Here is the flower fairies all done . . . just needs a frame.


I got some more done on the Tannith HAED. Here it is.

Latest updates

Well I took a little time off of the stitching of the flower faries (or rather fairies as it probably should be spelled, oh well). I did however, pick it back up last night and have worked on it all day today, well after I came home from the shopping bit . . . and reading my new pathfinder dragons book. I've gotten a bit further along. Actually quite a bit further along as I am almost done with the next blue fairy. She's got the same color hair as the cat so that will be the last bit on her. As you can see, the progress between the pics is the same but that is because I decided you lost detail if I keep showing the whole picture. Its not like the leftmost ones are going to disappear if you don't see them in the pics. So while I listen/watch Smallville Season 1, I am working on my cross stitch. They go thru a lot of locks and vehicles on this show I've noticed. I'm at least going to get thru this fairy if not the cat by the end of my day today. Well after I get off the computer.



I had done another day of stitching on Tannith. I didn't get nearly so far as I thought I would, but it is still better than nothing. I will be going thru the chart and marking where the clothes and hair/skin are, I think.

And thus the journey begins . . .

My odyssey of stitching a HAED has begun . . . I started my QS Lotus Wood on 9/1/09 about 10 pm. I thought it'd be funny to start it on the same day as the term @ Hogwarts starts. It took me longer than I thought it would but I think it's partially because I'm not used to stitching on 25-ct over 1 with 2 strands of floss and partially because I'm railroading both legs. I'm going to try to stitch at least a little every day and take lots of pics. (She makes me think of my d&d character, Tannith, tho I will need to change the hair color and give her a pointy ear.) I would be absolutely thrilled if I could be done with the bottom row of pages by my birthday, but I'm not going to have a conniption if that (admitidly more than likely unrealistic) goal isn't met. My poor little ancient gerbil has been keeping me company and taking naps on my shoulder and asking me if she can't go back in her box now? lol I'm definitely looking forward to seeing her take shape.

Just to remind you what the HAED/Tannith looks like:


The blank fabric - 25 count lugana, being stitched over 1 with 2 strands of floss. The color doesn't matter since you won't see it. (Cheap on eBay for the size I wanted.) The needle shows you where I am starting the piece.


All the floss that will be turned into my pretty picture. Tho I do need to change the color to red and give her a pointy ear.


This is the first stitch . . . just as confucius says about the journey of 1000 miles beginning with a single step, thus the journey of 58,900 stitches began with this one. Oh ok, purchasing the design, fabric, and floss had to happen first also with deciding to stitch this picture rather than another one . . . but you get the point.


Here is the first wip pic of it - I estimate I've gotten about 4 squares done, give or take (I don't stitch the whole square I go with the flow sort of, so this is more of a guestimate plus no lines between the squares) which means that I've gotten about 400 or so stitches done. 58,500 to go I suppose. Not bad for about 6 hours worth of work?


Ok off I go to get me some of this rare and precious commodity we call "sleep" . . . well after I put Paige back in her cage.

dyeing update

Ok so a lady from facebook emailed me a couple of articles about dyeing fabric. One was like what the RIT people had, but it didn't have what I was looking for. The second article was about making it mottled, which is like what the Silkweavers and Enchanted Fabrics hand dyed fabrics are like. I have read it through a couple of times and I think I know what's going on. Of course, there is nothing like actually doing said dyeing to put theory into practice. It might turn out just like I think (and it probably will) but then again might be a total messy disaster. Of course, I won't know until I try it out. I did pick up several different colors of dye to attempt this grand experiment in hand-dyeing. I don't know when I will get around to actually attempting this, but it should be interesting. I'll try to take lots of pics to document it.

finally an update

Here is the finished Jewels of the Orient (aka the 2 geishas) - I finished them on 7/1/09 after oh about 9 years of stitching on them on and off. I had to wash the piece, but that isn't surprising since it'd been a long time since I started it.




I started this one back in like 2003 or 2004. It's not very big, so I should have had this one done a long time ago. Oh well. At least I'm decreasing the UFO pile. If I get around to it, I'll take a pic of what it will look like.


Here is the finished Iris, along with a closeup of the wings bit. I love the beads. The purple ones have purple on the inside and blue on the outside. It took me a bit longer than I thought it would since I had a bunch of overtime. I started her on 7/1/09 and finished her on 8/15/09.



