Major Happy Dance

Santa's Pets

2009 Better Homes and Gardens Cross Stitch Calendar

stitched with called-for threads on called-for fabric

 

 



 

After a little over 4 years and 3 months, this is finished. I am in awe of it. 17 1/2 by 11 1/4 inches. 39445 stitches. Fractionals and blending filament. In the course of stitching it, I have bought a house, had 3 employers, and had a baby. I have also learned a lot about what I am capable of; when I started this, I didn't think I'd ever finish it, because I never finished anything this large and fully-covered. Now I know I can do it, a plan which I plan to extend into other areas of my life.

 

But I won't be stitching with blue for a while.

 

Or grey.

 

And I am currently working on a conversion for Celtic Spring. I don't like the colors she chose for Spring, Summer and Autumn. They don't feel "of" that season to me. But I want to step outside the colors others have chosen. So, I decided to start with Spring. Once I am outside the time for Stash and Start Restraint. I thought about a green colorway for her, but I am not sure I could deal with that much green.  Then thought about incorporating a colorway from my college costume design days, a design of pale pink over salmon, but again, too much pink. So it struck me. What about a colorway that pulls its inspiration from the DC area's cherry blossoms? Pale pink gown, with a beige-brown top coat-with small green flowers. And black/brown hair for the girl herself, for a Galway kind of look.

 

What do you think?

Ever closer

 

Creeping ever closer to the end of this project. I can not wait, but it stille feels so very far away. I am hoping to have the actual stitching finished this weekend, but I have to work both days, and I need to get new tires for my car tomorrow, so not sure if I will be able to complete it. Fingers crossed!  I know it should take another week to do all the backstitch, but I can't wait.

And I am adamant, when it's done, I will spend 30 days working on small projects, without a lot of color changes. And probably nothing in cool tones.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope, if you enjoy it, you are having a day worth enjoying, and if you don't enjoy it for whatever reason, you are at least spending the day doing something enjoyable. Here in Crazyville, we spent it quietly inside. It was 9 degrees in Maryland most of the weekend. Not exactly run around and play weather.

I did get in the car, yesterday, to go downcounty to see my mom. She had some things for Kay-kay for Valentines' Day and I thought I would surprise her by cleaning her mudroom. We had 5 inches of snow on Wednesday and about half an inch Friday night and it was not well-behaved snow that is heavy and wet and sticks to the ground. This crap blows around. I had to drive into the next big city for a job interview on Friday morning for a new part time job (which I got) and I swear, it was like ice-skating. My car badly needs new tires--for whatever reason, the front ones wore funny, so it's like running on racing slicks. And I don't like driving in snowy conditions anyway, but I figured it was for my mom, and for my daughter, so I got in and went. And then hit a freaking white out. High winds blowing that snow all over the road (and buffeting my car), and I thought about turning around. I thought I would give it another chance. The next time I hit a patch of snow, the traction control light came on. I thought I would soldier on, because I am determined. The third time, I turned around because I didn't want to go careening off a hill or get hurt for a day that, in my realm of holidays, doesn't rank in the top 3.  So, instead, I came home through town and stopped at the grocery store.

I could say a lot of things about how conflicted Valentines Day makes me feel. It's another holiday that makes people feel the need to compete to show how much they care or are loved. It was a bummer in college to walk by the front desk of the dorm, loaded down with flower vases, knowing that none of them were for me or probably ever would be. And the same for work. Left-brain brought me flowers our first year of dating, and that was the only time I ever got flowers at work. He doesn't like the holiday because he feels that people shouldn't have to set aside a day to tell each other how they feel. I have tried to tell him that there are relationships where people don't say that every day, we just have a relationship where we do. It would be nice to get a piece of jewelry, but, when it comes down to it, I only wear my bridal rings and the necklace they picked out for Christmas, so it would just be spending money we don't have to. But if he brought me a puppy,  . . . .  But I do enjoy it because it's a fun day we spend as a family. We snuggled this morning and opened cards and gave kisses. And we're having a nice family dinner tonight. So, it's a good day, a day to remind me how truly loved I am.

