Red Kitten WIP

Red Kitten WIP, trying to finish this by the end of the year. :)

Another finish.

I had so many breaks today between clients at work that I finished my Pink Owl on a Branch! Yay for squeaking in another finish in this year. I might have it in me to do ONE more, but we shall see. :)

She looks a bit South Park-ish to me, guess it's the big eyes!

More finishes!

Look at me go.

I got my first cross stitch professionally framed and I love it. I picked a suede mat for it, and a green to compliment it.

LOOK AT IT. It's really great. Once I figure out how to pack it up for mailing, it's heading to Montreal. As you might remember from a previous post, this is the one I started there when I was on vacation. :)

I finished Golurk who was a GoJERK to finish on time because he was so big.

and Drifblim was finished as well, in all his or her baloony goodness.

and this is a WIP I am doing for a client of mine who loves owls. It's a pink owl on a branch. I am using a blue sparkly jubilee fabric which is really shiny and pretty. I remember trying to work on it before and I got disgusted with how horrible it was, but I'm trying again and it's not that bad. I guess I had it back when I ws first starting on evenweave so there was a bit of a learning curve. Now I'm an old (I stress OLD) pro at this, the fabric ain't so bad!

Here is the WIP.

So this year I didn't really get much done and bought way too much stash.

Maybe next year, eh? :)

Why do I do this to myself?

I've been playing Pokemon X for awhile now with a few of my gaming buddies, and I got this great idea in my head that I would stitch their favourite Pokemon for Christmas Gifts. This wouldn't be so bad except I'm a slow ass stitcher right now and it's almost the middle of November. I have 2 weeks to get 4 Pokemon done. I've already finished 2 of them, Sylveon for Tim who has the 8 Eeveelutions already, and Umbreon for my guy. One of my friends just HAD to pick Golurk, which is a huge pokemon, so I'm working on that while I wait for the threads for the last one to arrive in the mail.

Good luck to me!

Sylveon for Tim

Umbreon for Rian

Golurk for Ryan

I have some progress on Red Kitten as well, but it's packed up. Next time I work on it during a break from clients I'll take a picture.

Aaaand, I've put Wind Waker to the side right now as I try to finish these Pocket Monsters, but I think I'll work on it every Saturday morning. Gotta keep the momentum going on that big piece.

WIP and Stash time!

Ok I have some new stash and some WIP pics today!

First up is a Wind Waker pattern I found on Sprite Stitch. Here is a small picture of it if you don't want to bother clicking on link.

and here is my progress so far.

As you can see I am working on the sail! It's on 16 count AIDA fabric in Stellar. It's super soft and I fell in love with it when I got it so I had to buy myself a piece for a project I've been waffling on buying for ages.

I love these fishes but I am *not* going to stitch all that blue. Ever. So this fabric is perfect! I ordered the fabric and pattern and the floss (minus any blue colours) and can't wait for it. :)

My take-along project is Mirabilia's Red Kitten, as seen here in a bad picture.

and my progress.

Doing it on all the recommended fabrics and colours. I work on it when I have gaps between clients.

I also bought Gardenia Fairy

with everything to make her. She's so pretty ^_^

ANNND. Azure Mermaid. I really like all the mermaids, but not the size of them. Well, miss Nora came out with Azure and she's super pretty.

I ordered everything to go with it.

I do have a bit of a beef with ABCStitch Therapy. It was my first time ordering from them when I ordered Azure Mermaid and while everything got to me (sans fabric which they said they'd send when they had some) it didn't come with a do not bend sticker or piece of cardboard, so my mailperson bent it up and shoved it in the box. My mailperson should know better too, but whatever. The damage wasn't too horrible to the pattern.

The fall weather has me all wanting to bunker down with tea and my stitching. :) I am enjoying getting back into it. Though I should probably NOT buy any more stash LOL. We all know how that goes. I seriously can't fit any more projects in my Alex unit.

Anyway that is all for today, I really must get stitching :)

Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”

32 Ct. Haunted Belfast Linen, Sampler Threads Black Crow. Nice to finally get another finish in. :) Now I don't know what's next but I'll be sure to post pictures of my incoming stash purchases. :) I've been bad!

Nevermore

I might actually get another finish in this year! The Raven is coming along nicely.

