Cross-stitch projects update

Tree Frog is nearly complete, but I have gotten distracted and it has been put off to the side for awhile.  First I did a small owl pattern that I found a picture of on google images, that I charted out from the picture.  Here is how he turned out:

I plan on framing it using one on my old hoops and gluing a ruffle type ribbon, in the same color as the heart, around the outer edge.  It will be a gift for one of my crafting friends.

Next, I pulled this out of my UFO stash.

Actually, it was someone else's unfinished project that I bought at a thrift sale some years ago.  I'd put it away, because I'd only worked on Aida and the even-weave fabric intimidated me.  Now that I have experience with even-weave, I decided to pull it out and give it a try. I took a look at the stitching that had been done, to see if I should frog it or just pick up where they left off.  The answer to that question is definitely frog it.  Take a look at the back, pre-frog:

It was obviously someone's first attempt at cross-stitch. They'd used knots to anchor the threads, and there was mid strand snarls left in place.  The stitching did not follow any real discernible pattern.  And as I was picking out the stitches, I discovered not all the crossing stitches leaned the same direction.  Oh, the horror.  Once I finished frogging, I put the fabric into my q-snap.  At first I couldn't get the q-snap c-clamps to go on because it kept getting caught on the 7 count Klostern fabric.  So I cut some strips of fabric from an old t-shirt to cover the fabric and the c-clamps went on easy after that.  And yes, I said 7 count fabric.  It uses all 6 strands of floss at once.  With such big stitches, the stitching has come along quite quickly.  I am about 90% complete. 

Happy Stitching!

Hello Mr. Frog

All cross-stitching is complete! 

Tree Frog Among Leaves WIP 10OCT13

 

Now on to the back-stitching.  Have you ever looked at a pattern and wondered if all or part of the backstitching is unnecessary, distracts from the overall picture instead of adding to it, or just might look better without it?  I'm sure that the backstitching to define the features on the frog are necessary, but the backstitching on the leaves might not be.  I think I will backstitch the frog and then remove the EZ-Count guidelines to get a good look at it without backstitching on the leaves and decide.

Happy stitching!

WIP update

The branches are done... holy cow, that went quick!  Started on them last night right after I posted about getting the leaves done, and finished them right before 9pm tonight.



Tree Frog Among Leaves WIP update 7Oct13

Now on to Mr. Frog... he has 8 colors left in him.  First one up is Pale Peach.

Happy Stitching!

Sunday status

The leaves are done!  Check it out:

Tree Frog Among Leaves WIP - 6Oct13 update

Now onto the branches, with Dark Green Grey being the next color.


Here is a look at how I keep track of progress:

I highlight the color to be worked next in yellow.  Then mark them with orange highlighter when they have been worked.  I also make a copy of the pattern to work from.  The original pattern never gets marked on.  I've been doing it this way since around 1997.  Before that I used to mark worked stitches with pencil. I much prefer using the highlighters.

Happy Stitching!


Froggie update

Here he is:


Tree Frog Among Leaves WIP 30Sep13

I just finished with Light Yellow Green.  One more down, actually 2 more.  As it happens, hubby came home from work on Tuesday and announced he had to go the Las Cruces for a career seminar.  Of course I went with, so while he was in the seminar I could do some shopping.  As we prepared to leave the house, I packed up my stitching for the drive.  Once on our way, I worked the length of floss that was already started, and discovered that I had forgotten the envelope with the Light Yellow Green on the arm of the couch.  So I looked at the pattern and decided on a symbol that I could see easily enough without highlighting,  and started stitching Pale Yellow Green.  Worked on it during the drive to Las Cruces, then once Jason was dropped off, I went shopping.  After I was done shopping at Hobby Lobby and Joanns, I parked the truck back at the facility the seminar was being held, hopped into the passage seat and continued the stitching.  Pale Yellow Green was completed and I started with the color Charcoal.  Got one strand of Charcoal done and Jason's seminar finished up.  Sun was already down, so I couldn't stitch during the ride back home. 

