Orts to the Rescue!

When I bought the Family Sampler, I bought all the supplies from 123stitch.  Not really a kit, as everything was seperate, but I bought everything they listed as needed.  I saw my first minor problem when I realized the fabric they sent was more like 30 count.  I finally made sure the whole design will fit (just barely), so I'm safe there.  The next almost catastraphe was with the Classic Colorworks overdyed floss the sent with the pattern.  The green and 2 colors of pink were sent with more than one skein, but the "Roasted Chestnut" (for the house) only had one.  And it ran out 23 (!) stitches from the end of said house.

Enter the ort jar:

Now I really don't know why I keep all my thread scraps (or why they're called orts for that matter), but I suppose it's a little neater than having scraps everywhere.  And anyone who knows me know neatness is always my first priority (sorry, can't even type that with a straight face).  Anyways, I was looking for a few scraps I could maybe hobble together to finish and found one long piece that was a little tangled. Luckily once it was straightened out it was more than enough to finish the house.  Crisis averted!  Not that having to go to the cross stitch store is really a crisis, but those overdyed threads have dyelots that are notoriously hard to match.

Which leads to the Family Sampler at 70 hours (there's a picture on my project page at 60 hours, but I figured it was getting a little boring showing the same project over and over...)

Family Sampler (c) Little House Needleworks

32 ct vintage buttercream linen
started 7/8/14, 8/23/14 - 70 hours

 

It's coming along quite nicely I think, but it's definitely huge.  The flowers in the border go just past half way.  I can't even imagine what it's going to cost to frame!

Back Again

Well this was a pretty productive weekend, at least stitching-wise (one day it'll be productive cleaning and laundry-wise, but I'm not holding my breath.)  Toby went to a Beer Fest on Saturday afternoon, so it was just Marley and I for the day, which meant a lot of crafting time.  She even finished a knitting loom scarf that she's been working on FOREVER (I just need to get a picture of it).  We rounded out the day with a trip to Northampton for Local Burger (her favorite place up there) and GoBerry (which Toby doesn't like so we took advantage of the fact that he wasn't there).  It was a pretty fun day.

 I've reached 50 hours on the Family Sampler:

Family Sampler (c) Little House Needleworks

32 ct vintage buttercream linen
started 7/8/14, 8/17/14 - 50 hours

The more I work on this, the more I like it.  It might actually be hard to give it away in the end.  I just need to hurry up and finish the personalization on if for my brother and SIL so I won't have a choice!

We interrupt our regulary scheduled programming...

And now for something a little different, I finished 2 sets of Christmas potholders today.  They'd actually been finished for a little while, but I just got around to sewing them up today.

Crocheted Folded Potholder (Ravelry link)

A friend from work gave me a set of these potholders when we bought our house.  My husband (who does all of the cooking and therefore uses them the most) raved about them being the best potholders ever.  Not to be outdone, I told him I could totally make them myself, and have since made 21 (!) sets (they're the perfect little gift).  The only change I made is to make them a little bigger, which he seemed to like better.  I also don't add any sort of hanging loop.  Like I think I said before, I want to make them for the ladies in my office for Christmas this year.  I would need 16 sets - there's some girls I don't know as well and wouldn't mind not giving a gift to, but I'm not sure how that would look, so I'm going to shoot for all 16.  We'll see how it goes.  I have a set in progress in my car, at work and at home, for whenever I can steal a few moments to work on them.

I'm still plugging away on the Sampler, but I'm learning I need to take a break after every couple of hours.  Even with my new stand my elbow's been bothering  me.  Just need to learn to pace myself I guess.

Bored Yet?

I almost am! Here's the Family Sampler at 40 hours...still pretty much the only thing I'm working on. The good part is that at least with a sampler design what you stitch keeps changing with all of the little motifs - keeps it interesting.

