So close to a page finish!

Before the weekend:

After the weekend:

Three rows to finish and page one will be complete. I almost started another HAED this weekend. Had it all kitted up, even gridded the fabric but after putting about ten stitches in Moon Lit Waters called me back. 

My fabric for Boreas was mailed Friday and I am excited to receive it.  Maybe I will be able to do a rotation between  the two projects, switch between page finishes or something like that. I haven't touched any of my lower count projects because I am saving them for when I have wrist surgery on the 17th. I think I have the basics covered left handed and have collected anything that will help me one handed.

Page 1 halfway point

I did it, I  finished half of page one two nights ago. There are only two stitches in there that need to be done but I don't have that color yet, I am still counting it as complete though. I was super tired last night so no stitching was done at all. Felt weird as every night since I have started I have put in at least a few stitches. I ordered the fabric for Boreas so I will be restarting that one soon. Here's Moon Lit Waters, by Julie Fain on 32ct 2 over 1 tent.

Lots of black ...

Lots of black and other colors that look like black with indoor lighting. For the amount of time I had to stitch without interruptions (or at all) I accomplished quite a bit yesterday. This is working up much faster than I ever expected and now that I can see the width of one page in reality the 36 page count isn't so scary anymore. In this photo there are five colors used, black, 2 shades of blue and 2 shades of plum. In daylight I can see the difference in colors, but at night, indoors, it all looks the same. 

This is about 1/3 of page 1 completed.

A new start and decision to make..

Yesterday I started Moon Lit Waters a HAED pattern based on Julie Fain's art work. I  am using 32 count lambs wool Jobelan with 2 over 1 in tent stitch. This fabric is so much easier to work with than the 28count even weave I started Boreas on. I am having a hard time seeing the holes on Boreas, the fabric sort of blurs the threads together. It's a beautiful fabric but I think it would be better suited for 2 over 2 cross stitching. The tent stitching is much faster and with two strands of floss the coverage is perfect. This really has me considering starting Boreas over on another piece of 32 count Jobelan I have. In less than 2 hours of stitching time I was able to complete just over 800 stitches. Granted I was only using 2 colors so that rate would go down with multiple color changes but it was still a good start. Here it is, although it does look like one solid amount of black thread there is a mix of 310 DMC black and 939 DMC Midnight blue. 

An addiction called HAED

Last night I got a handful of stitches put into Boreas, I am still finding my way to the best way to stitch for me. I tend to stitch cross country with projects, at least going until that strand of floss runs out, then returning to he original starting place and choosing another color to go with. At first I was starting and stopping as I have seen others do but the back was getting super bulky. So I went back to my  regular ways. I have also decided that for confetti stitches as long as there is that color in the adjacent block I will continue. I think this will also help everything lay smoothly on the back. It's working up and the stitches are so tiny! I promised myself the next project I do would be on a larger count fabric. Of course immediately after I started thinking about Moon Lit Waters again and thought "what the heck, I already have 3 what harm can one more do". So I went through my stash in search of a fabric that might work and I came across a 32 count Jobelan in a milked coffee color (not sure what the real color name is bit coffee works for me) and it is just the right size. I did a test block in the far corner of two over one in tent stitch and the coverage was perfect. Sooooo the fabric is currently in my travel bag to be gridded. This afternoon I will be on the hunt for some metallic thread or super light weight fishing line to grid with. Once it is gridded it will become my next (or concurrent) travel project. I prefer working on my scroll frame but I have really been wanting to work on HAED outside the house. This will answer that wish. Plus this one is for me so if I totally screw up doing it this way only one hurt will be myself. I already have all the threads kitted up from last time, pattern is printed and I am ok right now with all the black. It will also be a nice to rotate between Boreas which is confetti heavy and Moon Lit Waters which (for now) is much lighter on the confetti. I would post a pic from last night but there really isn't enough to show yet. Maybe later tonight I will have something to show for the day.

