Tooth Fairy Complete

Things are progressing nicely here even though I am so itching to start something new.  I hear a HAED calling my name... but I am resisting so far.

I finally found a few charts I like and last night I charted 2 of the 4 bookmarks I want to make for the teachers.

I also finally completed tooth fairy.  I finished stitching awhile ago but I never turned her into anything.  My DD decided she didn't want a pillow but rather wanted it to hang on the wall.  So a bit of eye searing pink felt, two buttons and a hanger later she is now the happy owner of this:

Her Advent Calendar is coming along well and I love how it's looking.  It's working up at a decent pace but not fast enough for me as I know I can't / shouldn't start anything new until this is done.

I have also changed my Crazy 15 2012 list as I realised that it's suppossed to be crazy and not irrational, and that there is a slight differenct in the two words.  My list was irrational because I had chosen 15 big projects to complete and there is no way I would ever meet the end of year and have all finished.

So I changed a few items to smaller projects and I am pretty sure I will be changing a few of the larger ones soon too.

First HAED Purchase

I have been trying to be good, really I have but I just couldn't resist falling down the rabbit hole.

I have just purchased my first HAED chart!!!

Due to the $ verus Rand exchange rate purchasing one is not cheap for me and thus I wasn't sure I wanted to start but after much thinking I realised that they are so worth the cost.  The art is beautiful and the amount of stitching that will be done to complete each piece is hours upon hours.

I also knew that having one design is not ever enough so I also made a promise to myself that I would not purchase more than one design every quarter.  Hubby gets notices when the credit card is used and he is not against my stitching but he is also not all for it so there is obviously a limit I could spend at any given time before it would bother him.

Meet  Direwood

Blu Stitcher Blogoversary

Wow boy was I suprised today to see that I have 3!!! followers since yesterday.  And I got such a lovely comment.  It really makes one feel good to be complimented on ones work.

Blu Stitcher who is the person who commented incidently is having a her one year blogoversary and is celebrating by having a competition.  So pop over there if you feel lucky:-)

http://blustitcher.blogspot.com/

Blog Revamp

Today I decided to sit down and sort out my blog.  I don't know what took me so long to do it as it turned out much easier than I thought it would.

As you will see I have added a new list to my sidebar.  It's a SAL that I joined and am sooo looking forward to participating.  I have already chosen the fifteen designs I plan on starting but some of it may still change.  I am lucky enough to have found this SAL early enough so that I can spend the next two months making sure I have all the fabric, threads, enlarged patterns that I can mark on and then put them all nicely into ziploc bags in my basket and have them ready to pull out.

Now for what you actually want to see, my WIP's:

I won't post any pictures of my doors for now because they have not had one stitch added to them since the last pics.

I realised that I never did show the finished table numbers that I was doing.  I ended up making 36 of them and they were well liked at the dance.  I got a bunch of compliments and they have kept them to use for next years dance.  Luckily only one was taken home so I just have to replace No.  11:

Started:  05 August 2011
Completed:  12 October 2011

Sadly my dragon/castle has been scrapped.  Not once but twice.
The first time was because I was doing it on 14 count, which the design called for but there are so many fractional stitches that I felt it was looking extremely messy.  I bought myself 28 count evenweave and tried to work on that but my eyes just won't allow it for now.  I know a magnifying glass for stitching will help with that problem but the purchase will have to wait until next year some time due to the fact that christmas is just around the corner, we want to put up a higher front wall in December and my daughter starts her first year of school next year so right now its uniforms, sports stuff, stationary and all the other stuff that is needed.

Pefect Pets
Designer:  Joann Elliot
Started:  20 September 2011

Art Nouveau Lady
Designer:  Lesley Teare
Started:  October 2011

I also started an Advent Calendar for my daughter and I am going to give each kindergarted teacher a bookmark to say thank you for beeing teachers.  I have no photo's of them yet so hopefully next update.  These will be the only things I will be working on for the rest of November as the Calendar has to be finished by 30 Nov and the 4 bookmarks need to be finished by 4 December.

The rest of the year will be spent working on my three UFO's and some christmas tree decorations.

Dyeing

I was going to do a blog post concerning all the wonderful designs out there and how left out we are if we don't live overseas. As I was walking around the house cleaning I was thinking about what I would say. I came to realise that it just wouldn't come out in a way that didn't sound like I was moaning and I didn't like that idea.