 

Family Sampler (c) Little House Needleworks

32 ct vintage buttercream linen
started 7/8/14, 8/13/14 - 40 hours

And I think this proves what I've thought all along - I'm a pretty slow stitcher. I may get a lot done, but that's only because I do it so often. But I'm okay with that, I guess. We're watching Hell on Wheels again and that keeps sucking me in. We watched it once before (the first 2 seasons) and I was annoyed how season 2 ended and stopped watching. But I'm giving it another chance, and last night we got through to where we had stopped before. Luckily Toby also likes it (he'll pretty much watch whatever I want, but he reserves the right to make fun of a lot of it!)

In non-boring, more-fun news, we had a great long weekend at Hampton Beach the past weekend. We went up Saturday night after Toby got out of work and spent Sunday at the beach with his parents. The water wasn't too bad, and the three of us had a lot of fun in it (no pictures of that though, I never remember pictures at the beach).

But I DID take a lot of pictures on our whirlwind tour on Monday. Marley (and Toby and I) love to walk around some of the towns in NH, so we visited both Exeter and Portsmouth (our favorites) before ending up in Kittery for dinner.

Here's Marley and Toby in Exeter, and a crazy turtle nursery sign...

And Marley outside her favorite bookstore up there...

In Portsmouth we stopped for lunch at Popovers, which is one of our all time favorites, and of course had to have (share!) their HUGE sundae afterwards.

We also visited the Life is Good Store, the game and puzzle store, and relaxed a bit on the main square...

Finally, after a little rest back at the camper we went up to Kittery to visit the Kittery Trading Post and eat dinner at Bob's Clam Hut...

And that just about sums up our little mini vacation. On Tuesday we mostly just relaxed and did most of Marley's school supply shopping. A lot of stuff crammed into a couple days, but I think everyone had fun. I think it surprised Marley how many pictures I took (I'm notoriously bad at this) and she asked her father "Why is mom taking so many pictures? Is one of us dying or something?" That just cracked me right up.

I didn't really stitch at all over the weekend, but crocheted instead. I find that's much easier to do "on the go". I had the bright idea that I would crochet potholders for all of the girls at work. This seemed like a brilliant idea at the beginning of the year, but I haven't gotten to far on the 16 (!) sets I need to make. But I figure I work much better under pressure anyways. A couple of years ago I made them for EVERYONE for Christmas, including Toby's extended family and somehow got them done. They were a big hit, so I think the girls here will like them as well. Between those and the Family Sampler, I think I'll be quite busy!

Family Sampler (still!)

So I'm still slogging away at the same piece. I've decided I'm really not cut out for one-at-a-time stitching, I'm starting to get a little antsy with it. But I'm really trying to stick with it and have reached 30 hours:

Family Sampler (c) Little House Needleworks

32 ct vintage buttercream linen

started 7/8/14, 8/8/14 - 30 hours

At least it's easy stitching, if not a little boring.  But I think it will definitly be worth it in the end.  You can see that I'm back to using my Needlework System 4 stand.  I had a problem with the original q-snap piece (it wasn't rotating correctly on one side).  After how long it took to get the stand originally I was a little miffed that I had to deal with it again, but I contacted the manufacturer directly and it couldn't have been easier.  They sent out a replacemet piece (postage paid) and will send UPS to pick up the defective piece (again, postage paid by them).  I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked out.  This piece rotates perfectly.  The whole thing is just a bit wobbly sometimes, but I think that might just be the nature of the beast.  I still haven't perfected stitching with both hands and revert back to one-handed.  20+  years is a hard habit to break!

Even though I'm not stitching anything else from my rotation, I do cheat on the sampler a bit from time to time (like when I'm at Angie's or my mom's...or any time I just don't feel like turning the timer on).  My other project at the moment is another Little House Needleworks design, Louise and Henry.  I figured this is what happens when knitting and stitching combine - cross stitch sheep! (I actually have another sheep piece that I really need to get to the framer.)

Louise and Henry (c) Little House Needleworks

32 ct. chestnut linen

started 7/26/14

This one doesn't look like all that much yet (those are sheep legs just needing a body!)  but I should get quite a bit done over our long weekend in NH since FS is just too big to bring anywhere.  I plan on stopping by the XS store up there as well at some point, which could prove a little dangerous.  There's a Lizzie*Kate kit I really want to get and I'm definitely hooked on these Little House Needlework designs...

