New Year New Start

How can I resist an opportunity for a new start? Mirabilia's Roses of Provence will do just fine I think!

Fabric is 32ct Sandcastle. 

I also wanted to try the "one strand a day" for a project that is not your primary and possibly a UFO. 

"Have a treat" is finally getting worked on, I think I may like this! 

 Happy New Year!

Last IHSW before the world ends...

Just kidding, I heard another Mayan tablet was found! Just in case the dead do rise, I thought I would work on Deathabilly by Gecko Rouge.

 

Yes, that is a boo boo stick. I was unfortunately visited by the Annoyicus  joyonous (this is the genus species I created for my frog) this weekend. I decided after I began to stitch to remove the background, so a couple hundred stitches must go to make my bee hive look right. I did manage about 1200 stitches between frogging, so I was happy.

 

In case the world does end at least I have a sled cat! This is my cat Toby, he is a Maine Coon weighing in at around 28 pounds (yes, that is a normal sized toilet).  The Maiden.

Progress

Silver Moon Tea and I have a love hate relationship. I just keep coming back.

 

 

I am over the moon with my progress, but every time I take a break and return to this project my tension is off. It is driving me to madness, so I am forcing myself to work on nothing but this project until it is complete. The Maiden.

 

Round Robbin Round 1 Complete: Maiden

I am so excited I could scream, round one of The Shores of Hawk Run Hallow is complete!!! All that fill in was a nightmare (and the reason I originally stopped working on this project), but now it is done and I can officially move on to something else!

 

I especially like that I finished this round a whole month early!

Stitched on 32ct ODL Spice.

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, as for us the Maiden, Mother and the Crone were reunited!

 

Venetian Opulence by Nora Corbett

Stitched on 32 count Natural Brown Undyed Linen by Wilchelt Imports
Full crosses (2 over 2)
Started January 2010 completed November 2012

I am having computer issues and couldn't crop out the edge.

IHSW and Zombies!

This is my new start, and she kind of scares me (remember I am a banecrophobic, fear of the walking dead)!

How could I resist? Above is the original fabric, 28ct (I had planned to tent stitch this one)...

Here is the fabric I changed to, 16ct Aida (GASP). Full crosses. I am removing the background, I just can't bring myself to cover this fabric!  

My progress has been quite shocking, 2400 stitches in 3 days! This is the top left of the bee hive. 

The Maiden 

Mermaid Revealed

I can finally post my finish of Mediterranean Mermaid, as she will find her way to her new owner tomorrow!

 

This is a gift/commission for the ever talented Sara Lamp, who's creative choices in framing my pieces I trust more than my own.

 

I absolutely hated the hair, I mean loathed it with all that blue. So after days of stewing and not stitching, I pulled and frogged and added gold kreinik. Sometimes, a girl just needs kreinik. Now her hair is one of my favorite elements!

A note on conversions: I changed the Kreinik comprising her crown to 201C and the beads in her hair only to Mill Hill 02011.

 

I had to include this photo, the flash made me feel like I had snapped her in motion!

The Maiden

Happy Halloween

And off with their Heads!

 

 



The Maiden

Round Robin Part 1 (a little early)

Inspiration section 1 completed.  It will be handed off to the Crone (or Maiden- I have to check the list) on October 30th.  Almost 2 months before it is due!!!  This chart is a really fun and quick stitch.

IHSW delayed update

I was so in love with the Mother's Halloween post that I did not want to put up my IHSW progress, but as I am 2 days late it is time. I worked on Shores of HRH, and am secretly cursing adding this into the rotation! As soon as I finish this box I am sure my love for it will return.

At least the wording is complete! The Maiden

Fright - Framed!!!

Here it is, finally.  Fright (completed almost 2 years ago) is finally framed.  It is set a little crooked, which ticks me off (especially when I think how much I paid to have it done).  But has inspired me to learn how to frame them myself.  I had a hard time cutting out the glare.

~Mother

To Manbroider

Dear Manbroider,
I will happily give you my July 2012 Cross Stitch Collection issue 211 for you are the guru of getting Joan Elliot's done.  I tried to figure out how to respond on your blog and subscribed and everything and still came up short.  So if you are still in need of this magazine (I am missing a few here and there so I won't stress too badly without one missing number-usually I would but I have tried to let some of those things go lately!).  So...if you come across this post let me know so that I can get an address and ship it out.  I love seeing Joan's materials worked, I own so many and have yet to go there, even have the Polstitch fabrics...but you are the man, so. Let me know.
The Crone

As I am working on the Mother's sampler, "Sweeter Love" I have come to realize that neither the capital letter alphabet, nor the lower case alphabet has the letter J.  I thought I could rework the pattern, but with my two fellow stitchers thought that might throw it off completely.  So I guess we will be J-less, pretty weird right?

Well, the Maiden, Mother, and Crone were finally all in the same part of the state over the last two days.  Being the industrious individuals that they are it was decided to begin their second Round Robin event.  You could call this-Go Big or Go Home.  The stitch count was done and the levels of stitching for each of the rounds are approximately the same.

The Maiden's choice is The Shores of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House.  The fabric of choice is a 32 count spice.  One reason for each of the choices, is that all three projects were already kitted and ready to go.

