Sunday, September 30, 2012

September & October goals

Back from Ireland, my wallet significantly lighter, but that's okay!  I'll be creating a nice online gallery after I finish sorting and correcting the photos, but here are a few of Blarney Castle in County Cork.  Gorgeous!



There's a TON more where those came from, but that'll have to wait.  And yes, that's me in the first picture, all bundled up against the cold and damp!

And now for stitching!

September goals:
- Frame the Lesley Teare mermaid ... still NO!
- Finish Wisteria ... YES!
- Stitch part 3 of the PR SAL ... YES!

Not bad.  Still haven't had time to frame the mermaid so that will have to be this month!  So we have:

October goals:
- Frame the Lesley Teare mermaid
- Finish page 3 of QS Iris
- Stitch part 4 of the PR SAL
- Stitch part 5 of Octopus Treasure Cave

Finally, I decided to try parking on QS Iris and it was awkward at first, then it started to go fast.  Really fast, I think.  I found the bottom!  I'm working roughly in columns, but you bet your butt that if there's just one stitch of a color in the block to the right, I'm doing it with the thread I have on hand!


We'll see if I can manage the rest of the page this month. :)

Friday, September 14, 2012

I want a prize :p

Wisteria is finally finished!  I thought I was all done last night, but I forgot to stitch "Fig. II" next to the flower, so I had to add that tonight.  Oops.  After a nice bath and a good ironing, here's how it turned out...


This closeup is much more accurate.  I need to remember that I don't need to use the flash, even at night... it takes all of five seconds to color correct the photo with a graphics program.  I really love how the purples look in this one, so brilliant!


Finally all done for my lovely wife, as a tribute to the huge, gorgeous wisteria that was growing at the old house.  Seriously, that thing was insane.  I wonder if I have a picture somewhere... ooh, I found them!!



Crazy, isn't it?  I wonder what happened to it. :(

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

PIF (pay it forward)

I've been chosen by Kaye to participate in a stitchy PIF (pay it forward) exchange!  What does that mean?  Kaye offered a handmade gift to three people... and part of asking to be considered was agreeing to do the same.  So Kaye received a gift and was inspired to gift three more people... and each of those three (including me) will offer three gifts!  In other words, the one gift that Kaye received will keep growing by a factor of three.

Okay, that sounds like math, never mind. :)
The point is that the spirit of giving goes on each time!

It's your turn to get a handmade stitchy gift from me!  I will be making gifts for three people who want to be part of the PIF.  I will make and send my gift to you some time in the next 6 months. I stitch fast but I'm not a machine. :p

Here's the rules!

1.  Understand that you will be expected to offer three gifts to others if you participate.
2.  Leave a comment here with your email address so I can contact you. :)
3.  If more than three people are interested in the PIF, I will choose randomly.

I'll leave this open until the end of September.  Lots of time to decide if you want to commit! :)

And just so this post has a picture, have you seen the new Ink Circles design, Cirque des Coeurs?  Imagine this sexy thing stitched in white on a red background. (PTP Phoenix anyone??) Awwww yeaaaaah. ^^b

Friday, September 07, 2012

the final lap...

Or something.  I'm soooo close to finishing Wisteria, I wonder if I can manage it this weekend!

The colors are miserable, I know.  This is why you should take pictures in natural sunlight, not holed up in the computer room at almost 10pm!


The rest of the flowers stretch down to the text at the bottom, but it gets a lot narrower as it goes, so it's not as intense stitching as the top.  I dunno, it still looks like a looooong way to go... *sigh*

Thursday, September 06, 2012

too much shiny!

Whoa, part three of the PR SAL is finally done... I wasn't expecting it to take a whole week but I should really be proud of myself.  It was solid stitching in PTB, for the most part, and my eye is still recovering so I can't stitch for as long as I'd like.  So zip it, jerkbrain, I did a good job SO THERE. :p

Here's the full piece so far... minus a bit of the border, which I'll do once the next part arrives. :)


Check out that SPARKLE!
Those wings are 95% petite treasure braid.  Awwww yeah! :D

Now I can go back to the non-shininess of Wisteria and give my eyes a rest...

Saturday, September 01, 2012

more wisteria!

Whoa, it's WIPocalypse time already!  Except I missed it!

I do have a small update... here's wisteria as it grows slowly.  I started adding some backstitch too so I won't have to go back and do it later.  My goal is to finish this bad boy this month, and I think it's quite doable since my eyes are cooperating rather well. :)


So... Joann's is having a 4/$1 floss sale this weekend.  I might have to partake in that madness. :)

Back to the PR SAL - part three just arrived in my mailbox this morning!  It's already coming along well.  I love all the sparkle in the border...