Friday, September 29, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #6

Suddenly I'm very motivated to get this over one skin finished! Not sure why, maybe because my wife is traveling for work and I'm home alone for two weeks. *kicks a rock* We've been gaming in the evenings recently so stitching took a backseat, but since I'm alone, I pop on a let's play and go nuts with stitching.

Here's a current progress shot!


When I look at her in real life, I feel like there's soooo much left to stitch. But really, it's just her arms, and I've already gotten a good start on both.

I'm pretty sure I'll just keep going until I finish. :3

Monday, September 25, 2017

Flight of Freedom - update #1

Okay, you'll have to pretend this is a decent picture (it's not) and imagine the background fabric as a nice pale blue.


I started in the center and worked my way up the eagle's wing to reach the sky, which is all half stitches. It's going relatively quickly - this is about eight hours of work - but the sheer magnitude of this project is kind of depressing.

To put it in perspective, this is basically a full coverage project of around 200x250 stitches. I have a few HAED mini charts in my stash that are around 225x325 stitches, or about 1.5 times as many stitches total. And those are images I actually like.

The only thing saving this project is that it's nice blocks of solid color, for the most part. And the sky is very pretty with all those sunset colors.

Trying to resist the urge to pick up something new, because my two main projects right now are this and the endless hell of skin on Renaissance Mermaid. Sigh. :(

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Cirque des Carreaux - update #9 (finish!)

Finished up Cirque des Carreaux last Friday and held off on posting because I thought I could get a better picture but... nah. No matter what I try, this thread color just doesn't want to show up nicely on camera. (Epiphany silk by Carrie's Creations - much prettier than what you see on her website, even!)


It got a bit tedious toward the end but I decided to suck it up and power through. A lot of times, I sit there wondering what part to work on next, or which bit will be easiest, etc, and that's pointless. Just pick up the needle and stitch! Trying to mentally wiggle out of a tedious part isn't going to do anything but make the project take longer as a whole. :p

Speaking of which... I'm now working on an obligation project. Cue the groans. I know, I know... I'm approaching it in the same way. A little bit every day will get it done.

So, I'm working on this Dimensions kit, Flight of Freedom:


Totally not my style, but it's for my FIL who has helped us out tremendously with all sorts of things recently. He asked my wife to make this aaaaaages ago, so I've decided to try and surprise him with it for Christmas or something. Not sure how long this will take, especially since it's a bit of a slog to work through. Thankfully, most of the background is half cross stitch, so that part goes relatively fast.

The most annoying part is that I replaced the kit aida with evenweave instead of linen, and holy crap do I hate stitching on evenweave. Whatever fabric type I chose is woven really tightly and the sound of the thread scraping through the holes as I stitch is... ugh. *shiver* But I'm not going to change it at this point because I don't want to be wasteful and the fabric is just the right color to get the proper blending effect with the background, so eh. I'll deal with it.

No pic yet as I haven't done much. Next time!

And I definitely need to pick up another WIP to work alongside of this one, because if I work on this exclusively I'll never want to stitch again. :p

Monday, September 11, 2017

Cirque des Carreaux - update #8

Oops, it's been a while since I've posted. My wrist and elbow are feeling a bit better, so I've been able to do some stitching, but I still have to take it easy, so progress is slow. Still, I was able to do a good chunk of Cirque des Carreaux over the past week, which makes me feel like I could finish it this month if my arm continues to get better.


I really want to hurry and finish, but I know pushing myself is going to lead to more problems in the long run, so I'm trying to be patient. There's just so much good stuff in my stash that's calling to me! Going to resist the siren call of new starts, though... I have enough in progress and I'd like to move some other large projects toward a finish.

Next after this one will be Renaissance Mermaid, and then I'll stop and see what I want to think about doing for the rest of the year. Beaded Dragonfly Tile is going to kill me with guilt, haha. :p

Sunday, September 03, 2017

Blossom Collector - update #3 (finished!)

Blossom Collector is done! The pictures don't show the fabric color very well, but she's stitched on the other half of the FQ I cut in half for Willow Queen - Snickerdoodle by Sugar Maple Fabrics. It's yellowish with some brown/purple/pink areas. Hard to describe and unfortunately even harder to photograph, but hopefully you can get the general idea.




It was difficult to get her finished for a couple of reasons, both of which totally suck. :x

I'd planned to go pick up the beads I needed over the long weekend my wife and I were planning (she took a Friday and Monday off to get a four-day weekend) ...and then Harvey happened. We're completely fine, our house is in an area that doesn't flood, but everything around us was shut down for about a week and businesses are just starting to open again. I'm torn between wanting to go out to support local businesses, and staying home to not get in the way of the people who really need to be out and about right now.

And the other reason is that I have some sort of tendonitis or nerve problem in my right arm - probably the elbow or wrist or, most likely, both - that makes it hard to do anything requiring fine motor control. I've been wearing wrist braces and trying to rest my hand as much as possible, but do you know how many activities require your hands? ALL OF THEM!

In fact, my hand has gone cold and tingly while typing this post, so I'll sign off now... sigh.