Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Best/Worst weekend ever


Pigeon Forge Haul
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

It has taken me 3 days to recover from this past weekend and post for you. Now let me tell you why. I decided several weeks ago to get in on the annual pigeon forge retreat hosted by Katrina over at Crossed Threads. I got my mom to come down and watch A. so I could go. I thought I could get out of my friday obligations at work and leave early in order to have a whole 2 days up in the mountains to stitch.

It all began to fall apart about a week before I left, I found out that I had misread my schedule and that we had an anatomy practical on the friday I wanted to leave, and thatI had to stay till it was all cleaned up. So that meant instead of leaving around 8 in the morning I would be leaving at 4 in the afternoon. ugh. but what are you going to do? my job is worth more than my vacation. It is a 4 hour drive so I think I'll get there by 8-9pm at the latest. Fast forward to fri afternoon, So I am heading out making GOOD time when I discover that there is a rock slide on 40 blocking this highway at the border. I freak out cause I only had my mapquest directions with me (the trip involved exactly 2 turns) , there are detours posted but I have no idea if they will put me back on 40 before or after my exit. so I call my husband who tells me the detour will add another hour and a half to my trip, and in the middle of giving corrected directions my phone dies (my new phone that i did not get a car charger for yet!). I am very upset thinking about heading home, but by then i am in TN and about an hour away...I stopped in a rest stop and picked up a cheap map to get me the rest of the way there. arriving around 10:30PM. YAY but I am so agitated i cannot stitch for another hour or so.

Saturday was a good day, hung out with my roomate Shelley, shopped at Dixie Darlin, ate at the Old Mill, stitched till late, had a great time with the games, dirty santa gift exchange, and ornament exchange. Shelley and I decide that we are going to try the Apple Barn for breakfast early the next morning which I had never been to. But once out the door, I discover my car is DEAD, not reving, not not turning over, DEAD. So Shelley jumps my car (we both had jumper cables) and we decide to just get on the road and head our separate ways (she is in GA). I head home, but notice that my radio falters every time I turn on my turn signal. NOT good. So I decide I can't stop or my car will be dead again. I did pause for gas and some snacks (remember no breakfast) but i did not turn off the car while i filled up (it drove me nuts too, I was waiting for the gas cops to show up...) I got home by 1 and when i turned off the car in my drive way it would not start up again (as i had suspected) . I now have a new battery and my mom is headed home to PA. So while my trip was horrible I did get in 1 full good day stitching.

My Haul:
Sampler snowman by Homespun elegance, recipe cards, dinky dyes floss and other patterns not pictured here won in doorprizes and bingo.
Lots of fabric (can you tell i am out of natural shades of linen?), some NN floss, The Branch by Bent Creek, and Curlylocks by Silver Creek Samplers. all bought.

The ornament i got in exchange for my penguin is that cute snowman down in front, and I also got the Snowman photobooth kit from Bent Creek aquired thru the dirty santa exchange. He is so cute I started stitching it already, even though I have ornaments I need to do for 3 more exchanges coming up in Dec.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

I am a selfish stitcher


Purple Penguins
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I have discovered I will not stitch an ornament for another if I haven't done it for myself too. Either in the past or at the same time. Above are 2 Purple Penguins from Casey Buag...Baguar...Buaginario? Damn I can't remember the name...If anyone has the newest JCS orn mag in front of them you can find it there. I stitched it some random cheap purple fabric i had around, and as you can see the fabric isn't quite square (the pattern is!) but they came out very cute anyway, and i used some tricks i learned finishing the mermaids to make the finishing look pretty darn good. One is mine, the other will be heading with me to my stitching retreat this weekend in Pigeon Forge TN.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Maidens of the Sea DONE!


MoS front
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

See everyone! I did finish it around 2pm on Sunday.
I am pretty happy with the finishing. the instructions were good, just a few things missing that i had to work around. It ended up a bit overstuffed/distorted, if I did it again I would leave out the batting in the front, and just use interfacing. The fob came out perfect though.

Hear is the back:

MoS back
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

and the inside:

MoS inside
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Getting there

I have one more hairstyle to do on one last mermaid, and then I will be done with the stitching part. I am a bit intimidated by the finishing, and i will not be able to get the finishing stuff for another couple of days. But It MIGHT be done by the end of the weekend.
Edited: finished last night around 11pm. now working on the turtles and about to start some more ornaments.


