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.