W.I.P.s

So... I am that type of crafter that has about 100 different projects going on at one time. No joke. Here is the start of a Doctor Who scarf. I've been working on this for over 3 years now... :( I know. Failure. However, in my defense (or perhaps a really poor excuse), its super hot where I live for about 10 months out of the year, leaving me with a very narrow window to actually knit in. I mean, seriously, who knits when its over 100 degrees outside? Not this girl.



Fish City... What to say about this monster? I've been working on this for about 2.5 years. I feel like I'm nowhere. Then again... I don't even remember the last time I picked this one up to work on it (not that I can actually pick it up mind you). This project, sadly, keeps getting shoved to the side in favor of smaller projects.

My First Crafty Love

My first crafty love will always be cross stitching. I used to watch my mom cross stitch all the time when I was a little kid. One day, I begged her to show me how and I stitched my first little cross stitch. A pair of ballet slippers (I had a thing for ballet). It was horrible. The stitches went all different directions and I stitched until I had too few threads left, but that was the end of it. I was in love. I haven't stopped since.

I've been working on these Jungle Critters for LM's room since before he was born (OMG). Actually, I've been working on these for the last year and half. I have two more down, and only one to go!





When we had decided to do a jungle theme in LM's room, I purchased a baby sampler for his bedroom. My awesome friend Emily offered to stitch it for me. Needless to say she was done with this puppy long before I finished mine. She did a fantastic job.



Yes, that is a photo of the top half. The bottom half contains his name and poundage. :)

Fabric books and Angry Birds...

Its been a while, but as always, its because I've been busy. I really, really need to make up a "blogging" schedule. I'm crafting whenver possible but rarely post. Bad blogger! So... in my quest for baby crafts in the 24 hours before my son was born I stumbled across this beautiful thing called a quiet book. However, one thing I noticed was that people seem to call pictures books (with no activities) as quiet books. Call me upity or anal (I am both) but I define a quiet book as a book with activities. A book made of fabric (with no activities) is a fabric book. I know. I'm crazy.

Over the last few days of my winter break I started to make my son a colors fabric book. To put it kindly... it was a disaster. However, I didn't purchase a single material for this book. Everything I used I had in my stash.

The cover:


I used binder rings, button holes, and white cotton twill throughout the book.


I cross stitched the names of the colors and sewed them onto the pages (something I WILL NEVER try again).








Yes... I know I skipped white, but that was in all honesty, be being lazy. I intend to make him another one (that's less crappy). But there you have it, my very first - designed by me - fabric book (not a quiet book!) I am working on a quiet book for him. I've set a deadline of Easter for myself so that I can put it in his very first easter basket. He won't be able to use it yet, but I think it'll be cute.

Onto geekiness... my comfort zone. My husband is loves Angry Birds (See his birthday present here after the jump) and I wanted to incorporate that into Valentine's Day somehow. So I came up with this:



I stitched it on 14 count Aida and placed it in a 3" embroidery hoop. I sold one just like it in my Etsy shop. Haven't sold anymore since, don't think I will, and I'm okay with that. I do plan to release a pattern (though any experienced stitcher can probably figure it out by just looking at it) for free when I find sometime to convert it to the computer and upload it to google docs.

Coming up:
1. Birthday gift for the husband (yes, its in June and I do have a while to go but this year I'm def. outdoing myself)
2. A quiet book for the little man
3. Harry Potter cross stitch
4. Star Wars fabric book
5. Recipe book and menu planner

Keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks.

Catching up: Part 2

In the previous post I mentioned that I had been crafting, but not posting. This is the second part of my "catch up" post series. Hopefully the last catch up post. I'm sure I've got all the photos tthat I need off of my husband's computer.

Here is the remainder of the diapers I made for my little man. I made these using the Babyville Boutique PUL with the dinosaurs, monters (my personal favorite), and yellow.















After making the diapers I had a bunch of extra PUL so I went onto Babyville's website in the hopes of finding some projects and I did. So for my little man I made some cubes (which I stuffed with filling). I made one with 5" squares and another with 3" cubes. For the 5" cube uses the dino PUL and the 3" cube uses the owl PUL.











Onto other things...

My mom had this tradition at Christmas that every year each of kids got a Christmas ornament (she still does it). Back in the day she used to cross stitch our ornaments every year. So I've started this tradition with my son.


I wrote his name and the year 2011 on the back with a fabric marker.

For Christmas, I made my son a monkey out of yo-yos. (Love those things!). I used a simplicty pattern that I picked up during a JoAnn's 99 cent sale. On the top it said "Simplicity Archive" on it, so I have a feeling this has been around for a while. He's bigger than my son:









... and that my friends, wraps up all the crafts I completed in 2011. What a year!

Fish City Weeks 2 and 3...

Well... that didn't last long! In my previous two posts I had mentioned how I was going to update weekly my progress on Fish City. While I haven't been updating, honestly, there's been nothing to report. My sister was in town for the entire month of June and honestly, I wasn't up to cross-stitching much. So... progress remains the same as it was during week one.

In other news... I should have plently to update with in the next few days with the Fourth of July just around the corner (happy Independence Day USA!).

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.

Mega Cross Stitch Post

So for the last several months I've been stitching (here and there) some of my own Star Wars designs. They're the same basic design and they've all been stitched on 18 count, white, Aida fabric. I cut the fabric down to 4" x 6" and stitched them in the center. I had these wooden frames purchased from IKEA, which I stained and glossed myself, and framed them in. I love arranging and rearranging these little guys... now I just wish I had somewhere to hang them up! Without further ado:

Princess Leia from A New Hope (at the end):


Queen Amidala from The Phantom Menance (her senate outfit):


Anakin Skywalker from Attack of the Clones:


Senator Bail Organa from Attack of the Clones: (I don't know why but I have such a crush on him!)


Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Phantom Menance:


Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi:


Boba Fett: (He was finished this morning and posted for sale this afternoon)


Had enough of Star Wars yet? There's more to come! I have about 90 more planned out but I'm going to finish about 4 or 5 more of these Star Wars patterns before moving onto my Harry Potter designs.

In other needlepoint news, I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant (with my first) and on summer vacation so now I'm working like a madwoman to finish the cross stitch things for my baby and his/her nursery before I have to go back to work in August (with the baby due to arrive in September. What timing!)

We're doing a jungle theme in the baby's nursery and so I've been on the hunt for any patterns that I can find that fit that bill. I've found some great things from Dimension, Stoney Creek, and Leisure Arts. (Let me apologize now for the HORRIBLE pictures, my husband's camera died this morning - we have no idea where the charger is - so I had to scan them int).

First up is a bib I stitched from a book called Baby Bibs to Cross-Stitch prodcued and printed by Leisure Arts:

He took me about three days working on it here and there. I have a few more from this book that I want to stitch up and then I'll be done with the baby bibs aspect of it all.

The next up is the first of six. I was so exicted to be finished with this little guy that I just had to post it. The pattern was put out by Stoney Creek (oh how I heart you!) I stitched this on 28 count Monanco Evenweave, stitching over two.

The patterns were designed to be stitched on an afghan but I'm not much for that, so I'm stitching 6 of the designs from the book, we're going to frame them, and put them on the wall in the nursery.

Coming up in the stitching category is Luke Skwyalker (farm boy, told you I wasn't done with the Star Wars yet!) and a blue elephant baby panel to go with the monkey.