DMC Spiral - WIP 03

Here's the latest installment of my DMC spiral. Like the other piece it's also in numerical order, but has no color duplicates stitched and no non-duplicates left out.

I do like it so far, and I think it's easier to see the color runs than with the square project. 

I'm also still knitting every night, though somethings I'm just fucking around, looking at gauges, seeing how something knits up, rather than working on real project.

I'll have a new pattern in the shop tomorrow, though it's a blackwork one, and people don't like those as much. It's just back stitch ladies and gentlemen, easy peasy, I promise!

The DMC color project - first look

Since I haven't been able to get to the embroidery shop to find the perfect thread for my quilt project, I started something new.

This will eventually be a square with almost every DMC solid color in it. I have to leave out 13 colors in order to make it a perfect square. So I'm randomly just leaving out some of the ones that are ridiculously close in shade to their neighbors. I'm stitching it in number order, which I think you'd have to do anyway just to keep track of where you were.

I've since completed the third row and I really love it so far. It's interesting to the see the colors in number order. I store mine by hue, because it makes it easier for me to pick colors for a new project, and I almost never stitch anything designed by anyone but me. I'm using the DMC provided color description sheet to cut down the time it takes to locate each color, but some of their descriptions seem rather off.

This piece goes quickly and slowly. It's slightly annoying since you're constantly starting a new thread and using such a small amount of each. I feel like I'm spending more time cutting the thread, separating the thread, cutting the thread again, winding the thread back on the bobbin, and putting it away than it takes to do the actual stitching!

Working out the numbers was a little exciting as I had to USE MATH! Granted, quite simple math, but still...

Je Suis une Fille Formidable - finished

This large project is finally finished, though I've now revised the pattern to be more visually pleasing (switching the order of the designs below the the main border).

In fact it's SO finished that the pattern is now for sale in my Etsy shop.

Now I think I'll finally have to start the large G from my book Celtic Cross-Stitch. I did a B for my nephew Benjamin (finished about a year ago), and the G is for my niece Geneva.

The book The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander, has helped me focus on finishing this piece.

Onward and Upward

Well, I've completed the only full version of the largest design in the napkin. It is ALMOST perfectly centered, so now I'm quite annoyed with myself for not trying to plan that.

Granted, I don't think I could have, as there was a tiny stain in the corner and I had to make sure it would be covered up. 

Anyway, I'm pleased with the progress and can't wait to be done! There will be another break from this project though, while I finish the third border on my "une fille formidable" piece.

First stage complete!

After starting this project I realized that I haven't stitched on 14 ct. Aida in forever. My stitches seem huge, clunky, and messy, and I groan over how much thread it's using. Thread is cheap, I know, but I am hardwired for thrift.

The three projects I completed just before this one were one 22 ct. Aida, and the still-in-progress chintz napkin is on an even smaller scale. 

Otherwise there are the usual annoyances of working with black Aida (which makes the stitching messier anyway). I adore the way it looks, but it's difficult to stitch on and very difficult to photograph well. It never takes long for me to regret starting a project on it, but c'est la vie.

I still have three designs to add to the top and the bottom. After the first of those is done I might go back to the chintz napkin for a while, since I've neglected it.

blinding progress

I am slightly kicking myself for deciding that doing a chintz napkin to match the chintz cup was a good idea. This is SUCH a frustrating pattern, because of all the tiny bits of one color spread out in a way that makes it difficult to keep at all organized.

It is going well though and it will be amazingly gorgeous when I'm finished. That's some consolation.

I've been posting some older patterns in my Etsy shop. You can now find the Moody Bastarditis pattern, Not Dumb Luck, Dumb Skill, Reality Continues to Ruin My Life, Never Bored When I Am Present, and Captain Haddock (though those last two are quite new, of course).

The shop has been more successful than I ever dreamed and it makes me really happy that other people actually want to stitch my patterns. I'm going to start work on a "Living in Sin" pattern with a super traditional border. It will give me something less frustrating to work on when I get sick of the chintz napkin.

