August YOTA Medieval Lady

Hello again!  I am trying to be better about blogging more regularly.  Here is my on time YOTA post.  You can find out more and see what everyone else has been up to here: http://pulltheotherthread.blogspot.com/p/yota-year-of-acronyms.html?m=1

After my last YOTA finish Chi Omega pillow.  I started to get excited because I realized that my original long list of WIPs is getting really short! In fact I am down to three  (not counting my current design I haven't shared yet and Christ at Hearts Door which is still too frustrating to even think about stitching)!! They are Girl with a Pearl Earring, Mom and Baby Turtle, and this YOTA piece Medieval Lady.

I started this design I am guessing sometime in 2004 or 2005.  I found it in Cross Stitch Gold Magazine Issue 27 and it is designed by Karen Brittan.  This was my very first project I did that didn't come in kit form.  Its so old that it the stitches are going in both directions instead of all going in the same direction.  It's also quite a bit dirty as it sat in Qsnaps at my mom's house for at least a few years and got covered in lots of dust.

Anyways here is the overall before photo...

As you can see I got quite a bit done before I abandoned it for some reason I can't even remember.

Here is the bottom of the Lady's skirt before...

And here is where I am now...

Here is a close up of her buttons before...

And after the red backstitching.

I also did a bit of work on the border, the Celtic braid column and finished the Greyhound's jeweled collar.

Before...

And currently...

So overall, here is where I am on the design now!

I was able to get another good start on her and I am looking forward to working on her!  All of the bright colors and some half crosses should help keep me motivated to finish her.  In fact I really hope I can finish her before the end of this year!  There is still quite a bit of work left but I am definately a little more than half way done with my Medieval Lady.

I can't wait to see what everyone else has been working on.  Also does anyone have any washing suggestions?  I've never washed a stitched piece before because I've never had to and the process seems a bit intimidating to me. I worry that it will get ruined but I can't leave her the way she is.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

Happy Stitching!

Patiently Waiting is Completely Finished!

Hello everyone out there.  I have a new start and finish to share with you today!!

A few weeks ago (the actual date is a bit fuzzy). I started this small kit Patiently Waiting by Dimensions.  A crafty friend gave this to me before Christmas last year.  I had gotten a bit bored with a new start I have yet to share with you and this piece was calling to me.  This was a rather quick and easy project.  It was my first time stitching on plastic canvas and hopefully my last.  I didn't enjoy the rigidness of the material and the resistance I felt with each pull of the needle. 

Anyways here are some progress photos...

Here it is just before I cut it out and started to assemble it.  I had to change the French knot Holly berries slightly from the directions.  They wanted you to use all six strands to make the knots.  I thought that sounded really crazy since each hole already had 12 strands of floss running thru a very tight space, but I figured I would give it a try. It was difficult but I had finished five of the berries before I broke my needle!  So I decided to attempt them with only 3 strands and that worked well :)

Part of the reason why I chose this kit to work on was because it included everything to finish it into a banner/ornament.  I am the worst at finishing my stitching projects (my unfinished object pile is very high) but I wanted to challenge myself to completely finish something.

Here is what it is supposed to look like finished...

And here is my finish!!

I kept the felt back a little wider and decided to hand stitch the tube for a dowel or twig at the top closed.  The stitching isnt the straightest line but I can live with it.  I decided not to cut fringe into the bottom angles and skip the white French knot stars on the lower half also.

Overall I am pleased with how this turned out and excited that I now have one Christmas present completed!  Also this is my EIGHTH finish in 7 months so far this year!

Happy Stitching!

Very late YOTA post and finish!

Hello out there!  I participated in the YOTA challenge to finish up old projects last month.  You can see the other participants progress here.  I am very late in updating (this is supposed to be done on the first Saturday of the month) but oh well...

The project I chose that was so close to completion was my Chi Omega needlepoint pillow project.  Here is where I left it off after the last time I worked on it almost one year ago!

And here is some progress.  I decided to change the color of the diamond shaped area down at the bottom because you could barely read or decipher the Greek letters.  Also I chose to do some backstitching to redo the Greek letters so you could actually see them, and I added some to the skull and cross bones and the owl in the upper red sections.  I know that you don't normally backstitch on needlepoint but I really feel that the design needed it since some of the detail was lost in the needlepoint design.

Here is more of the white background being added.  I also added my chapter down at the bottom of the design to customize it a bit.

Here is where I finished originally with only adding two rows of white beyond all of the design elements.  I started this way because I wasn't sure if I would run out of the wool like I had in other sections.

But it turns out that I had plenty more so I decided to figure out how to make the dimensions a perfect square and here is the big finish!!

I started working on this piece on June 24th and I finished it on July 11th!  Originally I had started it sometime in 2001/2002 making it my OLDEST WIP now complete :D  Now I am ordering some beautiful fabric to use as the back side of the pillow so I can really finish it up.  Looking back over my blog I thought I would finish this up almost one year ago, but it is now FINALLY finished and it is my 7th finish this year!!

6th Finish of 2014

**THIS IS THE SAME POST ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED QUITE SOME TIME AGO HOWEVER I REALIZED THAT IT IS ACTUALLY MY 6TH AND NOT 5TH FINISH SO I TRIED TO CORRECT IT USING MOBILE BLOGGER AND CHANGED THE STATUS FROM PUBLISHED TO A DRAFT FOR SOME REASON**

Hello everyone! I'm back to trying to blog more than once every few months... and I have a finish.

