snow day

It's snowing a bit today! I love it. Most people want it to be spring and I might if we still had spring. We don't though, it goes straight from winter to summer and I like winter a hell of a lot more than summer. Since I live on the fifth floor, I didn't have to turn my heat on even once, however I did have to turn my AC on a few weeks back when it was sixty-five degrees.

Here is the finished quote from Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I like the effect of the blue getting lighter as it goes out, though it makes me wish I'd done the text in a really dark blue rather than a dark tealish color. I didn't know starting out that I'd do the border in blues though, I just figured I'd grab whatever color I had the best progression of which happened to be blue. 

The pattern for this piece is now for sale in my Etsy shop.

Assumptions

This new project is a quote from Priscilla Queen of the Desert. It may be a phrase more widely used but I've never heard it except in that movie (one of the best movies ever!). 

I stayed up really late to finish the text so it would be ready to show this morning. This in turn, presumably, caused me to dream about doing the loveliest flowery border in wonderful peachy and sea foam colors. I might try to recreate it but not for this piece.

For the border on this I have a pretty good idea which will be quite simple and easy but hopefully give a nice effect.

So far I have raised $6 in my It Gets Better pattern fundraiser. Even if I can only raise enough to buy one of the books that's more than I'd be able to do on my own so it's all good. If you don't buy patterns (I certainly don't) you can donate through the It Gets Better website or make a purchase of the book which they'll then give to a school library (you can even ask that it go to a specific school library).

It Gets Better

I have long wanted to support Dan Savage's It Gets Better project, especially in buying the book for school libraries. I have a rather tight budget though so I'm not really able to do much on my own.

The solution? Create a cross-stitch pattern that I can sell as a fundraiser to go towards buying those books. It's a pretty large pattern with an intricate rainbow border and part of a quote from Robert Frost. The full quote goes as follow:

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be 

made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself."

What it made me think of was the rash of suicides by gay teenagers. They were bullied into silence. The quote is of course applicable to all of us in one way or another. Everyone faces bullying of some sort, as adults or teenagers, physical or emotional or verbal. So the pattern can certainly be reworked with different colors (it would be nice if every public defender had this quote in their office) or just buy it for the borders and put in your own text (I worked damn hard on those borders!).

All proceeds from the sale of this pattern will go towards buying the It Gets Better book for school libraries. If you're not a stitcher or don't buy patterns you can donate directly to It Gets Better. There's a 'contribute' link on the top faaar right of the page where you can donate to this most worthy cause.

The pattern is in my Etsy shop, Hardcore StitchCorps. The finished piece will be framed and listed on Etsy in a few days. On 16 count Aida it will fit very nicely in an 8x10 inch frame. I really love how it came out. The colors and the way the borders interact are just as I wanted.

take off, hosers

Long have I been a Bob and Doug McKenzie fan. My sister and I got the movie from Netflix and thought it was the best thing ever. We thought this because it IS the best thing ever. I own it and we still love it. We still quote it all the damn time too.

One of our favorite lines is "Give in the dark side, you knob," during the lovely hockey scene. It works on many levels as I'm also a massive Star Wars fan (used to watch the trilogy once a week minimum all summer long). I literally knew every single line of all three movies and once ran through the movies with a selection of stuffed animals on a three day drive to New Mexico. My mother kindly claims that it kept her awake.

Anyway. Bob and Doug needlework, eh? Beauty.

Warm colors for a Cold Snap

masses of hail!

After last night's massive hail storm and then thunderstorm the weather got cool again and stayed quite cool today. This is good news for me as warm weather just kills me and I hate having the noise of the air conditioner. I live on the fifth floor which was perfect for winter - I never turned my heater on all winter. For summer though... bleagh. 

I'm working on a frustratingly annoying border pattern which will frame part of a quote from Robert Frost: "never be bullied into silence." Once the piece is finished I'll be selling the pattern wherein all the proceeds will go towards buying the It Gets Better book for school libraries.

It's a sentiment that is true for pretty much any group or issue or individual person and I may make a more neutrally colored one to sell after this but I do love how the colors and the different borders are turning out.

raccoons and foxes and owls, oh my!

My energy stores never seem to recover anymore. When the weather starts changing a lot in quick succession I do tend to feel worse but this seems ridiculous. I can also predict rain with my leg pain, so I'm a girl with many uses.

I've put all three of my animal face patterns in my Etsy store (and a three for the price of two deal which includes all of them) and actually sold one! Yea! So here's the raccoon in any case.

Did a bit of stitching on a new project (a gift for someone who knows about this blog so I'm not going to post it) but mostly I've just rested today. Yesterday was extremely tiring but fun as well.

I finally got my sister to watch at least the first half of the St. Trinian's movie with me and had a wonderful time with my nephew when he woke up from his nap. My sister, Kyla, is due with her second baby in only a month and a half! I can't wait to see my niece in the onesies I've embroidered for her.

As for Hardcore StitchCorps, I posted listings for the patterns for my fox face and owl face (reproduced here) yesterday. Today I finally got the pattern for the raccoon worked out and printed. Once I get him stitched up I'll be posting the three patterns as one listing as well for a two for three deal. I'm thinking about doing another series of animal faces. My idea is to do a simple quilt with five inch square pieces in different colors with embroidered squares featuring the animals mixed in. Simple, cute, personal touch, etc...

I'm afraid I'm being utterly lazy. I got through six episodes of Upstairs Downstairs. Madre and I are prepping to watch the new Upstairs Downstairs that they've been making. I love the old show so much. Certain episodes stick in my mind SO well. The first episode I ever saw was the Titanic once and it just hit me so hard.

What didn't work out so well is the movie they made of the Terry Pratchett novel Going Postal. It is one of my very favorite Discworld books and the movie was okay and probably quite good if you'd never read the book. They somehow managed to remove all the singularly Pratchetty details. Quite depressing. David Suchet was in it which was crazy because I've only seem him as Poirot. The casting was lovely but the script writer was a fool, the operation was a success but the patient died. C'est la guerre.