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.