Well I have finally gotten thru the left side of the flower faries which I'm making for Stefy's baby. I started them on 8/15/09, and had really hoped I'd be done with them today, the 31st. Oh well . . . that didn't happen. I'd really liked the idea of starting my Tannith HAED on 9/1 just like the beginning of the term of Hogwarts. I might still start it, I'm not sure tho.

dyeing fabric

I have been getting special hand dyed cross stitch fabric (lugana) for the pixies. I decided I want to try to dye my own. That way they'd be extremely unique. But it's hard to find any info on how to go about it. I picked up some literature from that RIT dye but that was for if I want to make it all one shade or dye it. It's not the same as the cross stitch fabrics. I looked on Booksamilion to see if there was any books about it. I found some books and then found them on Amazon.com (put 'em in my wishlist too). So I decided why not swing by Barnes & Noble on the way home and see if they had any books. I found a big, fat nothing for my trouble. (Tho I was able to find the Twilight book 3 in paperback and the Gypsy Morph book which I was looking for.) Blah! They had just about any other kind of crafting thing you could think of, including get this upholstery but not one about dyeing fabric. What the crap? Three upholstery books but no dyeing? Sigh . . . I think I'll try calling over to Books a million tomorrow and see if they have any and if not, I'll order them from Amazon.

More to come on the odyssey of the fabric dyeing.

Iris update

Onto the wings!

Oooh loook a dreeesssss!

I finished the dress bit of Iris a little after 6 am on Harry Potter's 29th birthday. lol I crack me up. That means 7/31/2009 for those of you who have no clue when that is.

Onto the fleshy bits, the hair, the wings, the backstitching, and the beading in that order.

Here's more update pics of Iris. I stayed home sick and watched some dvds on my new little portable dvd player and stitched a lot. I have gotten further than the second pic, but I didn't feel like taking another pic yet. I have gotten about 1/3 done with the purple bits on the left side.



When I finish the left side, then I'll work on the fleshy bits - legs, arms, face, hair. (Ok that's not fleshy but it's part of the fleshy bits.) Then I will just have the wings to stitch. Then after that will be the back stitching, and there's not much of that on the pixies. And the last bit will be the beading. That usually doesn't take too long. I'm going to update my places where I post cross stitch pics and then work on it some more.

Ok it's been a while time for an update

Ok I've not been very good about updating this lately, but here it is.

I finished the geishas on 7/1/09 sometime around 3:45 am or so. They needed to be washed, as did Mom's bird heart wreath. Not surprising, I'd say, since the geishas were almost a decade old and the wreath was over a decade and a half old. The wreath bled from that maroon color thread and it took me about 8 soakings. But I was finally happy with it. When I have a little extra money (I'm thinking after I do a lot more overtime?) and they have a 50% off framing sale at AC Moore, I'll have Mom pick out her frame.

I have finally started Iris - I started her on 7/1/09, and I got lots done on her during the 3-day weekend. Then, however, I sort of stalled a bit with the 2 weeks of overtime. This is how far I've gotten on her:

I'm really looking forward to being done with all that gold/brown . . . I'm sort of sick of that color. But it will look really nice when it's done.

This is what I am really looking forward to stitching. I'll be stitching this for Stefy for her baby. I don't think they're going to take that long to do. I'm thinking it'd be really neat to be able to mail it to her for her baby shower, which is August 29th. But I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't make that deadline. I'm adding some 0032 blending filament to the wings. I'd thought about matching the sparkly to the color of the fairy, but Stefy thinks opalescent would make sense for fairy wings.


They have another 4 new pixies! Ack! I'm falling further and further behind. lol I do have Pansy and Sweet Pea. I haven't gotten Bluebell (I really like the color on her) and Magnolia yet since I just ordered them this week.
Here are the new ones of the pixies:
Bluebell:


Magnolia


Pansy


Sweet Pea



And in the music videos:
I'm thinking now for Ishtar, I'd really rather use Godsmack's Voodoo and that maybe their Serenity would be nice for Aveyond. I was thinking their Running Blind might be nice to use for that Miribilia's Stargazer. Yup I do want to stitch that too. So I think that Corsira will get Greensleeves (RVCB).

I think I need a 36 hour day to stitch this all.

music videos

Well I decided I liked making the purr rawrs video and will eventually make more vids. I think I'd eventually like to make the Prayer of St Francis again, just so I can use that Sarah McLaughlin song. Yeah I'm crazy like that. It's not like I don't have lots to want to stitch already. lol

Here's a list of the projects and the songs:
ones I can do now: (just not sure of the music)
Poppy
Tigerlily
children's noah's ark
more realistic noah's ark