MoS all done before assembly
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist



MoS Closeup
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Friday, October 16, 2009

And now a plug for my favorite actor/writer/geek





As long time readers of my blog know I am a Star Trek fan, ( so much so that I flew to Vegas for 24 hours just to do "The Experience") Some of you may also remember that one of my very first mentionings of this was the fact that I had "rediscovered" one of my favorite actors from ST:TNG , Wil Wheaton blogging on the internets. Since then he has published 2 more books (adding up to 4 on my shelf right now), and he has not given up acting. You may have seen him in the past few years on CSI, Numb3rs, Leverage, Criminal Minds, and Family Guy. Next week in fact he will be on Big Bang Theory. Shoot, I guess the point of all this is that I , along with many of his fans are just darn proud of him. He was beaten down pretty bad during the Next Gen years, suffering as only a teenager can, disappeared from the public for a long while,and now is doing really well. I have never told you guys to buy anything...until now:

IF you ever watched the first few episodes of ST:TNG and IF you catch yourself watching them now on SyFy and cringe a bit during some of the akward parts. You need to buy Wil's latest rendering called Memories of the Future Part 1. Wil takes each episode of the first part of season 1 and does a recap/MST 3000 riff of them with a bit of backround insight for each one. Trust me when i tell you it is hysterical. I have not yet recieved my copy, but i have read most of the book in pieces over the years (The episodes were first reviewed by Wil for TV Squad). If you are not a fan of ST:TNG, but have a brother/sister/uncle/cousin who is...this is your christmas gift to them. You can only find the book on Lulu, when you order it it will be printed and sent to you directly. (no fussy middle men/pricy overhead for Wil!)

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Over 1 extravaganza!

Hello everyone, I promised progress on Maidens of the Sea, so here you are:


Maidens of the Sea ip
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I know i is a crappy photo and couldn't actually get the whole thing in a photo but these are the last 3 panels

The bottom 2 are done. and I am waiting on some silk thread on order to stitch the "maidens" but there is plenty to do till then.


Panel 4
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist


Back of fob
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I have already stitched the date so now I HAVE to finish it. Sara, yes I will sell you the pattern when i am done, if i finish it by PF I'll bring it with me or at least to the Christmas party. I'll even throw in the silks I have left.
Speaking of Sara "the over 1 goddess" She recently asked me about Quaker Turtles, which i had put away for a bit cause the over 1 was driving me nuts not to mention it is only 1 color (the over one on MoS are tent stitches, the over one on QT are full cross stitchs). but I think i have found a solution, I am planning on doing 1 motif (like 1 star) each night i stitch...that way i think it will get done , eating the elephant 1 piece at a time. I got 3 done in the last week. Here it is so far:



Quaker Turtles ip
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Monday, October 05, 2009

Santa's Buddies


Santa's Buddies
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I think this is a record for me, I finished an ornament within 1 month of receiving my JCS ornament magazine. I have to order the Mill HIll Treasures to put the snowflakes on (or maybe I could stitch a few instead...hmmm) but Santa's Buddies from Angel Stitchin is done mostly as called for on 28 count linen, I used the regular GAST baby spinach for the tree instead of the GAST wool that it called for and I substituted red seed beads i had on hand 03043 instead of 03049 it called for.

I went to my first meeting of the local Embroiderers Guild of America this past week and had a pretty good time. I kinda knew they were there but had only heard bad things about the different EGA groups in the past. I guess it seems implied in the name but I was worried they might be more stuffy old needleworkers than cross stitchers. I have been missing out on some of my Tarheel stitch group meetings lately due to the difficulty of finding and affording a babysitter for all day Saturday (usually when we get together folks have to drive far so we make it an event!) But I saw a really nice newsletter at my local LNS about the EGA and decided it wouldn't hurt to go check it out. They meet 2ce a month for 2 hours in the evening... while my husband is home. I get to the meeting on thursday and guess who is the outgoing president? Louise Henderson of Cherished Stitches... see page 56 in your JCS ornament mag! Yeah they crossstitch!

Also in the past week I think I have finagled my way into going to the Crossedthreads Retreat in Pigeon Forge, TN in Nov . This retreat is the one the Tarheel crew usually goes to every year but I have only been twice, the last time was in 2006 before Annabeth was born.

I have been stitching on the Maidens of the Sea...mostly just the borders so nothing to see yet...I'll post a progress pic soon.