Pogo - Finished!

Well here is Pogo, all finished! He is ten inches tall, stitched on 22 ct. Aida. It was a lot of tedious work!

I haven't started a new embroidery project as I was busy knitting some toy mice for my nephew. He has now throttled them completely out of shape, but seeing his face when he saw them and learned he would get to take them home with him (I have some other stuffed mice which he always plays with when he visits my apartment) was worth the work!

He immediately grabbed them up and gave them kisses, then becoming hypnotized by me making squeaking noises. The fact that the absolutely first thing he did was kiss them and have them kiss each other makes me happy.

Aren't they cute? I bought the pattern from Etsy seller Yarnigans. She has a lot of really adorable patterns for sale.

Now I'm quickly making a Socktopus before going back to embroidery.

Asterix!

Obelix was one of the first patterns I created, and it's certainly taken me a long time to finish Asterix, mostly because he has more small details. Now of course I need to make a new Obelix pattern that's to the same scale as Asterix so they can be stitched together. 

Asterix is also for sale in my Etsy shop.

That may take some time though. I really want to get my next Pratchett quote started and of course there's also the wisteria piece and the chintz napkin to finish. Sigh!

On the plus side, I should be able to get a lot done in the next few days. I'm listening to a really fabulous book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President. It's about President Garfield and is absolutely amazing so far. Also, Garfield was awesome! I'm not sure why there's no modern motion picture about him (him in general, not just the assassination). I'm sure a tiny bit of my new-found love is that he spoke Latin and Greek (well enough to teach them) and of course it makes me think of The West Wing and President Barlet. Can't recommend the book highly enough though!

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.

In-jokes and children's books...

Sometimes I procrastinate for ages on a project, finally start them, and find they go so quickly it's ridiculous. I don't expect anyone but me to enjoy this piece, but I will show you to it anyway. It's a quote from Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. I do quite like my canoe design.

My childhood was chock full of Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics. Lots of Carl Barks and lots of Don Rosa. My dad and I bought each issue of the Life and Times series and read them aloud together. It's such a special memory for me and it's all thanks to Don Rosa.

My dad and I crack up every time we say/read this line. I think he'll enjoy it. Also, here's the actual finished picture of my Five Little Peppers piece. The border really completes the piece and makes it perfect. I've already finished the pattern for the original cover of Understood Betsy as well.

Christmas is looming but I'm generally prepared. There's lots of baking to do though, and maybe one more embroidery project. Tomorrow I have things to mail and then I may begin getting to grips with transcribing the pattern from the Royal Winton Queen Anne chintz tea cup pattern.

There's always something...

Finished!

Well here is Tintin, all finished. I think it turned out absolutely beautifully.

It's a bit hard to decide what to do with it, since my siblings and I all grew up with Tintin comics and my nephew Benjamin loves Tintin as well. Benjamin isn't really in a position to appreciate art though. I will probably end up selling this, just because I've already embroidered Christmas presents for most of my family.

I'm really a bit proud of the pattern though. The only thing I don't like is the left side of the spotlight. It looks a little odd/flat because of Tintin being in the way. I'm sure it's fine and Madre would scoff at me for thinking about it but that's just the way I am.

Now it's time to come up with the next project. I think I need something snarky and adult to keep up my subversive credibility.

Massive Tintin progress

So here's quite a lot of progress on Tintin. The spotlight improved the piece amazingly and the black is looking great. The full cross stitches around the leg (and around Snowy) still show up very well even in the sea of black half-stitches, which had been my main worry.

The only thing I don't like is that now the shadow stitches look a lot lighter, but that's a pretty small complaint. There's a lot of black to fill in but it's going more quickly than I expected (though that's true of pretty much every project).

more Tintin

Here's a lot of progress on the Tintin. I've now started the yellow spotlight bit in full stitches and it looks SO great next to the half-stitches of the shadow.

My pondering now is whether I can do some darker half-stitches around the all the whole thing, as it looks odd to have a spotlight on light fabric. I would do them face the opposite direction from the shadow stitches and probably not in black (though maybe) but in something darker than the shadow at least.

Glugh! It's all getting a bit complicated! The endless yellow stitches did take me through the end of Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, which was a 26 hour long audio book. Poor woman died with one chapter left to write. Instead of having something complete the book they had some friend of hers write an epilogue talking about what Mrs. Gaskell had told everyone the last chapter would contain, which I think was rather sweet. It was a wonderful book, though at times the pacing of mid-19th century books gets me down. It never really hots up or does anything quickly. You always know how things will turn out in these older books but how they get there and the writing is so lovely.

Tintin!

I grew up with Tintin and Asterix comics, and while Asterix will always be my favorite, I'm very attached to Tintin. We had some of the Tintin cartoons too, which I adored.

So here's my Tintin-in-progress. It will be just like my base image (just without the black fill background. I think I need to get a lighter skin tone though and also need to look for a good color for his hair, so the project is on hold for a bit. I think it's a really good translation from my base image to the cross stitch though!

