Where did Sunday go?

I know that yesterday was Sunday but have to admit that I really don't know where the entire day went.

Crown of Squares - Saturday night

On Saturday I was able to get a bit more of the outline done which was making me feel good because I haven't been able to lose myself cross-stitching for quite a while.  I figured I wanted to finish the outline before I started any of the other colours.  Finishing the outline also ensured that it was all done correctly and I wouldn't find an error in the border after working hours on the inside colours.  Yes I had to "frog" the outline a few times due to miscounting.

Crown of Squares - Sunday night

Yesterday morning I got up and decided that I was going to spend my day stitching and that I did.  Thanks to my DH for making sure I ate, had my caffeine and stayed hydrated I sat and stitched and stitched.  I am really enjoying this pattern and can't wait to finish up my work for today so that I can pick it up again and see what I can get done tonight.  The blue in the middle of the outline is an overdyed blue and even the outline is an overdyed grey but the picture isn't showing either of the colours too well.  Also the stitching is straight, I am just having problems getting a straight on picture.

Now I better get to work so that I can spend my evening stitching again.

Stitching

Yesterday I went to the Creativ Festival at the International Centre here in Toronto.  I looked around and saw quite a few things that I would like but was good and only picked up a couple of items. 

When I got home a project was calling out to me so I decided it was time to sit down and stitch for a while.  I got Ink Circles "Celtic Quilts: Crown of Squares" but didn't like the colours it called for so this week when I was in Gitta's I picked the colours I wanted to use for the design.  So I sat down and started to work on it.

Ink Circles:  Crown of Squares

Now the fabric I am using is a hand dyed grey fabric which I picked up at the NeedleWorkers MarketPlace a couple of weeks ago.  So far the pattern is working up quickly but I am concentrating on the outline first and then I will work on filling in all the areas.  The main part of this pattern was pinks and rose colours and considering I am not into those colours too much I decided to use the greys and blues which I prefer.  I did keep one of the rose colours so will use it in one spot where they had called for a blue.

This week I also started working on the Round Robin piece from the Getaway so will have a picture of that in the next couple of days.

My goal this weekend is to work on Crown of Squares and see how much I am actually get completed.

My knitting needles and crochet hooks have been down for quite a while so hope that I can soon pick them up again and start seeing progress on that front as well.

Back to reality

I seem to have lost the last week but that is because I has busy working and not doing much crafting.  I did pick up my needles a couple of times but don't have anything to show yet.  I hope to have some pictures of progress in the next couple of days.

The getaway was wonderful and have to admit that after the weekend it did take a couple of days to recover and catch up on the sleep that I missed that weekend.  I didn't get much stitching done that weekend but enjoyed renewing all the friendships from last year and establishing new friendships.

The Gitta's getaway blog has a write up about the weekend so that if you are interested you can see what we were up to.

Now to get back into a routine of working on some of my projects so that I will be able to see progress on them.  Yes I picked up a couple more projects to do last weekend so now need to finish a couple that I have on the go first.

Finished name tag

Here is my completed name tag that I designed for the Gitta's Getaway which is this weekend.

The rules for the name tag were it couldn't be larger than 4x3 inch and our name had to be on it.  As you can see I was able to get my name on it and it measures just under the 4"x3" size.  

The entire name tag is petit pointed on 23ct cordova canvas so considering I did the front and back of it there were lots of stitches to do.  The name tag once again is a pocket that will hold my room key on the weekend.

Now the reason there are butterflies on it, is simple I love butterflies and what they represent.  Butterflies emerge from a cocoon and then fly around freely.  Oh the charms on it say "Dream" and "Believe".  Dream is for what everyone needs to do and believe for believe in yourself so that you can reach those dreams.

In the last couple of years I feel that I have emerged and started to show people what I do.  For so many years I just kept everything to myself and no one ever saw anything I did.  This blog has been part of my change and also now being a co-owner of a business I have had to be able to present myself a little differently.

There are still challenges that I want to achieve and hopefully over the next little while I will be able to start achieving them.  I am happy where I am currently heading and look forward to seeing what really happens.

Cross stitching

Status on March 2th

This week I decided to pick up a cross-stitch project that I haven't worked on for quite a while and see what progress I could make on it.  I had forgotten how many pages were in this pattern but am making progress.  The cross-stitch is Paradigm Lost by Long Dog Designs and the pattern is 12 pages. If you want to see the completed piece click here and scroll down the page to see it. 

status on March 25th

So you can see that I have made some progress this week and it is over one thread so it does take me a little longer to do it than if it was over 2.   The motif that I am currently working on is large so it is taking me some time to get through it but am just about half way through it.  I am not going to complete the motif at the bottom as I want to continue working towards the right so that I can complete another page.  This week I was finally able to say that I have completed one page of the pattern.

Status on March 31st

I'm not taking this piece with me this weekend so that once I put it away tonight I won't be working on it again until sometime next week.  That's ok because I will be working on a couple other projects this weekend and look forward to seeing how much of them I actually get done.

One piece I am looking forward to doing is the Exclusive Round Robin that is being held tomorrow night at the Gitta's Getaway.  I have seen the completed piece and am excited to actually work on it.

I better get organized so that I can sit down for a while this evening and see if I can get a bit more of this done.

Crocheted

Preemie hat

I just looked at the calendar and realized that I have been quiet for a few days and realized why.  I haven't been doing a lot of crafting lately so haven't had much to write about.

I did sit down a couple of nights ago and crocheted a preemie hat.  It wasn't very hard and it was quick to stitch up which was great because sometimes I would like to see some quick results.  Now that this hat is done I have trying to think of what other colours, or themed hats I could make out of this pattern.  I know that I can make these quickly and have lots of yarn that I can use for these.

Besides working on this hat I have looked at my name tag for the getaway and realized that the getaway is next weekend and I haven't finished my name tag yet.  I guess that is something that I need to focus on over the next couple of days so that it is ready.  I will post a picture of my name tag on Friday once I am there.

Time to try and get something done but I do know that tomorrow I am going to work on a cross-stitch that hasn't been worked on for quite a while.

My biscornu

After stitching on the 15 sided biscornu and also on a bunch of the other biscornus I decided it was time to try one of my own. 

I have worked on my name tags for the Getaway for two years now and always used parts of other patterns to come up with my name tag but for my biscornu I decided to grab some paper and start working on a design that was something that I thought up and not parts of other people's designs.

After some thought and some problems I came up with a design that I thought would work so I sat down to start stitching it.  Now I have come to realize why so many designers want to stitch their own design first before any one else sees it.  I started with a design that I thought would work only to discover that when I started to stitch it there were problems with it.  So after taking out parts of the pattern and rethinking it I came up with the final design that I was happy with. 

So the biscornu that is posted here is what the final results were and now to sit down and rechart it.  I did see a problem after I stitched it all but that will be corrected when I rechart it and hopefully I will restitch it again with a different colour.

Now my challenge is to find some charting software that will let me chart the pattern on lines and not just between lines.