SODA Pattern 2

I don't believe I have shown any progress on the second SODA pattern I am stitching. This will hang next to Aidan and  Elora's. The pattern is called Full of Love and Sunshine. I love SODA patterns for their bright colors and when you work on them the cross stitches look almost blurry until you add the back stitching. That is when it all comes into focus and you can see the detail of the pattern. This is also my travel project, I work on it on my breaks and if I am at my parents because it fits nicely into the DMC stitchbow travel bag. That bag is amazing! I still get a thrill opening it and seeing how neatly everything is stored and how easy it is to put away. Enough chit chat, here's the picture:

The fabric is a bit wrinkly because I tried softening  it before stitching. It was super stiff and hard to manage. As soon as water touched the fabric it wrinkled up wicked. I ironed it to get rid of the big wrinkles but it can wait till the end to be done right.

Progress!

Not much but I almost have the top row of the first page completed. A handful of stitches in the right box it is complete. To avoid page lines I carried one color 

over to the next page for two stitches. Not sure what will work best for me so we will see how this goes. I can not figure out the parking yet so until I am more comfortable with how this works up I will continue a combination of cross country and block by block. I pretty much just try and go till I run out of thread then start back at the beginning square with another color. I made a counting error in one of the blocks but since it is dark and a blurry background tree I don't think it will be a problem. The rest of it is back on track.

The Risk of Electronic Media

This month we were due an upgrade on our cell phones so my husband got the newest iPhone and I got his old one. My phone had such a small memory it didn't have enough to update to the new software. Last night he started setting his phone up for me, moving over my photos , music, etc. However, he wasn't listening when I asked to have my phone before he did anything else and he deleted my iBook app which had all my HAED charts and other cross stitch patterns. I knew I had a couple of them backed up on my laptop but I the ones I recently purchased I wasn't so sure of. At this point it hit me how insecure digital media really is. I have always been wary of having all of my movies as digital copies from companies like Vudu or Amazon and with my Kindle, if I really like a book I buy a physical copy, also. Digital is convenient but I haven't yet lost a paperback because I touched the wrong button. My husband has always been frustrated with what he views as my resistance to modern media but after last night I think he may see my side of things. After a few tears on my side and hard work on my DH's he was able to retrieve my files. I fortunately had it set to auto back up on the cloud. I will be making sure I have back ups of all my charts, especially the HAED charts because they are so large. As to the size I only have 5mg of space used on this phone and 22 more available, plus I have more on this one than I did my old one. Woohoo! More room for charts!

While he worked on that I was able to get  a small portion organized in the office and a tiny amount stitched on Boreas. I say tiny only because it doesn't look much different than when I started but at least one chart block is fuller. I am getting used to the tiny stitches and I am also trying to get used to using my left hand more dominantly now, so after surgery I will still be stitching at a good pace. Just to show you the difference here is the before picture 

And here is the after:

The after is more true to color. The before is super yellow. I also started removing the grids from the stitches areas and I have not had any issues with distortion. All the stitches are still flat and smooth. The easy count grid filament pulled easily out from beneath the stitches that had been stitched over it. I will still be trying the Sulky metallic thread because you get double the amount for half the cost. I hope I have as good a result with that as I did this one.

First SAL!

I have joined my very first Mystery SAL that has been put together by Passione Ricamo and I am super excited.

http://www.passionericamo.eu/page2ingl.htm

Sign-ups are open until March 25th. I was hemming and hahing over this one thinking I already have enough on my project list but it seems like too much fun to turn away from. I received my Welcome letter and supply list. I am having a problem finding the fabric needed but I am persistent so I should have a solution soon.

Yesterday I really wanted to work on Boreas but I ended the day with literally 1.5 stitches done on my travel project. I did get a storage unit put into my craft closet (aka my clothing closet lol) that will open up room in there. I really need to finish organizing and cleaning out that closet as well as our office space that has turned into a storage room. I recently got a tread mill and would like to get it out of the dining area and into that room but won't be able to do that until that room is cleared out. I really wish I had a few weeks off from work that I could focus on that room. Maybe during my recovery period I can organize one handed? With my clumsiness that is probably a bad idea. Fingers crossed I get some stitching done tonight.

