Lost Bug, Did you find him?

I lost my stitching bug!

For a long time, 3 years, I lost my stitching but. I have quietly been watching and looking at other peoples cross stitch on facebook groups, but had no desire to pick up and stitch myself. I found diamond painting and absolutely love converting my full coverage pieces into diamond art. Unfortunately it is costly to order the canvas and drills from China so they are far a few between.

With the stay at home orders, house completely clean, and kids happy doing their own things my stitching bug has returned. In the last few months I have finished 2 Mirablilia's and started an Alessandra Adelaide.

Keep an eye out, I will be updating here soon with pictures and more conversions.

Free Heaven and Earth Design Pattern Earned

Heaven and Earth Design (HAED) has a challenge going in their Facebook group to earn a free chart. They are currently on their fourth challenge of six. There is still time to participate. This challenge does not end until April 7th. I discussed the rules for this challenge on my February 1 post. You can find it here. Now, I am happy to say that I have completed challenge #4.

She has an eye. Chart is Glowing Dreams by Selina Fenech charted by Heaven and Earth Designs. Now comes the hard part of the challenge. Waiting until it is over to see what chart they will be giving us.

Earn Free HAED Chart

Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED) has several ways to earn free charts. Today I am going to touch on one of them. For this way you need to be a part of their facebook group. If you are not already you can join here. Currently HAED is running challenge #4. Each challenge has a set of requirements that must be followed. The first one I did not know, but you had to work in 10X10 squares in a checkerboard pattern. The second one was going on when I joined HAED's facebook page. For it you had to do cross country. Unfortunately I came in at the end of it and didn't have time to participate. The third one was parking. Although I was working on a Heaven and Earth Designs piece at the time it did not have a full clean page for me to participate. Now they are on challenge #4 and I am taking part. the requirements are simple.

• Choose a clean page- Minimum 7300 stitches (must equate to a full page if you are doing an SK, Large Format, etc.), no min number of colors
• Runs January 1st and ends April 7th (midnight PST)
• Post your Email in the Sign up thread
• Take a photo Jan 1st of your blank fabric space and blank chart page(s) (Do not post until finished)
• Take a photo of your work at about the halfway mark (Do not post until finished)
• When you are complete - Post your blank fabric pic, blank chart pic, your halfway pic and finish pic in the Finish thread
• You may use ANY type of technique that you like
• Tenting is allowed
• Participants that complete the challenge will receive a prize chart!

It is that easy. One page with 7300 stitches anyway you want to stitch them. You don't even have to purchase a chart you can use one of their free download charts off the Heaven and Earth Designs website. Catch. Always a catch isn't there. You don't know what chart is the prize. It is a surprise. It has taken a bit but I have moved over to a clean page. All signed up in the correct thread, and I am finally there and ready to start. Here is the piece I am working on:

Glowing Dreams by Selina Fenech

Of course I am doing the no background. This saves months of stitching. While some will not look right with no background when it comes to water, sky, or solid type using a nice hand dyed fabric looks just as good if not better.

This is my starting point for challenge #4

My page will starts to the right of the dark purple.

Better Stitches

Ever looked at someone's cross stitching and wondered how they got such pretty flat stitches?

If you ask stitchers with beautiful close ups what their secret is answers range from letting thread untwist every few stitches, to laying tools, to type of frame/hoop used. After years of envying others close up and, trying different tools, hoops, frames etc., I have found the answer. Bee's Wax. Yes! Bee's Wax. While looking around on the Heaven and Earth Designs website I found Bee's Wax. So I said what the hay lets give it a try. So, with my last order from HAED I added on a bee's wax. Do to not wanting half my last piece to be done with wax and half without I didn't try it right away. Actually it just sat for months in my thread box. Now it is out and used with every string. It is easy to use. Gently pull tread between thumb and waxer two times, then pull thread between thumb and finger to smooth. That easy. This will strengthen the thread, smooth floss and reduce tangles. Wow what a difference it makes.

Close up without wax

 Close up of Snow with no wax. Stitches are uneven, and crazy. This is why most of my pictures are of full pieces from a distance.

Close up with wax

Close up of new start The Glowing Dreams with wax. Stiches are even, flat, beautiful stitches. These are close ups I would post anywhere. I am such a believer in using the Bee's Wax for cross stitching it is now available in my Etsy store. HERE. For a limited time get 10% off our purchase at check out with code: STITCHESANDTHINGS expires Mar 31, 2017.

Are you using any tricks to get your stitches flat? Comment below and let us know.

Snow Finished

SHE IS FINALLY DONE!!

