wavesoflife

I’ve updated my [cross-stitch] site a little tonight (you know, procrastinating on that critique).

There’s an updated picture for Mythical Dragon, a first progress picture for Autumn Angel (nothing much), and an updated picture for The Stately Snowy Owl (which I haven’t worked on since June).

I also finished my original Halloween cross-stitch design that I started last fall. All I had to do was the bat so I don’t know what kept me from finishing before now. Anyway, it’s not the greatest but I think it’s kind of cute. I’m going to order some fabric for it soon and attempt to stitch it. Any suggestions on fabric color? I’m definately going with an evenweave…there’s tons of fractional stitches.

For some reason, I decided to drag out Mythical Dragon and work on it tonight. Joe said it must be an August thing…I started it March ’03 but only worked on it a little while before putting it away till last August. Then at the end of last August, I put it away again. I stopped working on it then because I had finished the top half of the dragon and decided to start on the border. I didn’t enjoy working on the border. I kept making counting mistakes. So I decided to just do the bottom half of the dragon for now.

I’m enjoying it so far (for the 2 hours I worked on it tonight) but the fractional stitches on Aida still aren’t much fun. They’re so hard to get right and most of my previous ones are kind of off-center. I know on light-colored fabric you can sometimes see where the strands of thread in the fabric are, but on this black you really can’t tell. You just have to poke and hope you get it right. It’s not very easy to poke through either.

Looking at the back of my stitching, I can see how far I’ve come in ability since last summer. My backs have always been fairly neat but now I have absolutely no loose threads hanging off or anything. I’ve learned how to end stitches better…I didn’t used to go under two to three stitches and then go back though the stitch I just went through. I would just go through several stitches and not go back under. I also had not cut the threads in half before and was working with really long strands. This doesn’t work very well when you’re working with blending filament that breaks easy. So I cut all the strands in half now.

I’m still very unsettled in my cross-stitching lately. I finished my Halloween Mummy this week and started Autumn Angel yesterday. After I finish this one, I might do the Dragon of Water.

I want to buy Blessed Samhain, which several other cross-stitch bloggers are working on right now. I want to also join the Summer’s End Mystery at the Pam Kellogg Boards. I need to wait until I have a job though. I have fabric I can use for the Samhain one at least. I also want to buy some fabric to stitch my own Halloween cross-stitch design. I designed most of it last year but never finished it for some reason even though all I need to finish is to add a bat.

I framed Twilight Angel tonight. I finished stitching it on Wednesday. It took me about a month to stitch. Next I think I’ll go back to stitching on mom’s owl to get that finished. I’d like to do a few more little ones after that as well as the Dragon of Water before moving onto any of my other big ones.

Stitcher’s Five

1. What is your most treasured needlework possession?
My small gold heron scissors with it’s beaded scissors fob that I made. Also my cross-stitch carrying case.

2. What is your greatest fear when doing needlework?
That I’ll get something on it or it will end up marked somehow. Also that I’ll greatly miscount and have to redo a whole section.

3. What is your greatest extravagance in needlework?
The Silkweaver hand-dyed fabric that I use sometimes.

4. What is your stitching motto?
The same as everyone else’s: just one more stitch!

5. What do you dislike most about your needlework?
Nothing really. My backs are usually neat. I don’t like though when I miscount but who would.

This afternoon I spent about an hour wandering around A.C. Moore’s. I went in there with a short list of things I needed: posterboard, foam board, tealights, a frame, and something that I could use the 50% off coupon on. The foam board was on sale for $1.09 and the tealights were on sale for 50 for $0.82 (great deal!). I had forgotten the frames were on sale as well. I needed a 14″ by 18″ for an old-world map Joe had bought me awhile ago. I found one and it was one of the ones that was on sale. It was originally $20 but was on sale for $7. I thought of using the coupon for a ceramic thing to paint but couldn’t find any at all. Odd. I finally decided to use it to buy a set of 24 soft pastels that were $24. Then I decided I needed a smaller pastel tablet (mine is one of the huge ones). So I bought an 11″ one for $7. I also found these cute little 3d puzzles that were $1. One was a set of 12 sea creatures and the other was a set of 6 dinosaurs. Since they were only $1 for a set I couldn’t resist. I also bought some more tacky glue since my tacky glue has become too tacky. I bought that and the foam board to finish this 3d haunted house made out of foam board and that twisty ribbon that I started years ago and have about 2/3 done. I bought the posterboard to make a college of computer game boxes covers. Joe and I often save the boxes because we like the covers but they take up too much space. So I cut off all the covers and threw the rest of the boxes away. I’ve been feeling really crafty lately. Ok, I haven’t actually done any crafts recently (not counting x-stitch) but I’m prepared.