OhSewCrafty Blog

Heya!  My stitchy mojo has been weird lately.  I hate daylight savings time and potty training my toddler is a big distraction.  Nevertheless, progress has been made.  Let’s get to it!  

The last week in February, I worked on Air Goddess.  Previously:

Currently:

First I concentrated on the upper right quadrant of the design; after 3 days the regular cross stitching was finished.  But I wasn’t ready to put her away, so I went back to the bottom half. I broke out the Kreinik- cross stitching in confetti gold all along the petticoat and purple mambo in the celedon wrap.  I also did some backstitching in those, plus silver Kreinik, and two colors of DMC.  The detail is extensive!  The backstitching on her petticoat- those are the symbols for gemini, aquarious, and libra- the air signs of the zodiac.  The detail on the bottom half is almost complete, after 2 days.  And now I need to order some more Kreinik- the leftovers in my stash will not suffice for this pattern.

My “Happy” received some more love, overlapped with Air Goddess a little.  Less than 24 hours later, I happy danced!

 With rotation goals complete, there were a few days at the end of February up for grabs, including Leap Day.  I decided to work on Mask of Colors QS (WIPocalypse goal no. 3), (or Confetti-tastic, as I call her).  Previously (half done):

Now:

 I worked the leftmost column down to the last row of the chart, leaving lots of threads parked in the next column to the right; that took 2 days.  On the 3rd day, I cleaned up all the parked threads which actually allowed me to finish most of the second column.  So this is a good start on my yearly goal- to reach 75%.

Siren & Shipwreck received 5 days on the scroll bars.  Previously:

Currently: 

I finished her dorsal fin (the greens), mermaid tail (the blues), stitched the back streamer, the chandelier, a little bit of her skin (to help with counting) and then started the hair, with a red conversion and other changes.  I love it.

12 Days of Christmas by Joan Elliott got 2 days of attention.  Progress on that is blogged here.  I was quite pleased to finish the regular cross stitching in the second “tier”; this is almost half of the chart.  

I then rotated to The Castle by Teresa Wentzler (WIPocalypse goal no. 6).  Previously:

Currently:

I finished the water area, most of the dragon spine, stitched the mountains on the left horizon, and made a good start on the castle.  Completing the castle area, and backstitching the rocky cliff, are my yearly goals.

Question of the Month: Do you use hoops, stretcher bars, lap stands or Q snap frames and why?  I use scroll frames with a lap stand, whenever I can.  The lap stand allows for 2- handed stitching, which I prefer because I stitch much faster that way.  I like scroll frames because I can roll my project from the inside (i.e., stitching “in the well”) and this means that when my top hand touches the bottom scroll as I’m stitching, it touches the back of the fabric.  And the fabric is rolled up neatly around the scrolls, which keeps it from getting dusty and wrinkled.  Also, I can also use the scroll frame for beading- I only roll the fabric at a looser tension so as not to crush the beads.  

In the last week of March, I will attempt to finish Midsummer Night Fairy (WIPocalypse Goal 2).  April 1st, I plan to rescue Maiden & Unicorn (WIPocalypse Goal 4) from the UFO pile.  12 Days of Christmas will receive some love during first weekend.  My Mirabilia projects (Siren & Shipwreck, Blitzen) will receive some attention, since I do plan to take them to the Mirabilia retreat.  Also, I may work on Air Goddess.  I really want to finish her by the end of June.