So

I thought I had fulfilled the requirements . . . not quite . . . oh and Doorway is bigger than I thought it was at first. Ooops 18" won't work for that.

Well

This was disappointing. The eBay seller claims she didn't know she didn't have the size 20 platinum lugana, that it was size 25. Huh? Like, um, shouldn't you know what you're selling on eBay? So now I have to find another piece of 20-ct lugana in something that will work well - or at least ok - with the colors for Strength. I have no idea what I'll be using now for Doorway and I so need that for January! I'm not even going to worry now about the 3rd piece, I'm not even sure what I was going to stitch anyway. But those 2 pieces need fabric! I'm not so tied to 20-ct for Doorway, but I definitely neeeeeeeed it for Strength, since that's what Courage is stitched on.

Speaking of Courage, I did make some nice forrays into the unstitched bits. I went around the dragon with the ( color, which was kind of neat to see how big it will be. I'm kind of looking forward to the 817's which are in the middle bits that show the dragon curving over. I can see the end of the middle page in sight!

oooh a 15% off the total on everything coupon at AC Moore (Sunday 4 - 10 pm)! I never usually get to use those because it's always during the game times and we're not gaming until after the new year. Actually, I think it's the day after page 1 of Doorway is sent out.

Edit: I wrote this a couple of days ago, but stupid internet explorer doesn't "publish post" and I kept forgetting to get on Firefox.

Progress on Courage and Tannith

Ok so I have been working on QS Lotus Wood aka Tannith as well as SK Oriental Courage. It's a bit hard to get a picture of Courage because it is black/red. I decided to try to fill in the background green bits on the first row of pages. So here are the latest pics:
Tannith:

Courage:

It's been a while, I know.

Ok so it's been a while since I last updated my blog. I had really meant to keep up with it more. I have gotten more done on the Courage SK. And my friend Julia wants it and the Strength one which goes with it when I'm done. As she says, she needs both courage and strength (while she's going thru this difficult time). I found a piece of platinum 20-ct lugana I can use for that, the Forbidden Doorway SK, and will maybe be able to get another SK out of it! Sweeeeeet! Maybe Logan? That might be a bit tight width wise, but if I don't do a 3" border for the height of the other 2, I might could squeeze him into the excess . . . waiiiiit . . . what about QS Queen of Swords Owl? I'm guessing it'd be 10 by 3.15 . . . that might just fit . . . oh well, I don't know. Oh back to Courage, sorry, I have gotten a bit further, but not enough to take a pic. I think I'll wait until I get the middle page done. I so want to get Courage done by the reward program on HAED.

I got some more done on Night Shade II, but I sort of lost steam on her. But here is the latest on her.


I had joined the HAED Bulletin Board several years ago, maybe 2008 or 2009? I had heard they did SALs on there, but I never seemed to know about them until too late to join. And I would have loved to be in the 2011 one - they did Ice Wind 1 as a SK. I have a particular fondness for that one, as she is who I picked for Corsira, Tannith & Corsaire's daughter. Ah well, I've got the actual picture. So . . . this year, I actually, finally heard when they were taking signups! Yay!
Basically, I have to post 4 pics (not the same pic) of my work on the SK (or if I'd picked a QS, 6) on the bulletin board sometime during the year and I'll get the other 5 charts for free. Aaand if I finish it, I'll be in a drawing for a free chart. Yes, please? I decided to not do any of the QSs, tho if I were to have picked one of those, I'd have picked Lovers.

The most popular of all the SAL charts is this SK - Blue Moon:


Here is the one I picked to participate in! It's called Forbidden Doorway and has the fewest participants stitching this one:


The floss lists were sent out, last week, I think. And people are picking their fabric and getting ready. I'll be using part of that nifty platinum 20-ct lugana I found. I think once I get it, I'll grid it up and get my flosses all ready to go. We won't get the first page (there are 3 dates they're being released - there's 4 pages but not much on pg 4) until January 6th, but I can get as much ready as possible ahead of time.

I thought Yarn Explosion was going to be ordering me some 20-count black lugana. Evidently, I was wrong. I never got a phone call either telling me that. I called and left them a message last night and they finally called me back today. :( You'd think they'd want to help their customers. Evidently not. I can get my sparkly threads and beads and such elsewhere online, I just liked supporting a local business. I think I might go make friends with that place in Lynchburg I heard about, called Backstitches.

I finally got pics of the pieces I made for my dad over the years. He told me "you're the only one who gives me cross stitch".
I made this for when he got married (which didn't last). He was asking if I'd mind it if he had it re-framed. He said he wouldn't bother if he didn't like the picture. I told him if he wanted to, sure. The background boxes are all blackwork - and yes, they do look almost identical to the front. I want to restitch it on black with grey floss and silver thread, so this is a day scene and that will be a night scene. lol I've been saying that for years!