The Mother's choice is a beautiful sampler called A Sweeter Love, by Plum Street Samplers.  It will be cone on a 28 count Over Dyed Linen called Maritime White.

The Crone's choice is the gorgeous sampler Inspiration designed by Karen Kluba from Rosewood Manor.  It will be stitched on a 32 count yellow fabric known as Magnolia.

All projects require a half yard of fabric to give you an eye's view of how large each project truly will be.  We are very excited about our level of commitment to getting these done for each other.

The Mother's!

The Crone's

The Maiden's

The Rotations:

A Sweeter Love					Inspiration		A Sweeter Love			The Shores of Hawk Run Hollow
Joy	Carol	Ren		1	Ren	1, 2, 7, 8	Carol	2		Joy	4, 8
1	2	3		2	Joy	3, 4, 9, 10	Ren	3		Carol	2, 3
Carol	Ren	Joy		3	Carol	5 ,6, 11, 12	Joy	1		Ren	1, 5
4	5	6		4	Ren	15, 16, 21, 22, 27, 28	Carol	4		Joy	6, 7
Ren	Joy	Carol		5	Joy	17, 18, 23, 24, 29, 30	Ren	5		Carol	11, 12
7	8	9		6	Carol	13, 14, 19, 20, 25, 26	Joy	6		Ren	9, 10
				7	TBD		Carol	9
The Shores of Hawk Run Hollow				8	TBD		Ren	7
Ren	Carol	Carol	Joy	9	TBD		Joy	8
1	2	3	4
Ren	Joy		Joy
5	6, 7		8
Ren	Ren	Carol	Carol
9	10	11	12
	Inspiration
Ren		Joy		Carol
1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12
Carol		Ren		Joy
13	14	5	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30

IHSW and Market!

The owners of my LNS, Stitchers Paradise, just returned from market! Preview day at the store is always exciting, so I wanted to share my finds! First is this great embroidery kit, which I will be substituting with butterflies from Chatelaine's Butterfly Mandala ( Joyce inspired this one).

Next are these cute pin keeps, I could not decided on a color so I bought both!

A few new patterns...
And finally progress on Mediterranean Mermaid!

Even though I forgot it was IHSW (Gasp!) I did manage to squeeze in some stitching. The future owner of MM wanted dirty blonde hair for her, which has been quite the challenge!!! I only had 2 symbols to work with, so I needed a dirty and a blonde (he he).

The Maiden.

Headless Mermaid!

I think I may be getting into the Halloween Spirit with my Headless Mediterranean Mermaid!

The Crone and I went to St. George yesterday for a much needed escape and had our best trip yet!

As always we stopped for lunch and cupcakes at Twentyfive Main Cake Parlor...

And visited quilt shops, where I found more Gastlies Fabric (my secret obsession)!

Sadly there is no cross stitch store, it closed last year. I keep trying to convince the crone that we should open one there! The Maiden.

Silver Moon Tea Progress

Just a quick post after meeting with Julie and Kristle for some much needed stitching at our LNS.
Progress on Silver Moon Tea...
And a future new start! I wanted Firefly Fairies in memory of the designer and discovered the amazing fabric made especially for this project. How could I resist? The Maiden.

Free Charts Online

http://www.free-cross-stitch-pattern.com

I found this website of free charts while surfing the internet, and discovered the next two charts I am going to work on, "The Reader" and "Old Woman Reading". I am thinking I will mirror image one of them to face the opposite direction and they will be a really amazing paring for my new office at work!!!!!!

Happy Hermitter

New Start?!? I am blaming Juls for this one, she provided the fabric (bad influence I tell you). I had bought 2 other fabrics for this project (one was unstitchable and the other was used for another project) so I had put this pattern aside. Then I went to Julie's this weekend for an amazing stitching day and there amidst her enviable stash was the fabric that was meant for Silver Moon Tea: 32ct Belfast "Silvery Moon." Magically, every element fell into place and I broke my own personal record... 1900 stitches in 3 days!!!

Silver Moon Tea is perfect for me because I am a HUGE tea drinker. The little pig above is a gift I received from my friend Kristen, it is a tea buddy. Why? Because you should never drink alone.

While at Julie's she also gifted me with a pattern I have coveted for some time now, "Promises" by Nene Thomas! It will make the perfect compliment to "Pretty." And....

This STUNNING piece of fabric from Silkweaver called "Poltergeist!" I have been imaging what I will put on it all weekend! I was so excited after returning home from Juls house and thankful that I have such amazing friends to share my stitching with! The Maiden.

Finally a Finish.

My first finish of the year. It has been a long time coming. Venetian is almost there, but I haven't had the inclination or time to really put in the effort to complete her. Maybe by the end of 2012?

- Happy Stitching
Mother

Wipocalypse 2...Tree of Hope (The Crone) + Needle punch

Tree of Hope....One flower left and beading!!!

Needle Punch Kit that is so very cool...Called in the Pasture by Threads that Bind...am done with the entire center and almost done with all the sheep heads. Very exciting and fun. So easy to do, well worth doing to give yourself a break. It is really fast, and also you don't have to have xray vision to get it done..unlike everything else I work on. thanks for hanging out with us.