Fish City: One week later...

Its hard to believe its only been a week! I've was working on this project rather steadily at first but slowed down over the last few days because I wasn't feeling well (pregnancy is taking a drain on my body).

Here's where I was at the end of day one:

.

Progress after a week:

(Click on the picture for a larger image).

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how far I've come. The only thing that saddens me is how far I have yet to go. A long, long ways...

Fish City Day One

I've noticed at some of the cross-stitch communities that I visit that some bloggers keep track of their weekly and/or monthly progress on a large project. Its not something that I've ever done (of course I haven't completed a large project in several years) and thought that this would be a good project to do it on.

Yesterday I started working on the Fish City pattern by Stoney Creek. The pattern is 18 pages, the design size (I'm working it on 28 count, white, evenweave) is 29" by 21". This is by far the largest project I've ever attempted.

I've done several TW designs, that while they can be difficult with the blends, special stitches, and beadwork, have never been large. My fabric is so large that I neded up going out and purchasing one of those stands for your hoops. So far, I'm not liking the hands free because I feel as though it slows me down, however it does keep my left hand (the hand holding the hoop and fabric) from cramping up.

I didn't start working on it until late yesterday afternoon and was unable to get as far as I would have liked yesterday (due mostly to the fact that I was an anxiety attack over this baby and I felt like crap physically).

So after working on it for I have no idea how long yesterday, this what I've got done:



I have a long way to go.

My goal is to take a picture Wednesday evening and post my progress every Thursday morning. I'm sure I can keep this going while I'm on summer vacation. Once school resumes in the fall I won't have much of an opportunity to work on it (between teaching, going to school, and a new baby) so update may become monthly in August.

Baby Gear

Last week I posted a mega cross stitch post that featured two of the baby items that I had been wroking on for my own little guy (or girl). This is sort of a part 2 to that post.

First up is a baby bib that I started (and completed!) yesterday. The pattern is from the book Baby Bibs to Cross Stitch by Linda Gillum and Sandy Orton.



A close up:


It was a nice quick stitch and a fun project to do in lew of the jungle baby project I've been working on (I'm sick of looking at the same shades of green, blue, and purple!)

Earlier in the week, I posted about a stitch called the turkey stitch and what a headache it was giving me. Today I was finally able to sit down and practice. I practiced on 18 count Aida before attempting it on my project:



Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. This gave me enough motivation to go ahead and attempt to do it on one of my jungle babies. (The only other one I've stitched.) The jungle baby patterns come from Stoney Creek (oh how I loathe and love the).



and a close up of the turkey stitching:


I don't think it looks as nice as the practice one, but I'm not going to complain. It was a pain in my @$$ and I'm looking forward to putting that tiny little nightmare behind me. I'm currently working on a purple rhino (also part of the jungle babies) but honestly I'm sick of looking at DMC 211 and may continue to work on other projects throughout the week.

Turkey Stitch Tryouts

So yesterday I pleaded for help from some livejournal cross-stitchers on how to do a turkey stitch. I had about 4 people respond who had suggestions. One of them sent me this google video that seems to explain it well enough. I haven't tried it yet though and I don't know that I'm going to be able to do it today. My baby sister is coming in from out of state to stay with us for the month of June and I have a whole lot of cleaning to do today before she gets here.

Plus grocery shopping. EEK! I now know when so many of my coworkers moan about wanting to be able to quit their jobs and be stay at home wives/moms. Its hard work keeping a house clean and right now its just my husband, me, and our six fur babies. I can't imagine what the work is going to be like when this baby is born.

Whew.

Thankfully, my darling friend Emily has volunteered to help with some of the cross-stitch stuff for my baby since I'm due in about 3 1/2 months and am going to run out of time... fast!

Turkey Stitch

So I'm working my way through the Stoney Creek "Jungle Babies" book for my own baby (due in Sept!) and there's a new stitch that I've never seen before, called the turkey stitch. I've followed the instructions and am beyond annoyed that it keeps falling apart.

I've been trying it out on some spare fabric but nothing seems to work. I've posted to a livejournal community for help and have googled for tutorials but have yet to find something that helps.

I think I'm just going to continue working each jungle baby and eventually do the "turkey stitches" on the babies when I'm completely finished. I've only finished 2 out of the 6 panels so I guess I have plenty of time to practice.

Christmas 2010... and a Lighthouse?

I was digging through some old photos this afternoon (waiting for my husband to get back from PT so we can go to Red Lobster for his birthday dinner) and I found some old photos that I never updloaded (tsk, tsk). During the 2010 year my husband and I adopted two new critters. Sonic the hamster and Sandy the mixed terrier. Well, they needed stockings just like our cats and piggies have!

So I promptly sat down at my sewing machine and got to work! Sandy's stocking:


and Sonic's:


Here's the whole family:


Which remind me, I'm going to have to make another new one this year since our baby is due in September! I better add that on my to-do list for the year of 2011.

Last year I also started making candy from those Wilton candy molds. (However, I'm horrible about taking pictures). The problem is I always make more than what we can eat - its just the two of us, I'm not feeding those to my fur babies (although I'm sure they would enjoy it). I need to start bringing the extras to work. Food always disappears when you bring it to work!

So I tried my hand at Santa candy canes:


I also tried my hand at Oreo stuffed candies. These were SO good, but very sweet tasting so you had to go easy on them!




Overall Christmas 2010 was memorable and enjoyable!

Two years ago I made my mom a Lighthouse cross-stitch. It was one of those kits that came with the frame. I can't, for the life of me, remember the name of kit maker, it was so long ago.

The unframed item:


I framed it in an 8x10 frame using the mat that came with the kit:


I'm really taking to framing (or at the very least, trying to frame) my own cross-stitch becuase it is SO expensive to get them professionally framed.

Angry Bird Cupcakes

Today is my husband's 26th birthday and every year I make him something. Last year it was gigantic X-box pillows, that he loved so I knew I had to top last year. However, he's such a difficult man to make things for (he doesn't think he is. If only he knew the HOURS of thought and internet searching that goes into his gifts...)

Like 2/3 of America he's obcessed with Angry Birds and I stumbled across this blog in my many hours of searching and thought that this lady was a GENIUS. I couldn't find the right kind of sprinkles and I dyed 'em too dark but considering the fact that I've never tried anything of this scale before, I'm pretty darn pleased. (And so is my husband).

I spent about $40 on supplies (since I didn't have anything except the cupcake pans) and 2.5 hours in the kitchen. I have LOTS of leftover candy and so I probably make a few more batches in the next few weeks to use up the candy.

A sampling of each:


The whole army of cupcakes:


Those bad, bad piggies:


A close up of each of the birds:






Sorry about the poor quality of the photos but my camera is busted and his is dead, so I had to take them with my cell phone. Let me know what you think!