Oh, if anyone would like the pattern for the Royal Winton Queen Anne chintz, just let me know and I'll send it to you. It's easy enough to make yourself but is tedious and annoying.

pretend quilting

I finally present to you the completely finished (and framed) color-fade blackwork piece. It's not exactly what I wanted, because I didn't start with a large enough piece of fabric but it does look pretty. 

Plus it gave me a lot of ideas for color fade pieces which I could then do properly. Before that I need to bulk up my thread collection. I have a ton of embroidery floss, but not enough oranges and not enough blues and missing some important reds. It feels like I never have the colors I want.

I got a new computer, as mine was getting run down (especially in the touchpad department) and I'd like to have a backup that still works normally. The new machine is running Linux because holy crap I hate Windows 7. I thought I just disliked it, but having to use it for more than two minutes at a time amped the dislike right up to despise. 

We used Linux on all the computers at my high school (a tiny boarding school) so I'm not completely unfamiliar with it (though even if I was Ubuntu is SO intuitive that it should be easy for anyone to use). The best part for me is downloading all the free applications. I got a geography lesson program and can now identify all the countries on all the continents and a number of island nations. When something big happens in Moldova or Togo I'll know just where they are! I'm beyond psyched about this.

So thank you, Microsoft, for completely screwing up the operating system I grew up with and liked using. You even managed to make networking my two computers a pain and not workable. Now that's talent. Change for change's sake is always a bad idea.

more color fade action

Well, I'm sadly growing more and more annoyed with this piece. I didn't plan it all that carefully, so I didn't use a large enough piece of fabric to do a real rainbow fade piece.

For that you need to go red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow green, green, green-blue, blue, blue-purple, etc.... My blues which look bluer on their own just look teal in this piece and the whole thing is making the OCD cringe. I'm almost done though and then I can give it to someone as a gift or try to sell it.

I'm working on a smaller even more gradual color fade piece that's just green going into blue in a four inch hoop. 

I suppose I'll have to start on the Celtic style G for my niece at some point. It would be nice to have it ready for my sister's birthday or Christmas, which won't be a problem even if I don't start for another month.

Today I saw my nephew Benjamin with a mandolin pretending to be Chuck Berry. Which I'm sure you'll agree is adorable. Though I'm slowly trying to ween him from Chuck Berry as there's only so many times I can listen to the same four songs. Plus there's lots of other good early rock and it enforces the idea of taking turns.

progress on the color fade

I've made some more progress on the color fade project. I need to go on another thread run to find the right colors in the right shade group. It doesn't help that the light in the embroidery thread aisle is the worst in the store. It's coming along well though and I like the effect.

The Quilt National show at the Dairy Barn was absolutely amazing. I've to a number of the Quilt National shows and this has been the best. There's a lot less hand quilting in it, which is a shame. A few shows back there were a couple huuuge amazing, completely hand quilted pieces but there were also a few quilts that just left me a bit blah. This show everything was amazing.

This is my favorite piece, Rook Road by Elizabeth Brimelow. The minute I saw I told my mom it looked like a map and it turns out that's exactly what Ms. Brimelow was quilting! My vision rarely lines up with the artist's vision, and it doesn't need to, but it is exciting when it does. The presentation of this quilt is also incredible and really allows some of the wrong side quilting to show through beautifully.

It's everything I love about quilting. Creativity in design, creativity in display, and a clear but uncommon vision.

color fades for the win...

Oh how neglectful I've been! I had a house guest and then I left my camera at my sister's house. That's the pain of having an adorable nephew (and niece), you leave your camera a lot of places.

Anyway, here's my new piece. I had yellow on it but the fade from green to blue was so perfect that I wanted to redo the yellow to get a nicer fade into the green. This all means a trip to the needlework shop (there's a lovely little local place) and it's just so annoying having to leave the apartment.

On the plus side, how gorgeous is this?! Oh I'm so happy with how it's turning out. It is my first art piece. Well, I did that cross stitch of Obelix so we'll just say this is my first abstract art piece. Hopefully I can eventually frame it and give it to la madre. It just looks so quilty to me and quilts make me think of her.