Next color to be worked is Brown.  Not much of this color on the pattern, only a spot here and there, so it won't take long.  After that there will be Olive Green, Dark Olive Green and Charcoal, which are the last colors in the leaves.  Dark Olive Green has about the same number of stitches as the Light Yellow Green.  Charcoal has a low number of stitches, so will go quickly.  Olive Green has about the same number of stitches as the Dark Yellow Green so it will take some time to complete.  But then the leaves will be done and I can start on the branches.  I am leaving the frog for last.  He will be my reward for finishing all the cross-stitching.  Then comes the back-stitching, which there is a considerable amount.  At least it is a lot of long continuous lines, so it should progress steadily.

One last thing, is I finally found the perfect travelling Ort container.  I've struggled using a snack size baggie for sometime now.  I just happened to see this sitting on the countertop and the light bulb in my head went off.

It is working wonderfully!  Light weight, easy to open and pop in the bit of floss and close up.  A little flick of the wrist and all the orts compact to the bottom making room for more.  I'm not quite sure where this container originated from, but I am so glad I found it.  Whenever it gets full, I can just dump it into the big Ort Jar and start filling it up again.

Happy Stitching!


Tree Frog update

Here is what Tree Frog looks like now:

Tree Frog Among Leaves WIP

Finally finished the Dk Yellow Green color.  There was a lot of that color!  Next color will be Blue Green, which comparatively has significantly less stitches, so I will get through this color much faster.

My Big UFO and a couple quick projects

Here is My Big UFO:



Innocent Guardian - in progress

 

It is a Dimensions kit that I started approx. 10 years ago, as a gift for my Mother-in-Law.  The main stitching went well enough, but I got very frustrated with the immense amount of backstitching and French knots.  I hit a point where the color listed for a section in the instructions just didn't look right.  I contacted the company to see if there had been any modifications to the pattern, specifically the color choices for the backstitching.  I did not get any reply.  So it got put away for awhile.  Now that my MIL lives with us, I have to take advantage of when she travels since she still has no clue I'm making this for her.  She is gone for 2 weeks visiting family in Florida, so out comes the UFO.  I finally just changed the color that was causing my issues.  Now I'm making progress again.  We'll see just how much I can accomplish while MIL is gone.  Then it will get packed away until her next trip.  I will certainly celebrate when this one is done.

I've completed a couple small projects:

The sunflower and bee is a small kit that I picked up at Michaels in SLC.  A nice easy project that was fun to stitch.

I happened across this little project while doing a Google images search.  The original border was a bit awkward, so I modified it.  This little guy took only 3 hours to stitch up. Here is the pattern I drew up:

Tree Frog progress has slowed but not stopped.

Also, I have two more additions to my stash.  Again a Google Images search led me to these.  Both are from an Ebay store named Stitching Addiction.


Morris' Flowers and Foliage

Dandelion

I was very excited to find the dandelion pattern.  I've been looking for a realistic looking pattern of a seeded dandelion for quite a while. There are exactly100 colors in this one. 

Getting back to it...

Question is... where to start when you've taken some time off from your blog posts?  I guess just start in somewhere....

Well, went to Stampin' Up Convention and had an awesome time!  This year I drove up to SLC.  It is about a 14-hour drive, and only 10% of it is Interstate highways, so it was mostly state highways which slows me down.  If it was mostly interstate highways, I could make it in 9 hours.  It was awesome having my vehicle there, so we could just hop in it whenever we wanted and drive to Target or Michaels, or out to eat someplace farther than walking distance from the hotel.  And it allowed me to bring as much stuff with me as I could stuff into my RAV4, which is a lot.  No worrying about my luggage weighing more the 50 lbs this year.  My little RAV took quite a beating though, as there are a lot of hills between here and SLC and its little 14 year old 4 cylinder engine wasn't very happy about that.  I really hope by next year I have a decent enough job that I feel comfortable taking on a car payment and I can upgrade to something with a 6 cylinder engine.  More on the trip later.  I have pictures and so much to talk about.

