6/30/11 Contest Information

Ever wanted to learn new embroidery techniques?  Ever wanted to get totally cute patterns for projects?  Mollie over at Wild Olive is hosting an online embroidery class called All In The Details, which is a 5 week long course with a cost of $35, and will teach advanced stitches, how to use specialty flosses, and ways to make your projects more special!

Now, the blog Ooh Leela! is offering you the chance to take the course FOR FREE!

All you have to do is follow Ooh Leela!'s blog to get an entry into the contest.  There are also ways to gain additional entries.  I'm not sure when the winner will be chosen, so head over as soon as you can to get entered!!

Go >>here<< for the contest entry page. 

6/29/11 Update

Sorry for the delay in updates.  We had a few issues with the laptop and I wasn't able to get any pictures put up.  Luckily for you, you now get not one, but TWO updates on the Wild Thing project.

The first is my progress as of 6/27 (Monday):

And here it is after stitching for a few hours on 6/28 (Tuesday):

The wooden frame is almost completely visible.  I think I'll do the same thing I did last time I worked on this project and completely do the wood before working on the animals.  It's definitely stitching up much faster the second time around!

I'm going to work on this project for the rest of the week before switching back to Cinderella for a little bit.  It's beginning to call out to me and I don't think I can ignore it much longer!  =)

Happy Stitching!

6/27/11 Contest Alert

Totally awesome contest going on over at Scissor Quirk right now!  One lucky winner will win an awesome prize pack, so don't wait to go and enter!  Entries will be accepted until midnight of the 31st.

Click >>here<< to go to the entry page.

Good luck!

6/21/11 Updates

Happy post-Father's day everyone!  I hope your weekend was lovely.  =)  We had a very busy, but enjoyable, weekend making the rounds to see everyone and eating much too much food as always. 

I believe it was on Friday night that I just couldn't sleep, so I was up until around 3am stitching to avoid just staring at the ceiling.  It's amazing how much you can get done when the house is silent and there aren't any kids running around to distract you!

Sorry for the low light.  We're in NE Florida and the fires nearby make everyday dim and smoky.  There is still a lot more of that dark green color to come and most of it will be covered up by french knots anyway.  I'm also very conscious of the bottom of this page of the design.  I want to avoid the "paged" look where you can see the line where each page ended, so I'm going to try and work down a few stitches into the next page.  I'm hopeful that doing that will help blend that line a little bit.

Also this week, I got started on the Wild Thing baby sampler (pic on left of blog) for a friend of mine.  She's due in a little over 3 months and I wanted to make sure I gave myself enough time to get it done.  I've stitched this design previously for my son and really enjoyed it.  The colors are so bright and fun that it really is a joy to stitch. 

It's not much to look at so far, but here's progress after getting it started:

I'll be alternating these projects, with my focus being mainly on Wild Thing so that I don't run out of time. 

Happy stitching everyone!

6/17/11 Update

I know I said I'd wait until Monday before posting up any progress pictures, but I've had more time to stitch these last few days than I thought I would!  Plus, I was super excited to see a new, non-beige-y color being introduced today, so I had to share it with you:

The tree on the left is starting to show up!  Yay for greens!!  There have been so many pinks, purples, and yellows that my eyes were starting to go crossed.  =)

I also realized last night that I've actually completely filled in a 50x60 stitch block in the top left corner of the piece.  My best guess is that I've now stitched somewhere around 4500 if not more.  When I think about the Day [9] project being around 7000 stitches it really brings it into perspective for me just how big this project really is. 

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and taking a look!  Hopefully I can get some more done over the weekend and will be able to share an update Monday or Tuesday.

Have a great weekend!!

Contest Alert!

Bev over at My Wee Stitchy Blog has made the move from Blogger to Wordpress.  Her new web address is http://weestitchy.com . 

In order to celebrate the move, she is hosting a contest on her page.  The winner will get their choice of prizes:  A HAED chart, a gift voucher for SEWANDSO, or a donation to your favorite charity.  As a bonus, the winner will also receive a copy of Mollie Makes magazine.

The contest page can be found here, so head on over and get yourself entered to win!

The drawing will be held on July 1st, so you have until June 30th to get yourself entered.  All the details can be found at her site.

WooHoo!

Check it out!

Just under 2 months of blogging here and already over 1000 pageviews. 

I am flabbergasted!

Honestly, I didn't think this little corner of my world would get any attention whatsoever.  To get anywhere near this number in just a few months is just craziness.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and taken an interest in my projects!  I really love reading and responding to comments, so keep those coming.

Also, if you are reading this blog and have one of your own, I'd love to know about it!  I try to keep up with and comment on as many blogs as I can, so if you don't see your blog on my blog roll to the right, please comment on this post or send me a message and let me know so I can add you!