Was there ever some tiny piece of information you would do anything to get? Any tiny bit of someone's thoughts you would die to know? I have something like that, and I dream about it and that person so often. Once a week, sometimes more. The dreams alternate between good and awful. Sometimes the truth is wonderful and perfect and sometimes it's so soul crushing and hurtful. I would rather know though, no matter how painful it might be. I'm not good with matters requiring that sort of courage, but I'm working on it.

finishing up

So here's the finished version of my Billy Bragg quote blackwork piece. I think it's finished anyway. I thought about doing from falling stars from the bottom, like raindrops dripping off the piece, but that sounded like it would be a pain in the ass so I gave it up.

I just can't get over the lovely way that the stars combined. Pretty pretty pretty! Wouldn't it be interesting to do a quilt full of blackwork and cross stitch made to look like common quilt motifs? That's way beyond my laziness level, but it's a neat idea.

Also, after saying I'd post my Liverpool FC pattern in my Etsy store forever ago I totally forgot! My brain doesn't work well most of the time, but this is ridiculous. Anyway, it is NOW for sale in my store. I think I'll have to start stitching one for my dad now.

Wide eyes and bright colors

Yesterday was a bit odd. I had my eye exam appointment at 9:00 am, which was okay, though I didn't like the office. The exam was way shorter and less extensive than any other I've had. Enough to show that my prescription hadn't changed drastically but not enough to show small changes.

I had numbing drops in my eyes for the first time, which was so weird, then had my eyes dilated, which I both love and hate. I hate not being able to see or focus on anything up close but I like the look of dilated eyes (I associate it with doe-eyed sweetness having never really been around hardcore druggies). When I got home at 10:30 I fell asleep almost immediately and slept off and on (mostly on) until 7 pm! I hate days like that, as I'm not a person who enjoys sleeping, and I hate the feeling of literally not being able to stay awake.

So the good news is that I'm not going blind, the bad news is that I'll have to see my GP so they can check to see if I have a sinus infection. It seems likely, as the symptoms fit. I hate doctors, but maybe they'll give me amoxicillan and I can request to have the liquid which tastes so good - or it did when I was a kid anyway.

The new blackwork piece is almost done. I'm just putting the yellow in the center of the flowers, which I would have done yesterday if I hadn't had that sleep marathon. My brain stayed fuzzy the whole time so I didn't attempt to work on it. Instead I watched Rescue Rangers and decided that the next time I'm getting a cat it will be a big lazy male cat, preferably a ginger, who I'll name Mepps after a cat in Rescue Ranger. Or possibly I'll be a bit dada and name it Mole. You never know.

Do you like fantasy books but find them to be basically repetitive and tedious? Well I know a fantasy author who's much more fun than the rest. Juliet Marillier is the lady and I love her books. She has two trilogies and one book duo already out, plus two young adult books, one stand alone, and she's two books into a new trilogy. The first set, The Sevenwaters Trilogy, are some of my favorite books ever, and her duo which are about vikings is super crazy awesome. The first book of the Bridei trilogy was so amazing but the second two were a bit disappointing by comparison, though still good. Her books always involve a bit of magic and folklore but it's not over the top. It's basically the past as we know it with most of the attached folklore being true but no pet dragons or magical teleportation or anything.

Silly excitement

separate cases for warm and cool colors, of course.

I have an ophthalmologist appointment tomorrow, which I'm super psyched for. Generally I despite eye doctors. They treat me as though I'm twelve years old and tell the worst jokes imaginable. I've never been to an ophthalmologist, never having had serious eye disease or anything, but they are the only ones certified to accept Medicare so I have to see them for my eye exams.

The reason I'm excited for it is because I really want to know if my prescription has changed (I believe it has), if it's just eye strain or if I'm managing to go blind, and to ask if they think contacts would be easier on my eyes in terms of needlework. I don't want to wear contacts, I love my glasses, I've had them since I was seven years old, but if contacts will make my eyes ache less then I would use them for needlework.

What I'm finishing up now is the quote from the movie Horsefeathers (hard to say who actually wrote the line). I've completed the green on both sides now and I'm doing a bit more detailing in green above and below the purple flowers. I'll also be filling the middle of the flowers with a goldenrod yellow thread. These are colors I bought all at once, just randomly picked up the green, orange, and fuchsia and noticed in the car how pretty they looked together. I've never done a project using just those colors before but I'm happy to now. It's bright but it works. Gotta show the sexy side of blackwork, after all!

tribute to Father Ted

Here is my first tribute to the show Father Ted. If you've seen the show it's pretty self-explanatory but you probably know the word anyway. I have a second piece that's been almost done for over a month but got shoved under something so I forgot about it for a bit. That should be up soon.