I did spend a good portion of today stitching.  I have been hearing really good things about War and Peace, so I watched that Ondemand. 4 hours of gorgeous costumes. I have never read the book, but I did buy a copy of it last year and it's in my ever-expanding TBR pile. I have to watch the rest of it, but it makes for good stitching backdrop. I will post a picture of my progress later, I managed to do about 500 stitches in that time. I feel like I can get Santa's Pets done in the month if I have decent things to listen to while doing it.

I did pull another project from the Bin of Good Intentions this week:

Cats Baskets and Quilts
Cross Stitch & Needlework Magazine
called for flosses on 28 count Monaco

Cats, Baskets and Quilts was a series from Cross Stitch and Needlework in the 80s. I started it a few years ago and abandoned it about 10 stitches in, but it's a very quick stitch, though slightly squirrely with the fractionals. This is the section called Amish quilts and it has a lovely black and white cat washing his face. He looks like my Flicky, and I don't see a lot of black and white cat designs, so it's fun bringing him to life. There is another section, Appalachian, with a ginger tabby, like my Gus, but the last section, Nantucket, has a Siamese, and I am too untalented to try to convert that to a black Lily cat. Otherwise it would match the Three Musketeers.

 

So that is all for this week. Its been such a cozy, do nothing feeling week in Crazyville. I hope next week is more exciting. Just think, we're five weeks from Spring!



February is one week old!

This has not been the best week. I haven't felt well--Kaykay brought something home from daycare and we've both been sneezy. She is the lucky one; she gets it, has a few days of runny nose and then goes back to normal. Mommy, on the other hand, ends up needing a z-pack. I am hoping it doesn't get that bad. I ended up with bronchitis for 5 weeks in November (and that was with a z-pack). I don't want to repeat that. Anyway . . . I decided to focus on finishing Santa's Pets this month. Why I decided to pick the shortest month of the year to do this, I don't know. But it is my focus. I finished the right side upper section this week. I know the bottom is going to be tricky to finish because it's a lot of confetti stitching. I spent this morning starting and ending threads. Fortunately I got up early and had time to do this.

This is the progress so far:

Santa's Pets

2009 Better Homes and Gardens calendar

stitched with called-for DMC and fabric

I apologize for the quality of the photo. My camera takes good photos, but this one is pretty challenging for it.

And this is what is will look like when done

I decided I will frame it under glass, with a barnwood frame, and probably mat it. I think it needs a little more of an finished edge than the model shown has. But it will be really pretty. The house we are moving to has a fireplace and this will look so lovely over the fireplace (after Left-brain makes a mantle, since my dad never got around to installing one). If you see this calendar on Ebay, it's worth the money to buy it. there are several really pretty designs in there.I would just recommend making a working copy. 4 years of holding this has left fingermarks on it--my copy is unshareable because the page is pretty much see-through, but at least it doesn't affect any other design.

I did pull out this small UFO to work on when the puppies get me frustrated. Maybe not the best choice. It frustrates me too. It's not quite confetti stitching, but it just barely rises above it. No rhyme or reason.  But it will be so pretty on my tree when it's done.

Winter Animal cards

Cross Stitch Gold December 2007

called for threads, unknown fabric

Thank you to everyone who is hanging in with me. I know I am not stitching anything really current and "fun", but I do think it's always kind of interesting to see "vintage" stitching. And next year, I can stitch something more current, except I looked through the newest Stitchery catalog and didn't see anything I couldn't live without. Hmmmm!