I haven't done anymore stitching on my projects so far this week.  We've been going to VBS at our church each night and visiting friends during the day, so there hasn't been a whole lot of time.  The rest of the week will probably be spent finishing up some homework and driving back and forth from VBS.  Check in for a new stitching update hopefully by Monday!

6/13/11 Update

I'm kinda bummed that the Casey Anthony trial is in recess until tomorrow afternoon.  Listening to the trial and stitching has kind of become something I look forward to doing.  I even got some stuff done around the house yesterday so that I could spend a little more time today stitching. 

But, alas, it was not meant to be today.  I did get some more done on Cinderella over the past few days, so here's the newest update!

I really like this photo because, to me at least, it appears that the left side of the castle is on fire.  I'm focusing right now on that side of the castle and hoping to get the sky area over there done before moving on.  Still getting a bit tired of the sky colors in general, but I figure if I just go ahead and get them done then I won't have to worry about them until the next page.

6/8/11 Updates

Just a few small updates for you today.  It's been another busy week for me, including a psychology midterm, babysitting my adorable nephew, and coming down with a cold. 

"Cinderella" is still coming along pretty slowly.  Lots of light colors and jumping around.  Still, I'm pleased with the progress so far:

I've also worked a little bit on the new embroidery project.  I decided to try filling in the small flowers to see how it would look.

The flower on the left was my first attempt, but I wasn't totally happy with the way it looked.  The right flower, I think, turned out much nicer, so yesterday I picked out the center of the left flower to get it ready to re-do.  It is so much more difficult to pull out stitching in embroidery than it is in cross stitching!  This whole process has been so much fun to learn.  I'm really enjoying it!

**Edited 11:22am -- mixed up my "lefts" and "rights".  Thanks a lot, head congestion!**

Totally Cute Contest!

My Paper Crane is having a super sweet giveaway over here: http://www.mypapercrane.com/blog/?p=4319

15 winners are going to be drawn and the deadline to enter is this Sunday, June 12th.  There are opportunities for extra entries as well.

If you are a fan of cutesy things and yummy desserts, then this is the contest for you!

6/5/11 Embroidery!

I received 3 bags full of stash from my husband's grandmother yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to find some embroidery projects.  Lately, I've been reading through a bunch of embroidery blogs (you can find some on my blog roll to the right!) and have been wanting to give it a try. 

One project that she had previously started, but never finished, appears to be some sort of table runner.  It is pre-printed with flower designs and I think could look really awesome when it's finished.

As you can see, she's gotten most of the starting work done.  The only thing I'm not 100% about is that the smaller flowers are in the same color as the larger one on the other end of the project.  I think I can work around it though.

Deciding to give it a go, I headed over to Wild Olive's Embroidery Basics post and read up.  It's very informative, so go check it out!

I rummaged through my threads and managed to find what I think is the same DMC thread color used in the flowers.  What luck!  So, I started my very first attempt at satin stitching and embroidery in general.

Wanna see my results?

I stitched the 2 on the left.

Close up of the stitching.  I'm very proud!

I think I did pretty good for my first time.  I'm really looking forward to working more on this project and getting acquainted with the different types of embroidery stitches.  When this table runner is done, I think I'll give it back to my husband's grandmother, since she began the project in the first place!

6/3/11 Update

Got some stitching done on Cinderella last night.  I've been so busy with school work, taking care of my kids, stressing out about FedEx and living my day-to-day life that stitching hadn't come to the forefront for a while.  I was really nice just to sit still and stitch.

It's not a huge update, but I did manage to fill in a few squares of confetti that I had missed.  Right now I'm working on the far left side filling in grey/white (which is no fun!)

Still no good news on the Day [9] project.  Barring a miracle, I fear it may be gone forever.  Since there is nothing I can do to bring it back, I'm working up the will to start over on it.  We'll see.

Thanks for checking in!

Heartbreak

My husband has informed me that FedEx has LOST my Day [9] project...  ugh.  =(  I'm so mad at myself for not at least getting the insurance on it.  At the time, I didn't have any idea of what amount it should be insured for!

I seriously have the worst luck possible!  This was the first time I've ever mailed off any finished projects, so I was already pretty nervous about it.  Now, to find out that it's been lost just hurts my poor little heart.

I'm still hopeful that maybe one day it will show up, but for now it has just disappeared into nothingness with very little hope of it being found.  Many people have reassured me that packages DO show up in time, so all is not completely lost.

Thankfully, I did take a lot of progress pictures along the way and at least have something to remember it by.  I also bought enough supplies at the beginning of the project so that I could eventually make two of them, and since I've completed one, I'm sure the second one would be much easier to do and (barring anymore medical fiascoes) wouldn't take as long to complete. 

On the plus side, I wasn't 100% happy with the original project.  I kid you not, there were at least 5 individual stitches that I can remember being slightly off that bugged me even after I had it framed.  If I do restitch it I think I can do a much better job of it!

For now, I'm still considering when I want to get started on it again.  For now, I'll just look at the pictures and hope that it shows back up again.