Saturday, January 31, 2015

slow and steady

Not really getting anywhere fast, but progress is steady on Gypsy Mermaid. I'll probably work on the left side border next since those seahorses are kind of challenging and I want to get the other one out of the way before doing anything else...


I can probably safely say I'm at the halfway mark at this point. Or I will be very soon, anyway! I'm going to have to start thinking about over-one skin soon, ahaha, noooo. Actually, it's not all that hard, it's just suuuuuper tedious. But it looks so good when it's done...

Monday, January 26, 2015

slow mermaid progress...

Blah, I feel like I'm not getting anywhere, but I've done more than pictured. The bottom border is done, mostly, though I didn't continue it all the way up the left side to where the seahorse ornament will eventually be. But I did get all the water down there finished, which is the bulk of the stitching.

This is where she is now, but since I'm still stitching, this is an on-the-snap shot:


Yes, it's horribly blurry, but I don't like using the flash (which seems to make the picture clear no matter what) because it makes the colors way off.

So, working on the seahorse (one last thread to add in the "wing") and then I'll do the compass point to the right of it. And maybe up the border again? I may go back to the other side and do the seahorse there too, since I'm not mentally prepared for over-one skin yet, haha.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Stitch from Stash - January report!

Month: January
Spent: $0
Earned: $0

Haha, well, I didn't earn any bonuses by finishing projects, but I didn't spend any either! Yes, I'm reporting a bit early this month, but I really don't feel like buying any stitchy stash. My money's been focused on other things lately, which isn't great, but eh, at least there's less stash piling up and making me feel guilty about not stitching it!

This month, I started Chinese Garden Mandala by Chatelaine. No pic since it hasn't had any progress since the last time I posted, haha.

I've been working on Gypsy Mermaid by Mirabilia instead. I needed a break from the confetti in the border of the Chatelaine, and Miras are always nice and soothing with their blocks of color. Even the confetti in the anchor seemed pretty tame in comparison. :)


It's waaaaay too early for me to feel all YEAH I'M GONNA FINISH HER SOON but somehow I can't help myself. She's not even half done... and since I plan to stitch her skin over one as usual, uh, well... yeah, I may never finish. :p

Now I just need to decide if I want to do the other half of the bottom border, or start creeping up the right side of the design there. Hmm. Bottom is easier so I might go for that first!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

well, crud

I somehow managed to delete the photos from my last page or two of posts while trying to make them private on my G+ profile (because uh who even uses G+? exactly) so now my blog looks stupid. Sigh. I should probably read things more carefully but... well... I'm lazy.

Also filed under "well, crud" is one of the two new Nora Corbett releases from today, Wisteria. Not because I dislike her, but because I NEED HER. :)

Wow. My wife LOVES wisteria and we have one in our backyard that's already conquering our pergola even though we only planted it last year.

LOVE the colors in this one... I may use this month's SFS budget for this beauty... :)


In the interest of being cheap, I'll skip the beads and Kreinik and just use what's in my stash, though. Well, I'll sit on this for a month or two before doing any shopping anyway. Haven't been in the mood to spend money lately. Which is GOOD. :p

Monday, January 12, 2015

a modest start...

I'm not doing too well with my stitching in the new year, unfortunately, as I've been caught up in other things. I've been writing like a machine lately, though, usually to the tune of 1500 words per day on the days I write, so I can't really complain! Writing is my original hobby from waaaaay back so I'm really pleased to be super interested in it again. :)

Anyway! You're not here for that, you want to see stitchy pics!


Yeah, I know, it's a pathetic start, but at least I've started! It's been a bit rough since the border has SIX different colors in it so far and two are super slippery rayons. As you can see, I'm parking everything so I don't have to deal with threading needles all the time but it's still kind of hard since it's all single stitches of each color with big gaps between them. It's a good thing I don't care what the back of my work looks like, ahaha.

I may bounce back to another project for a bit, this one is a bit overwhelming at the moment. It's slow going and I'm too distracted by other things to put in enough time to see good progress...

Sigh. :)

Saturday, January 03, 2015

giveaway winner! :)

First of all, happy new year! I've started Chinese Garden Mandala as planned, but I've only had one stitching session so far, so there's not much to show yet. Maybe next time. :)

But I do have a giveaway winner! I had ten comments on the giveaway post, and nine were entries, so I did that cool thing with the randomizer and the winner was the very last comment!

It's Lindsay from Caring Stitcher! :)
Please send me your mailing address! My email is rahenna@rahenna.com ... :)

I hope to have many more finishes and giveaways of the used charts in 2015. Wish me luck!