Family Sampler

So I've decided to concentrate on the Little House Needleworks Family Sampler that I'm making for my brother and SIL for Christmas. I realized Christmas isn't that far away (in crafting terms) so I'd better get moving. Plus this thing seems huge! Not difficult though, so that's good. Seeing as Janelle isn't my actual sister-in-law, I'm kind of hoping this might end up a wedding present instead. We'll have to see about that...

Family Sampler (c) Little House Needleworks

32 ct vintage buttercream linen

started 7/8/14, 8/5/14 - 20 hours

I've hit a couple of minor snags already. The square in the upper left corner is supposed to have an "R" in it, but the "R" in the large alphabet included with the chart looks weird to me. Kind of cartoony, and nothing like the other letters. So I think I'll have to figure out another "R" to use, which shouldn't be too hard. And the other thing really isn't a snag as much as just an annoyance. The leaves on the vine next to the square are supposed to alternate between a DMC floss and a Classic Colorworks overdyed floss. But in real life there's hardly any difference between the two colors. I think this is either due to the fact that the floss is dyed differently between when the pattern first came out and when I got around to making it, or it's just the photography. I run into this a lot when picking fabric colors. Usually whatever the background looks like on the pattern isn't anywhere close to what the fabric actually looks like. (Case in point, this fabric is actually light yellow - not whatever it looks like in the phone above.)  But as for the leaves, I didn't really notice the (lack of) difference until I had stitched more than I'd want to frog, so it is what it is. I don't think anyone else would even notice.

I guess there's really 3 snags - I bought this fabric with the pattern from 123stitch, as it was what was called for. It's supposed to be 32 count, but I think it's really more like 30 count. It doesn't sound like it should make that much of a difference, but the chart barely fits on this piece of fabric. Hopefully it won't be an issue when I go to frame it!

In other news, the PMC has come and gone, and it was really a much different experience this year. It poured!! I don't know if I've ever been that wet. But as I was standing there (absolutely soaked) cheering in the riders as they hit the finish line in Bourne, it really put the whole thing in perspective. Usually the weekend is a lot of work and very tiring, but mostly fun. This year was not quite as fun - too cold and wet. But I figure it was not as bad as actually riding 192 miles, and absolutely nothing compared to what people like my boss Tom are going through in their fight with cancer. So I sucked it up and cheered my little heart out. Toby was grilling this year (bbq chicken) and really enjoyed it. It was the first year he felt he was really productive (and nothing to do with the fact that the grills were pretty close to the free beer tent, I'm sure!) We'll definitely do it again next year (it'll be my 5th year, his 4th), but I really hope it's sunny!

My Lady's Garden

Well I finally finished the first 10 hours on My Lady's Garden.  Between the dark fabric and my new stand it seemed to take forever.  I'm still not 100% sold on the fabric, but it's growing on me (plus I figured it's already paid for - why buy more?)  It's actually much more green than this picture shows (again with the crappy photo skills).  It's tough when you get a color in your mind that you want for a project and no one seems to make it.  But I think this will do.

My Lady's Garden (c) Mirabilia

32 ct tumbleweed linen

started 7/21/14, 7/29/14 - 10 hours

So I realized that it's almost August, and as any crafter knows, that means almost Christmas!  So I think I might need to put the rest of my rotation projects on hold for a little while and work on my brother and SIL's Family Sampler.  It's huge!

I probably won't get much stitching done this weekend - it's time for the PMC!  I will be volunteering on Friday in Sturbridge and Toby and I will be volunteering in Bourne on Saturday.  This is a really great weekend for a great event.  My company's Team Grodsky is well on their way to hitting their goal of $200,000 this year, which would bring our total for the 4 years we've participated to over $600,000!  Pretty cool!

Teeny Tiny Tardises (Tardii?)