I am officially retired from the Air Force now, my first day as a civilian was 1 Aug.  I am now looking for the perfect anti-Obama bumper sticker for my vehicle, since now I am allowed to speak my mind on the matter. 

Alex started 1st grade on 12 Aug.  He is doing well.  Having a few issues with learning proper behavior, and just having a lot of energy, but we are making progress.  We took him to the public library today, and he was so excited to check out 4 Fly Guy books.

Stitching has slowed down, but not stopped.  Tree Frog is making progress, but still working on the same shade of green as stated in the last update.  I've also gotten a couple other project's grid work done. 

Well, that's a start...  and no more just not posting anything because I feel overwhelmed that I have too much to catch up on.  I hope to just pick something to blog about every few days, allowing myself to be as random as I need to be.

My SU up-line posted something on FB recently that I thought was great, it is a little e-poster that says "When people ask me 'How did you get to be so creative?' I tell them it's because I ate paste as a child." 8)

Sunday Status + pool update

Tree Frog:

 

I am done with the first green!  It is called yellow-green.  You can't really see it in this picture, but it is a really pretty color of green.  I figure I'll start referring to the plethora of greens in this project by their actual name.  Just so I don't lose track and can't remember if I'm on the 5th or the 6th green.  The next color will be Dark Yellow Green.  I've highlighted it all on my working pattern, and there is a lot of it, so I will be working on this color for quite some time.

Sunny Thought:

 

I've completed all the backstitching and the french knots, so the top portion is pretty much complete.  I just have to cut it out.  I decided on the sentiment to put in the "frame" area.  Since the area is quite small I am having to keep it simple.  I am working on designing the pattern for the area.  It is going to read: "Shiny!"  Firefly/Serenity fans will know just what it means. 

 

Pool update:

 

We got the pool assembled on Friday and started filling it.  Saturday we finished filling the pool, got the adapter for the Saltwater system, and hooked everything up.  2 bags of salt went in.  The Saltwater system is busy converting some of the salt to natural chlorine.  We were all in it for awhile today.  The water hasn't quite had a chance to warm up yet, but it was still comfortable enough.  Alex, who has zero body fat on him could only stay in for about 10 minutes before his lips started turning a bit blue.  I, on the other hand, with a fair more body fat lasted about 1 hour.  Yesterday we went to Wal-Mart to find swimsuits.  That was a bit of an ordeal.  Took me a over an hour but I managed to find 2 suits, one is a simple black one-piece in which I don't feel too unattractive that is good for everyday.  The other is a cute floral halter top with attached bottom with skirt overlay. It is not all that practical for daily swimming, but I look pretty darn good in it, so it will be perfect for when we have company over to use the pool. Today we put together the new ladder.  The one that comes with the pool is very unstable, so I bought a replacement ladder. Not cheap, but so worth the money. It is much more stable, has a large top deck that makes turning around so much easier, and it has a rolling panel that covers the outside treads when you're not using the pool.  It even has a spot for a padlock.  That way Alex can't decide to climb up it when we're not in the backyard.  Or anyone else for that matter.  I was thinking about putting the original ladder up for sale, but as it turns out, it is a great spot to keep towels handy for when you get out of the pool.  So, we'll hang onto it.  Besides, I really wouldn't feel right for anyone using it as a ladder.

 

Tomorrow, we plan on trimming the tarp under the pool to fit the border we'd set up to mark the circle, and use small paving stones to hold it down and create a nice somewhat finished appearance.  And the grill area is getting moved to the other end of the backyard. 

 

Well, I'm off to bed... hubby promised me a massage tonight.  8)

 

Sunday Status + life stuff

Another week gone...

I got some done on Tree Frog, not much though, still working on the first green:

Sunny Thought is coming along... got all the x-stitching done, so now onto the backstitching and a few French Knots. 

I've been thinking about changing up the design a little bit.  The sentiment block is supposed to be cut out like a picture frame and a slip of paper with "Smile" printed on it to be placed in the frame.  I'm considering filling in the section that is supposed to be cut out of the "frame" with a lighter color and stitching a sentiment in.  I'm thinking something like "Live in the Sunshine" or "You are my sunshine".  I will have to see if I can make that come out good.  If not, I can always remove the changes and go with the original design.

