Wednesday, April 30, 2014

New Start: Oblivion

I started a new project this month.  It's a pattern I made from the Oblivion video game icon at the same time I made the one for Carcassonne.  I think I like this one better and it might turn out better, but we'll have to wait and see.  I think I might make this one into a small pillow.  Because of that I'm doing it in 3x1 on 14ct Aida.  It's 70x70 stitches so it's not very big.


Wednesday, April 9, 2014

We Are Family COMPLETED

I hate backstitching.

There I said it.  And I mean it.

So why did I pick this project to do?  Well, I liked it, and I have something in mind for it as well.  I picked the color Daydream from Dinky Dyes as my thread and a pale pink 14ct Aida fabric.  There didn't look to be too many factional stitches but I was wrong.  The next time will be on 28ct to make things easier.  I stitched the small fractionals as I was moving through the piece.  The full stitches I made first, then went back to do the outline since that had to be done in 1 thread vs. 2.  I don't really like how that looks compared to the ones I did along the way. 

I stitched this one first for me as an experiment to see if it would work and would I like doing all that backstitching.  I've learned how to do things differently that will make it look better and maybe make it easier.  I first starting stitching this with some DMC varigrated thread with 2 strands.  I didn't like how some of the smaller words look so I had to frog it all.  The said part was that I thought I finally had a grasp on how to do french knots for the people's eyes.  They turned out beautifully.  When I started over with the Dinky Dyes threads I couldn't make them work.  I think I'll have to practice that before doing another one.  I need to wash it to see if the colors are color-fast but I'm hoping that won't be a problem.



UPDATE: Twilight Balloon Flight

Baseball season has started again.  Yeah!  I was trying to figure out which project I was going to stitch while watching opening day and then I remembered that I started stitching this project while watching baseball games so why not pull it out and get started on that last row.  The old grid lines had turned a slightly green color and I hope that doesn't mean trouble when I wash this at the end.  We'll have to see when I get to that point.  So far this is one week's worth of stitching while watching baseball and hockey games.  I would love to finish this project this year and I really think that I can.  The question will be if I have the money to frame it before giving it to my mom.


UPDATE: Faces of Faery 89

I was getting bored with how slowly things were developing with my Dad's Flower Pot and The Accolade since they are both stitched 1x1 full.  I decided I needed to see something come together much faster otherwise I'd be too discouraged to continue.  I pulled out this project and was zipping right along until I got to this yellow color.  It seems the threads get knotted up really fast and every time I try to unknot them the thread breaks, usually close to the fabric.  Then I spend a bunch of time frogging out several stitches of what I've done so I can have enough thread to secure it on the back.  Then I start all over and it knots again.  Stitch.  Knot.  Break.  Frog.  Repeat.  I got so frustrated I put it aside and I hadn't even secured the latest breakage.  Here's my progress anyway.


UPDATE: The Accolade

As a break from my Dad's Flower Pot project I decided to start working on page #2 for The Accolade.  I've put a lot of projects that I'm doing for myself on hold so I can work on gifts for other people and I have to say, that it was nice to work on something for me for awhile.  I'm almost done with the page and it's exciting to start to see something other than the background.  I wish I would have started this in tent stitches because it would be going much faster but I like how the full stitches look.  If I finish this page I might start Godspeed.  That one will be done in tent stitches.


UPDATE: Dad's Flower Pot

So I took a weekend trip to California a couple of weeks ago and I took along this project to get some serious work done it.  All the single confetti stitches had been getting to me so I had put it away for awhile but I really needed to put more time in to this project.  I was able to get the top half of the page done.  I think the bottom half will go much faster as there's bigger blocks of color to deal with.  Hopefully some of the other pages will go faster than this one has.  And I'm still not done with it yet.