Back to stitching

Schlock with dice - original picture

Finally I am able to say that I have finished stitching the pieces for the Art Show and am back to stitching and having some fun. 

The project that I am now working on is based on a character in an online comic that my husband follows.  The comic is Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler and this is one of his main characters.  I was looking for something that would be quick to stitch but once again something that I was designing.  So we found this pin that Howard had sold at a convention and I immediately thought that it was something that I could use as a starting point for my stitching.

Schlock with dice my version

What I did do was add some shading in various spots so it gave it a bit more character and then started stitching this piece.  I started this project on March 26th and am happy with the progress that I have made so far.  As you can tell there aren't a lot of colours on this piece so it is going quickly.  Yes there are more colours than in the original pin but still only 18 so that makes me happy.

I know that I have a lot of other designs that I should be working on but having something that is less than 5 inches square to work on is great.  Of course right now it means that this is getting all my stitching attention and the other projects are sitting waiting for their turn.  I know that just having a bit of a chance will help me feel better so I will be picking up some of the other projects again very soon.

As for the pieces for the Art Show they are currently being stretched and then I will frame them and they will be ready to go.  I will take a picture of the pieces before they are submitted but first I need to get all the pieces into frames and ready to go.  Now to finish up that framing and onto the other two.

It is now time for me to get some work done today and then I will see how much stitching time I have this evening.  I do now that I need to get the stretching done as well so maybe one night this week I will focus on that.  As for now work needs to be done and stitching will have to wait.

A little bit of progress

I am very happy to say that Blackbird finally came out of the bag for a couple of hours this month.  I haven't been able to find a lot of time to work on Blackbird but figured it needed a little bit of love this month so I pulled it out last week.

Of course I am still working on getting everything ready for the art show for the weekend of April 10th-12th so that is keeping me very busy.  I hope to have the final piece stitched soon so that I will feel a little more under control. 

When I have had a few minutes to craft this last little while I have been working on crocheting some baby hats.  The hats are something that I can pick up and work on even for a few minutes at a time.

Hopefully soon I will be back to posting regular updates of what I have been working on.  I am looking forward to picking up Blackbird and Omi's Rose on a regular basis and seeing results on both of them.  First the art show piece needs to be completed so it's now time for me to curl up and work on it for a while.

Donating results of my skills

Square donation

Over the last while we have been cleaning up around the apartment and one thing that I keep finding where more and more squares that I had either made or others had given to me for various projects.

As I looked at the pile of squares as it grew I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to be able to do all the projects that these squares needed.  I then decided that there are a lot of places that can use the end results of afghans or lapghans so needed a location where these squares could be used.

This past week I had been sending out emails to various organizations to see if they could use the squares as is and not just the finished projects.  I got one reply that said thanks but no they only accepted finished afghans.  I continued to email and the results were a lot of unanswered emails.  Friday I then decided that between Facebook and maybe one other contact I might be able to find a home for the squares.  Through Facebook I got a couple of items, one I had already emailed and another one that only wanted 8 inch granny squares.

It then came down to my one other contact that I tried to see if I could quickly find a home for these squares. If he couldn't help all the squares were going to go into storage for a while until I could find a home for them.  As you can see my one other contact Facebook link for The Yarn Guy (Peter) sent me an email yesterday saying that his stitch group would greatly appreciate the squares and they would make the afghans for charity.

The squares were quickly put into the bags and into the car and were delivered to him.  The look on his face was well worth the emails and the drive over.  He didn't know it was me he was hearing from but was happy to see my contribution.  He quickly put on his jacket to help unload the trunk and all the staff quickly started going through the bags and box to see how they could do with the pile.  This picture was taken by him has he wanted to ensure that his Facebook followers knew about what I had done.

I am happy that all of these squares have now found a new home and I know that they are going to be used for some projects to help others.  I am working on cleaning up so there may be more squares being delivered to him in the future.

It felt really good knowing that the squares have found a new home and a group of individuals now have lots of squares to use for projects.

Currently no progress on crafts

Well after organizing my office area and getting the chair in so that I can have a spot to hide and stitch we decided to reorganize a lot of the apartment.

I have been spending a lot of my free time when not working on cleaning out old craft supplies and yarn that I don't want to use any longer.  The good news is I am making room but it won't be for more yarn at this point.  I have decided that I am only going to be keeping the yarn that I will see myself using instead of keeping yarn that I may never use.

Now as for cross-stitching I am finding bits of time to do that but again there isn't anything to show.  I hope that after getting the apartment organized I will be able to just relax and do quite a bit of the crafts that I love doing.  I am looking forward to after all of this cleaning up to be able to get back to designing and stitching on projects that I love. 

So as for now I am going to have to get back to getting some work done and then this evening maybe I will find a little bit of time to craft.