Another "Finish"

Well, I finished page 2 of Boulevard of Dreams, my first ever HAED - I've been tracking some statistics just because I'm a geek that way:

Some statistics (probably only interesting to me, but.....LOL)

Page 2:
Started - 7/8/11
Finished - 3/18/12
Days Stitched - 29 Days
Time Stitched (Page 2 only) - 61 Hours
Time Stitched (Project to date) - 140 Hours
Stitches (Page 2 only) - 7,546
Stitches (Total Project so far) - 15,386
Percent Completed - 7.33%

I don't normally keep track of my stitching time, but for this particular project I have an Excel spreadsheet that I open up each time I start stitching and track it.  I know when I'm done, people will ask, and I will want to know, how long it took me to stitch it!  LOL

And - by way of comparison - here is how much is done in relation to the whole project - YIKES!!!!!

A Quick Finish for my Niece

I stitched this up for my niece who is graduating from high school this year (obviously!  LOL).  It's a Bobbie G Designs pattern called, shockingly enough "Congrats".

It was a fun quick stitch - colorful, fun, and easy.  I think I finished it up in about 2 weeks or so.  I made a couple of changes (so what's new).  The pattern didn't call for outlining all of the letters (just some of them - which didn't make a lot of sense to me).  I outlined all of them, and also outlined the mortarboard and the stars.  To me, without any backstitching, the stars looked like blobs!  LOL

The pattern also didn't allow for the personalization - but I figured without it, there's no way of knowing it was made especially for her! 

My plan is to go to Joanne's and find some fun whimsical fabric that matches some of the colors in the picture (which shouldn't be hard - there are a BUNCH of colors in there, all fun colors!) and then a friend of mine is going to make me a tuck pillow to put it in.  I figured that way it can go on her bed or on a shelf.  I'm hoping she'll take it with her when she leaves for college in the fall - she's off to Brigham Young! 

Obviously, the actual project has her last name and the name of her school, I just hate to post that much info on the internet.

Thanks for checking it out - once the pillow is done I will post pictures of that as well.

Finished a Lizzie Kate Christmas Project

This was a really fun project to stitch. It was a travel project, so I worked on it at lunch time at work as well as at a stitching get together a couple of weeks ago. I did make one mistake - the bottom border is off one row. It sould have been even with the last little spot where things stick out on the side borders. I realized it when I got all the way across, but I didn't want to rip it out. First off, I didn't think it would REALLY make a difference (in fact it gave me room to put my name and the year - otherwise there would have only been one row in between the cardinal block and the bottom border), but more importantly, the red is a Crescent Colors red, and it's not colorfast. I was afraid if I took it out I would leave red color where I frogged. So I left it - and I'm okay with that!

Now I'm working on another Lizzie Kate - it's a Halloween design that says "Velcome" and has Frankenstein, Dracula and (I think) a ghost.....I'm not looking at it, so I'm not sure! LOL

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Halfway Done with Frederick

Well, the top shelf of Frederick is done......still have the second shelf (and the backstitching) to do. This one is a pretty easy stitch except for the stitching on black issue! LOL

Now I think I'll pull out my Heaven and Earth Designs Vegas picture......that one I may be still working on 10 years from now! LOL

Finished Letters, Leprechauns, & Luck

Well, when my stitching group got together yesterday I "finshed" this one - it was a Blue Ribbon Designs pattern called "Letters, Leprechauns, and Luck".

I made a few minor changes to the pattern, and one major one! LOL

I used the DMC conversions on the chart, and changed (1) the flags on the top and bottom (subbed what was a reddish color and changed it to a more "orange" color), (2) the pots of gold on the top and bottom (made the bottom row of black one stitch smaller on each side so it looked like a pot), (3) made the J shorter (for some reason, it was taller than the other letters), (4) filled in the Celtic not (the pattern JUST had it outlined - it's between the O and the P), and finally, as usual, I subbed beads for the French Knots (on the snake - his eyes, and on the house - the door knob).

The big change I made was that the pattern called for the border to be filled in with a "checker" stitch. I tried it out, and I didn't like the coverage. I think the problem might have been that I stitched on 28 count and the model was stiched on 40 count. But I'm happy with the "open" look of not filling it in.

So I needed to figure out another travel project. I have my Lizzie Kate Christmas one I'm working on "Christmas is Forever" and I also kitted up another Lizzie Kate pattern - this one is a Halloween pattern called "Velcome" It has Dracula, a Ghost, and Frankenstein on it - but cute versons of them! LOL

Anyway, thanks for looking!

Spanish Geometric Sampler

This is the whole picture - you can't see the beads very well - I have beaded the top most band and the two left most bands. They don't show up very well in the picture.

I tried to take a closer picture, but I don't know that it's a whole lot better. I will try to do some better close up pictures when I do my next photo op. I did discover (when looking at the picture) that I have a couple things I have to fix - I'm missing some green stitches next to the purple motif in the top row, and there are supposed to be purple beads in the center of each of the purple motifs in that row. But, alas, my beading patience has run out for a while! LOL

This whole beading process has given me a whole new appreciation for those of you who stitch in hand. I am an avid Q-Snap user, but I can't really put this back on the Q-Snaps to bead it for fear that I will crush the beads. So I've been attaching the beads "in hand" and it's a challenge! But - there's no deadline for it, so I will do it as I can, and it will get done when it gets done! Now....on to something else - probably Frederick, depending on what jumps out at me when I open my WIP box (which is a really bad phrase to use when I'm watching Hoarders on TV - because in that case, things really do jump out of boxes! LOL)

Queen of the Needle

Here's the progress I've made this week on Queen of the Needle. It's a fun stitch, with some specialty stitches. The only thing I've changed (so far) is that the pattern called for Perle Cotton for some of the white, but I didn't like trying to stitch with it (mostly struggled with even just threading the needle! LOL). The roses (the pink flowers) are a funny little stitch, and the hearts are stitchined with kind of a satin stitch. The white row under the hearts is a "fan" stitch. In between the two sets of pansies there is a charm that gets attached, and there are also some other beads to attach. Obviously, I'll leave all of those for last.

Thanks for checking it out!