I look at alot of blogs and have seen all the wonderful dyed fabrics out there and there are a few of Joann Elliot designs that I want to make but would of had to do them on white. We don't have the lovely fabrics in South Africa and I was feeling sad about that fact. Then I decided to do some research and found a youtube video showing how to dye fabrics with effects and then I pulled out some easter egg dye.

First I soaked a bit of one tablet in hot water with a little bit of white vinegar.



I then put my fabric in the "dye" and turned it over after a minute. I then put it in the microwave for 30 seconds because the water was already hot.



I then poured out the water and left it to cool. Once it was cool I rinsed and rinsed it under the tap and watched it become lighter as the excess ran out with the water.



I then dried it with the iron and this is what it looks like:



Now I just need to wait until I can go to the shop where one can buy the powdered food colouring and try the youtube video experiment and see if I can come up with some interesesting effects. From now on my fabrics will never be white unless they look better that way:-)

Dollhouse?? Framed

I picked up my framed piece yesterday and am so pleased with how it looks:



The same framer did my other two pieces and luckily for me they do it for a reasonable rate. I know framing is expensive but I do think that if you put all the costs into the materials and then the time it takes you to complete the piece, it is well worth paying the extra and getting it framed. I have decided that at the end of the month I will get my oldest piece framed as it's been bothering me how the colour of the fabric has changed over time and it now looks like I used cream aida instead of the white. That will only leave one more item that is finished and needs framing. I just want to do it one at a time instead of giving my hubby a heart attack as I do love my cross stitch and don't want him to feel bothered about it it costing so much.

I also finished one item. Okay finished sewing but not actually complete. My daughter lost her first two teeth awhile ago and I wanted to do something special for her next ones. It's a tooth fairy pillow that will have a pocket for her tooth to go into.


Started: 30 July 2011
Finished: 17 August 2011

I need to make the pillow and as my hand sewing skills are really terrible, I will have to borrow my MIL's sewing machine. I have decided to wait awhile to do it as I will hopefully be starting an advent calendar tonight and it will also need sewing once done. I also have about four projects that I want to start soon, and as I always sew around the edges to stop fraying, I will use the opportunity of using the machine to do it alot quicker than it takes by hand.

My third door is progressing nicely but I have decided to put it on hold for awhile so I can concentrate on the advent calendar and my Dragon and Castle.



And here is the above mentioned Dragon And Castle progress:



It is the most complex design I have ever done and I have a feeling it will be a long WIP. It has alot of colour changes never mind the colour blending and then on top of that it has half and quarter stitches. The patten calls for 14 count aida but I think it would of been easier and neater if I had done it on evenweave. I have enver used it but I have got 1meter sitting in my basket for a few Joann Elliot designs I want to do. I have had to put them on hold as my glasses don't work well since my eye ops and I need to go for new glasses before I even attempt to use it. I have a feeling once I get the hang of it I will never use aida for any design that uses fractional stitches.

I am having difficulty with something I am wanting to make. It's my daughters last year in her kindergarten as next year she will be going to school. There are four teachers and I am wanting to make them bookmarks as christmas / farewell gifts but all the free patterns online don't call to me and I am looking for any recommendations of books that have good bookmarks patterns in them. Hope someone can give me some ideas.

Much Accomplished

Boy has the last month been productive.

I finished the birthday cards for my daughters party. In total I made nine of them and I must say as much as I love the pattern I was rather glad to be finished with it. Not sure a pattern is suppossed to be done that many times.



I finished the backstitch on the Apple Harvest pattern:



Boy was it a lot of backstitch but I must say that I always think it's worth it in the end because it adds things that is needed to really bring out the details in things.

I also finished the backstitch on the two doors:



My daughters school has a fundraiser every year. I am on the decorating committee and I offered my services to make the table numbers. I designed this after finding a heart chart on the net.



I have handed in the sample and am waiting for a yes or no from the "bosses" and even though I have to do 31 of these, if they let me know soon, then I have worked it out that if I finish one every two night I will get them done with time to spare.

I also took two pictures of projects that I started but for some reason when I took the pics off my camera they weren't there. The one was quick and I only have the backstitch to complete and the other one is the biggest and most complicated project I have started so far. The pics will have to wait for the next blog post as it's too dark to take them now.

Hopefully I will also have a pic of one of my FO's framed too.