This piece was also made to show off the font, which I created. This font and the one from the "cat's in the bag" piece are on sale in my Etsy shop as a pattern pack, both are included and come with lowercase and uppercase. Given how little luck I've had in finding blackwork fonts I thought some other people might find these useful too, especially since these are wider and not so pointy.

Today was really tiring, but my teacup collection area has a new shelf up, ripe for expansion and some of my books have been moved around. Things look better and I have more room for new books. meaning I went and purchased a few young adult books I read as a kid that I've wanted for a while. That's something at least - I don't actually buy books unless there is a space on the shelf, but when I do have the space I go for it.

As I kid I read a lot, but I also re-read a lot. There were about 15 books at the library, favorites, that I'd check out and read once a month, every single month. Most of the young adult books I own are the ones we owned when I was a kid, I haven't added many to that collection. But I thought I'd like to add those books that I did read, over and over.

finished cats

The cats are in the bags and all finished up! I really like how it turned out and I used the same technique on a project I started today. Once I finish that project and post it I'll be selling the charts for the two fonts in my Etsy shop. That should be up in a few days.

The new project is fun and turning out very very art deco, which I enjoy. I felt better today for the first time in a week, which is a relief. The burn on my knuckle has also gotten a lot better, making every day things like dishes a bit easier. Those days scare me -- the times that are so bad I can't even go to the bathroom easily. Things are bad enough even when they're good, seeing the alternative makes me want to crawl inside myself and disappear.

Let me recommend a book to you. I do a whole lot of reading. Last year I read three to four books each week. I'm cutting back this year, as it's harder to find books I really enjoy. My dad's a librarian, I grew up spending eight hours at a time in libraries, so we all had to learn to love reading and learn to amuse ourselves (a skill this generation of kids with DVD players in their cars could stand to learn). So I know good books.

The book you should read is Don't Ask by Donald E. Westlake. It is a comic crime novel and one of the most hilarious books ever written. It's not a crime novel in any traditional sense, some people are biased against them and so am I, I hate all the normal 'crime' novels. There are numerous Dortmunder books, almost all are wonderful (the last three or four were weaker than earlier ones). The audio editions of the first nine are the best audio books I've ever heard, the reader perfectly captures each character. Most libraries have at least a few of the audio books.

This is the first sentence of Don't Ask:
Stuck in traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge out of lower Manhattan in a stolen frozen fish truck full of stolen frozen fish at 1:30 on a bright June afternoon with construction out ahead of them forever on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, with Stan Murch on Dortmunder's left complaining how there are no decent routes left from anywhere to anywhere in New York City--"If there ain't snow on the road there's construction crews"--and Andy Kelp on Dortmunder's right prattling on happily about global warming and how much nicer it will be when there isn't any winter, Dortmunder also had to contend with an air conditional dripping on his ankles.

Do yourself the best favor ever and read that book! 

Summer colors

Orange and green together is one of my favorite color combinations, and this is one of my favorite borders I've done! I spent forever getting it perfectly symmetrical. This was a custom order through Etsy, certainly my favorite kind of order to get. It's just nice making something specific for someone else.
I finished working on a couple of blackwork alphabets so I need to pick a quote to show them off. I'm thinking "Cat's in the bag, bag's in the river." I love cats and fluffy things but that line cracks me up every time.

The last week has been really difficult. My pain's been off the charts and even my cat is driving me crazy. She wants to rub against my legs every two seconds and it just hurts too much. I very much need things to go back to the old sub-normal. And more Uncle Scrooge comics. I need more of those. 

The Tea Cup Project has begun!

Well I've begun a project I've been thinking about for about a month. While at the beach my mom found me some lovely fancy tea napkins that are an even-weave fabric. I myself collect tea cups so I thought a fun project would be to do up cross-stitch designs of the motifs on my tea cups so that I have a matching napkin to go with the.