Snow by Maxine Gadd (no background) charted by Heaven and Earth Designs. Fabric is by Chromatic Alchemy called Amortentia Opal Aida. Started on July 14 finished November 8. Even though it was a week after my deadline, the frame shop has not gotten a Christmas rush yet. So she will be done before Thanksgiving. Then, I can put her on the wall and enjoy her for a bit before having to wrap her up for my MIL. Was starting to wonder if I was ever going to finish. The wing just kept going and going. So happy with how she turned out.

Never, I repeat NEVER, was your hand dyed fabrics. I spritz mine with water to iron them. This is what happens:

Yes, that is dye on my ironing towel. Excess dye seeped out. Once, I made the mistake of washing hand dyed fabric. I almost had to throw the piece away because the dye got on the stitching. Quick thinking and lots of praying and I was able to work the piece so that it looked like it was supposed to be that way.

Now that she is done and at the frame shop I can clean my house. It is driving me crazy. The dogs keep bringing chunks of dirt in. Then I am going to bring out my Mirabilia UFO, and turn it back into a WIP.

Queen Mariposa

Finished?

Well here it is November 2. Am I done yet? No. Life just wouldn't cooperate. Kept getting notions of being able to complete it in time. Then something would happen. Monday my husband asked me to go do a few errands that should of only taken an hour. Four hours later, made it back home. Yesterday I knew I wasn't going to have much stitching time. Our 12 year old had two doctor appointments and they are both between 30-45 minutes away. That took most of my day. However I did manage to finish two colors. Hoping to finish by the end of the week. I will keep you updated on my progress.

 

Confetti Head Done

Confetti head is finally finished. That took way longer than it was supposed to. Lost my stitching bug for 3 days. Husband new something was wrong. He asked on the third day what was wrong and why hadn't I been stitching. I just kept getting lost and having to frog stitches. Was getting very frustrated and didn't want to do it any more. So, I worked on bobbinating my next project. I so want move on and start my next one and pick up my UFO. Now to finish out the wings and be done.

Almost Done

With only 13 days left, until my November 1 deadline, I have been stitching like crazy to try and finish Snow by Maxine Gadd on time. It is going to be a close one. There are only 4 partial pages left and I have started stitching on all of them. Thought I would do something fun and let the boys pick out what page I do next. Two voted for the page with the least amount on it, and the other two voted for confetti crazy page. Husband made good argument as to why I should do confetti crazy now instead of last so that is what I am currently working on.

Today's stitching is a bonus or makeup day. It was not counted in my available stitching days due to court this morning. Never know if they will call me first or last. Managed to get called before lunch break. Off to stitch on her some more before it is time for the bus. 

What's next? and Storage System

The need to do math has gotten the better of me. Just had to figure out how many more stitches I had left, and how many hours per day I need to stitch in order to finish on time. Estimation is 16,200 stitches left until completion. Only have 21 days left instead of 22 because I have to go to court one day. Boooo court. My best guesstimation is about 7.75 hours per day. This is great down from the 9 hours per day I guesstimated last week. That means I am probably stitching faster than 100 stitches per hour that I was stitching when I started on Snow. Today I completed the ninth page, almost done with the tenth but my back needed a break, have partials on another five pages and one lone page that I have not touched yet. Darn mathematician brain that needs to do math. That's a lot of numbers in there. Here she is....

Snow by Maxine Gadd charted by HAED

 Already trying to pick out which pattern to do next.

Star Wars II charted by Mystic Stitch

Star Wars 23

The two above my husband and our youngest son would love for me to do.

Glowing Dreams by Selina Fenech charted by HAED

This one I have all the materials and hand dyed fabric for. Worried about how monochromatic it is. I am so tired of stitching grey.

Man of War by Ciro Marchetti charted by HAED

This one I have fabric, but only some of the tread for. This was a RAK generously given to me, so I don't have all the pages printed out. It is very colorful and don't have to worry about it being monochromatic and getting tired of just one or two colors in different shades.

Sacred Hour by Christophe Vacher charted by HAED

Ok, I really want this one on my wall. I absolutely love it. I have all the materials for it, but it is huge and also very monochromatic.

Lets talk about how I store all of my projects in waiting. Depending on what stage of kiting they are at depends on how they are stored. All patterns I have nothing for just sit in a pile of patterns organized by who published the chart. Next level of storage would be if I have purchased fabric for the pattern. Most of these patterns are stored in a gallon sized ziplock bag with the fabric. This makes it easy for me to remember which pattern I purchased what fabric for. For some of them either the pattern is too big or the fabric is too bulky for a ziplock bag. For these I use old salad containers. After my husband is finished eating all the salad I clean the container. Then I print out the design picture and tape it to the top of the box. 

Salad storage box

From here I can start adding thread to the kit as it goes on sale and I can afford it. Finally stage is to add a bobbin box to it.

bobbin box

A completed kit out of its container looks like this. Includes: Pattern, Fabric, Bobbin Box with thread, and bag of duplicate threads need in pattern.