I feel like I'm on a roll, at least with these small finishes.  On Saturday I finished Disappearing Tardis for Marley.  We're all "Whovians" and love Doctor Who, so as soon as we saw this design on Etsy I knew I needed to make it.  She just got home from a week away and I thought this would be a nice welcome home gift so I hurried up to get it done in time.  It was supposed to be a bookmark, but Marley had said she'd rather frame it, which made more sense to me anyways.  The only changes I made were to do the backstitch outline 2 shades darker than the Tardis for each one - one shade darker just didn't show up in my opinion.  I also (unintentionally) changed the spacing between the last 2 - the pattern had put an extra row between them, but I just did it the same as all the others.  Maybe it was a typo?  Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (less happy with my picture taking skills - I need to work on that!)

Disappearing Tardis (c) DaleksTeaHouse

32 ct antique white jobelan

started 7/15/14, finished 7/26/14

In rotation news I'm still slogging through my first 10 hours of My Lady's Garden.  Between the dark fabric and trying to get used to my new stand it's pretty slow going.  Not to mention the distraction of a few new non-rotation WIP's that are, quite simply, just more fun!

New Toys

Well this has been an exciting week here at Chez Gonsalves.  First, on Wednesday my new Needlework System 4 stand came in.  I've always wanted a cross stitch stand, but never could justify spending the money.  But lately my wrist and elbows have been making it clear that I need to change something.  So after seeing Angie's, I knew it was time.  I found one for a great price, but with not-so-great customer service.  But 3 weeks later I finally got it (ignore the box it came in in the background, haven't gotten around to getting rid of that yet!):

I'm still trying to get used to it.  I've stitched the same way for 20+ years and now it's like I need to learn all over.  I keep forgetting to stitch with both hands - I'm good for a little while, but revert back to one handed eventually.  I'm also stitching on the darkest fabric I think I've ever used which is not helping matters either (tumbleweed linen for Mirabilia's My Lady's Garden).  But I think with a little practice I'll get the hang of it. And actually I've found a way to deal with these giant Mirabilia charts (at least as long as I'm working on the bottom half of the frame!)

And secondly, I FINALLY got my new car this week!  After a month long wait after the dealership somehow sold me a car that wasn't actually theirs to sell, my car finally arrived.  Luckily I had a free loaner for the month so it really wasn't that bad.  Who would have thought that the Honda Fit would be so hard to get?  Here it is - a teensy little car that's just perfect for going back and forth to work...

I also had one little finish this week.  I've been wanting to try my hand at some different finishes for small pieces (a la The Twisted Stitcher and Stitching Dreams) so I tried this little freebie from 123 Citrouille.  The blog is in french, so I asked my coworker Stella (from France) to translate some of it.  Apparently it means 123 Pumpkin!  She chuckled at the name saying after living here for so long she probably wouldn't have remembered the french work for pumpkin until she saw it written down.  Anyways, the chart didn't have any colors called for so I used GAST Chives, Cherry Wine, Sarsaparilla and Midnight.  I also changed the pot a little so it would be symmetrical (remember my whole OCD post?)

Flower Pot (c) 123 Citrouille

32 ct antique white jobelan

started 7/10/14, finished 7/23/14

I did make a tactical error with this little piece.  I decided to cut my small piece of jobelan in half in order to get two projects out of it figuring this would fit fine on one half.  And it would have been perfect - if I had stitched it in the right direction.  Instead I stitched with the design going horizontally across the shorter width of the fabric, which means I have about an inch on either side of the design (and tons of room at the top and bottom).  Rookie mistake!  I guess that will impact what type of finish I end up using.  I'm thinking maybe a little pillow?  We'll see!

Anyone else have this problem?

Whenever I sit down to craft, be it cross stitch, knitting, whatever, I end up with a lapful of this...

Sunny the Cat - "Why yes,  I do need to be all up in your business, why do you ask?"

Round and round...

