Easter Eggs - Complete

Well, one of two is complete. I am still not sold on doing the second one, but I am ready to do a different project so I will call this one complete for now.

Ghostly Mandala - Complete

I finished this Tuesday evening. I did it on glow-in-the-dark fabric, but my cell phone camera is not up to the task of capturing the piece glowing. The contrast when it is in the dark is not what I imagined, but the idea was still pretty cool. I bet it would look great with a black light hitting it.

Gator Logo - Completed

And here it is, finished. This was completed on January 24, 2015. I have already delivered it to the intended recipient.

Orchid Intrigue - Completed

One I got the correct floss, the rest of the project went very quickly. The completion date was actually January 17, 2015.

12 Days - Complete

I actually finished the stitching for this project back around Thanksgiving. However, I wanted it to be "finished" as a wall hanging before making the announcement.

I apologize for the plastic, but wrapping it up again would have been a pain.

As you can still see, however, the lady who completed the project did an absolutely fantastic job of it! And the recipient, of course, was very pleased as well.

Wedding Announcement - Heart Swirls

So, late Monday night we got word that one of Dorissa's cousins got married, and that a gathering was going to be in two weeks to celebrate it. Dorissa said it would be nice if we could whip up an announcement as a gift. So, after going through the patterns I had on hand as well as scouring the internet for a quick, yet nice, announcement pattern, we found an item in the just Cross Stitch magazine from January/February 2013 (Heart Swirls by Sharon Pope). The pattern is a lot larger and quite ornate than the finished product. However, this is the center of a much larger heart, and seems to have been included as a smaller variation of the pattern. Interestingly, the example of the pattern included the smaller version, framed, done with DMC 127.

I had DMC 127. I also had plenty of white Aida to choose from. So I went with 18 count. I finished the letters with DMC 823.

Here is the finished product. I will take it with me Friday evening to pick out a frame at The Crafty Framer.

Halloween Skull - Complete

I put the finishing stitches into this Saturday evening while watching, I think, Georgia and South Carolina. I will make a second one, but first I want to get back into 12 Days. I also have Ornaments to make for my office. Last year they got the Partridge in the Pear Tree. This year - Two Turtle Doves.

Who Are These [People]?

I made this for my boss (she has 3 of my pieces now). I got the kit from my mom's stash, and I immediately thought of my boss. Of course, that is because she has 3 kids and we (her minions) are ALWAYS telling her, for any little illness or unexpected absence, that she is pregnant. This joke never gets old. However, since this is a workplace piece, I changed the statement from "kids" and "mom" to "people" and "boss." I also added 3 kids (since she has 9 minions). I also had to do French knots, which I get better at as I go, but are still not my favorite.

The kit is from the Dolly Mamas collection from Janlynn ("Who Are These Kids?" #019-0405). I did it in about a week. I think. Maybe 10 days. My boss will have it framed, I am sure.

Cancer Matters - Completed

I have completed Hinzeit's Cancer Matters pattern. I have not added the charms to it yet, as I want to do that right before pin stretching and framing. Since it is tucked safely away in a paper towel cardboard roller, I figured the charms could wait. The charms go just above the fold in the ribbon, and look like small silver ribbons.

But here is how it looks. I want to use the same frame as I did for Always Kiss Me Goodnight, but I have an idea to make this into three smaller framed pieces connected by chains for wall hanging. Both projects use Cushel Monet 28 count, so I know the frame will look as great with this project as for the other one.

Always Kiss Me Goodnight - Framed Project

This is a project I completed last year, but I finally got it framed. It is completed on Cushel Monet 28 count. The frame is by Rick at The Crafty Framer over in Largo, FL. After looking over frame ideas (I am a matte black kind of frame person), we decided to give this combination a shot, and I am glad we did. The silver lining on the white frame makes the fabric pop. Rick tells me that he showed the framed project to another customer who had purchased the same fabric and was looking for a frame to match it. According to Rick, the customer will be bringing back her completed project to be framed the same way as this one.

Mardi Gras Mask - Complete!

Finished! The back stitching here adds a subtle sharpness that actually makes a difference in spite of the dark fabric.

Forgive Quickly

I was going through my stash on Saturday, and I found this pattern that I had forgot I purchased. Stash can be funny that way, right? Anyway, the Forgive Quickly pattern is just one color, and I had the supplies and a frame for it to fit in. And therefore....

Pelican - Completed

So, I stayed up WAY too late last night finishing the border (and the single irritating French knot) but here it is. The recipients have already seen it and approved. next project is a Mardi Gras mask from Just CrossStitch magazine.

Oh, Baby! - Completed!

After only about 10 hours, we have another completed project. I have plans to make a second one, with slightly different motifs and colors likely, by May. And I will be pin stretching this one tonight.

Elemental Cosmos - COMPLETED

I officially finished this project yesterday afternoon! It was not completed without some floss drama, however, as I ran out of 820 on the last 40 stitches or so to go. I was probably the first man in history to be waiting, alone, to get into the JoAnn Fabrics right as the doors opened.

At any rate, this one is completed save for the framing. Next project is already up and running - post as time permits today.

Home is Where You Hook Up

So I finally got the project that I took to be framed back. It looks pretty good. But it makes me realize I need to start practicing to frame these myself.

Tomorrow I will give it to the recipient during a get together at work.

Elemental Cosmos - Update 8

Busy weekend, but I managed to accomplish a pretty good amount on this pattern. I did complete the portion of the circle I wanted to get done, and then some.

Also, I got the framing paid for for the RV project I mentioned a few weeks back. Hopefully it will arrive before the recipient goes on her 6 month trip.

Embroidery

So, last week a coworker discovered she had ordered a bib as a birth gift that actually required stitching to complete. So she called me up and asked if I could look at a cross stitch project and if I could do it.

I get up there and it is an embroidery stitching project, not cross stitch.

I had never done embroidery before (I have only been cross stitching for just under 2 years) and I was a little intimidated. I asked a good stitching friend her opinion, and as we talked I realized it was just back stitching without a grid. The lines were printed on the bib, so all I had to do was cover those. I set the bib up in my 8" q-snap and started. About 3 hours later, I had this:

I started with the wrong color right off the bat. not knowing how to fix embroidery, I just changed the colors for other things. I have an odd sense of fairness, and since the helicopter was supposed to be blue and the plane the gray, I just went with the gray for the helicopter and made the plane green since the green was relegated to support roles.

I did receive a nice thank you from the coworker, who CC'd both her director and mine, for my work.

I finished this for a (now former) coworker as a retirement gift. As you might guess from the project, she retired to go RVing. The pattern was a lot of run to do, especially since I am color blind and the trees, well, never looked like trees as I was creating them. more like green blobs.

Framing is next. And then delivery, of course.

At any rate, this is the first completed project of 2014 (started 1-DEC-2013 and completed 8-FEB-2014).