a great long weekend

I had a great long weekend. Lot's of cooking, eating and crafting! I only worked on two project but feel good about both. I picked things that I can't take on the train with me and that have been laying around for a while.

The first is my Goldwork Glove project. This is the restart of the project. I started back in the early spring but was so unhappy with how it was looking I pulled everything out and put it away. I was chatting with a friend a couple of weeks ago and she sent me some links to videos on long and short stitches and it gave me the urge to try this again. First I pulled the linen from the scroll frame I had it on and put it on my set of evertight stretcher bars. I got this tip from one of the websites I had visited last week and I thought I would give it a go. And it worked beautifully! With the evertights I can get the linen really nice and tight. Then I had to find the frame clamp for my Needlework System 4 stand. I figured it would be with the stand but it wasn't. Took me over two hours to find the little bugger! I was so mad at myself. Why didn't I store it with my stitching things? No I put it in a closet on a shelf with my unused linens. Go figure. :-) But finally after three or so hours of prep, I was ready to stitch. And I think it looks ok. I there is still a lot of room for improvement but I can live with what I ended up with. The silk is very forgiving. I ended the day with the first half of lesson one finished.

Then I pulled out the little hooked rug I started back in the spring. I only had the background to fill it and I worked on it Saturday and Sunday until I was finished. I'll make this guy into a pillow like the other small rugs I did. I have one more pillow to go and then I'll start to look for a bigger rug design to work on.

That's all for now. It's back to working on my BBD project. If I can stay awake on the train that is. :-)

Enjoy the week!

half way

I've managed to make it half way with Snow Garden. I've decided not to personalize each block as recommended in the series of patterns. I'm just going to add motifs or little sayings where I need to fill in space. Notice the linen is enclosed in the brand new wooden hoop. I LOVE it! It really does hold onto the linen and it's as tight as a drum. On Wednesday I will get myself to Joanns so I can purchase the twill tape to bind the bottom hoop. That will make it even easier to get it drum tight.

Aoife had a crappy agility trial. There were a couple of small highlights but for the most part she was in it for herself and not the team. :-)

Enjoy your week!

Friday at long last

I'm super happy with the progress I'm making with Snow Garden. I really enjoy working BBD pieces. I don't think I'll have much time this weekend however for stitching. I have a two day agility trial with Aoife and I'm always wiped out when I get home at night. And I need to start getting ready for Thanksgiving. I can get some cleaning done this weekend and that will get me a little ahead for next week.

Have a great weekend!

I'm still stitching!

Believe it or not, I'm actually still stitching! Yeah for me. :-) Thanks for all the great comments about my choice of linen - Purely Primitive. I think it's going to work out great even though it might not be the best for the first block of this piece. Of course IRL the color of the linen is brighter and the fibers do show up better. It's just my crappy picture taking skills not making it look nice.


I've been doing a bit of shopping - like I actually have money. :-) I did finally purchase the four of the chair series from Cat's Whiskers from the shop in Western Australia. It's called La Roseraie. I hated not having all of the series. It should be here next week but I'm thinking I most likely won't get to it for a while as I only purchased the chart and not any of the supplies. I figured why pay shipping from the other side world for the same stuff I can get here?

My friend Kelly also turned me onto some really nice hoops and after seeing hers in person I had to have a couple. They are the ones from Hardwicke Manor - wooden and made in Germany with the heavy duty brass hardware. - I purchased a 6" one and an 8" one. I'll take the extra step of binding them before I start to use them. I can't wait to get them in the mail. I also resurrected my Floral Glove Needlecase project from the bottom of my craft closet. It's the one designed by Tricia Wilson Nguyen of Thistle Threads. I had such a hard time with the opening stitches that I pulled everything I had done because it looked like crap and walked away from it. That was beginning of the year maybe? Well Kelly helped me find some really great online tutorials as well as some videos of the long and short stitch that I needed and I'm going to give it a go again. Wish me luck. :-)

a new start

My linen came yesterday for Anniversaries of the Heart and I have no will power. I've been wanting to start on this piece since the first chart came out and then only thing that was keeping from it was the $50.00 fat half of linen I needed so I could do them all on one piece. I also knew when I finally took the plunge, I would cave in right away. And I did. :-) Here is the start of Snow Garden. I'm stitching mine on 32 count Purely Primitive - my favorite Silkweavers color. All my fibers came in the mail also so I'm good for supplies for the first four charts and the bonus. These are going to go quickly. I have really missed doing my BBD projects.

:-(

I was hoping to have a couple more squares done by today but I only managed to stitch on Sunday evening. But still no linen yet from the Silkweaver distributors. I should have all the fiber I need though to complete the first row of Anniversaries of the Heart in the mail today. It would actually be a good thing if I didn't get the new linen for a couple more days. I'd love to finish more of this piece.

Have a good week!

back to some old stuff

While I'm waiting for the linen to come for my BBD project I thought I would do some cross stitching. I went through all my lined up projects and then of course the several unfinished projects reared their ugly heads. So I figured I'd just work on something that is in progress rather than started yet another something that I would just drop when my linen arrived.

So here is the return of my IsaV Marquior - I haven't worked on it since February. I'm using 35 count WDW linen in Havana with Vikki Clayton silks in Imperialosity and Bewooded. I started this puppy in February of 2009. Yikes. And I have a lot to go.

Toad in a Puddle finis

Toad in a Puddle - design by Laura J. Perin

24 count congress cloth

#8 pearl cottons

It's finished! Yeah, it's amazing what finding the flow and having good light can do for a project. ;-) I now have five of six of my counted needlepoint designs completed. I'm going to take a little break and do some cross stitching. Or maybe finished the rug pillow that I started in the early spring. I need to pick up the ornament edition of Just Cross Stitch magazine. I was at my local JoAnn Fabrics on Sunday and they didn't have it. I'll try the book store this weekend. I'd like to stitch a couple for my ornament tree. I didn't get many done last year and of the ones that I did stitch I never made them into actual ornaments. Just ran out of time.

oh so close

Super close to being done with this. :-) I finally found a flow with the cream border. I followed the instructions. :-) LJP said it's much easier to do the border if you stitch in the diamonds first. Well duh, I did that on the second border and it went twice as fast as the first one. I really should read the entire packet of instructions before I get started.

I finally ordered a big honking piece of 32 count linen for the Anniversary of the Heart piece from BBD. I really hope it comes today or tomorrow so I can start on it. I really need to get back to stitching. I also bought a really nice standing OTT lamp. I had a table model and it died several months ago - I had no idea how much I missed that puppy until I tried to stitch in my favorite chair at night without it. So hopefully I'll be back with the flow in no time at all.

On Saturday I completed one of my HUGE running goals for the year. I ran and finished the Hot Chocolate 15k. For those of you not big into metrics, that is 9.3 miles. :-) And I ran it with an 11:45 pace. For me that is lightening fast. Now I think I'm going to tackle a half marathon. I've done several in the past but none in the past eight years. My bestest running buddy is doing the New Orleans marathon in mid-February and suggested I go with her and do the half. That is plenty of time to get trained for it (13 weeks) and I'm thinking about it.

Have a great week! Hopefully I'll have a finis this week to share.

not yet

But closer to a finis! I didn't put a stitch in last week. So much for my plans to get going on the last one of my Christmas gifts this week. I had it with me everyday on the train but napping was the plan for the commute. This is a fairly hard border also compared with the others. You really have to keep an eye on the canvas and the chart while stitching. So if I was feeling even a bit sleepy I wasn't up to all the close work of counting. Hopefully this week will be different. :-)