Here is where I left off with Dimensions "Life is Good" last time...

  I just had to do the clouds and backstitching.  I thought stitching the clouds would be the easy part but they were a little tricky. 

They were harder than necessary because if you chose the French writing the chart was confusing...

If you look closely you can see that they have superimposed the Spanish word for life, Vida over the French one, and they also did that with letters in a few other places.  This left me to use the other languages to help me guess where the stitches might go.  This kit claims to be for beginners and if I was one I would have probably been very frustrated by the error.

But after finishing the clouds the rest of the design finished up quickly and here it is!  

As I was stitching this during the past few days I kept seeing "La Vie" and then my brain turned it into the song from the musical Rent "La Vie Boheme" (The Bohemian Life).  

Anyways I started this kit on June 12th and finished it today June 24th.  I was hoping to finish it in a week but I'm happy that I finished it in less than 2 weeks!  Also this came with a black plastic hoop to act as a frame to finish this piece but I haven't quite decided how I want to finish it.

Happy Stitching all and I'll leave you with a few photos from my garden in Kathmandu!

Life is Good!

Hello everyone!  Life has been very good lately for me but it is also the name of my newest project kit from Dimensions.  I got this for mother's day from my wonderful husband and children and it was the very first mail I received in Kathmandu!

After diligently plugging away at Girl with a pearl I needed to work on something smaller and more colorful so this kit was the way to go. Plus even though I have been reunited with all of my stash and WIPs my startitis was kicking in so bad...

Anyways here is what this "beginners" kit is supposed to look like.

Here is how far I was after a few days of stitching.  I tried to focus on the yellowish green of the field because that is one of my least favorite colors. 

This chart has three language options and I went back and forth between the English and French before I made my final decision.  Also here is more of the wine bottle completed.

Here is where I am now.  I'm getting so close to finishing it!  I just have to do some more backstitch and finish the blue clouds and it will be all done hopefully in a few days :)

We landed in our new home..Nepal!

Yes we landed safely in Kathmandu, Nepal after only one missed flight and a few near misses and over 24 hours of flying time in the air!  (We left on Monday evening and arrived early Thursday morning with time zone changes). So far I am really enjoying life here.  I am starting to settle in a bit as we have been here for almost a month now.

The city is so different from the US but its not quite as crazy as when we lived in Africa.  I really did a double take the first time I saw a cow wandering around by the side of the road.  And traffic is the British system with the steering wheel on the right and driving on the left side of the road.  I will share more stories later though. 

Here is some stitching progress!  Before we left the US I ffinished page 9 of Girl with a pearl on May 15th.

And then less then a month later on June 11th I finished page 6 of the design too!  It is really starting to look a bit more like the painting now :).  

But I am going to take a break from this piece and start a small one I received for Mothers Day next. I'll show you more soon.  Until then...Happy Crafting!

PS here are a few photos I have taken so

far!

Updates

Hello everyone!  I realize it has been quite some time since I last updated here.  

Well first of all my wonderful baby boy made his appearance almost 7 weeks ago!  We named him Thomas and he is the cutest baby boy a Mom could ever hope for!  I really can't believe that time has passed so quickly with him.  I won't go into too many details about his birth but the funny thing was he was right on time according to my due date.  Those Norwegians really have it down to a science to determine due dates because my little girl was born only one day after the due date they predicted for her also :).  Also we had scheduled a c-section for him at noon on his due date and he decided to make his wonderful arrival 3 hours earlier all on his own.  We were at the hospital for our second false alarm until labor decided to start in a BIG way.  I am lucky that he is very healthy and happy and has started to give me the most amazing smiles!!

I recently got to pass along the Lizzie Kate  "Life's A Stitch" traveling pattern to Sarah In Stitches but unfortunately I was so busy with my new little man that I didn't get to the post office for awhile.  But she did receive it all the way in the UAE and has already passed it along to the next lucky stitcher.

Also in stitching news my progress has slowed down to a snail's pace.   I have mostly just been able to check all of your wonderful blogs when I am up in the middle of the night feeding my little guy.  I have really been trying to be a more active commenter on all of your beautiful stitching.

 I have been able to get in a few stitches here and there and I was finally able to finish page 8 of Girl With a Pearl Earring!!  Here is the bad overall photo from my phone of both pages complete. 

And here is a close up of all 7,000 stitches completed.

 

I have since started on page 9 since it is pretty small and directly to the right of this page so I don't have to add any more grid line threads right now.  Eventually I want to get back to my HAED piece Mom and Baby Turtle but it is a bit too complex to work on the way I have to start and stop now to take care of my two wonderful babies :)  I am still in my new mom bliss though it has been hard trying to juggle both my lovely, active two year old daughter, and my new little man, but luckily my hubby has been a huge help.

Oh I almost forgot that we are also busy trying to get things ready to move to our next exotic country.  I know I have hinted at it so far but I am really excited about this move.  

I'll give one more hint...it is in ASIA!

That's not so much of a hint because Asia is huge but I will announce our new home soon :).  

Until then Happy Crafting!