So little accomplished 3/1/14

Over the past couple of days I have been either sick or have a headache, so not much has been accomplished on Pansies. The small amount of progress made was done this morning. Last night season 1&2 of Designing Women arrived in the mail as well as my pack of 1,000 plastic floss bobbins. I have decided to finish organizing my floss from the multiple drawers,bags and other cases into six 11" Plano hardware organizers. These cases have lids with two latches and the inside is sectioned into rows the perfect size to hold my floss. I bought 6 of them and hope that will be enough. They set on top of one another very nicely and take up a small amount of room. Unlike the drawers I was looking at, if bumped into I don't have to worry about a drawer easily falling to the floor and having to pick up hundreds of bobbins. I also received the covers for my frame,that will protect the rolled fabric body oils and other staining or stitch pulling that could occur, as well as my new Boo needle minder. I really like theses and needed a second one to keep in my travel pack. Of course as I am not traveling at the moment I just had to use the new one. : )

 

So this morning I attached my new needle minder, put on the first disc of Designing Women and got to stitching. Here was my progress so far today.

HAED take two

A few months ago I had started a Heaven and Earth Design chart titled Moon lit Waters by Julie Fain. I love this picture, however, after starting it I wasn't happy with the thread coverage. Too much white was peaking through the black stitches and it looked messy that way to me. So off the frame it went and I hadn't touched it or another HAED since. Lately though, with working on Pansies, they started calling to me again. I started browsing their website (dangerous I know) and ended up purchasing multiple charts. Madame Fae by Annie Stagg (looks like an older version of my daughter so I HAD to buy it ; )), Pysche Opening the Golden Box by John Waterhouse, Cupid's Garden also by John Waterhouse, Magic Witch by Sarah Butcher and (my favorite one) 12 Dancing Princesses by Kinuko Y. Craft Arts. This last one is absolutely breathtaking and I can barely wait to start it. I bought the dancing princess's in a hard copy so I have to wait for it to arrive. In my defence they were all on sale. I calculated how many years it will take me to actually finish these and I should be set for the rest of my life. LOL 

After making my purchases I decided to stitch Boreas by John Waterhouse, which I already had in my stash. This is the one that my husband loves. I bought new fabric in mushroom, 28 count and am working 1 over 1. Next one I do I will not be going quite this small. My goodness it is tiny! Either that or I got way too used to 14 & 18 count fabrics. The color is perfect though. Even if it tries to peak through it isn't so stark that it attracts the eyes to it. I also decided to grid my fabric and that is really helpful. I used easy count gridline for the top portion but I think I will be changing to sulky metallic threads for the rest as I have read that they are cheaper and finer than the easy count. At least one person had trouble of the stitches being distorted after the easy count was removed because it seems too big for such small count fabric. I haven't gotten very far, comparatively, so I think I will remove as I go to avoid that and then when I need to grid the next section use the sulky. I gridded Saturday and got a little stitching done:

And I stitched more on Sunday: 

The top photo is more true to color than the bottom. We had family over Sunday, including my Dad so Pansies was hidden away giving me the perfect excuse to work on Boreas. My husband wants me to finish the cross stitch that matches the one I did of the kids, so we can hang them together. This will mean I have 3 cross stitch projects going at once. I also have a stocking in progress but that type of sewing really hurts my wrist now. Hopefully he surgery will cure that. I am trying not I feel guilty about all the projects going on at once. I don't know why I have that reaction to something that isn't harmful and makes me happy. I am just hoping that when 12 Dancing Princesses arrives I have the strength to resist. So my WIP count To date is 3 cross stitch, 1 felt stocking, a plastic canvas Barbie house, a 12thscale dollhouse and the interior of a quarter scale hat shop. Compared to how this list use to look I am getting better.