The Accolade update

This is the first ever Heaven and Earth Designs pattern that I bought. But it wasn't the first one I started. That was The Last E Ticket Ride. I now own 70+ charts and will probably have to live to 300 or something just to finish them all.

I started this back around October 2010. I got the large chart format but I still have to enlarge the page to decipher the symbols. Too many of them are too much alike. I finished the top half of page 1 and then put it away. I got caught up in making things for other people and lamenting the fact that doing it 1x1 in full stitches (on 25ct cream Aida) would take forever. Once I started Pirates and was working in tent stitches I realized things could go much faster. But only if I was willing to rip out thousand of stitches and start over. It was just easier to set aside and work on something that didn't feel like a failure.

I decided to pull it out again and add it to my regular rotation and hopefully I'll get it done in this lifetime. And I'm not ripping out stitches. I guess I'll just have to stitch faster.

This is what it's suppose to look like:


This is page one completed:

Year of the Ox

Here's my latest Chinese Zodiac finish. It's for the Year of the Ox. I only had to do one of these so I'm done with this character. It did it on the light pink Aida (which once again doesn't look pink unless it's with something white) 2x1 full stitches as always. It was a nice easy change of pace from the Dragon evn though I hate working with brown thread because it seems to knot and tangle up so much.

Pirates update

This is a project based on the artwork Pirate by John Patience. It's another Heaven and Earth Design's chart. I'm doing it on 25ct DMC Aida in 2x1 tent stitches. This was my first attempt at the tent stitches and overall I kind of like them. I think the dignal lines mess things up a little bit but it's so much faster to stitch up. I think I'll be doing all my HAED projects in tent stitches from now on. I might even try one out on 28ct fabric and see if my eyes can see the holes.

Here is a picture of what it should look like when done:


Here are the 2 pages I've done so far:

Year of the Dragon (1) on red

Here's my latest finish of my Chinese Zodiac. I found the design to be fiddly to stitch and the backstitching was confusing for the headdress and the tail. I have to stitch 2 more of these up and I was planning on doing one of them on black but after the navy fabric for the Tiger and the fiddly nature of this design I'm not so sure about that. Fortunately I'll have a couple of months to think about that before I have to decide before this pattern comes up again.

Twilight Balloon Flight update

This is a project I've been working on for my mother for the last couple of years. She's seen it and can't wait until I'm finished. Hopefully she'll live that long at the rate I'm going. I'm doing it 2x1 on 18ct Aida full stitches. You can see how much more I have to do before I'm done.

Year of the Sheep (1) on light blue

This one was sooooooo much easier to stitch than the Tiger on Navy. Bigger blocks of color and an easier fabric to see. It's a good thing this one is so easy because I have to do 4 of them. Here's the first:

Year of the Tiger (on navy blue)

So here is my next Chinese Zodiac finish. It's the Year of the Tiger on navy. And there's a huge mistake in it. I haven't decided how I'm going to handle it or if I should just let it go. There are a couple of errors I've corrected on the front but I've still got very tiny bits of thread I've somehow got to secure on the back. Haven't figured that out yet either. I think it would have been better if I had stitched it 3x1 instead of 2x1. It would have given a fuller look and the fabric wouldn't show through so much on the pale body. But the others aren't that way so I didn't want to do this one any different.