I also gridded out a project that I've had stuffed away for quite awhile.  It is the free pattern from Golden Kite designs:

 

I downloaded this some time ago, got it started and then put it away.  It was still in the hoop, so that is an indicator of how long ago that was.  I had only gotten one length of the first color done, so I pulled out those few stitches, removed the hoop and spent about an hour ironing it to get the hoop marks out.  Then I gridded it, and tried out one of my q-snap configurations; that is the creases you see in it now.  I am having a little trouble deciding on whether to use q-snap, stretcher bar or scroll bars on this one.

While I was on the Golden Kite website to obtain a fresh copy of the Rose pattern, as I had lost some of the pages, I came across a pattern that really spoke to me, and it was on sale, so I ordered it.  It is called Garden of Delights:

I so love that it is a repro of an actual tapestry.  It is gorgeous!  This one will certainly be a long-term project.  Adding another one to list.

The other craft thing I did this week was to buy some more DMC floss.  Now that I have my floss organized, I have an accurate inventory of what I have and what I need, including needs for future projects, all on a spreadsheet.  I love Excel.  So when I saw Joanns was having floss on sale 3 for 99 cents, and I also get an extra 20% off for being military, I bought floss to fill in any gaps in my stash and prep for future projects.  So, Friday I was at Joanns buying the floss, and the next 2 days incorporating the new floss into my system.  Which reminds me, I haven't explained my system yet.  I should start drafting that post tomorrow.

My major non-craft activity was prepping for the swimming pool.  We decided to install an above ground swimming pool this year.  It will give something for Alex to do during summer break.  Our backyard is landscaped in river rock, which it quite popular in this region.  That means we had to clear the rocks out of the area we plan to put the pool.  It was a bit of work but we managed to get it done in 2 days.  Here is what it looks like:

 

Tomorrow we are going to pick up the pool and the filter system from Walmart.  We picked up 20 (50lb) bags of sand from Lowes yesterday.   We'll need to get 20-30 more bags.  Once we get a good sand base put down and leveled, then a pad on top, we can start setting up the pool.  Jason has to call about getting a tanker to come by to fill up the pool.  City ordinance forbids filling pool from the house water system.  Besides our water pressure sucks, so filling with the hose would take a week. 

Hopefully, everything goes well, and we're swimming in our pool by the end of the week.  Keeping fingers crossed.  Now I just have to find a swimming suit I feel comfortable in.  ugh.

Sunday Status

Progress on  Tree Frog...lots of the first green done...

Progress on Sunny Thought... this one is coming along quite quickly...

And now back to watching Defiance...

'til next week, keeping stitching happy!

Sunday Status and LCE

One more week... another status...

Tree Frog has some progress, still working on first color green:

And just for the record, I have abandoned using the railroad method to keep threads laying nicely.  I decided to go for speed over perfection, although given the nature of the piece it wasn't a tough decision.  Although now when I have a twisted stitch, I can't just ignore it, I have to try and get the threads to lay a little nicer by fiddling with it using my needle as a sort of laying tool.  By the way, I am liking the stretcher bars very much.  They are so light.  And there is no adjusting the tension or having to move the q-snap to a different spot.  Q-snaps are still my go to frame for travel projects though.  I have taken this one out of the house, but it is a bit awkward, and it just barely fits in the backpack I use to carry it.

Introducing the new small project... I've had this little kit in my stash for quite awhile.  It is called Sunny Thought by Dimensions.  Interestingly, it is on a small plastic mesh instead of fabric.

I've finished the first color so far.

As you can see, I didn't grid it as usual, since it is so small, but I did have to use a spare bit of thread to do a quick line on two sides to mark the gridline points to help with stitching the separate areas.  Should be cute when it is finished.

