12 Days - Update 16

Productive weekend. Even did some stitching outside. Stitched to football games, while my daughter played in the treehouse at my place, and even while trick-or-treaters knocked during a Mel Brooks marathon at Lexy's house on Halloween. And all to absolutely gorgeous weather.

SO here we are. Two turtle doves, 6 geese a-laying, and 8 maids a-milking left to go. I finished the Space Invader Flowers on the bottom. I may leave the robe for last - those swirling reds are really annoying.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 17

Has it really been 2 weeks since my last update? I have been insanely busy with real life issues, and just this weekend seemed to find my needle, thread, and q-snap. I am stuck in, as a good stitcher friend of mine puts it, "back stitch hell." I have run out of 032 Kreinik Citron blending filament, and am trying to find a good time to pick up some more. But the beads are complete, the border (sans a few fleur de lis in the corners - they look like penguin silhouettes without the thread) almost so, and I need two more gold bells. But the back stitching is almost half way complete, and possibly this will be finished by July.

Weekend Update

I am almost positive I did not stitch anything from Thursday night until this morning. That doesn't mean I wasn't crafty, however. I spent part of a drippy, dreary Saturday at The Crafty Framer in Largo, talking with Peggy and Lexy about getting some things framed. The rest of the day I spent pin stretching items with Lexy.

I have a number of finished projects that are sort of languishing in paper towel rolls, waiting for frames. Obviously the Pelican and Elemental Cosmos are among those. I discovered a 12X12 black frame I picked up a while back as a clearance special at Michael's, so I needed a foam board to use to complete it. Into that went Elemental Cosmos. Still not sure where I will hang it, but it is ready.

I also got quotes for the Pelican, a project called A Room With a View that is a lighthouse cross stitch, and a piece I did called Always Kiss Me Goodnight (pictured below, pin stretched) that I purchased at the 2013 Market Day sale at Crafty Framer. I completed the project just a month or so after the sale, and there it sat, all rolled up, waiting to be remembered.

We also talked about the FAST event that is next Saturday, and called and recruited a fellow stitcher and veteran of FASTs past, to come and join us. Lexy will not be able to make this FAST (boo) but she will be there in spirit.

Pin stretching a 28 ct piece of fabric, as I learned, can be tricky. It does not take a lot to throw the design off center, or pull it out of true. My first attempt was not very successful, so I went home and removed all of the pins. Last night I gave it a second attempt, paying a LOT more attention to detail and trying very hard to keep a straight row of pins. It isn't perfect, but it does look better than it did.

Also, I managed to acquire more Kreinik #4 Very Fine Braid 001 and Kreinik Blending Filament 032. I bought all that Peggy had, just in case. So now I can get back to the mask (I hated knowing I needed colors even though I could do other portions of the project).