Dragons... and a question.

Well... I was hoping that by now I might be stitching on Counting Bats by Just Nan. As it is Hallowe'en tomorrow. But sadly that ducky is still not done. ;)
That is okay... we'll get there.

But I do have an udpate for you on Judgement (dragons) by Character Creations.
And with it I have a question for you.

I have gotten to the last page of the first row... so I now have the complete width (the top dozen rows there is the page edge). Apparently I can't count or at least not when I started this... and I started it with only 2" on the left side, and therefore with 4" on the right. So do you think this is okay for framing?
Here's a pic:


I am kinda freaking out about this. As this is already one years worth of work and I just don't think I could stand to start again (albeit I was sick for 6 months of that year... but still...)... so I'm hoping that it will be okay. But that said... I want to know before I go any farther if that 2" is a potential problem for framing?
I have a great framer... he's sick right now, but I hope he gets better soon. I'd take it to him and ask but he's in the hospital... (but looks like he'll be out soon). So I can't ask him. So I turn to my wonderful online friends.

Okay... here are the standard pics as well, the full piece to date:



And the portion I am working on right now in close-up so you can get an idea of the stitches:



I do hope you all have a wonderful Hallowe'en. I love Hallowe'en so am looking forward to it. In fact I'm already wearing my kitty ears!
I do have to work on sunday which kinda sucks. But that is okay... we are coming into insane time of year for the next four weeks at my office... so my stitching progress may decrease for a bit b/c of overtime work. But it will make a comeback in December.

Thanks for visiting and your comments, and a thank you to those of you who answer in advance my fabric question!

PIF Winners & WIP updates

Okay... first off my apologies that I didn't get the PIF winners posted over the weekend. Totally my bad.
But without further delay I have them:

• Silverlotus
• EvalinaMaria
• Sarah Lindfield
(If you haven't already done so, can you please send me your mailing addresses?)

Thank you to everyone who entered. Those are the three that got selected.
Here is the deal for those who want to randomly post if on their blog, and to those ladies above to pass on:

1. Send no less than 5 stitching related items per person within the next 365 days.
2. Items can be DMC, other threads, stitching needles, straight pins, buttons, scissors, ribbons, etc. - a combination of items such as 3 threads, 1 pack of straight pins and 1 pack of stitching needles or just 5 threads.
3. The items must be new and not used. (Send things you'd be happy to receive.)
4. If you win, you must be willing to post this PIF on your blog and do the same for at least 2 people.

Alright... so those lucky ladies will be getting some treats from me. And I do hope keep the chain alive on their blogs. So maybe visit them and check out what they post! :)


I stitched quite a lot on the past weekend. I have a new update for snowman... he is very close to being done. Just needs some pine boughs and the buttons (which I will put on once him and the stocking are done cause then they will be ironed and cut out and stuff).
Here he is so far:


And I got the first two pages of blue on the ducky done! Have I mentioned that I can't wait for this project to be done... now it's dragging cause I've been avoiding it. lol. But it will get done, before Xmas. Here he is so far:


I will have some updates for dragons again (like I said good stitching weekend) and maybe even an update on my Castles in the Air SAL by end of the week.
Thanks for visiting and all your comments!

Blue Ribbon Designs

Well... I was bad. ;)
I have ordered from my LNS this really cute pattern from Blue Ribbon Designs.
For those who aren't aware Hallowe'en is my favourite time of the year. So this is just too awesome to pass up. Even though I have a million patterns at home right now that I love to stitch, I've ordered it anyways.
It's called Black Cats, Flying Bats.
I love that you can do the full piece or make little ornaments. So cool.
Here is a pic of the full piece (if you click the photo you can see it bigger):


And how it could look if you break it up:


You can check out more info on it at their site, it shows all the colours used and stuff, gotta tell you that is a handy thing when you are trying to decide what to order online. Their site is here:
www.blueribbondesigns.com/Black%20Cats%20and%20Flying%20Bats.html
(this is a free plug, I don't get paid or anything just like to give people the ability to check out where I get my info from)

Nancy - I worked on Papillon SAL last night just for you! :) But don't have any photos ready yet cause I didn't get very much done.

PIF closes tomorrow, go to this post and comment if you want to be in the draw:
PIF post

Thanks for your comments on Dragons! You all help me stay motivated on that one.

Dragons and Snowmen (WIP updates)

Wow, this must be a record, two posts in less then 24 hours. ;)

So we got some pictures last night of dragons and my snowman ornament.
Let's start with Judgement Dragons. This is the last page of this row that I am working on. I can't wait to have a whole row done so I've been working on this a lot!
Here is the full piece:


And here is the part I am working on in a bit more detail (forgive the mild blurriness):


I have also been working on my snowman Button Up ornament.
Here is his progress so far. (And I love the silks so much, great to work with!):



I am leaving my PIF (in the post below) open until the end of the week. So if you want to participate and receive a PIF for me and then post your own, please comment on the post below and I will add you to the draw.