It's probably because it's already got a home that I am trying to finish the raven up as quickly as possible. :)

Stuff and Stuff

I had a great time in Montreal. I did manage to go to the Cross Stitch store that I wanted to, called La Cigale Brodeuse. It's found in a basement of an older looking building. Not much to look at from the outside. Inside it was one room, with most things found around the walls, with a sort of island in the middle that held fabric, beads and a few baskets of patterns. I wasn't sure if she took debit or not because I didn't see a cash register. I only had about 60 bucks on me. My friend said he had some cash on him and I could pay him back but I felt weird doing that. The owner only spoke french so I had my friend translate a few things for us. I asked if she took debit and she did, so I went a little nuts. :)

I bought this pattern and all the things to go with it. Fabric, beads, floss, and kreinik #4 braid

I also picked up 3 different fabrics

That purple one kept jumping out at me, so after picking it up 3 times I decided it was coming home with me. I also brought home those cat scissors from my last post. I wanted something to remember my trip by. :)

I had a few days on my trip where I could stitch. Due to social anxiety I didn't leave the hotel by myself and my guy was working so I stayed in. I had my laptop and my stitching and food, so I was good.

My view from the hotel window. Mount Royal is in the distance. I was on the 12th floor.

I started La-D-Da's the Raven. I'm working it on 32 count Haunted Belfast linen, which is super hard on my eyes so it's slow going sometimes, and Gentle Arts Sampler threads Black Crow. I'm doing the whole thing in one colour thread because I like it. It does call for 3 different colours, but whatevs. :)

What I've done so far. I just took it off the hoop so I decided I'd get a picture in before it goes back on. Like I said, the 32 count is a bit much for me these days.

Figure I'll show a few pictures I got from the Redpath Museum. It was one of the places I HAD to go to, along with the Cross Stitch store, of course. I have an obsession with all things Egypt and it's always been a dream of mine to go to Egypt, but alas, they have much turmoil going on there now. So I read a lot of books and dream about seeing such wonders in person. Well I got to see some in person and let me tell you it was hard not to cry from happiness. I am weird, I know. Anyway here are a few of the pictures I took

Mummified cat, anyone? There's a hawk and an ibis there as well.

The view from the 3rd floor. Rawr.

I have a few more projects lined up. I bought Gardenia Spring Garden Pixie.  And of course, everything to go along with it. I also ordered all the DMC and fabric needed to do another Wind Waker pattern and the last Eeveelution, Sylveon. Finding the time to do everything while still spending time with my guy was proving to be a challenge so I solved it by buying him a capture card. Now he can stream games for me to watch (and stitch!). I am a very smart cookie. :)

Just putting this here

Someone asked to see a scissor collection so I'm posting this here. :)

Uh oh

I'm in one of those stitching slumps again. A big part of it is because I found a dude. It's a bit of a Long Distance thing. He's been to visit me and we hit it off, now I am off to visit him in September. We are both gamers so yes, a lot of my time is spent playing stuff with him and not stitching, and I am happy.

I managed to finally mail away the last 4 Pokemon and they have since been framed by Tim. He is very happy with them all, and that makes me happy too.

Anyway, heading over to Montreal and I've already scoped out a Cross Stitch store that I am interested in visiting while I am there. I want to pick up a pair of scissors or something to remind me of my first real vacation in 9 years. I am finally at a place in my life where I can do that. I earn enough and get paid vacations now and it's opened up a whole world for me. I'm even tossing around the idea that I want to go to Australia! Me, miss social anxiety and fears everything wanting to go to Australia.

I'm even going to my first concert in 24 years this November. I bought tickets to go see Matthew Good Band. My last, and only, concert was New Kids on the Block when I was 11. Remember them? I can't even remember if I had a favourite one of them, it's been so long ago. That concert was very traumatic for me. thousands of screaming girls and I just did not have a good time at all. I think it really turned me off of going to anything else after that.

On the gaming front, I think I am almost finished with World Of Warcraft. It's been over 8 years since I first started playing back in Norway and then here in Canada. I cancelled my account a few days ago, but it's paid up until September 22nd. We shall see what happens after that. I will be playing Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn when that is launched August 27th. Lets see if that can hold my interest. The dude is excited about playing it, and I have a few other friends showing a bit of interest so we'll see!

So here's to a fun year so far. So many new things happening and new experiences being made.. now if only I could get cracking on some stitching. :)

Oh be joyful, cause that shit spreads.

Sorry for the swearing in the title, I'm listening to Oh Be Joyful by Matthew Good. He's a local musician and one of my favourites. Lets all be joyful, shall we?

I haven't really been stitching since I finished the last Pokemon. I now have Leafeon finished, and that makes 8 done. Of course the makers of Pokemon have added yet another eeveelution, but so far there isn't a pattern for it.

Anyway here is Leafeon

I am going to try and stitch more, rather than play WoW all the days. I seem to be playing a lot of that lately.

I have a couple choices on my next project to work on. I started Duality by Fire Wing Designs, and then I have Follow Me by Bothy Threads also in the WIP pile. I recently got a Fallout VaultBoy pattern as well that someone posted on reddit I'm itching to start. Aaaand, I have some requests from friends for patterns, so I'm not really sure where to start.

