Good day and other niftiness

Ok so I probably won't be doing many Christmas presents this year, as I'm unemployed. But I do still have to give presents to Mom, Dad, and my sister. That last one was easy, bit expensive, but easy. I had done the mardi gras mask for her for her birthday and the frame is for her Christmas present. And I got that done before I lost my job, so all paid for, yay. But I did still need to find one for mom & one for dad. I found a sweet tiny kit which mom will like at AC Moore for get this - $1. Yup $1. Of course, I got it. I think I might add some blending filament to that, sparklies are always pretty. Then that brings me to dad. What to do? Well I found a free pattern which I think will appeal to him. (I'm not saying what it is, in case he reads this, I'll post pics of both after Christmas.) I decided to go with earthy shades, like his mitten/hand warmer from last year, rather than the black/white/grey of the original pattern. I had a bit of trouble at the store today picking the floss out . . . who decided to buy all the 434 - 437? Like seriously, grr. So I went with 3862, 3864, and ecru. There was only 1 skein with the papers on and what appears to be another full skein with no paper, but it's the same color. (I like to get all the floss I need at one time). So that's that. I think I might add backstitching (so to speak) between the colors, maybe in that sparkly black #4 braid. I think that might make it look kind of like stained glass, and maybe even more so if I do 3/4 stitches instead of full crosses where there are angles. So (not counting any sparklies as I've already paid for them and for those projects shouldn't take too much) . . . I think my Christmas projects left to do cost $5 with my time.

Sooo I got this nifty idea the other day when I was cleaning up a bit/organizing my patterns in the crate I keep them in. (They've been out of the order I had had them in ever since I let an ex-best friend look through them back in 2009, what can I say I'm lazy.) Sooo nifty idea . . . right. Ok. So I started this picture years ago called The Astrologer, by Joan Elliott. And yeah that would make a super cool picture. But then I came across 2 leaflets I had gotten years and years ago (like not long after I started cross stitching). They're both of the zodiac - one is for mug inserts and the other is supposed to be done on waste canvas on shirts. I did the Aquarius one from each, because I'm Aquarius. I did the mug one on a mug insert and the waste canvas one I did on a piece of 14-count aida. I think I wanted to turn that into a pillow eventually. That was in 1996. I know I did at least 1 of the other mug ones - Virgo I think. But that was long ago. So my idea is what, you ask. It originally was to stitch each of the waste canvas ones and then sew them into a quilt. Ok I thought to myself, when I get a chance, sounds nifty. But then when I was wandering around my AC Moore, I thought to myself . . . wait . . . what if I do patches of all the waste canvas and all of the mugs and combine that with The Astrologer? !!! wait no . . . yes wait . . . that could work!!! So that is what I want to do. I'm thinking of doing the Astrologer, then strip(s) of fabric, then the row of mugs, then more strip(s), then the shirt ones, then maybe more strip(s), then a border. Tho now I'm not sure if I want to do little, then big or big, then little. Or even how much fabric/how many strips/etc. I think I might add a border to the mugs as some are more "blocks" than others.

To remind you of what the Astrologer looks like:

And this is what the Aquarius of the waste camvas leaflet looks like:


And the Aquarius of the mug:



Oh and have I mentioned I think it would be super cool to have a cross stitched map of Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings). Well if I haven't, I do think that. I would then be the envy of both cross stitchers and gamers everywhere. Cause, you gotta admit, a cross stitched map of Middle Earth would rock. Plus, it might encourage people who wouldn't ordinarily think of picking up a needle that it might be kind of neat to do so. Plus . . . it would just be awesome!