Coming up for me, I need to work on the ducky (I have been avoiding him), more dragons, more snowman, maybe some Papillion SAL.
But tonight we have concert tickets to Slipknot (Yep, even girls that stitch can like heavy metal). ;) So not stitching. But will be back at it tomorrow.
I am also looking at changing my layout on here... so watch for new colours/backgrounds etc. hopefully soon.
Thanks again for visiting and commenting! :)

Pirates and PIF

Well it's been a bit of crazy day for me today. Weird stuff at the office... so this is a nice break to check-in and update here.
I did have some fantastic news today... and that is that I was picked by Meari on her PIF (Pay it forward) from her blog!

So she sends me a treat of 5 stitching related items. :D
Now it's my turn to give it to three other people!

The rules are as follows:

1. Send no less than 5 stitching related items per person within the next 365 days.
2. Items can be DMC, other threads, stitching needles, straight pins, buttons, scissors, ribbons, etc. - a combination of items such as 3 threads, 1 pack of straight pins and 1 pack of stitching needles or just 5 threads.
3. The items must be new and not used. (Send things you'd be happy to receive.)
4. If you win, you must be willing to post this PIF on your blog and do the same for at least 2 people.

Alright... so I'm gonna be drawing for three people to do this for. So please comment if you want to be a part of this. But remember you have to be willing to reciprocate on your blog! ;)

I have an update for you of Sue Hillis Design "Love Pirate".
I have been backstitching as I go cause I find it not as much fun as cross stitching. So I hate leaving it to the end.
(don't mind the crookedness of this photo or the lack of ironing, lol). Here is the update:


I will have updates of dragons, maybe ducky and snowman tomorrow or Wednesday. Just gotta get some pics taken!
Thanks for visiting and your comments!

A Finish... that Glows!

Well I had a finish on the weekend... that I'm fairly excited about.
It's just the little moon mirror, but here is what is cool about it... I added some glow-in-the-darks to it and it turned out really cool (at least in my opinion).

Here it is on it's own:



And here it is with it glowing in the dark (huge thanks to my B/F for figuring out how to take this picture):


Edit to this post at 2:30pm... my man came up with this neat animation so I thought I would post it into here so you could see...


And of course with any good finish comes a new start!
And as it's been snowing here (which is uncommon for this time of year) since thursday it seems appropriate that I decided I had to get my Christmas stitching going... I am stitching two Button Up Ornaments. One for my Mom (the snowman) and one for my Grandma (the stocking). They both have made ornaments for years for us kids and my tree is covered in them... so I wanted to return the favour.
Here is my tiny start on the snowman (and yes I did get the thread pack so I have lovely silks to stitch with for these, so great!):


And here is what they will both look like in the end:


I do hope others are keeping warm and not getting as snowed in as we are!
I have also made some good progress on dragons in the past few days and will have an update of them soon! (at this rate I may *knock on wood* actually make my deadline for page 4 on this one, so exciting).

Thanks for visiting

Ahhh.. the Snow!

I wish I could get my camera phone to sync with my computer... so then I could show you that it is snowing outside my window. It has been doing so off and on since Saturday. But not it's starting to stay on the ground. :( Seems like I will be hibernating early this winter and stitching as I hate driving in the snow and tend to go to work and go home right after in these conditions.

In other news I just wanted to update that it was in fact not our family friend who was found the other day. I thank you all for your comments on the situation... He is still missing... almost 22 months now... and for the most part we have all given up hope of finding him one way or another. But for the time being we go back to waiting... and at least it's not the kind of waiting that I have to watch the news for information on bodies. (for interest sake the body was determined to be someone of the homeless community).

Again thank you for your kind words.

Anxious & WIP updates

Okay let's start with what is making me anxious and get it out of the way.
A boy in our area... disappeared without a trace two and a half years ago after work. He was 28 years old... a solid, normal, well-behaved guy. Still lived at home. His Mom was a lady I knew well growing up and I had met him numerous times...
He disappeared January 2007.
Everytime there is an announcement that a body has been found in town I get anxious about it being him. But this time it's bigger... they have found a body... that is either so decomposed it can't be identified as even male or female, or mutilated beyond recognition. Not sure which. But somewhere in my gut this feels like it could be him because they couldn't immediately identify him...
So I'm waiting... on the edge of my chair for an update...
It's just so hard to keep waiting (they found the body yesterday and there has been no word). I can't decide if I should keep my fingers crossed that it is him... or not. Because if it's not him then there is a sliver of hope that he is still alive, however if it is him it will be closure for everyone, especially his family... So tough.


Alright... onto much better things...
Some WIP pics for you to look at. (yeah I know it's kinda boring to see the same projects all the time, but these are what I am working on).
More ducky... I feel like I made some progress on the blue which is exciting!


And a WIP of Dragons. The first is the entire piece to date... and the second is the latest section I've been working on. I thought as this piece gets bigger that this would be helpful to see what I have done.




Thanks for visiting and all your comments!!