July 29, 2014

These Summer Days

I am working on thoroughly enjoying my summer now that things are settling a bit. I have daytime work now after an exhaustive long term search. I haven't done any pattern design for a number of months because I have been working to find an income stream to pay the bills, and the other two businesses have been squashed temporarily due to limited time and investor capital, but my expectation is to fulfill these dreams one day.

Last Friday my precious little girl turned three, so I took the day off to run errands and play with her. I honestly do brush her hair - its all curls all the time. Here is an action shot:
 


I have a tiny bit of stitching in lately, but I am still visiting my grandmother in care and making life as nice for her as I can but things are not always straight forward. I'll take some WIP pictures soon and get some updates going...

May 16, 2014

Time to catch up

Amongst 3 weekly visits to my Grammy (94 years old - in long term care), looking for a contract job to pay the bills, going to medical appointments to repair an old foot injury from skating, nursing a feverish toddler, and building 3 businesses, it is a surprise I have no time to post....

Lately due to being forced up off my foot, I have been doing a fair amount of stitching in the last couple of weeks, and here is a summary of where I am at:

 
This is an embroidery I am doing from scratch, I sketched it out by hand in watercolor markers, and I began it by coincidence when my Grammy went into hospital on January 19th. She has a long watercolor career, and I was inspired by a black and white photo of a flower, and all the memories of her beautiful paintings.


This is a Kincavel Krosses pattern I am doing for my husband's desk at work. Its in red and pink variegated threads. Its tricky to do it so the adjacent threads look congruent.

 
Here is the May 10th update for Gold Collection Paris Market, I am working on the florals in the bottom, several greens as I got tired of doing several greys for the buildings, shadows, windows

Here is Ink Circles I am doing it in two tones of blue grey.

And if that wasn't enough work? I bought this project in November but it was back ordered until April when I got it in the mail. Its Bothy Threads Love Heart, and I have seen it on quite a few blogs and message boards lately, a very popular pattern and I am not sure how I am going to like the backstitching



May 13, 2014

Five....Hours....Later

I spent a silly amount of time frogging the bottom right window, just to fix it and finish the grey....

April 11, 2014

She's Baaaaackkk


I haven't posted in a really long time. Lucky for me the blog keeps track of it for me...

My 94 year old Grandmother became quite ill and for the last number of months, and I have been out of my stitching habits. Many long nights and hard days, but she is getting the care she needs and is stable now. It has brought our family from four corners to come together and make the best decisions, and it is nice that we are on track.

Have been working on this teeny sampler for my husband's desk at work, and it is in variegated reds and pinks so it will stand out in a bunch of white cubicles and computers.

Now that I have a ton of more time to devote to this, I will be stitching my wips like they are going out of style... My turtle trot pieces will come first.





January 9, 2014

Turtle Trot 2014 - My First finish!

Already in time for January 10, I have one finish done! Because I got to it so quickly, I added another one to my 10. Here is the Blackwork Rose finish.

Here is the progress I have been making on the  Ink Circles Damask Square, I have decided to do a grey/antique blue blended color with a heavier border color (#931, #932) on white instead of the brown/DMC #4150 as directed. Variety of reasons, mostly because I need to use up some fabric, and it will look better when I have three or four of them together. We will se, I might regret it... 


January 8, 2014

Working on it already...

I started working on my Turtle Trot while the inspiration is within me, and I managed to get a significant amount done on the Blackwork Rose. Here is my update:

In the meantime, I realized I have no fabric the correct size to fulfill Scarlet Ribbands, so I have withdrawn that one out of my Turtle Trot. In its place, I have brought in two Ink Circles patterns, one of them is the Damask Square and the other is  Rosetta which will be a similar challenge to Scarlet Ribbands.


January 4, 2014

2014 Turtle Trot is READY


Join  BAP Attack's 2014 Turtle Trot here


Dear God, I didn't get as far as I wanted to during 2013!

Paris Market - Dimensions Gold Collection 
(= Confetti stitching) shockingly still WIP







Here is the November 4th progress:

China Blue - Permin of Copenhagen - still WIP










                                 
Here is the Nov 10th progress:






This is a complicated full stitch pattern based in this original wallpaper William Morris Roses, the stitching pattern actually starts half way down in the diagram. The pattern is out of print - still WIP 







Here is the June 11th progress:





Teddy Bears Tree Skirt - Still WIP







 Here is the April 13th progress:




Madre Terra (doing this in Purple variations)- Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks - still WIP







Here is the Dec 24th progress:




Panda Pals - Brittercup Designs  (added a second adult Panda on the other side of the baby- WIP







Here is the June 16th progress:



Here is the Rovaris R-106 I haven't even cracked the package yet
Stoney Creek Rose, going to stitch it on to a pre-made pillowcase with waste
canvas:
Scarlet Ribbands - Long Dog Samplers

Blackwork Rose - I don't know who the author is, if anyone knows, please comment so I may cite the designer.


January 1, 2014

January 1 2014 Happy New Year!!

As I set out tremendous stitching goals in 2013, I think I will be a tad more conservative with my goals. I have decided to set up a list of 14 projects, some carried over from 2013 Stitch a Longs. I have edited my pages to reflect the ones I will remove, and which ones I have bumped up the list. I have also made a point of selling off some patterns at the end of last year to make room for some new smaller less time consuming patterns. at the end of the day, I have figured out I have about 7 years of patterns in my possession, and I think, for the time being, I will see what I can accomplish this year before I continue to take a whole bunch more on. Here is one of the patterns I will be commencing in January:
 
 
It is a pattern by Rovaris called R-106, an Italian Pattern.