And it's only just finally started to look like something...

5 things I've learned about how cross stitch and me work together

1. I have a short attention span.

This could go in either 2 ways. Small pieces might be better for me. I do enjoy having a sense of completion. It's nice to have finished a piece, lettering, back-stitching and all in a few weeks.

But in larger pieces you can move about in the piece itself. Right now with my big cross stitch I go from working on the left hand side to the top to the right hand side back to the top. The pattern is different on each side so it's a good way to satisfy my short attention span. All the side hopping does result in gaps and stitches that never get filled in...but they will.

2. I need to see the picture taking shape.

Nothing is ticking me off more then the fact that I can't SEE the picture forming with each stitch. It is so much more satisfying seeing the tree take shape and seeing the church have doors and a steeple and seeing the bird become a bird.
SEE! That's a bird. It's blue with a peach underbelly. It's there.

3. Like with crocheting, I never want to rip out my mistakes.

It's true. At this point I can't be bothered with ripping out my mistakes. Especially since they are generally small little mistakes. A dark orange where a medium orange should be. A spot of 6 deep brown where 6 light brown stitches should be. With this HUGE piece I can get away with it, especially because it is such an abstract piece. There is no big definition to the work. Can you see the mistakes? I didn't think so.

4. Switching Threads is a pain.

I get irked every time I have to switch threads while working in the same color. I don't mind going from blue to green to yellow. But running out of yellow while I still have more stitches to go drives me crazy. I wish I could gauge how much thread you would need for whatever block you're working on.

5. My Spatial Relationship skills are constantly challenged.

It's true in my real life and it's true in cross stitch. I have absolutely no sense of spatial relations. I see the pattern and it tells me to start the yellow 1 square over and 5 squares down from the brown, but I just can't make it happen on the cloth. I do a lot of counting and recounting and recounting. I start and realize that it's wrong about every other stitch. It's the same for me in real life. I can't parallel park for the life of me.

Well, I'm still working on my GINORMOUSLY HUGE cross stitch piece. It has almost been 1 year since I started. I am beginning to think I will be finished when Andrew goes off to University. I keep plugging away, and as long as I don't make mistakes I find it relaxing.

I thought I'd do a review of the cross stitch so far...

This is what it will look like finished...hopefully.
Because parts of it are so abstract I am having a hard time visualizing the piece. As I do more I am starting to appreciate that there is picture in there and it is not just a jumble of colours.

1 Week in.
I got a lot done that first week. Just looks like a jumble of oranges. The finished piece will be about 200 X 275 stitches. At this point I was about 100 stitches done....with only 7 thousand more to go.

2 week shot.
I was really in the zone. I had plans to finish this piece by Christmas because it was supposed to be a wedding present for my friends that were getting married this past October.

Week 4 picture.
It was at about this time that I realized there was no way I was going to finish it in time for Christmas. I figured I'd be done by June. Hah! I think it was around September that I realized there was no way I was going to give this away, especially after putting in thousands of hours of work. (Don't worry about my friends though, I made them 2 round ripple afghans for a wedding present because I felt so guilty about not finishing the cross stitch)

This was taken right before Christmas, so at 7 months in.
As you can see between July an December I didn't make much progress. At this point I was thinking I would be done in 2011, about 2 years after I started. It doesn't look like it but there are about 20 different colors stitched. I spend a lot of time changing threads. If you squint and let your eyes lose focus you can almost see the trees taking shape...
11 month shot
& now this is where I was up to as of last night. I've been so horribly excited because I've moved into THE BLUES. At the top, see there? That's BLUE. Thank goodness, because I was getting quite tired of oranges, browns, and blacks. Hah. This is what I have accomplished in 10 months. Granted I have not worked on it all that much in the last few months. Life really gets in the way.

I can't wait to finish, but mostly I just can't wait for it to start to look like SOMETHING.

Doggy sweater I made for Scout. It didn't work out as good as I was hoping. In the end the pattern didn't end up making much sense and then I did some troubleshooting and flew by the seat of my pants and ended up with this. It doesn't stay on her all that well. I think she needs something with actual arm holes.

The No-Sew Fleece Blanket I made Andrew for Christmas. Initially I was going to make a smaller blanket and make mitts, a scarf, and a toque with the fleece. But after I watched some videos on how to make the no-sew fleece blankets I decided it would be best to make a bigger blanket so I didn't have anything left to make the other stuff. I think it turned out very nice. I don't know if I would make them again. It was quite an expensive blanket. $23. I think I would only make it again if I got a really good deal on fleece.

The hat that "Santa" brought for me this Christmas. I love the hat but a certain 4 year old seems to have claimed it as his own. It was time consuming with all the stopping and changing colours, but it is a good way to use up scraps and it looks hella awesome. I want to make more of them!

Now that Christmas is over and after all that time I spent making the round ripples for my friends wedding and I'm sick of crocheting I've moved back into my cross stitch that I anticipate will be complete sometime in 2012. If I squint I can sort of tell that it has trees. :P

Cheers!

I've been plugging away at my cross stitch. I had a bit of a slowdown because I spent most of last week preparing for the Family Sunday at church. But, I think I've been making some nice progress. At the rate I'm going I estimate I'll be done by.....next June....about 1 year after I've started. :P

I hope I get faster.

I did a stint of a large chunk of black this week...and my oh my black is hard to work with. It's absolutely impossible to see where the stitches start and end. I'm done with black for a while now. Moved on to other colours.

It still doesn't really look like anything to me...but I continue on. The bottom right black portion is the beginnings of the man. I got really excited when I realized that. :P

Just for fun I'm throwing in what my master grid looks like. I've got it taped to the wall in our living room. I'm keeping track on individual sheets of paper as well, but I like to fill in the blanks on the master grid. I think it helps to keep me motivated.

& the close up of my master grid. I think I've done a fair bit in 2 weeks.

Hiya all,

I've been steadily working on my new cross stitch that I purchased last week. I've been calling it "In Love".

These are my progress photos. I started in the middle like you're supposed to and when I bought the aida cloth I agonized for a good 20 minutes in Micheal's about which one to get and what I bought should be enough for almost 2 of my pictures...but of course I've got this worry that I will end up not having enough room to complete the picture.

The only thing that is preventing me from being totally and absolutely in love with this piece so far is that I can't see the picture. Do you know what i'm talking about? When I craft I really like (and need) to see the 'big picture' forming...and right now I can't. It's just a jumble of oranges and browns so far. & you can't tell from the picture (& you can barely tell in real life) but there is so far at least 8 different colors in use on the cloth. Some of them are so close that when I'm stitching I can't even see the difference. I'm seriously hoping (& praying a little bit) that once it's a finished product it will look beautiful and the color variations will really mean something then.

As a funny aside Andrew has figured out who this is for. I couldn't help but exclaim, 'how did you know?' when he said who it was for. So the cats out of the bag at our house and even though I told him about a zillion times that it's a surprise I have feeling when he sees my friends next week (they're coming over for dinner) he'll tell them all about their present. Hopefully he'll have forgotten by then...but I wonder if I should tell him that it is for someone else (like grandma) and then let them know the deal?

Anyways...tomorrow is Friday and then it's the weekend! Yippee Skippee!

It's been a cold week here in the Peg. Windchills in the minus 20's. My work has been having heating issues (which really is a nice way of saying that the first and second floors don't have any heat because they are installing new vents) and there is not supposed to be any heat for a few more weeks. brrrr. i'm used to wearing 2 sweaters to work and having the space heater inches away from me under my desk. Although I will admit that it has been better since they got the heat working in the basement. I'm quite surprised by how much only having heat in the basement has warmed up the first floor. I'm so glad it's Friday.

I've just taken an order for a plarn bag and 2 more dishcloths! I'm-a-happening crafty chick this Christmas. It will be more money to add to my mini-holiday fund. I've got money coming for another item that I made. I'm quite pleased with my sales this Christmas.

Since making the round ripple blanket I've been working on my Cross Stitch. I had totally been neglecting my cross stitch and I had purchased quite a few to make for Christmas. I am about 60% finished one (this picture shows it when it was about 30% done--and photographing cross stitch is harder then it looks I would just like to say) and then I have 1 more I definitely HAVE TO MAKE by Christmas. There are 2 others I bought but I can save them for next Christmas. Thankfully, they are all small projects and the more I do this the faster I get.

I've also discovered that it is hard to craft/prepare for Christmas when your house is in complete disarray because your father decides that now is a great time to finish working on your kitchen/living room remodel that was started exactly 1 year ago. (where is that eye rolling emoticon when i need it?) he's drywalling and mudding and preparing doorways. i hope this is all over with soon. i can't take mess and disorganization and having my kitchen all turned upside down.

Me and Steve also worked at organizing/de-cluttering the basement 3 nights this week!

Saturday is super booked for us. The Bank, an event at my church, Steve has work, and I need to plan an Advent Party. Busy as bees!

here's the finished product...sort of. the instructions say to wash, press, and cut fabric to fit the ring...but i'm kind of scared of doing that. sorry it's not the greatest picture, but my camera was being dumb last night.

i don't really get french knots, so i cheated a bit and if you look real real real real close you can see where i've screwed a teensy bit, but i'm going to guess no one is going to look that close.

i took some of my birthday money and purchased some more cross stitch stuff. i think after christmas (with my christmas money) i'll buy a more expensive and complicated and large one and work on it for months and months. lol. i've got serious crafters add.

this is the cross stitch update. weee!!

i had a fabulous time with Kathy on Saturday and she gave me all the basics and watched me for a few hours to make sure i didn't screw it up majorly.

the deets? i can count. i can thread needles repeatedly (although it is the bain of my existence). i'm not a lost cause. i learned that you don't count in from the edge of the cloth for every stitch (that you work off the middle and whatever you did last). i can start and finish a thread. i understand what all of the little symbols mean. i can actually see a picture taking shape in the cloth. i learned it's all about relativity.

i'm finding it nice and relaxing. it's good to try something different crafty-wise. right now it's definitely not all about the crochet for me. i like how this offers something different.

when i finish this one i might just run out and buy another pattern. this one stays in the ring they provide and i think i like that. in the end i might be too cheap for cross stitch. i could handle paying for the pattern...but i don't know about the whole framing aspect. :P framing is expensive. at micheals they had this little one on clearance (& i'm wishing i'd picked it up when i was there) that sat inside a frame (that was provided in the kit. there was also pillow case cross stitch which looked intriguing because i am always all about the practicality of crafts.

i am going to learn how to cross stitch. hopefully. my good hitched friend, kathy is going to teach me while our children run around amok.

hopefully i'm not a lost cause. hopefully i can count. i got one that specifically says 'for beginners'. i hope they're not lying.

i've also been learning to crochet with thread and the tinniest hook you ever saw. it's slower and more complicated then i'm used to, but i'm definitely enjoying it. i've been making snowflake ornaments. i plan to sell them at my upcoming craft sale (sometime in october? maybe november? i should look into that) for like 2 or 3 bucks. they're super cute and i should take pictures of them. i'm even experimenting with adding beads into the crochet. that makes it even slower! but, i'm plugging along.