In All Its Glory!

Here is China in all her glory. I picked this up from the framer's today and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The spot of glare is from the camera flash (couldn't help that, I'm not the greatest photographer around). The mat on the bottom is gold metallic matching the gold in the stitching. The red mat on top is actually silk. It really cool and matches the red perfectly. The frame is black, shiny on the outer edge and a matte finish next to the mat. I thought about a shinier frame but it was just overwhelming. I really like how this turned out. It is almost worth all the agonizing I spent over it. The really neat news about this piece is that Chris and Annette (the lucky owners of it - they just don't know it yet) will be here at Christmas. So I can can wrap it and have it under the tree for them. Both David and I are so excited. This is the first time in about 7 years where all our kids are home for the holidays. And David's mom will be here as well. We'll have a full house and are really looking forward to it.

Some Stitchy Thoughts!

I'm just taking a little break from working in my craft room and some thoughts starting invading my mind. I was sorting through a pile of patterns I've recently acquired (some free, most of them purchased) and it occured to me that I have more stash than I can ever stitch in 2 lifetimes! There must be a zillion (ok, not a zillion but a whole lot) of free patterns on the Web. Some simple, others that I would pay for, they're so good. Why do I feel the need to buy more when I could stitch all the free ones out there and never finish them? I have patterns out the wahzoo that I plan on getting rid of and still I buy. Some I know I'll never stitch but I can't bear the thought of getting rid of them, I like them so much. Same with threads and fabric. I do like the idea of going to my stash and pulling fabric and threads, but more times than not, I end up buying new stuff. It's a sickness, I tell ya. I could blame it on working in a LNS and seeing so much new stuff coming over my desk. I'm so weak. I tell myself you don't need it, but then I find myself at the register checking out new stash. It's like the invasion of the body snatchers. Some addicted little alien is inside me making me buy all this stuff. That's my excuse and I'm stitcking to it.

Starting Anew!

Well, I've started a new project last week. This is one of the new line of kits from Anchor. My friend, Don, from work loves poppies and has had several people stitching needlepoint projects for him. I decided he needed a cross stitch project to go along with them. So I found this online and ordered it. I started it last week and boy, is it weird. After spending almost a year working with one strand over one thread on 25 count lugana, I'm now using 2 strands over 14 count aida. It felt so bulky at first. It was just so wrong. Now I'm not someone who won't stitch on something if it's not linen. If the kit has aida, then that's what I use. I guess I'm too thrifty (e.g. cheap) to spend this much money on a kit then throw half of it away. But it's so different. It is a quality kit. Has Anchor threads (which I really prefer over DMC) and a good quality of Aida. It's stitching up quickly but I'm NOT going to say when I'm going to have it done by. I learned my lesson on the China piece. It'll will get done when I finish it.

Oh Happy Day! It's Done!!

It's done, it's done, it's finally done!! I can't believe it. It took me a year longer than I originally estimated but it's really and truly done. I finished it up earlier this week and just now was able to get the picture uploaded. Let's see, this was supposed to be a Christmas gift for my son and his wife last year. Then it was going to be a birthday present in January for him. Then it was an anniversary gift for them. So I guess we've come full circle on this and it will be a Christmas present for this year. With the exception of the scene in the middle, it really was an easy stitch. But oh boy, was that scene a bear! If I had just taken the time to really examine the pattern, I would have seen all the quarter stitches and would not have chosen to stitch it over one. But, nooo, I had to plunge head first into it and by the time I realized the problem, it was too late. But I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Hopefully they will like it as much as I do. Now to get it framed. I was thinking of stitching the pattern by the same designer called It's All Greek to Me (both Chris and Annette majored in Biblical languages in college). I'm not too sure if I want to tackle it though. If I did, I'd want to do it over one as well (to keep them the same size) but I just don't think I'm ready to give that a go.

Happy Dance Part 2!

Oh happy day!! I finally finished the middle section of the China piece. Once I started backstitching on it, it went really fast. As hard as it was to stitch, I'm really glad I stuck with it. I think it turned out really well. Now that the middle section is finished, the rest of the cross stitching is going really well. I can honestly say I see the end. And getting so close to finishing this is making me excited about stitching other pieces. Maybe I'll dig out another UFO to finish.

Thoughts on a Movie

I've gotten bogged down again on the China piece. I've promised myself that as soon as I finish here, I will go in and stitch on it. I'm also going to try to keep up with this blog more often. That means some of what I blog about won't be cross stitch related but I hope it will be interesting.

I saw a very good movie over the weekend. Now I love a good action, end of the world movie. I'm really not into so-called chick flicks. Oh, I'll watch them at home but I usually won't go to see them in a theater. So this weekend Dave and I went to see District 9. It was just my kind of movie. Lots of action and aliens. Also lots of violence and raw language (which I do NOT like but when spoken with a South African accent it wasn't so easy to understand what they were saying). All this being said, I've been thinking about this movie all weekend. On the surface. it was humans vs. the aliens vs. big business. But on a deeper level, it really made me think about just who are the real monsters. Often we're afraid of people or things that we preceive are different from us. They may look different or sound different or act different. But strip off all the outer trappings, and I'll bet we'll find that they are just like us. They want a home or family or love. But we label them and try to push them aside so we can't see them. I know I'm guilty of it sometimes. From now on, when I'm tempted to do that, I'll try to remember District 9 and the lessons I've learned from it.

Happy, Happy Dance!

Yes! I'm happy dancing all over the house. I finally finished the cross stitching of the center section. I was bound and determined to finish it yesterday. I decided I just needed to suck it up and finish it. So I spent several hours just working on it and voila! It's done. I even managed to start the backstitching on it. That should go considerably faster than the cross stitching. I know, I know. Famous last words. But I can see the end. So let's boogie together and celebrate!