New Year’s Eve
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Family, Needlework
I hate coming up with titles. Can you tell?
Happy New Year to all of you. I hope to see more of you in person this year!
I’m still not feeling well at all, so I haven’t been online much. Despite that, my wrists have been aching as if I were working again. How does that happen?
Our Yule was quietly pleasant. I hope your winter holiday was as good.
I did finally finish stitching the Fairy Tale Sampler for Sam. It didn’t take that much stitching (so it can’t be blamed for the wrist pain), but I did have to re-purchase some Mill Hill beads. That gave me an excuse (like I needed it) to talk to Susan of Nease’s Needlework, which is always lovely. But now it’s finished!
My camera battery won’t recharge anymore, so I’ll have to convince the girl to take a photo of the piece for me.
I think I’m finally ready to do Deep Peace. It’s a gorgeous piece, and some people I love dearly got all the supplies for it as a gift for me a few years back. Unfortunately, we broke up right after that, and every time I started to work on it, I cried. I think there’s been enough time now that I can focus on the happy memories instead of the hard stuff.
I think I need to start a smaller project, too, that I can carry around with me. Complex projects don’t lend themselves to productivity while doing anything else, anyway. Sam tends to get me so interested in gaming that I can’t get much stitching done. Multi-person games are better for needlework, because I stitch while the focus is on someone else.
I’m not really into New Year’s Resolutions, and if I made them seriously, I’d be more likely to do so at Samhain than the end of January/beginning of December. Still, I’ve been realizing how much I’ve missed needlework. My eyes are still giving me trouble, but I got out an old, portable magnifier/travel light and that helps. I think it may be worthwhile to check into a magnifier attachment for my Ott Lite (after getting new glasses). I’m going to try stitching more regularly, and I’d really like to learn needlepoint and knitting and/or crocheting. I think I can manage the needlepoint on my own, but not the yarn stuff. Hopefully I can find someone local who is willing to teach me. Apparently there’s a group meeting at a local library that may be a possibility.
I thought my DMC was getting too old for use or something, because it kept fraying apart while I was stitching. I finally realized (after buying 3 new skeins of black floss) that I’d been using those needles that doesn’t require threading (which I love), and that they stress the floss (and the floss slips out easily). I switched back to a regular tapestry needle and presto! the problem was gone. I can’t find those no-thread needles anywhere online, so I guess other folks figured that out far more quickly than I did! I have a two-sided needle that came with a magazine or some such, but I don’t know that I can quite figure out how to use it.
Sam and I are staying in this evening, avoiding all the obnoxious drunks in favor of our own celebration. The girl is here, too, because her beau is in Europe with his family and most of her other friends are also out of town (something about a Flaming Lips concert?).
After getting caught up with all the shows I enjoy, I went looking for something else to view. I enjoy Bones, but I find the sizist comments (and plots) highly offensive. I tried to watch the first episode of The Mentalist online, but it keeps timing out. Sam got the first disc of The Tudors from Netflix, and it’s interesting at times. I tend to get annoyed with the liberties they’ve taken with history, though.
Tags: Bones, cross stitch, Holidays, Katie, RPGs, Sam
SBQ: Stitching Publications
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Needlework, SBQ
The Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week:
Do you currently subscribe to any stitching publications or have you in the past? (Either in print or online) If so, which ones?
I don’t subscribe to any at the moment, and I rarely buy them off the rack. I have hundreds of them in my stash, and I keep meaning to go through and just keep the designs I’m still planning to stitch, but I never get around to doing it! I stopped buying them because I realized that I haven’t ever stitched one single pattern in any of those hundreds of magazines.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cross stitch, magazines, Needlework, patterns, SBQ, Stitching, subscriptions
SBQ: Stitching Terms/Acronyms
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Needlework, SBQ
This week’s Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week:
For seasoned stitchers: Define a stitching term or acronym for new
stitchers.
Gah. I don’t play in the needlework newsgroup any more, so I don’t think in acronyms. Railroading is the only term that I can think of that wasn’t obvious or explained in a pattern’s instructions. There’s a decent explanation here, and an article with good photos here.
Tags: cross stitch, railroading
SBQ: Family Heirlooms
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Family, Needlework, SBQ
And another Stitching Blogger Question of the week, which should leave me all caught up:
At one time, I thought so. My mother has a Tigerlily piece I did for her, and my father has a big Marine Corps Emblem that hangs in his office. Unfortunately, the first piece I ever framed and gave to them suffered smoke damage, and I haven’t been able to get it completely clean yet. They haven’t expressed any interest in having it back, either. Mom stuck another piece I did and gave to her in a drawer, and forgot that I’d done it at all.