Anyone have any fun plans for tonight? I work til 6, but went out yesterday and got some goodies. Left-brain got a small convection oven for Christmas and has been using that to cook chicken and it's so tasty. I also bought a schmearkase cake after stitching group. Now, growing up "schmearkase" was a way of doing cottage cheese. My great-grandmother used to make it fairly regularly with the new milk on the back of the stove, but when the family moved out of Pennsylvania in the 60s, neither new milk or time was available for this. So Gramma just made it by running cottage cheese through the potato ricer, mixing it wuth some heavy whipping cream and serving with apple butter. It's so good! But when I searched it out to find out the proportions to make it for myself (because I didn't learn a lot of my gramma's recipes, which i kick myself for), there is a cake by the same name. Not the same thing, but I never took the time to make it. So when I saw it yesterday, it looked good. And tastes good!  Like cheesecake, but with a base made of the same dough that makes raisin-filled cookies (another PA thing, LOL). I plan on getting more of these. Along with bigger pants! So we have that for dessert. If the game is not close, I am watching Downton Abbey, although it was a little shocking last week!

So, i know everyone is prepping their Super Bowl menus and donning their team's colors, so will let you go!  Have a great week!

 

Santa's Pets--nearing the end of the section

I am almost to the corner on Santa's Pets. At least for this section. Yay! I am determined this piece will be done by the end of February, so have been scrabbling all weekend to make some progress on it. I would like to hope I could get this portion done by the end of the evening tonight, but work interferes . . . I may be able to get most of it done, since a lot of the squares I have left aren't complete and I don't have any fractionals left on this part. Then, onto the last little bit and I'm done!

Halfway there

I got this far!  I think, out of all my unfinished BAWIPs, this is the farthest I have ever gotten. And now I go from a whole lot of greys to weeks of blues.

My house looks chaotic right now. We have to make room for all these boxes from the storage unit, and so, I'm trying to consolidate the boxes that are left.  I think setting up my bookshelves will help, because at least all the books would be in one place, but we have to make room to set them up. That is the hard thing. And my office is so small, it heats up really quickly, so is not always the most pleasant room to organize.

I'm starting to think about what I want to work on for 2015. Youtube has been full of videos for the cross stitch wishlist tag, where people have chosen the 5 projects they want to work on. I have thought about doing that, and actually pulled aside 7 projects that I think I could at least make a good effort on, and thought, well, I'll start those. But then I pulled out my Hummingbird Trellis afghan for a little last night, and started wondering how far I could get if I actually focused on it, instead of just occasionally picking it up. So I'm kind of in a quandary. I don't think I'd actually get it finished, but it would be nice to see how far I could get. And, let's be honest, that project needs commitment and time. It's been kicking around here since 2005, and I actually made a decent start on it in 2006, so it's been a WIP/UFO for 8 years. It's not improving with age, and if I keep going like this, the fabric will be ruined.

What would you do?

Santa's Pets progress as of today.

Progress for the week. Not a lot done, but I had to finish "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand and that was pretty much most of the week. Such a great book. I don't read a lot of WW2 military history, but the two books I've read (the other is "Monuments Men," which, as an arts administration major, made me very proud, but also made me realize that there truly is a job for everyone in the military) both have been really excellent. Louie Zamperini died a week or so ago, and they're making a movie of "Unbroken", and so, it was great to read that book.

Santa's Pets is almost halfway done. I now have to stand really far back to get a good photo of it. And from this picture, it looks like a painting. This is why I love cross stitch.  We create dimension and movement with floss. And it still amazes me, after 25 years of doing this art. And the other thing that I've noticed has been a gift of this project is that it's giving me confidence to do the bigger, "scarier" projects, like the HAED and some of the older computer-generated charts I have collected over the years. I'm pretty pleased with myself about that. Not that I'm going to be jumping in and kitting up a bunch of them. But I can do it!

Santa's Pets . . . again

I picked this up again. I'm going to try to shoot to get it done by Christmas, but not holding my breath. I still have more than half left to do. 

I have been messing around trying to figure out how I want to handle the lower sections, since they're maybe four blocks high. Stair-step still seems to work the best for me. I can't explain exactly why it works so well, but, considering I did all that progress in December that way, I'm sticking to it, and I'm going to start using it for any of my large projects I intend to work on.

I got notified that Gigi shipped today. Woo hoo!  I'm nervous to see her on the linen I chose. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what I'd choose in its place, but we'll have to see. 