The ones I want to do and the music:
Tannith: that oboe piece on the 25 one hit classical wonders cd
T&C/Rendezvous: Lifehouse's Everything
T&C/Aveyond (yeah another one): ??? I'm not sure *
Corsira (Ice Wind 1): ??? I'm not sure *
Prayer of St.Francis: self-explanitory, I think
Legend (which I have as a wip): I don't remember the name, but it's on that same one as the Tannith one
Ishtar: I think maybe Sting's Desert Rose
Harry Potter (yeah I found a chart on eBay): the Roanoke Valley Community Band's HP&POA
Vampire Sisters: Transylvanian Concubine (BTVS)
Millenium (Teresa Wentzler): final battle music from Buffy the vampire slayer
From the Ashes/phoenix: Rascall Flatt's Feels like today
Fire Angel: idk but maybe that Potomac Sunrise one? it sort of sounds like HP & pirates of the carrabean, idk tho
Moth Queen: Evanescence;s Bring Me to Life
flower fairies - idk
Queen of Hearts: Him's Wicked Game

that's a lot of stitching

* I'm not sure which one it is, but either Aveyond or Corsira is going to be getting the Greensleeves from the Roanoke Valley Community Band cd - it's very pretty

update I suppose

This is the latest of the geishas - I have a bit more to go on the umbrella. I would really like to be able to get them done so that I can go onto other projects. Namely, Iris, the fairy row for Stefy's baby Kadence (ok I have until October to get that one done), and of course the Tannith HAED. Of course the one I would really like to fast forward to where it is all finished stitching is that Rendezvous one - the Tannith/Corsair one. :) Of course I'd like a lot more of them done too . . . oh well . . .

I also put together the Purr-rawr pics into a movie. Here it is for ease of finding.

geisha update

Here are the latest pics of my geishas.

I figured out how my "muvie maker" that came with my computer works. I decided to fart around with the purr-rawrs I'll post a link on YouTube if I figure out how to upload it. One step at a time, one step at a time.

Ok here's an update

Quick update: I've been working on the geisha's and have gotten the head of the standing one done, tho I haven't gotten a pic of it. The others are the school and the countryside church of the plastic canvas musical village I started years ago.

I wanted to start Iris (the one I picked of the pixies to do next, Fern will be her buddy) on 6-1-09 since it was after Relay and also the beginning of the month. But it just didn't feel right, so I didn't. I only have the fan, the umbrella, and the wisteria of the cross stitches and also the backstitching left. I'll have to get some more black, since I decided to do 3 strands for better coverage. Oh well. "Floss is cheap and I know where to get more" - I think that was something I read in one of my ccs magazines. So once I get the geishas done I'll start on Iris. I really want to get to the Tannith one, but I know that's going to be quite a commitment. I got my laptop and I've been getting to know it. (I haven't figured out a name for it yet - the other one was named "Carritas" from Angel.) But one of the features is that I can make movies on it. Granted it wouldn't be anything like a Hollywood movie by any means, but I think it'd be really neat to take a bunch of pics of a HAED and put it to music so you can see the progression of how it grows over the fabric. I had seen one on YouTube of where someone had it for the water lilies feng shui pic. It was really neat.

Computer problems

Well I've had some computer problems - it's on crack or something I think. There is something wrong with it where it doesn't read the card reader. I'm like oh this is a load of bs! And many other naughty words were uttered in reference to it's parantage. Be that as it may, my friend Kattie looked at it and it's sort of limping along now. Not great or anything but not omg go would you?!

So here is the missing updates.

I picked the Jewels of the Orient picture (aka the two geishas) back up on 4/29/09. I have gotten quite a lot done and even more than just this. Sometimes I can amaze myself. lol


I also organized my wips so I could see what I have. I think I would like to finish my now oldest wip (also from 1993) - the music sampler. I only have the bottom, one of the little boxes, the side and the top left. I'm like, why did I leave it?

The 6th installment on the sorceress. It was supposed to go on the missing update, but oh well.


And the legend pics - one for the missed update and the other is how far I've gotten since then.

latest update

I worked on Legend and I got some more done. I figured out that I had put the wrong color - I used 782 which is a gold rather than 553 which is a purple. A little over an hour later, it made much more sense. I then put it aside to work on that bird heart wreath I started back in 1993.



Speaking of which, I was able to finish it today, 4-21-2009, at 2 pm, right before work. Yay me! I am pretty sure I started it back in April or May of 1993, as I know I worked on it during the 8th grade trip. I don't remember where we went, but I do remember stitching on that project in the back of the bus. I am really happy now that the stupid thing is done. lol I only call it that because I was sick of it hanging on. But it is really pretty.

Which pixie?

I was trying to decide which pixie I should do next. I was going to do Fern but now I'm not sure. What do you think?

Daisy:


Fern:


Holly:


Iris:


Ivy:


Jasmine:


Lilac:


Lily:


Lily of the Valley:


Morning Glory


Rose: (I want to stitch her twice - once for me and once for Relay For Life to raffle off)


Violet: