the full size HAEDs to work on. Haven't decided which one yet.

I did set some goals for myself for this year. My focus pieces will be:

FULL SIZE
1. Advice From a Caterpillar - Gustafson - HAED - 0 Pages done
2. Life Force - Ravenscroft - HAED - 1 Page Done
3. Mad Tea Party - Gustafson - HAED - 1 Page Done
4. Queen's Croquet Ground - Gustafson - HAED - 1 Page Done
5. Mermaid of the Deep - JBG - HAED - 1 Page Done

SMALLER
1. Rainbow Mermaid - Kuik - HAED - 3 Pages Done
2. Steam Punk Fairy - Dillman - HAED - 1 Page Done
3. Speckled Fairy - Vinson - HAED - 2 Pages Done

Goals:
Finish 3 pages on each of the full size charts
Finish 2 of the smaller charts

Well I'm sure it's possible to do this, but probable? Who knows. I really want a finish!

Mood: Chinese Food
Song: Some Girls are Bigger Than Others - The Smiths

Yay! New Office!

I'm so happy that we've completed the move and are open at the new location. It's so much nicer and more comfortable.

I did have some time for stitching this weekend and here is my progress on Rainbow Mermaid:



Mood: giddy
Song: Private Life - Oingo Boingo