Tuesday, July 12, 2011

WIPs more every day

Well I guess they aren't all WIPs, this one is finally(!) done. I spent all day Saturday making the box. I love boxes but sometimes they really are a pain. I made this box for DH for his desk. But he decided he'd rather have it on the end table by his chair. It now holds crossword puzzle pencils and erasers, tv remotes, toothpicks(?) post-it notes, and just a lot of little stuff! I'm glad he likes it, it's no business of mine what he uses it for.

Lizard Box
Part of Stationery Set from
one of the British magazines

Then DH went fishing Sunday so I had all day to stitch both Sunday and Monday (oh happy days, LOL). I worked on my very own Christmas Stocking, I've never had one of my own and this will be about the 6th one I've done, I guess it's about time I get one.

My very own stocking
'Dragon by the Fire' by Black Swan Designs
on 28ct Silver Lame Lugana

I suppose I spelled "Lame" wrong but that just means the fabric is shot with silver threads and just glitters like crazy, it's really beautiful. The design is made for copper and gold metallics and since I only had a silver fabric I changed that to silver which looks fine with the copper. I am just going to love love love this stocking! Isn't he just darling?

My very own stocking
Close up of his cute little head


Over the 4th of July weekend Heaven & Earth Designs had a sale, hope you got in on that. I purchased 3 Storykeeps (bookmarks). I know I'm going to regret getting only three, but I just could not bring myself to get HAED's for the younger boys yet. Maybe when they are older there will be more designs suitable for boys, besides they only had three with dragons on them. I have this really dumb idea that if I put all three designs on one piece of fabric and sort of work them simultaneously they'll all get done and be ready for individual birthday gifts next year.

Storykeep Layout
Here is the layout
Confabulation: Forest Walk: Magical Arrival

After all that planning I didn't even look at my layout, I started Forest Walk first, urg! But I don't think that will make any difference the measurements will still be the same. I love each one of these. I hope the Christmas stocking guy is not "too young" feeling for a 10 yr old. It will matter now, but I think as he gets older then it won't matter so much. So after a couple of hours work, here is the WIP:

Bookmark beginning layout
Forest Walk - HAED

After I get that white bit filled in I think this is as far as I'll go on the first one. Then I'll start the second one and go about as far, and so on. We'll see how it goes. The fabric is plain 25ct cream Lugana. I haven't put in a grid and on this one that seemed to be ok, but it's not always a good idea, even with a bookmark with HAED. I hope I don't have to add a grid later, that can be a pain.

Monday I worked on a little birdie and sent it as a greeting card to say thank you to a neighbor for flowers she brought me from her garden. I guess this is another Happy Dance, I didn't realize I had two whole finishes this week, yahoo! This was a free design included in Cross Stitcher with a frame which I used for framing the greeting card but I forgot to take the picture of the finished card and it's gone now.

Blue Tit
Blue Tit

I wish I hadn't forgotten that picture. The frame had more of the branch and those cute little pink flowers all around, it was really pretty when finished.

And finally Monday evening, I got two more people on "Hamelen" offered as a free online SAL by Anita at Stitch-Creations last year. There were five parts to the design and I think they are still online in the blog if you are interested.

Hamlen
'Hamelen' by Stitch-Creations

This is just about half of the design. Stitched on Babbling Brook 28 ct linen over 1 using a Weeks color but I've put it away so will have to give you the color next update.

All these WIPs are making me antsy to stitch some more. And yikes! I still have to find a fabric for my In the Pink project. Take a stitch or two yourself today, it will make you smile.


Happy Stitching
Moonlander



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Saturday, July 9, 2011

Testing Flicker

Just testing to see if I can figure out how to post a photo from flicker to blogger.  Ok, here goes:
DCP_0207

Did it work?

Way cool! Ok, it's here so I'll just tell you this cool knarly tree is in California at one of the old Spanish Missions. When I took this picture I was not in to blogging or flicker or any of that so I have no way of remembering which mission, how sad. I'm much more in to labeling my photos lately. Thank goodness for iPhoto.