 Now for the LCE (life changing event)... I am active duty in the Air Force, and after 22 years it is time to retire from the AF.  Friday was my last duty day...yay!  Tomorrow is the start of my terminal leave (aka using up all my accrued vacation days).  After the terminal leave is done, I am officially a military retiree.  Then I really having to figure out what to do with myself next.  I have to look for a job, since even though military pension is nice, it just isn't enough to pay the bills and keep a family household going.  So, the job search begins.  And I am going to have to learn to dress myself to go to work, no more just throwing on the uniform everyday.  I am very happy and scared at the same time.  One good thing is, until I get hired somewhere, I have more time to stitch and stamp.  Stamping may have to be a priority while I am prepping for the Stampin' Up convention in July.  After that though, I can get back to stitching until my fingers go numb.  8)

'til next time... happy stitching (and stamping)!

 

 

Sunday Status

I finished the small Bloom, here she is:



completed small Bloom

 This is such a nice little take anywhere project.  I plan to do this again, with overdyed floss and linen fabric, maybe in a light blue background or a natural light beige color.  I might even try doing french knots in the center, or even beads.  Ooh, beads... wonder how this would like done completely in beads...hmmm.

Made a bit progress on Tree Frog:

 I finished the border, did the orange and red-orange parts of the frog's eyes, and started on the first color of green.  With this project, I have been trying out the railroad method of getting the threads to lay down nicely.  I am liking how it is looking, it does make a difference, but it does significantly slow down the rate of stitching.  We'll see if I can stick to it, or if I decide the slow down isn't worth the result.

I might have had a bit more progress, but I took some time this week to work on a special card.  We had the retirement ceremony for my First Sergeant this past week.  She helped me out of a really tough spot recently and I wanted to let her know how much I appreciated it.  I planned on cross-stitching a small flower motif to put on a card.  I found out her favorite flower is the tiger lily and her favorite color is green.  Tiger lilies don't exactly lend themselves to a simple cross-stitch motif, so I had to change direction.  I found a super cool pop-up pattern on-line, and this is what I did with it:

 

 

I'm happy it turned out so well.

And since I am on the subject.... I am also retiring from the Air Force.  I have only 5 duty days left!  Yay!

Sunday Status

Over the past week, I finished gridding the fabric for Tree Frog, and yesterday I got it mounted on the stretcher bar frame.  At first, things weren't going so well as I was having trouble getting it to go on straight and even.  This was especially important since it will stay on the frame once completed and get hung up in Alex's room.  And if it is not straight and even, it will bug the crap out of me every time I look at it.  So, after struggling with it for a while, I had an idea, which worked beautifully.  I used regular sewing thread and ran basting stitches, first on the center lines.  Then I measured to half the length and width of the frame from the center lines, and ran basting stitch all around the perimeter.  I used these basting lines to keep it straight and even as I was tacking it down.  The one thing I did have to just let go of, was keeping the distance between the tacks the same.  It just wasn't happening.  So, I figure I can glue a strip of cloth around the edge to cover the tacks, and walla, ready to hang up! Here are some pictures to show you what I am talking about.

 

Once I pulled the basting stitches out, I put painter's tape down the sides to cover the ends of the EZ-Count.  If I don't do that, my floss is constantly getting caught up on it.  If I use a grime guard, that covers them, but since I am not planning on making a grime guard for this frame, the painter's tape works very well.

 Progress on Tree Frog:

I am moving right along with the orange border.

Progress on small Bloom:

Since I generally work on this while on my breaks at work, or while waiting to be seen at an appointment, it is coming along sort of slowly.  It is a great take everywhere type of project.

 

Now it's back to stitching!

Venturing into new territory...

I have decided to give the stretcher bar type frames a try.  The fabric that came in a kit that my son picked out only has 2" margins, which will not work very well with my usual Q-Snaps.  Besides that, the bonus will be that when it is finished it will already be mounted on the frame and ready to hang up in his room.  This is the kit he picked out when I asked him if he wanted Mommy to make something for him:

 

Tree Frog Among Leaves

I've watched several YouTube videos on stretcher bar frames, so I know how to assemble the frame and mount the fabric.  I just ordered the stretcher bars and thumb tack kit from Nordic Needle.  Now comes the wait for my order to get shipped to me.