Then they all stack together nicely in my craft closet. Where I hope my husband doesn't really know how may patterns actually have accumulated. Although he has seen them all individually.

How do you store your projects?

7 Pages down 8 to go

Woot Woot! Another page finished. That makes 7 pages done, another 5 pages I have worked on, and 3 pages untouched. Hoping to have another page finished by Friday. Starting to feel like I may actually be able to pull this off and finish by November 1. But, not if I sit here at the computer; back to stitching.

Lower wing is done

Finally the lower wing is finished. It seemed to just keep going and going. Only ended up having about 10 ninja stitches on the page furthest out, which is pretty darn good for me. With that wing finished and a pretty good start into the next page I may actually be able to pull off finishing her by November 1. Now if only my shoulder would cooperate. Doctor confirmed it is a strained muscle and gave me some medication to help it heal faster. Today I had much better range of motion with it. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better.

Snow by Maxine Gadd charted by Heaven and Earth Designs

Uphill Battle

Even though I said "I am not going to post another picture of Snow until her lower wing is done.", I am posting a picture of her. Going to keep my word and not post it on Facebook. Exclusive picture here only. This is going to be an uphill battle to finish her in time to have her framed for my mother-in-law for Christmas. Still shooting for a November 1 finish, but being realist in knowing that it probably wont happen. The lower wing should have been done last week. My shoulder started hurting and took me out of doing much of anything for 2 days. Then my dear husband had chest pains, so, spent 2 days at the hospital with him. Would have stitched there but light was also bothering him. All this on top of the days I missed for our move has put me way behind schedule. Out of 15 pages only 5 are finished. That means I am only 1/3 of the way done with only 35 days left for my deadline. Back to stitching. Needle can't seem to go fast enough now.

Snow by Maxine Gadd charted by Heaven and Earth Designs

Snow Update

With less than 2 months left until the deadline for Snow by Maxine Gadd, charted by Heaven and Earth Designs, I need to be over half way. It would be a close call. Things are settling down in our new house, so, I am hoping to have more time to stitch during the day.

I am going to pull down the Snow tab from the page. Trying to get her finished before the deadline I just don't have the time to dedicate to keeping it update, what day I am on, and taking photos each day. Trying to determine what to stitch after I am finished with her. It will be another gift for someone near and dear to our hearts.

Until the next update, happy stitching.

Curtain Hems and Sneek Peek

I will admit it. I am not a great seamstress. Some people may even say bad. But, on a deal I am willing to try. When we were at Bed, Bath & Beyond getting curtains for the living room we checked out the clearance section. Always one that like a great deal. There were 4 beautiful curtains, that would coordinate with the living room. You can see the dining room from the living room but not a whole lot, and vise versa. The package didn't say a whole lot on it. A plastic bag with a sticker that said clearance, online only, was $69.99 now $14.99. Obviously someone had purchased them online, didn't like them and returned them in store. Now this is all before we even closed on the house. It is so hard to pass up the deal. So, we purchased 3 of the 4 for the dining room. Throw them all into storage to wait for the house to be finished. Fast forward a month and we have moved in and hung curtains. Bad news. They are way too long. Some people like the laying on the ground look. Not me. We have 5 kids and 2 dogs. Laying on the ground they just get dirtier, and makes it hard to vacuum around them.  

Not just going to throw out $45 because it is too long. I can make a quilt it is just straight lines. Damn it I can hem these curtains. So, I have to find and unpack my sewing machine which busts into spontaneously unpacking my quilt fabric stash and organizing it. For now I am using the kitchen table for a sewing table. I think back what am I doing wrong when I hem? I determine that I don't use enough pins to hold it in place so it doesn't move around. Answer, use more pins. Easy peasy. Off I go. I determine I need to take it up 10 inches. Really I just guess and hope it is right because who wants to try and hem it up more again. I laid it out across the table and two chairs so it doesn't pull it down to the ground and start measuring and pinning. One pin on top edge, one pin on bottom edge, every few inches, and three on each end that should hold it.

Much better picture of how gorgeous these are.

I sew the far ends along the seam. Next I sew along the previous hem line, then 1.5 inches up from the bottom. Last 5/8 inch down from former bottom. Results?

Look pretty good. Not as great as a seamstress, but nobody except you, and me know.

Now my curtains are the right length. Just have to wait for hubby to get home and install the pull backs.

Sneek Peek of what is coming up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Needle Minders

Needle Threaders

Update on Snow

I know it has been awhile since an update on HEAD Snow by Gadd. Even in her tab, I have not been able to update. But, we are now moved into our new house. Eight days of no sewing, just packing and unpacking. Last night I was finally able to get her back out and do a few stitches. I am more than 5,000 stitches behind due to the delay but I'm pretty sure I can make them up once ALL the boxes are unpacked. I'm not even sure what day number I am on anymore.