Ok, so the test was a success. See ya later

Happy Stitching
Moonlander
breastcancer2

Outstanding stitching

So, you think your work is large?  Here is one that tops us all.  The Battle of Grunwald took place in 1410 (near Grundwald, Tannenberg and Breslau -- now Poland).  This was a major battle of the "Great War" of time which involved Russians, Ukraininans, Czechs, Turks. Moldovns, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.  This great battle was depicted in oils by Jan Matejko sometime in the early to mid 15th century:

Grundwald by Matekjo circa 1850?

In 2008 polish artists Adam Panek and Grzegorz Zochovsky took to transferring this magnificent work to cross stitch -- not part of it -- all of it, in extreme detail.  Rather like our Heaven and Earth Designs projects -- only bigger. The result is a cross stitch chart of 4,304 stitches by 1, 835 stitches (total stitches: over 7 million!!).  The design consists of 50 parts: 40 full sized pieces and 10 smaller pieces (around the edges), and comes in 50 books.  The smallest book is 20 pages and the longest is 77.  Total pages for the project: 3,270, and that is chart-only pages it doesn't count any instructions or materials list pages  (and you thought HAED had a lot of pages, LOL).  The finished design will measure approximately 32 1/3 Feet by 14 Feet.  You think I'm kidding, yes?  Well, here is the progress to date:

Grunwald

Sadly, the report I read did not identify the stitching group other than to say they are a group of dedicated stitchers in Poland.  I hope when they get this finished that somebody reports on it again, I would love to see the finished work (but I don't receive any Polish newspaper).

And on the home front, today we mourn the passing of Betty Ford.  Born in 1918, Mrs. Ford was one of the most out spoken first ladies of our time.  Her opinions may not always have been right, but she said what she believed and she said it publicly -- Bravo Mrs. Ford.

betty_ford 1918-2011


Sorry kiddies, my son hasn't showed up yet to fix my camera, hopefully this afternoon. Hope you take time to stitch a bit today!!!!

Happy Stitching
Moonlander


Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Joined a group

I was going to show off some of hubby's good work for my craftiness but the camera futzed up, so maybe later on that.  But I will tell you about it.  Somewhere on the web I saw a picture of a lap frame that looked like it was made from PVC piping.  I showed it to hubby and he started measuring and futzzing around and today, Voila!, I have a terrific new lap frame.  PVC is designed to be glued at the joints so with too much movement the entire frame still falls apart because I want it to be collapsible for storage and I made him not glue anything.  Eventually I will glue some of the joints, but I just have to decide which ones.  Anyway, for large pieces this is going to be sooooooooo nice.  I have had a very expensive floor frame for years but never used it much because I can never get really comfortable at it.....besides it's always in the way no matter where I put it so I just don't drag it out unless it's a really really special piece I'm working on... like Teresa Wentzler, now her pieces deserve a little discomfort and inconvenience!

Today while blog hopping I found another brand new blog, "In the Pink".  I am very in to stitching Breast Cancer Awareness pieces and this new blog will be all about stitching pink for friends or family.  I sent off my e-mail to see if I can join and right now I'm betting there are spaces because so far there are only 4 or 5 followers, so pop on over if you want support for your Stitching Pink project.  I'm going to stitch the "Courage Bellpull" a freebie design from Donna Bayliss at By the Bay Needleart.  I think this was from a couple of years ago but the design is probably still available on the blog.  This is Donna's picture I don't know yet what fabric I'll use or even if I'll finish it as a bell pull.  This is one of my favorite free BCA designs and I would have stitched it sooner but, thankfully, have only recently found a need for it.

courage


I hope everybody had a lovely holiday weekend, being an 'empty nest' and both of us retired, one day is pretty much like the next around here.  In fact I just got a phone call to remind me that I'm supposed to be on a conference call tonight and I had to admit it was a good thing D thought to call me because I was not even aware today is Wednesday much less that it's been a whole month since the last conference!  Boy, time sure does fly when you're having fun (LOL).  Sorry my 4th of July post is late, but that's what happens when old folks don't pay particular attention to the calendar.

Hubby is nattering about dinner on the table so I'm off.  Hope you find time to stitch today.

Happy Stitching,
Moonlander


breastcancer2