At any rate it feels good to be stitching again. :) 

Yay something small

To hopefully get the ball rolling on stitching this year. I spent all day working on this! :D And watching The Tudors.

So anyway, here is my first small finish for 2013! Glaceon!

I am almost done all the Eeveelutions, with only Leafeon to go. :) I don't think I'll start it right away, rather I'll start on Follow Me 2 since I have all the threads for it now.

Anyway that is all.

Ahoy.. again

I can't believe it's February! Month and a half and I'll be 35, whoosh the time is flying by.

I am still not stitching very much. My friends have me gaming (I was just gifted with Guild Wars 2) and after work when I watch Tim play his games, I'm beat from work and just feel like laying in bed.

I did try stitching last night, and of course my arm still isn't better so it was being all achy and I still have no feeling in my index finger so the needle goes all over the place and is dropped more than I'm holding it! WOE IS ME, PEOPLE.

This hasn't stopped me from buying even more stash, mind you. My second order was all the DMC Thread needed for Follow Me 2, and then these things:

All Hallows Mini - Cross Stitch Pattern, Waxing Moon designs
Black Cats Halloween (One Color Wonders), Waxing Moon designs
Halloween Alphabet - Cross Stitch Pattern, Raise the Roof
Weeks Dye Works - Okefenokee
Weeks Dye Works - Pumpkin
Tiger Profile - Needlepoint Kit
Pilot - Cross Stitch Pattern, Fire Wing Designs

and my last order which has just been shipped

Duality - Cross Stitch Pattern, Fire Wing Designs
Threadworx Floss 5 Yard - Blue Swirl
Threadworx Floss 5 Yard - Blue Navy
28 Ct. Gray Jobelan 18x27
28 Ct. Light Blue Jobelan 18x27

I'm good for this year now, I think!

I've also found a new obsession, DAVIDsTEA. Aww yeah, This has made me a loose leaf tea fan. The free shipping in Canada if you spend 50 or more is not helping at all. I tried the Mama Mia tea at a client's house and it was so good. Her daughter let me smell the other flavours she had and I ended up ordering a bunch of them. Cocomint Cream, Mama Mia, and Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait were the first three. I'm awaiting Forever Nuts, Chocolate Chili Chai and more Strawberry Rhubard to get here lol. SO GOOD.

Speaking of shipping.. the good old US Postal service have almost DOUBLED their shipping rates to Canada. What gives? For me, they're actually going to lose business because I'll really be shopping from US stores more carefully. I used to be able to get things cheaper even with the shipping, now it's going to be the same or more than what I can pay for here. So yeah, good going, USPS!

So the TL:DR version, not stitching, still buying stash, obsessing about tea. :)

My next post might be to go through my stash and take pics of all the to do things for my own reference. :)

NEW STASH!?

Is on it's way! I ordereddddddddddd...

Qty: 1  28 Ct. Ivory Jobelan (18x27)
Qty: 1  28 Ct. Star Sapphire Jobelan (18x27)
Qty: 1  28 Ct. Sage/Summer Khaki Jobelan (18x27)
Qty: 1  28 Ct. Queen Anne's Lace Jobelan (18x27)

Qty: 1  Sulky Blendables 12 Wt 4117 Fall Holidays

Qty: 2  Piecemakers Tapestry Needles Size 26
Qty: 1  Piecemakers Beading Needles Size 10/13

Qty: 1  Midnight Manor (One Color Wonders) - Cross Stitch Pattern
Qty: 1  Cozy Cub (Tiger) - Cross Stitch Kit

Qty: 1  Elegant Geisha - Cross Stitch Kit
Qty: 1  Koi Pond - Needlepoint Kit

Awww yeah. Fabric is always nice to have on hand, and I need to order some more later for a couple of the Nora Corbett fairies I'd like to do. (Of course I also have to buy the patterns and all the materials for them as well haha!)

Some of the ladies on the 123Stitch message boards have been raving about Sulky Blendables, so I bought a halloween looking one and that Midnight Manor pattern to try it out. If it looks nice, I have a bunch more One Color Wonders patterns in my wishlist I'd like to get.

And who doesn't need more needles?! They happened to be on sale when I ordered them, and I should have stocked up more than what I bought, but I wanted to keep this stash buying to about 100 dollars lol.

As you can also see, I added a couple kits. I haven't done a kit in yeeeeeeeeears. They were all under 10 dollars each so I figured what the heck. Elegant Geisha I am hoping to have done before Christmas. Koi pond is because I love Koi fish and I wanted to try Needlepoint. (Ok so I know it's technically like cross stitching but without the extra step. hah) The tiger one was because tigers are cute. :D

Anyway, that's all for now! :D