Napkin madness...

Remember my tea napkins which match my tea cups? Well I've finally started on my fifth one. It will match my Royal Winton Queen Anne tea cup and saucer, the pattern of which IS a cross-stitch pattern! Since it's a chintz (all-over pattern) tea cup I'm doing the napkin as chintz as well.

This means it will take bloody forever. I decided to measure the stitches and each one is 1mm square. My eyes and hands shall hate me for weeks, but oh well. It will be absolutely glorious when finished and that's what counts. It's also difficult since you have to look back at the pattern every three seconds, there's no steady stitching to be done.

Haven't decided yet what to do as a normal "not killing my eyes" pattern to use as a break between chintzing.

Family Rules finished

Here is the absolutely finished image for my family rules pattern (which is for sale in my Etsy shop, and I'll personalize it for free). Once personalized the pattern is completely square, which makes me happy. This one is going to my aunt Betsy for her step-daughter's family.

I've altered the pattern ever so slightly to be more more even spaced, because I can not leave anything alone, ever.

Now I've gotten started on another napkin that matches one of my tea cups. It's the one for the Royal Winton Queen Anne pattern and I'm going to cover the entire napkin. It will take a long time (the stitches are barely 2 mm across) and is already frustrating the life out of me. I'll take a picture of my progress tomorrow.

I think I'll start another humorous project too, to give me breaks from the napkin (which my eyes will need!).

finally back to stitching!

Well I finally healed enough to get back to stitching my family rules piece. It's still a little slow and I'm having to hold the frame in a different manner than usual, but I *really* needed to busy my hands again. I get antsy when I can't accomplish anything.

Now the piece is nearly done. It still needs its border and the personalization but that shouldn't take too long (granted it's tedious and boring). This will probably be going to my aunt's stepdaughter (and her family) but I'll be sending her a picture before I personalize it, just in case she doesn't like the colors or whatever.

a quick update

Here's another update on the family rules. I know it looks odd to have three light colors at the bottom together, but they'll be surrounded by navy on left and right and a dark royal blue underneath that larger N, so I think it will look all right.

I would type loads more, but I'm doing it one-handed after badly burning my left hand. This also means there won't be any stitching progress for a while. C'est la vie.

Also, remember this pattern is already for sale in my Etsy shop. :)

Stitching away...

Well I've made a good bit of progress on my 'family rules' cross-stitch piece, despite being busy with cleaning.

You can tell I've had good audio books to listen to, that's why it's progressed so much! I finished On Gold Mountain by Lisa See, which is the story of her Chinese-American family, starting around the turn of the century. It was a really amazing.

I also received my 'early reviewer' audiobook copy of One and Only: The Untold Story of On the Road, which was wonderful. The reader, Vanessa Hart, did an amazing job, and I wish she was the reader for more books that appeal to me. Mostly she seems to read mass-appeal romance/sci-fi/fantasy things.

I know I'm not even halfway finished with the 'family rules' piece but I'm already trying to plan what to stitch next. I'd like to do something funny but I'm tempted to start on my Understood Betsy book cover. Oh well, we'll see when the time comes.

happy thoughts

Here's the first bit of progress on the family rules pattern. Doing that "BE" was incredibly tedious. 

I probably won't get much more work done on it for a few days. Too much cleaning to do. Sometimes you're just too tired to squint at a pattern on the computer and count stitches over and over. 

You know how you can be tired enough to fall asleep while reading or stitching but not fall asleep when lying in bed or watching TV? That was once the bane of my existence. My solution is to watch something in another language. It's much easier to drop off when it's just noise. That's a bona fide (do we write that as one word in US English? My browser is stuck on British spellings which sometimes confuses things) tip from a chronic insomniac, one who doesn't even WANT to sleep but recognizes she must.

no more funny

Well I finished the A.D. Wintle piece. I think it turned out really well. That might be something I keep for myself. I really don't get attached to keeping my finished pieces, even the ones I absolutely love. I just have a need to obsessively stitch in order to distract myself, so I do.

I'm going to do the family rules pattern in shades of blue, with the non-red parts of the flowers in the darkest navy. I think that will be nice but I'm feeling a bit hesitant about it. Given that it's a family/happy thing I don't want to do it in just black and red.

Opinions?

back to the humour

Well I'm back to stitching something funny that's not an in-joke! That's where I like to be.

After this I'll start my family rules pattern. I also got the material for my Understood Betsy book cover. 

I've been running around too much for various reasons (not so much for myself) and have been SO tired. I made a nice hash for breakfast though, as I really wanted something *real* to eat. It had sweet onions, garlic, grated sweet potato, cubed white potatoes, and Chesapeake Bay seasoning. I made it in the oven, so it didn't really tire me, and I swear it's the only thing that kept me from crying.

Blistering Barnacles!

 Well here's Captain Haddock, all done. I do like the way he turned out. I would start working on a full body pattern for Haddock but I don't think it would work well, as Haddock's face is always more expressive than Tintin's.

Today I finished a pattern using the A.D. Wintle quote "I am never bored when I am present," which I love. That quote pretty much sums me up.

I also did some cleaning and visiting with an old friend from high school. We stayed in touch for a couple years, but he fell off of Livejournal and we haven't talked in six years or so. He works just a few blocks from my building though! I had such a wonderful time and I'm so happy we're still alike. I meet so many people who I think I'll get along with, but 10 minutes into a conversation they make me want to scream. Wonderful to sit and visit with someone I really get on with.

Also this 'family rules' pattern is for sale in my Etsy shop! I'll be starting to stitch it myself this weekend, so eventually I'll have a lovely finished picture for the listing (this is just altered so that pattern can't be easily stolen).

I also want to start the matching napkin for the Royal Winton Queen Anne chintz tea cup. So much work to do + apartment inspections! Ahh!

too tired

I'm too tired to think of much to say. Here's another picture of Captain Haddock, a WIP. He's done now but I'll have to take the picture tomorrow.

Went grocery shopping today, was disappointed by not finding a book case, discussed a certain house with la madre, and put away lots of food.

My fibromyalgia has been exceedingly awful tonight (and last night) so I'm having a hard time getting anything done. Instead of working on new patterns I've been watching The Supersizers and trying to pick my least favorite food era (so far it's Elizabethan - I gagged a lot during that show and I'm not a squeamish person). 

I have an old friend coming by tomorrow, so I'm excited about that. He and I were friends in high school and I talked his head off every morning in homeroom.

Finally!

This is me! Happy New Year!

Well I finally started on another project. I also made two things that I forgot to take pictures of before they were sent out. So I've been doing stuff, just nothing that I could eventually post here.

I've also worked on a number of big new patterns and went through my entire Etsy store. I've reduced the prices on a lot of things (usually only by $1). 

I also posted a big 'family rules'/'rules to live by' pattern. I've seen a lot of those as posters, but they usually had a few sentiments that jarred me and the layouts were never interesting enough. Thus I had to create my own!

Right now it's the only such cross-stitch pattern on Etsy, so hopefully it will sell well. It took freaking FOREVER. My obsessive perfectionism really came out on this one. Right now there's just the blurred image on the listing but I'm going to start on my own stitching of as soon as I finish my Captain Haddock (hopefully my Q-Snap extension kit will arrive quickly to make it easier).

So there he is so far and he should be done soon. It's a portrait style and I *think* I'm going to leave mine monochromatic like the original image is. Captain Haddock was basically my favorite part of Tintin as a kid.