Now I'm trying to design a pattern of the Grateful Dead logo from the Steal Your Face album. With Christmas coming a lot of the things I'm stitching either can't be posted here (since they're presents) or are so obscure that I don't think you guys would enjoy them. I did design a fabulous blackwork ax though, so if anyone needs an ax design, just ask!

I'm desperately hoping that I won't have to turn the AC on again this season, but it's hard to say. Sometimes it's still pretty warm during the day. All my plants are inside though and I've rearranged some of my succulents. These days my only non-succulents are my lemon tree and a lone African violet. Oh, and the cat grass but that doesn't really count.

Tougher than the toughies and sharper than the sharpies

There are few things I love more than Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics, particularly those by Carl Barks and Don Rosa. Obviously Carl Barks duck comics are amazing but Don Rosa is maybe even more special to me. Barks' comics that we had belonged to everyone, they were bought for my brothers and I got the ones still in readable conditions when I was old enough. Rosa's comics on the other hand were sometimes bought new just for me. For the youngest of five children that's a fairly rare occurrence.

So anyway, here's my first Uncle Scrooge embroidery piece. Scrooge's general motto was that he'd be "tougher than the toughies and sharper than the sharpies, and make his money square." In the design I had to include his number one dime and his money bin. 

We finally got a break in the ultra-hot, ultra-humid weather with a couple slightly cooler days. If it were completely overcast it would be perfect for me. I really can't be out in the sun at all, it hurts my skin almost immediately, so even if it's a fairly pleasant day it's hard for me to be outside. I'll be much happier come the end of September, which is hopefully when Madre and I will go camping. Love being out in the woods. I can't go hiking anymore but I can lie in a hammock and look at the leaves and feel a bit more peaceful.

pogo party

Well I did finish my Pogo piece. And there's good news. The iron on pencil thing I used to transfer the design doesn't *wash* out, but it does fade quite quickly under sunlight. This means I hopefully won't need to dye the fabric grey. I'm sure that would have looked nice, but I'm quite lazy.

I'm now working on a Bullwinkle quote blackwork project, which shall be amazing. Bullwinkle is fairly obscure, but the quote is not specific to Bullwinkle watchers so I'm confident it will be enjoyed by all.

busy and not busy

I've been stitching and I've also had a fierce case of melancholy. Just tired and blah and not wanting to think or type. 

I started and almost finished stitching an illustration from a Pogo comic by Walt Kelly. The Pogo comic started in 1948 (using characters he created in 1941) and was the first political strip comic. The characters were all animals living in the Okeefenokee swamp. Various side characters were based on current presidents and other political figures. It is an amazingly hilarious comic that I was fortunate enough to grow up with. It's a great supplement to those studying the 1950s. 

The image I'm stitching is the tattoo I would get, were I to get a tattoo. The main benefit is I'd be the only one in the world (probably) with that tattoo! Much more fun than the same flower/fish/whatever that everyone has. My grandfather was in the Navy during WWI (born in 1900, lied about his age), in Scotland for most of it and got loads of tattoos. So it would be nice to get one as a nod to him. My brother Zachary has a number of tattoos, including a few he did himself in high school. I'd like for me, my brother, and my sister to each get one of the bat characters from Pogo. Their names are Bewitched, Bothered, and Bemildred, and I'm totally Bemildred.

Things I love Thursday

Technically it's Friday now but I fell asleep for most of the day.

Tea cups. I adore tea cups and collect them. Not full sets, just individual lovely tea cups. My mom just got me a new one today, in order of us putting up a third shelf for my tea things. The picture is my new tea cup!

Carl Barks. Fantagraphics is publishing the Carl Barks library in installments (or at least what he wrote for Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge). The first one comes out in October and I'm actually thinking of pre-ordering it, something I never do. I can't wait though. I grew up with Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics, mostly the ones by Barks and Don Rosa. When Rosa's "Life and Times of Uncle Scrooge" came out my dad and I would go to the grocery store every month and buy the new issue in the series and then read it aloud together. It's one of my favorite memories.

Obelix C'est Fini!

Amid the snow and the cold I have finished my Obelix piece! I must say, I think he turned out splendidly. I am unhappy with the shoes but couldn't really find a much better way to make it work (a random mistake in my stitching meant a few extra stitches/changes here and there) so I will forget my perfectionism for now.

Of course, this means it is high time to start on my Roman piece, aka, a bit of extreme masochism. I love ancient Rome though. I'll be looking for some other images of the ancient world or quotes too. My next high ambition is to find a good piece of Vercingetorix to do - there is some rule in the movies that only extremely handsome men get to play Vercingetorix and having the nice mustache makes them even more handsome, I think! My new goal is to marry someone who's competed in the World Beard and Mustache Championships, actually. Perhaps I could lobby them to start an Ancient Gaul category.

While working on Obelix I've been watching an absolutely hilarious Scottish show called Still Game. I grew up hearing tons of accents and dialects and generally have no problem with British shows (unlike a lot of Americans, sadly). This one is a bit harder because the first three seasons (series) especially have a ton of Glaswegian slang, but I've only had to look things up a couple times. I highly recommend the show though, funniest thing I've seen in ages. Plus, it's helping me work on my accent (I can do Irish accents and all sorts of English dialects - Yorkshire is my favorite, but for some reason Scottish is much harder, probably because you hear it less).

