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

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