Tuesday, March 31, 2015

all done!

Well, that went quicker than I thought it would! Here's the blue/purple flower from Espressioni by Renato Parolin:


I'll be working on the pink one next! But I should probably get back to Floral Fifteen for a while first, because otherwise it will linger forever... :)

Monday, March 30, 2015

March/April goals!

Ahhh, goals. The bane of anyone's existence. :p

March goals were:
- finish Gypsy Mermaid (by March 22) - finished March 27, good enough!
- make visible progress on another WIP (either Floral Fifteen or Fatum) - well... let me explain!

I didn't really have time to work on another WIP since I finished Gypsy Mermaid late, but I'm so happy to have a big finish that I'm still pretty happy! I put a tiny bit of work in on Floral Fifteen but it's not enough to bother showing here.

I did have a new start... haha. This is one of the three patterns from Espressioni by Renato Parolin. I needed something simple to give my brain (and fingers!) a bit of a break. It's being stitched on plain old "clay" Belfast. I plan to stitch all six patterns from Espressioni and its twin, Emozioni, on the same fabric, but all separately so I can finish/frame them individually.


It's an elongated heart shape, but it's relatively small so I should have it done by the end of the week. Fingers crossed that I don't get distracted by some other shiny thing!

Okay, I guess I need some April goals!

April goals:
- finish Floral Fifteen (at least the stitching)
- finish two of the three patterns in Espressioni
- prep for Mirabilia RR!
- make visible progress on another WIP

That seems reasonable!

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Stitch from Stash - March report!

Month: March
Spent: $0
Earned: $22

Carryover to next month: $2.05 (from Feb) + $25 (from March) + $22 (finish) = $49.05

Woohoo! Didn't spend anything on stash AND I had a big finish! Gypsy Mermaid measures a rather large 200x250 stitches, earning a $22 bonus to add to my budget. :)

Instead of posting my mermaid again, I'll share my current chart lust list!


I'll definitely be ordering a few things next month because I need to pick up the rest of the charts for my Mirabilia round robin (Wisteria, Lilac, and Geranium), and I am completely out of floss bobbins! How does anyone run out of something so basic? And I've checked local craft stores, but all they have are those plastic abominations that don't actually grip the thread so it just unwinds. No thanks!

Even adding in my $25 budget for next month, I can't pick up everything on my list, but that's okay. I'm still debating a bit on the Year in Chalk series (I love it to bits but I'd have to pick up some fabric for it since nothing in my stash is the right color) and Get Kraken was an impulse add. I love Ink Circles but I have so many already... sigh.

I'm not exactly strugging with SFS, but it does get a bit frustrating because I'd rather get my entire wishlist at once to save on shipping. I can't NOT buy next month because I don't have enough charts that fit my round robin theme. I guess I could cheese it and stitch a bunch of smalls to rack up some budget bonuses, but I don't think that fits the spirit of the challenge!

Oh well, slow and steady wins the race, right? :) These charts (probably) aren't going anywhere!

Friday, March 27, 2015

first finish of the year!

Man, that's sad. This is the first time in the history of my blog that it's taken me almost three full months to get a finish for the year! I haven't been stitching all that much this year, though, so I guess that's to be expected. Caught up in fandom and studying every day...

But here she is in her fishy beaded glory! Gypsy Mermaid by Mirabilia. :)

And this time I took pictures during the day! Ready?




 

She's stitched on Lady of the Lake Belfast from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie. The fabric had a lot of weird fuzzy fibers embedded in it, and some slub nubs (ha ha ha) so it was a bit challenging to work with at times. I'm pleased with the final look, though. :)

Ah, she was so much fun to bead! Beading is my favorite part of every project. I was a little iffy about the metallic net, but it's my favorite part of the whole piece! It's such a great finishing touch, especially with the larger beads to represent knots where the ropes cross each other.

As always, I made some small changes, but this time it was almost all in the beading. My edits:

- over one skin, because I am insane
- replaced all size 6 beads (the net got metallic 8s, the north and south medallions got pearls!)
- did not add any of the brown beads around her tail fin (they looked really out of place)
- replaced red beads in the flowers with similar Delicas so they would actually fit

I think that's all I messed with this time. :p

I've been ordered to get back to work on Floral Fifteen, so I guess that's my next WIP!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

slowest beading ever

For some reason I can't seem to make myself sit down and bead during the day, so it's very slow going. In my defense, I'm doing a lot of writing and some heavy-duty studying during the day, so my brain can't really handle too much more...