This would obviously be a closer likeness if I were doing non-counted embroidery but I said "Oh but the fabric is so tight and the stitches will be soo tiny..." This was a mistake. I am now going blind. Those stitches are teensy! They're like a millimeter and a half across! On the other hand, I really like the overall effect. It looks nothing like the design on the tea pot but the colors are all there, it shows there's greenery as well as flowers and includes the little bit of pink on the cups. I also love how the pattern generally looks (which is good given that I created it myself).

So now I'm torn. I don't like mismatching things so having one cross-stitched napkin and the rest in free embroidery doesn't appeal. However, doing seven more napkins of these damn tiny stitches doesn't appeal either. I will be getting a better spot lamp soon and possibly a magnifying glass of some sort as well so hopefully that helps with the aching eyes. I'll also be getting an eye exam to check to see if my eyes have gotten worse. After that, new birthday glasses from Zenni! Yea!

At the cost of eyes and hands...

Well my Celtic motif letter B is finally finished! It turned out so beautifully that I'm half-tempted to keep it for myself. I'd say "Perhaps I'll make the M for myself..." but that would be suicide.

This project, while rewarding, was possibly not the best choice for my first piece on even weave. My hands feel like they'll detach from my body if I pick up another needle (and I really need to start the sample piece for one of my pattern designs today) and my eyes seem to ache more every day. Little did I imagine as a young girl that someday I'd suffer from the same aches and pains as the garment workers of old. Next perhaps I'll get the consumption (le sigh, le swooon).

In any case, first I present a picture of this piece prior to the black outlining being added. I kept telling people how different it would look once it was outlined but I don't think they entirely believed me. Hence the before and after pictures. If you're halfway through a similar project, starting to doubt whether it will look at all decent, just remember these pictures. Those black stitches change everything.

I already have an appropriate frame for the piece here with me so it will actually be totally finished by this evening! Thank the honk. I will eventually do a similarly styled letter G, which I admit I am not looking forward to even a tiny bit.

So close!

I am so close to being finished with the Celtic motif B! I've done all the colorwork except for the big purple spiral which shouldn't take any time at all. Then some white outline and then the larger task of outlining every bloody inch of it in black, which will take quite some time.

Still, I'll be very happy when it's done and I get to show it off. It may not be as impressive as my Roman mosaic but oh well.

I finished making two patterns of mine completely ready to post on Etsy. Also got the Dalek piece framed and photographed so it's ready to be listed. I need to do a few more photographs of four of my small 5"x7" pieces but then I'll have four framed things to sell, plus the two patterns. I finished touching up the outlines for my other animal face patterns so once I stitch them I can get those typed up and ready to list. In other words, getting close to opening shop!

work work work

Still no black thread but I've made some great progress on the Celtic B piece. It's such an annoying piece with all those little bits of color. Oh cross-stitch, you are a harsh mistress. Still, it's half-way done and once I pick up some black thread and get it all outlined I think it will be really terrific.

You decide "I'll make this for my niece/nephew" but of course you're not making it for them at all. Maybe when they're six or seven they'll think "Oh how pretty" and later on they'll hang it in their house but they probably won't understand how frustrating all of needlework is. Even the simplest piece is fraught with annoyance and anger and bad juju.

I look forward to the day I can sit down with my nieces and nephews and say "You there, try some embroidery and I want to see nice, even stitches or no dinner for you." No, I wouldn't do that. I'm an aunt, dinner is not my responsibility, which is why it's such a marvelous scheme, being an aunt. Come the end of April I'll have ten nieces and nephews. Granted I only ever get to see my sister's kids but at least I get to see some. Not to mention that I will never make ten giant, ornate, Celtic letter cross-stitches. Two is seeming a bit much at the moment, if I'm honest.

Still, with my sister and her family having moved down here I'm getting more exciting about the new baby coming. What I'm especially looking forward to is my nephew's reaction to it. Sure, right now he's all kissing the tummy and full of sweetness and light but eventually there will be another small, cute thing around that cries. I'm sure he'll be a good big brother, I have no doubt of it, but the reaction for the first few months will still be funny. An aunt's got to have some pleasures.