There is a nice thing on the HAED website called the Birthday Club. Basically, you pay $10 and then on the person's birthday, they pick a chart and get it on their birthday. I asked Michelle from HAED - who btw, sent me a fb friend request [squeal!] - and she said yup more than 1 person could do this. So these are the ones I definitely want for my birthday:
Fright Night:


and Judith:

I love Fright Night, it's the only Halloween piece I've found that's not cutesy or nasty/gory. It sort of reminds me of the Addams Family, yet whimsical at the same time. I know I'll eventually get it, even if I don't get it for my birthday, and it'll be my annual piece to go up in October.
Judith was just released last week. And yes, that is a head in the corner. Yes, I know it has nudity, but its biblical nudity, so it's ok. Evidently there is much confetti, but she will be worth it. It's based on Judith from the bible.
This is what wiki says:
The Book of Judith has a tragic setting that appealed to Jewish patriots and it warned of the urgency of adhering to Mosaic law, generally speaking, but what accounted for its enduring appeal was the drama of its narrative. The story revolves around Judith, a daring and beautiful widow, who is upset with her Jewish countrymen for not trusting God to deliver them from their foreign conquerors. She goes with her loyal maid to the camp of the enemy general, Holofernes, with whom she slowly ingratiates herself, promising him information on the Israelites. Gaining his trust, she is allowed access to his tent one night as he lies in a drunken stupor. She decapitates him, then takes his head back to her fearful countrymen. The Assyrians, having lost their leader, disperse, and Israel is saved. Though she is courted by many, she remains unmarried for the rest of her life.

I do think I'll use the Mystic Stitch pattern I got called Belladonna as what my Star Wars character will look like. I like her enough she'll also be my fighter/warlord Bella (Bellasaria) and my paladin, Gwennie (Brangwen).

It's been a while

Ok so it's been a while since I did any updates to my blog.

I haven't been able to work on the Courage SK as much as I thought I would. I sort of thought I'd be further along or even done. I'm about a third of the way through the middle page. I did take it to the Sunday games the past few weeks, but didn't do much on it there. Well some is better than none.


I wasn't going to start this one any time soon, but one of the ladies on facebook was talking about the fabric she'd bought to stitch hers on not getting there. She later picked out some other fabric and we decided to do a SAL. That's a Stitch-A-Long. They're fun because you can encourage each other. She did get her replacement fabric - it's nice, a blue/purple color with some nice white streaks that look like lightening.
Here's Night Shade II again for reference:


I started it 11/1/11 and this is how far I've gotten so far! I am definitely looking forward to having her done.

HAED sale and I was bad

I was bad because I spent money . . . tho they were each 31% off, so it's not as bad! I wasn't originally intending to take advantage of the Halloween sale, but I couldn't resist. Plus, all 3 are Quick Stitches, so they're only $9 usually.

I'd had my eye on this one, QS Rose Fairy, for quite a while. I'm not usually one for these fairies with ginormous heads, they look a bit animeish and a bit strange. Buuut I really like the colors, it makes me think of fall. All of a sudden, the other night, I realized it reminded me a bit of my granny, who'd passed away in April 2011. The colors make me think of fall, and more particularly, of November, which is when here birthday was. Also, she used to grow roses, and she adored butterflies. So . . . I want to get to stitch this in memory of her.


I love how this one is only 63 stitches high, 200 wide, but only 63 high. Which is just kind of cool. Plus it just looks neat. But the last sale, I had decided I didn't reealy need it, but this one, since I was already being bad, one more wouldn't hurt much, right? This is QS Queen of Swords Owl.


This little beauty is named QS Forget Me Not. She was an impulse buy sort of, but I'd liked her for a while, she kind of makes me think of my friend Stefy (she looks a bit like her, well I think so). Plus . . . blue . . . my favorite color!

Courage update

Well I have finally finished the first page of my HAED Courage SK!



It took me quite a bit longer than I thought it would, but that's because we've had so much to do at work with the indexing project (I look for 8-digit account numbers, all day, every day), I've been doing up to 10 hour days to try to catch up, plus like 6 hours last Saturday and this Saturday. Whew! It's kind of exhausting, but nice to be getting paid for all that time. Which is how I got to buy the floss for the eBay aqua-haired mermaid, House Work, and Nightshade II. That, btw, finally did get here (they had sent the wrong version of Nightshade and then it took another bit of time for the correct one to get here - but I did get a free pattern). I did pick out the fabric I want for NS2 - Picture This Plus's Masquerade. It's green and blues, mottled over it. It will go well with the Voodoo from them I had picked out years ago for HW. There are two other ladies on facebook in some of the groups I'm in which also have Nightshade (one has II and the other has the HAED version, it basically looks the same). So I told them to let me know when they wanted to stitch it as part of a SAL. That's a Stitch-A-Long, where at least 2 people stitch the same pattern at the same time, they're kind of fun. Well, that is if the other person(s) don't crap out on you like the one I tried with a former best friend did. Oh well, I eventually finished that piece. So I think I'll take Courage with me to the game and hope I get some done.