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.

The Heir

Finally The Heir is finished, Terrence Nolan of Dimple Designs, stitched on Jaded Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie.

I was only stitching on this one when our youngest (age 5) did good at swim practice. That was the deal he and I worked out to get him to try at practice. He went from swimming last year to completely forgot what to do in the water this year. I am a happy momma that now he is swimming a 25 yard freestyle and working on learning his other strokes. Now the discussion with him is after framing will I hang it in his bedroom at our new house. I told him I will hang it near his bedroom, but he keeps asking for in his room. One day I am going to end up giving it to him for his own home. That is a long way down the road.

There were a few conversions on this one. I am not going to put it up on the conversion page though. They are fairly easy. First was removal of the seahorses. The pattern calls for 32 count fabric mostly 2 over. I have never stitched that small and always convert to a 16 count with 1 over. Well the seahorses were stitched 1 over on the 32 count. this would make them too large on the 16 count and they wouldn't fit properly or look the right size. Second I removed some bubbles trailing further at the bottom. I just didn't like the way the bubbles got larger again rather than trailing off to smaller. Third backstitch on both their fins I did in a purple Kreinik beading filament. Not sure what color it was in my stash and had lost its label. Lastly, the harder of the conversions was I removed the head piece. Anywhere I came across a color in his hair that was for the 'crown' I just made it a black thread instead.

Waiting on the fabric for my mother in laws Christmas gift to arrive from across the pond still. Everyday that goes by adds more and more stitches to my daily completion count. The pattern is about 56,000 stitches. My dear husband says if I don't finish it in time we can just give it to her for her birthday, but I am a goal finisher. Speaking of goals this is finish number 8 for the year only 2 more to go to meet my goal for the year. Off to work on Queen Mariposa until my fabric arrives. Happy Stitching!

Finished Green Bike in Red

Finally finished and framed Green Bike in Red by Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks. Sewn on silvermist opal in Kreinik red. It takes four spools of Kreinik for each bike. It is all ready for my oldest sister for Christmas. That makes two sisters and my parents down; one sister and my mother in law to go.

I have started on Summer Butterfly by Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks for the remaining sister. Hopes are high that this one wont take long. The fabric for my mother in laws has shipped. I calculated if I started on July 1 and stitched 450 stitches a day I could have it finished to be framed October 31. Shipping usually takes a good 10 days coming from overseas so each day adds more stitches to that and I want to start as soon as the fabric gets in.

Oak tree was casting a shadow on the fabric. Babbling Brook by Wichelt

My other two WIPs are becoming UFO. I just don't have time to dedicate to them with trying to get these finished and framed for Christmas. Spent last week volunteering at VBS. The week before that we (me and the two youngest) drove to Colorado to help out little sister with her new baby. So, I have not stitched on them in at least two weeks.

Queen Mariposa by Mirabilia on Quiescence by Chromatic Alchemy

The Heir by Terrence Nolan on Jaded