It's a great source for quotes too, though sadly I only wrote one down so now I'll need to go back and re-watch the show to gather some more. This will almost surely be my next needlework quote piece though: "There's nay disease called Moody Bastarditis."

Or possibly a quote from another British show I finally get to re-watch after seven years or so, A Very Peculiar Practice ("Altered priorities ahead"). It stars one of my favorite actors, a Scotsman, Graham Crowden, who died at 86 a few weeks back, despite managing to look about 90 years old for the past 30 years. He also starred in the amazingly fabulous Waiting For God.

More Obelix in Progress

Today I drove my very own car for the first time. It's old, a '93 Pontiac Grand Am in that teal color that almost all the '90s Grand Ams were made in. It has a number of problems, but nothing that affects its usefulness to me. I can only drive for ten minutes or so, and some days that's pushing it. All I really want is to be able to get to the YMCA to swim and to have the option of picking up my own prescriptions, getting the occasional grocery item, and perhaps making it to a knitting group or what have you.

This my second car, the first being an old Ford Ranger which had a myriad of problems including a gas gauge that didn't work and gas tank that would only take gas at an extremely slow rate (very frustrating in the winter). So I'm used to cars that are a bit quirky. All I want is for it to get me to the pool and the hot tub.

I would have celebrated by driving about and picking up some sort of food or item that's usually hard for me to get, but I'd only had two hours of sleep. My dad brought the car here and then flew out to Albany at 6 am, meaning leaving here at 5, meaning up at 4:15, and we'd only gone to bed at 2. Sigh. Tiring. I was half hoping it would snow a lot so my dad would have to stay and visit with me. So I resisted getting a sausage biscuit from Tudor's (the best commercially available sausage biscuit ever) and came home to fall into a fitful rest.
filled character is so different, and so annoying.

Awake, if groggy, I flung myself into working on my Obelix cross-stitch piece. I should mention that I've never done a fully filled piece before. Mostly I just do text with smallish borders. After Obelix is finished I'll start on my Roman mosaic, much larger than Obelix and much more complex and easy to screw up. What can we do though? I can't do silly quotes forever. I have big cross-stitch dreams that make my hands ache just thinking about it. Obelix is coming along beautifully though, don't you think?

Send Me Blackwork Flowers Every Morning, Send Me Blackwork Flowers By The Mail...

I love blackwork. I love the designs, I love that it is more flexible than cross-stitch but still sets limits making your stretch your imagination. Of course I never do my blackwork in black thread and about half the time I make designs that use more than one color. My favorite creation so far is a set of flowers I designed myself and practice-stitched in ultra bright thread on black Aida cloth.

So here for your use and enjoyment I post a couple flower designs and a blueberry + leaf design. If you use these designs please credit me and either link back to this blog or my Flickr account. I tend to end up using various half stitches or ending a stitch in the middle of a square, just so you know that those aren't mistakes in the pattern.

***

I'm also about half-way done with a new cross-stitch pattern. I created this pattern from a picture of the comic book character Obelix. I grew up reading Asterix comics and Obelix was always my favorite character. We had tons and tons of books in our house when I was kid, including nearly all of the Asterix comics. I have vivid memories of looking through them before I could read and wanting so desperately to be able to understand them, to figure out the mystery of these fascinating books. Then once I could read I tore through them, over and over, re-reading a minimum of ten each week and pestering my dad non-stop to translate the Latin phrases and explain the more historical jokes.

Through those comics I developed a life-long love for the history of ancient Rome, Julius Caesar, and the Gallic wars. I read biographies and histories, watched documentaries, and above all I daydreamed. I live in West Virginia, my mother's family all lived in Texas and New Mexico so we took two and three day drives twice a year. Much of that time I spent lost in wild daydreams of myself as a Roman Centurion in Caesar's thirteenth legion, battling the Gauls at Gergovia and Alesia.

It was inevitable that I would one day embroider those characters, starting with Obelix. I love how he's turning out so far. There are some details you can't see here, blackwork accents to be added about the color (mostly in the shoes, which look icky without the color and those details). In general though I think it is tres Obelix.

Cross-stitch Quotations

There are many things that make cross-stitch appealing to me. It indulges my OCD, my desire for symmetry, and my love of amusing quotes. It keeps my hands busy, if aching, and the concentration I put towards it mirrors meditation. Other than the extra aching, these are the things that I need most in life, such utter distraction that I can forget the world and my circumstances.

Yet for all the distraction my constant inner feeling appears in the quotes that I choose. None are so accurate as this quote from a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, to which I've added a little judicious swearing.

It's true, isn't it? Reality can ruin all our lives to various extents in various ways. We build up our defenses, our distractions, and we lose ourselves in them until some bit of the bad old world intrudes into that bubble. So we shrug and we sigh and above all we say "fuck this."

The border is my own design, and you are free to use it, if you'd like. Click on any of the pictures for the full-size image.

Happy crafting!