For those who know me, it comes as no surprise that I can me a teensy bid OCD about things. But just certain things – my house can be a complete disaster, but certain parts have to organized. Like my stitching for instance. Once I heard about the “rotation method” all those years ago I knew it was the way for me. Basically each project in my rotation gets 10 hours and then I move to the next one. I used to go all old school with a little binder with pages for each project, but for this cross stich resurgence I’ve upgraded myself to an app for my phone (I use “Office Time” for my iPhone – it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good). The only problem I have is I’ve found myself forgetting to turn the timer on or off a couple of times and then I have to guess. Really rubs my OCDness the wrong way, but what can you do.

I’ve set up pages for each of the WIP’s in my rotation (over to the right). I’m sure I have pictures for the beginning hours (somewhere), but I just started with where ever each was when I picked it up after my years-long hiatus. My current rotation is:

1.  Antique Shoes © Bucilla – this was a kit I loved the picture for and waited till it went on sale at Michael’s to buy. I switched out the aida for some jobelan and like it even better than the original project photo. This really reaffirms my hatred of kits though. They give you a project card to store your floss – what a mess! I keep all my DMC on little plastic bobbins all in order (see OCD above). And I’ve already run out of one color. Luckily I found a conversion chart online so I was able to find the DMC equivalent. If I had known about the conversions earlier I may have just used DMC originally. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

2.  Chat Noir © Mystic Stitch – this is for my husband, who loves the original poster. This is my most “stitch intensive” piece. I never knew DMC made so many tan/cream/yellow colors until this piece, which seems to use them ALL. I read somewhere that the best way to deal with the (9 page!) pattern is to tackle 100 stitches at a time (10x10 squares) and this seems to work pretty well. The squares around the cat’s head were rough - I think some of the background used 100 different colors in those 10x10 squares! I live for working on the actual cat. Straight black might be a little boring, but it’s much less stressful. Whenever I’m working on anything else my husband will look over and say “that’s not my cat…” I don’t think he has any idea how long it’s going to actually take!

3.  Family Sampler © Little House Needleworks – this will be for my brother and sister-in-law for Christmas (hopefully they won’t read this!) I’ve just started it and am loving it so far, especially after a Chat Noir stint – it’s very relaxing stitching. I’m a little concerned with how big it’s going to be. I think the fabric is more like 30 ct instead of 32, and it just seems huge. Luckily they have a pretty big house, and seem to love “Americana” type stuff, so I think they’ll really like it. There’s an option to stitch a family to mimic theirs, so that will be fun.

4.  Convent’s Herbal Garden © Chatelaine – this will be my forever project I think! I remember buying this years ago and actually had to go on a payment plan to pay for all of the silks and beads. Lots of stuff going on with this one - I had to insert the Family Sampler in between Chat Noir and this one to give myself a little break. Some of the specialty stitches might be the death of me. It’s pieces like this that make me appreciate my rotation. After 10 hours I need a break! I’m convinced the final product will be worth it though…

5.  The Sanctuary © The Drawn Thread – this is a new start for me. I was supposed to stitch something else, but the fabric is backordered so I pulled this one out of the stash. I was a little Leary of stitching it as directed (1 strand of silk over 2) but am loving how it’s coming out – very dainty and elegant. This seems to have quite a few specialty stitches as well, so hopefully they won’t kill me. Here I am at 10 hours. The “reverse cushion” stitches in the border are much prettier in person. It’s hard to capture the sheen of the silk in the picture.

(c) The Drawn Thread

32 ct linen

started 7/18/14, 7/20/14 - 10 hours

And that pretty much sums up the state of my rotation at the moment. In the past I’ve usually kept it to 5 pieces, but the little plastic drawers I use to keep them in actually have room for six, so I think I might add My Lady’s Garden © Mirabilia. Since finishing Gathering Eggs and Touching the Autumn Sky I want to make sure I add one of hers back in.

Oh, and I have a couple little projects going at the same time, for those times when I don’t want to work on something big or worry about timing what I’m doing.

Whew – that was quite a post for the 2 of you or so who are actually reading this (one of which isn’t even a stitcher – hi mom!). But I’m glad to get all the information down in one place – for when I forget what’s going on!