Some of the pieces I did for my first husband’s family, like a baby sampler and a nice serving tray, may get passed on. Maybe. They may have gotten rid of them because of the association with an ex-spouse. Who knows?
Tags: Bloom Where You Are Planted, cross stitch, Debra Designs, heirlooms, Janet Powers, Marine Corps Emblem, Spring Bouquet, Tigerlily
SBQ: Blended Threads
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Needlework, SBQ
And another Stitching Blogger Question:
I can’t remember the last time I did a piece that used blended threads. Obviously, I haven’t gotten around to stitching anything by Teresa Wentzler 😉
When I’ve had to use them, I just blend them as the need arises. I keep most of my threads (DMC, definitely) on plastic bobbins, so when I start a project I gather all the colors required and put them on a metal ring. As I cut a length, I wind whatever I didn’t use back on the bobbin for later use, to avoid waste.
Tags: blended needles, blended threads, cross stitch, SBQ
Graphics. Gah!
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Art, Geekery, Needlework
There are times when being graphic-impaired really does annoy me.
I’m finally moving forward with porting the Heartsong Handicrafts site to WordPress. It shouldn’t be a big deal. I’ve done the same many times before with other sites.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a logo. I mean, I have a simple logo, but it isn’t very good. It doesn’t sing, that’s for sure. I just want a nice, simple logo that isn’t terribly busy, but that doesn’t look (like the first attempt) as if I made it from clip-art and standard fonts. My utter and complete lack of drawing ability is a serious handicap in this endeavor.
I did sorta customize a WP theme to match the crappy logo, but that part is easy. The harder part is having something to give the site visual interest, and that doesn’t exist right now.
On the other hand, the cross-stitch patterns themselves involve graphics, so I don’t want things to get too busy. It’s a balancing act.
I may have to throw myself on Katie’s mercy, or something. She’s pretty busy, though, and prefers to draw whatever she feels like drawing rather than creating something to suit a particular theme.
Tags: cross stitch, Design, graphics, Heartsong Handicrafts, logo, themes, wordpress
SBQ: Essential Needlework Gear
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Needlework, SBQ
Yay! Another Stitching Bloggers’ Question:
What items do you consider essential to your needlework that you keep
in your stitching bag
The pattern, fabric and ring of floss cards for my current project, the scroll bars or QSnaps or hoop or whatever I’m using (I seldom stitch in hand), and a long silver chain on which I wear my scissors and needle case. If I’m working with metallics, I also keep—whoops, what’s the name of it? That tiny blue cube of stuff that makes metallics so much more manageable? I’m not using metallics at the moment, so there’s none in my bag, but I guess I should go look up the name of it.
I did keep a seam ripper in the bag, but I don’t have a safe case for my current ripper, so I’m afraid to do that.
Lately, I also keep a small magnifier/light that hangs around my neck in the bag. It doesn’t work so well, though, so I should probably just take it out.
I really need to replace my bag. It’s falling apart, and the zipper is stubborn. It’s been incredibly good for a freebie bag, though! It lasted about ten years.
I’ve lusted after a nice standing or lap frame for years—one of the good, sturdy ones, with attachments for a lamp and a magnifier and chart holder and a place to put your fibers and such. Some even come with cup holders! The nice ones are trés expensive, though. I don’t want to bother with the flimsy ones, as I think they’d be more frustrating than helpful.
Tags: cross stitch, gear, needle case, scissors
Stitching Notes
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Needlework, SBQ
First, I’ll answer this week’s SBQ:
What do you do with your charts once you’ve stitched them? Do you keep them or dispose of them? If you keep them, do you organize them in a way that is different from the way you keep your unstitched charts?
I keep them. ALL of them. In fact, Sam has pointed out that collecting charts should be considered a hobby in and of itself, separate from the actual stitching. If I could display my lovely patterns somehow, I would.
Next, I must Squee! For I’ve been asked for an original cross-stitch design for a book that’ll be published this coming year. I’m so tickled! I’m not telling more than that, but it’s all professional and everything.
And finally, that was the impetus for another change. I’ll announce it in the next week. It’s a surprise for now 🙂
Tags: charts, cross stitch, Design, patterns, SBQ