And I broke my money diet, but not badly. I've seen a lot of stitchers on Youtube stitching selections from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery  and they're kind of growing on me. I bought "The Mysterious Halloween Town", which, if you're going to fall off the wagon, isn't bad for $11. I will wait a while to get the specialty threads, it was pretty easy to work with them. They email the charts to you, which is a bummer because I don't have a printer, but the library does, and I can print there.  Plus, I'm not buying other stuff, so it's OK. But just this once.

We had a nice birthday. We ended up at the beach at Breezy Point Beach, in Calvert County, near Annapolis, and it was a lovely day to be down there. Someone Small was over the moon, except she said the sand was "too hot."  But not too hot to put in her hair--I am still combing it out. Left-brain found some sea glass, which was awesome because we never find sea glass at that beach. Some people do, but they must go early in the day, and I don't know how much they find because it's really only common on specific types of beaches, and Breezy Point is not the right beach, but I'm happy he found it for me.  We are going to make this a tradition, it's just a nice way to spend the day as a family, without having to worry about other pressure.

PS season sampler series and Santa's Pets WIP

For Meari:

 

Spring Samplers:

I stitched the middle one already. One of these days, I'll finish it into something.

 

 

Autumn Samplers:

 

This is my favorite one of the set, I love the colors.

 

Summer Samplers

 

This is not my favorite and I can't explain why. Maybe because I'm a beach-y summer person, not a summer garden person? We all know about my brown thumb, and what that didn't kill, the hail dispatched last summer, (although I did read about a family that went off the grid, and had tomatoes in their dining room, and had the plants survive for years. It would be interesting, but Left-brain might not like our new house plant)

 

 

And my new progress on Santa's Pets. I put him down this month, after pushing to get the section done in a little over a month. I enjoy him, I really do, but I don't like the rows going up and down. It slows me down and I also find it harder to count. the stair/steps work so much better for me. Could it be I have finally found my trick to working these large, full designs?

Happy New Year!

I hope that the cold is starting to recede for my readers in the US. It was 1 degree here in Maryland yesterday morning. Which is just too cold. Except if you are a bubble. I couldn't get my bubbles to freeze. I just stood outside, looking silly.

So, I note that I lost a few readers in my long absence from blogging. And that's OK.  Thank you for sticking around. I am having trouble with my desktop, and not sure how long  this laptop is going to survive, but as long as it's here, so am I.

I promised a picture of what I am working on right now.

 

This is the most current picture I have of Santa's Pets, which was a design in the 2009 Better Homes and Gardens cross stitch calendar. I want this done in time for the fair this summer, and so I picked it up before Thanksgiving, and this was my progress about a week ago. I put it down to just take a wee break, and am working on a fairly simple afghan, which I will post next time. It's exciting to be able to stitch something fairly intricate again, I haven't been afforded the ability to do so for a long time, so it's a joy to work on this.

 

Other than that, I am working on my effort to get the house un-decorated from Christmas. I finally reached my limit after all these Christmases of having to look through 15 boxes to find our ornaments and then the sitting stuff, so I implemented a new rule: color-coded boxes. The sitting stuff went in navy boxes, the ornaments and tree-related items in purple boxes (they were on sale at Lowes, otherwise I would have gone with red and green).  I also cleaned out our ornaments, removing all the glass balls that we never use. Some of them were ones my mom bought for me before Left-brain and I got together, when she was worried I'd never have enough ornaments for a tree, the others were ones that Left-brain had from his first marriage. Like I said, we never put them on the tree, they're cheap, and I have seen all these wreaths made from glass balls, so I think that is a better use for them than having them taking up space in the boxes and never being used. We only took the simplest balls; I figure I can go buy more when Hobby Lobby puts them out next year, and maybe make two or three wreaths. Everything looks much neater now, and there are about 5 fewer boxes to sort through. It's a good start to my overall plan to neaten and organize around here. So we'll see how it goes.

 

Well, I have to run. My computer screen appears to be tripping out. So, I will post when I can.