Now back to stitching. Still have a November 1 deadline to meet.

Page Marking

Each person has a unique way of marking their pages to let them know what they have achieved. When I was little, home copiers were not even available. My mom would take us down to the copy store and have copies of the work blown up and printed. We used only a yellow highlighter to mark what was completed. In todays world you can download a pdf and work off you your tablet. I'm still old fashion. I love my paper copies. Although I no longer need to go down to the copy store and get them. Always, Always make a working copy, on a tablet or paper. If for some reason you mess up or spill something you have the original to go back to. There are more highlighter colors available now then when I was younger and I take full advantage of this. My current way of marking charts I use 3 different colored highlighters and a pen. When I complete 20 stitches I mark those 20 stitches off on the chart in Green. Green is good to go. Sometimes there are ninja stitches or colors that are rarely used and I want to save them and do them all together. These stitches are highlighted in pink to call attention to them in the future instead of having to look really close for them. My current chart all solid black hearts get highlighted in pink because they are Kreinik. This keeps me from wasting my thread by having to restring it over and over for 1 or 2 stitches. I can thread my needle to do 10-15 stitches, do a stitch tuck the end, cut, and it is ready for the next one with out having to rethread my needle. My example is a ninja that I wanted to be sure and get because he was away from all of his friends. (pictures are blurry on purpose)

Ninja highlighted to draw attention

When I have completed the pink highlighted stitch I just go over it with my green highlighter and it makes it a dark color, but I know that stitch is done.

Now mess ups. They are highlighted in blue because they are sad. Sometimes blues have to be frogged and sometimes I can fudge them and make them work. This one I did 4 squares in the row instead of the required 3. The blue lets me know there is a wrong color in that spot. Again once I fix it, it gets highlighted over with green making it dark.

But what happens when I mess up one that is already green or highlight one in green that I haven't really stitched yet? That is where the pen comes in. These 3 managed to get highlighted and were not actually stitched. Found them when stitching in the area and things did not look right. So I trace around it with the pen. Again it draws attention to it but it is harder to see the pen then the highlighter. So, highlighter is first option, pen is backup incase it is already highlighted.

Then when I have fixed the problem with the square I / over it to let me know it is fixed.

What method do you use to keep track of what you have completed?

Day 15

Yesterday I felt like I got a lot stitched on Snow. Not sure if it is just because it was a patch all together, the darker color, or perhaps I actually did get a lot done.

Here is the before start picture.

And the end of day 15 picture.

This page I calculated to take ten days. But I have been working on the icicles that drop down from the page above. So, I am going to add an extra day to complete the page. Last night I realized that we are moving in less than 30 days. Starting to panic a little. There is so much to pack still. A lot of it I can't even pack until the day before. Off to pack up one of the game stations, games that go with it and more movies. Then back to stitching.

Finish Day 8

So far I have been able to keep up with at least 500 stitches a day. Each day you can see the changes. Trying to get ahead before we move. I'm thinking I will be unable to stitch while we are moving, even if it is just across town. This is stopping point for day 8.

Funny thing, I don't have any real photo editing programs. So, I load up the photos every 3-5 days and add the day number to them in paint. I don't really look at the photos very closely and go in the order they loaded from the drive. This time they loaded out of order. I didn't notice until started loading them to the Snow tab that day 6 was really day 8, day 7 was day 6, and day 8 was day 7. Needless to say I had to go back and correct it by making a big white block over my mistakes. Next time I will look more closely before adding the day to them.

Start of Snow

Finally the fabric arrived from across the pond last Thursday and I was able to start on Snow (no background) by Maxine Gadd charted by Heaven and Earth Designs. The design has almost 56,000 stitches in it. Deadline for completion is November 1, 2016. This will allow time for framing during the holiday season. My best approximation is I need to do 500 stitches per day. This means there will be noticeable amounts each day done. I am taking pictures of my progress daily. There is a tab at the top where you can see each days progress. I will try to update once a week.

This is finish of day 5 or start of day 6.

Time to get busy stitching.

Fabric Dyes

This is exciting. As you know I love my hand dyed fabrics. They can get expensive though, especially for Heaven and Earth pieces. They can also take a LONG time to get. Chromatic Alchemy usually only take 10 days to ship but then I have to wait for it to come from overseas which takes about 3 weeks. Being the crafty person I am, I decided (after talking with hubby) to dye some of my own fabric. The first piece is for Leilani the Hula Dancer by Mirablia.

I have not named this color yet, but I think she will look perfect on it.

Second I am calling Deep Water. It is for The Glowing Dreams from Heaven and Earth Designs. I ordered a background removal for it so it is not a full coverage stitch.