The north compass point is beaded! I subbed purple/grey pearls for the ugly off-white size 6 beads. I really hate those things, they look like cheap white pony beads that yellowed with age. Gross.

I also stuck a pinkish pearl in the middle of the medallion thing at the bottom. Because I can.

Better get back to it or I'll never finish!

Monday, March 23, 2015

almost there! just beads left :)

Ahhhh, so I'm a BIT behind schedule, but I'm terrible at stitching during the week. Most of what I do happens on the weekends, so yes, almost all of this skin has appeared over the last three days. So much for sticking to a plan!

All the stitching is done, including the crazy amount of over one (seriously, I need to do over one skin on girls who just have their faces and hands showing, not mermaids! :p) and the backstitching. I gave her a wash to get the stitches plumped back up again, which works wonders.

Unfortunately, it takes forever to dry, even with a hot iron, so beading and the metallic net will have to wait until tomorrow...

The colors aren't too accurate on this one.
Had some shadows from the sunset messing things up here. :)


This closeup is much more accurate to the actual colors!


I'll probably sub some of the beads... there's a lot of size 6 beads in this design and I don't like using anything that big. Size 8 is my limit, otherwise they tend to fall over or get loose over time, and that drives me nuts!

Siiiigh. I really wanted to start beading today. :p

Monday, March 16, 2015

March-ing toward a finish...

Ahahaha, puns are terrible, aren't they?

My mermaid is getting closer to a finish! I've finished alllll the cross stitching, so it was no longer possible to avoid working on the skin. I always do over-one skin in basketweave or tent stitch, so it goes faster than full crosses, but it's still rough on the eyes!

I got her entire belly done yesterday, though. :)


Sorry, it's a partial shot since she's on the qsnap, and won't be coming off until the skin is done! I'll probably give her a rinse before beading since she's picked up a lot of cat hair in the past two years. Yeah, that's right... I started her in April 2013. How's THAT for slow?

To be fair, I started and then put her aside until September of last year, so it's not too bad... or is it?

Anyway, the game plan for her is...
16 - arm #1
17 - arm #2
18 - chest (or catch up on arms)
19 - face
20 - free day in case I'm being too ambitious!
21 - wash, backstitch, begin beading
22 - finish beading

Yeah, yeah, stop laughing right now. :p

Hoping for a finish this month so I'll earn a nice Stitch from Stash bonus, which I'd like to use to pick up a few things for my Mirabilia round robin! Planning on pixies, and I worked in four charts I already have, so I'll only have to buy two, and they're ones from my wishlist anyway.

Tentative lineup...
Wisteria (flipped), Lily of the Valley, Waterlily, Poppy, Buttercup, Geranium


I may swap Waterlily and Poppy because I don't want the right side to be so red-heavy. I want a variety of color throughout the piece.

I was really tempted to go nuts and buy 4-6 new charts for this, but that's not in the spirit of SfS! I only want to buy charts that I genuinely want to stitch in their entirety, not just something that will be partially used for a RR. I may still switch out Poppy or Waterlily for someone else, but I'm going to sit on it for a while. I have time to decide. :)

Monday, March 02, 2015

March goals

Haha, I'm so bad about posting goals. I want to get on track to finish some things this year, though! I always do better when I have some sort of list to work from...

March goals:
- finish Gypsy Mermaid (by March 22)
- make visible progress on another WIP (either Floral Fifteen or Fatum)

I don't have a recent progress pic of either, but these are my old pics:

Floral Fifteen:
(6 squares done, 4 outlined, 5 not started yet...)


Fatum:
(parts 1-4 and 8 complete, of 12 total)


Floral Fifteen is killer with all the color changes, which is why I stopped working on it. I should probably face reality and admit that I don't actually like Just Nan designs... I got sucked in by the enthusiasm of real JN fans and the allure of limited edition stuff. Fact is, I don't like stitching little motifs, or changing thread colors 85 times in one square inch, or finishing fiddly little projects. It can be hard to let go of the image you have of yourself as a stitcher, though!

Fatum fell by the wayside because I got behind on the SAL (it was the first Passione Ricamo mystery SAL) and then it was revealed that there's text on the bottom of the design. I've seen it finished without the text, but the border doesn't line up perfectly, so I got annoyed about that. Maybe I can find a better way, or leave out the text and stitch something else there? I don't know. Sigh. So I've also learned that mystery SALs are not for me!

Okay, less whining, more stitching. Though to be honest, it's more Persona 4, ahaha...