I'm Back!

Well, I’m back, and stitching with a vengeance! After quite the cross stitch hiatus, I've finally dug out my old WIP’s (and of course started some new projects.) I've been knitting and crocheting away for years and that’s taken most of my crafting time. But every now and then I get a little bored with knitting and want to try something a little different.  Not that cross stitching's "different" since I've actually been doing it longer, but you get the idea.

Strangely enough this renewed interest actually started on a knitting get-away. Angie and I drove down to Baltimore for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May and made a long weekend of it. We discovered something interesting over the weekend though – we are really not “yarn festival people”. We lasted about 3 hours at the actual festival - it was hot and crowded, and everything starts to look the same after a while. So we switched to what we actually like best, and shop hopped! We had stopped at a number of stores on the way down to MD (one in each state I think), and after the festival we googled yarn stores in the area and ended up at Cloverhill Yarn Shop. After not buying ANY yarn at the festival, I did at least buy some yarn there. Next door to the yarn store was a cross stitch store, The Stitching Post. For old times’ sake I wanted to just check it out and Angie ended up buying the cutest little knitting hedgehog pattern (I may have been a slight enabler in that decision). Over the rest of the weekend I helped her get started on her project and the itch to get back to my old projects totally kicked in.

So out they came – I realized I hadn't done any stitching in years, but I had kept everything, knowing the desire to stitch again would come back eventually. I had to decipher a bit where I was with the rotation that I had been using, but was able to figure out where I was. I realized that some of my WIP’s went all the way back to the end of 2001! Yikes! The great part was I was pretty close to finishing a couple of Mirabilia projects. So in no time at all I finished:

Gathering Eggs © Mirabilia

32 ct bay leaf jobelan

started 1/22/03, finished 5/20/14 (103.5 hours)

The funny part with this one is that everyone who I showed it to asked why I didn't finish the lower left corner. The pattern left that unstitched, and it didn't bother me at all. Apparently most people think it looks a bit unfinished. Oh well, I like it.

I also finished:

Touching the Autumn Sky (c) Mirabilia

32 ct wedgewood blue lugana

started 12/23/02, finished 5/25/14 (102.75 hrs)

This one has a slight problem. A long time ago I wrote about how I had snipped a fabric thread near her hand. You don’t really notice it (unless you look close or I point it out), but I’m a little nervous about what will happen when (if) I get it framed and they stretch it. All I can imagine is it running like a run in nylons! The helpful lady at Thistle Needleworks suggested I pull out the snipped thread and then anchor and weave in another thread from the edge. This makes me a little nervous as well, so we’ll see what happens.

This brought up another kind of sad point, in that quite a few of the projects I had finished back then as well as some of my WIP’s had been started when Marley was very young and intended for a little girl’s room. Seeing as she just turned 13 (!) things in her room have changed a bit since then. So now I have to figure out what to do with some of the “little kid” projects. I've already picked out a spot for Gathering Eggs in my hallway, but I’m not quite sure about Autumn Sky. I don’t have much free wall space, so I’ll have to think about it a bit.
My latest finish this year is:

Punkin Season (c) Full Circle Design

32 ct cream lugana

started 3/18/07, finished 6/15/14

I officially started this in 2007, but had only completed the border. In the past I had shied away from small finishes because I didn't know quite what to do with them (as far as framing, etc.) Luckily I've discovered some great cross stitching blogs like The Twisted Stitcher and Stitching Dreams, where they show a lot of “smalls” and Vonna at The Twisted Stitcher also has some great finishing tutorials. So I think I want to try making this into a cube. I’ll have to raid my MIL’s fabric stash and see how it goes.
Whew – well I guess that’s enough for my first post back. I have some new (and old) WIP’s to show you, but that will have to wait until another day. I updated the pages listed on the left with all of my knitting finishes (Ravelry links), a page for each cross stitch WIP and a page for each year’s cross stitch finishes. It took forever one night, but I like having everything in one place to see (even if some of the early pictures are really awful!)