Off to Korea

Tomorrow my sister and I are flying off to South Korea for a two week vacation =D

I've already made a list of things we will want to see as well as stores (yay! New stash!) we would like to visit. I will try to upload pictures, but I will probably have limited access to my blog while there.

As always, whenever I go on vacation, I take a cross stitch project with me. Usually I start something new before leaving and just work on it on the plane. Last year, I took Flower Patch. I still haven't finished (below is a picture of what it looks like currently), but I decided to start a new one anyways.

Which is why I kitted out the Bramble and the Rose last month. The one color will make stitching on a plane easier.

Here's a floss toss. I had bought this super cute 6" x 6" Q-snap (my third one now, I just couldn't resist) super useful for the flight. It's small enough to fit my new project bag. I also needed something for the hand-dyed floss. I've seen some stitchers use rings made from mother of pearl, but since I can't find anything like that here in Montreal, I decided to look for other alternatives. I found a bag of Boye Cabone Rings at Michaels which will do the job very nicely. I actually have no idea what they're actually used for, found them in the knitting and crochet section, but it works.

I always start the projects before the flight. It's always easier to continue a project than to start a new one in an environment like that. My progress so far!

One thing I'm finding hard is doing full cross stitch instead of doing the legs in one direction and coming back and doing the other leg. I hate having a messy back, sigh!

Stargazer Completed!

It's finished!

By Friday night I had 10 beads left to put in, so Saturday afternoon I sat myself down and worked on putting in the last beads. And it's done :)

My sister took some really nice pictures of it on Sunday. We had great sun that day.

Next step is to find a framer. I'm going to have to ask around for a place that has experience in framing needlework. I remember asking Omer Deserres for a quote and the cost went over $100 o.O so I've already braced myself for the shock lol.

April TUSAL

My TUSAL is a few days late this month. Again, more invisible thread. There is a little thread from my crochet blanket. I will do better next month once I'm done beading and back to using regular thread.

Mystery Project Unveiled

I mentioned Saturday that I had finished my crochet mystery project. I couldn't show any pictures until I had given it to my friend.

Mel, who has her own blog called the Velvet Toolbox, is expecting her first baby (a girl!) and I knew I wanted to make something for her. I decided to make an afghan for her (my first one) and since I didn't know at the time if it was a boy or a girl, I picked yellow as the color. I found this really nice pattern on Ravelry called the Afghan Of The Sandman.

Here is a picture of the afghan spread out. It is approximately 37" by 27". I had to make modifications to the pattern in order to make allowances for the thread I used. The thread I picked had a lighter weight than the recommended thread (oops!), but I really liked the one I picked. It's very soft and fine.

I couldn't find a gift box that would be sturdy enough to hold the blanket, but I didn't want to just put it in a gift bag. So I decided to just get a very nice box that she could then re-use for the baby. I loved the pattern, it's cute without being overly girly.

I also bought this little elephant. I love plush toys and what better excuse to buy one than a new baby. They also had a rabbit in the same collection, which I almost bought for myself (I still might go get it :P)

Finally an Update!

I've been very bad. I keep saying I'll post an update picture of Stargazer and never doing it lol.

So much has happened since my last update. After "losing my marbles" I realized that I didn't have enough of one of the mill hill beads (not the one that was dropped). I kept looking at what I had left to bead and the amount of actual beads I did have left and there just didn't seem to be enough. It didn't help that I was cherry-picking them to make sure the color stayed consistent. But it turns out I wasn't crazy. After checking the Mirabilia site, I found out there was a misprint on the copy of materials I had.

The dress is now completely beaded and I am now working on the sky.

The colors are so pretty to work with. I love those shades of blue.

Stargazer is now off the frame and back on the Q-snaps. I realized that I couldn't roll the sky part especially with those Mill Hill size 6 glass beads, so I ended up just removing it from the frame.

My Stash is Here!

I went to meet my friend to pick up my stash :) Here are pictures of what I got from Needle In A Haystack:

The fabric that I picked is Lakeside Linens 32 count in Vintage Light Examplar and the thread is Threadworx Overdyed Floss in Grape (it looks awesome in person). The needle minder is part of the care package Cathe put together for me, it's a cameo of a flower fairy. Super cute!

She also included a second needle minder from Mag Friends and two patterns. One is by Lizzie Kate (this designer seems very popular) called "Flowers" and it comes with the fabric and embellishments. The second one is by By the Bay Needlheart called "Heart to Heart". The chart contains 3 patterns. I love the different ideas she offers to finish the pattern. However, what I love most are the crochet hearts that are in the picture, the pattern for which she offers here. I will definitely be making those =D.

My favorite new stash though is the project bag. I LOVE IT! It's so practical, cute and will fit in my purse. I will definitely be taking it with me when I go on vacation. Did I mention I'm going to South Korea next month? I will be taking the project bag with the kitted "Bramble and the Rose" in it for the plane trip (18 hours o.O), it will keep me from going stir crazy.

On a separate note, I finally finished my secret crochet project ^o^. More on that next week.

Trying Something New

I've been thinking about trying more traditional forms of embroidery for a while and after looking at a lot of pictures, I finally decided to try it out.

The first step was figuring out how to trace a template onto fabric. I had tracing paper and I bought this red pencil that you can use to transfer patterns on fabric by ironing it on. I didn't like the effect. Although it worked it was just too faint. Also, I think I bought the wrong fabric for what I'm trying to do. It feels too thin after working with linen.

After I wasted a day trying to get the pencil to work, I ended up just sticking the template on my desk with masking tape, sticking the fabric on top of it and tracing the whole thing using a mechanical pencil. I figure for my first project, I shouldn't care if the pencil marks won't come out.

So far I've only done Lazy Daisies. I'll have to do more research on other types of stitches to determine which to use for each. But I would love to try some of Trish Burr's embroidery techniques on the bigger petals. Not sure if the fabric is appropriate thought.

On a more cheerful not, I'm getting some new stash! =D

One of my friends needed to go to San Francisco and mentioned that if I needed anything she would bring it back for me. So I contacted Needle in a Haystack, the shop I went to when I was in San Francisco, to see if they would be able to get an order ready in time for my friend to get it and bring it back for me.

I knew I wanted to kit Bramble and the Rose, so I picked out fabric and thread. I had a few back-and-fourth emails with Cathe, the owner, because I needed so much of the hand-dyed thread and they didn't have enough of the color I needed in stock and I had set a deadline... She was very helpful and patient in helping me get what I needed on time, going so far as to personally drop off my package at my friend's.

I also decided that since my birthday was coming, I deserved a little something special. So I asked Cathe to also include a care-package. I decided on a budget and requested that she fill one of her Project Snap bags with goodies.

My friend took a few pictures to tease me:

The last picture shows the fabric and the project bag filled with goodies. No peak into what's inside yet. I'll have to wait till Friday to see what's in it.