Monday, September 27, 2004

Framing

Why does it cost SOOOOOO much?
So I have had a wedding sampler (Trilogy) finished for a wedding that I will be attending this weekend. And I thought I would save $$ and mat/frame it myself. After several attempts and throwing stuff around my craft room, I have realized I am too much the perfectionist to frame for anyone besides my self. So I take it to a lovely framing place that will do it in a week for me and the charge is just $75! I mean it is not that big a piece (7x7) Now I'm glad I didn't buy a new dress for the wedding.
Ugh.

Friday, September 24, 2004

Stats, Jurys, and stitching

Hello loyal readers (Maybe 2 of you right?),

Current update:
Statistics will either kill me or make me stronger, I had an assignment due Thurs and am worried about the scores (60% of my grade are from these, more than our 2 tests combined.)

I was in Jury duty yesterday. report at 830 am .....sit around till 11:45 (I was able to attend a stats class during the break) report back at 2pm, sit till 2:45 then you are dismissed. not one jury was selected. All that sitting for $12.

But on the up side I was able to get another block done on the Lizzie Kate January flip it . This is my travel project. OK venting starts here: I know that designers are given new fibers and colors to use in their patterns to help encourage sales, and they are kind enough to include conversions to DMC for us poor folks.........BUT, I wish they would check the conversions....several times I have had to go searcing for different colors after stitching a block or two and realizing that it looks horrible cause the shading is all off or the color is completely different from the pictures. I have had to change 3 colors on this one and 1 on the July block. Hopefully it is at least a consistant conversions I can stick to for all 12.

More happiness in stitching world I gridded Santa of the forest snd have started him again block by block. This is going faster now. By block instead of by color.

Have a fab weekend!!

Monday, September 20, 2004

Question of the week

If you could design your dream needlework/cross stitch shop, what would it be like?

Oh there is THE question!! One of my dreams was to open a shop ( I even went so far as to attend a small business workshop at a local community college) But I have not been inside too many. The two crosstitch stores in Tulsa OK are the best (If you ask me it is the only reason to visit...I lived there 18 months and only miss those stores.) The Silver Needle and the Stitchworks are the biggest and best I have ever seen. I prefered the latter but shopped both. The Stitchworks also have the greatest retreats (and cheap too).

Go to Doodle bugs site and you will see a map of the best LNS ever thought of with a husband room, and a kids room, and cat areas, and places for all kinds of crafts.

The best LNS that I have seen have these qualities.... And I would have them too...Framers, huge selection of fibers, fabrics, and patterns, classes, retreats. I would add kitting for new patterns for those who don't have the time or who don't want to spend the $ to buy whole skeins of a special expensive floss. I would also have big chairs and testing areas where scroll frames and lights could be worked with before purchasing. A fireplace (gas of course), and friendly staff.
I'm sure i could go on and on....but you get the idea. Wish there was one in Greensboro *SIGH*

Friday, September 17, 2004

Cross Sitch Mags

I have 40 minutes till my first meeting of 3 today (you wouldn't think graduate school would entail so many meetings but it does). So I thought I would post a few thoughts on Cross stitch magazines. First I have never had a subscription to a cross stich mag, mainly due to the price. If you ask me (and since you are here on my blog you did) the british publish the best ones, but for $10 I don't feel the designs speak to me. And they have pages of contests that I can't enter from here in the colonies. But of course you fall in love with one design that is then in a series of 12 and you pay $120 for a design series that would be max $15 if it was in a leaflet or book. I am speaking specifically of the Cattitudes Horiscope in the Cross Stitcher . and of course I found out about them in July so now I have to search to find the other 6 patterns.
Of course I could buy them up, copy what I want then resell them on E-bay but that doesn't sound very moral.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Current Cross stitch

Sorry about all the exclamation points, I had no idea I could get so excited. I need to find emoticons or something.
I was able to attach a link (woo hoo....see it is just not the same without exclamation points...woohoo!!!) to the Stitching Bloggers web ring (see right), and thought maybe I should talk a bit about my stitching,

My first stitching project, besides those punch cards with the shoelaces, was a stamped I LOVE YOU basic sampler. It is long gone, I must have done it when I was 10 or 11. My mom, my grandma, and my aunts all did some sort of cross stich or needlepoint...I have very fond memories of sitting around a fire with all the women in the family stitching. Very quickly I moved on to counted cross stitch and did a few very small motifs and cats. I did do one big Killer Whale that still hangs in my bathroom. But then college hit, I don't remember doing one stitch. Since then I have picked it up now and again. This past summer during all my field work for my thesis, I started again in earnest as a destress device. (usually it would have been reading...but that didn't work this time)

I don't have that many WIP's , I guess because I tend to get rid of stuff that no longer interests me, ie..a fairy I started 4 years ago that looked hideous and unmotivating...I ripped and used the fabric for another project.

So current WIP's include:
1 Oberlin's "Pittsburgh" my home town started in 95?? it's not my best work...has a ton of backstitching but I will finish this.
2 Alma Lynn "12 days of Christmas" putting this onto an afgan, have days 1-5 done, started 99.
3 Lavender and Lace "Santa of the Forest" started 97, my biggest and most complicated one I need a plan of attack and a scroll frame.
I am also doing Lizzie Kate's Flip it Blocks for the year....I discovered these in July so I will be continuing them into next year.

Well this post is too long and I will find a digital camera and post pics soon

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Wil Wheaton Lives!!

well as you can see I figured out how to put a picture on the site but when I tried to add text it didn't take. Then I tried to read an article about how to make your blog more readable and stuff. and tried to add a blog roll....HAHAHA big mistake I am so new to this code/hmtl/http/gobbledygook I think I'll stick to words.

I started to grid a half finished Santa of the Forest by Lavender and Lace last night (I started it back in 97) I hope the gridding helps and maybe Ill be more inclined to finish it.

While messing with that www.blogroller.com site I did discover a long lost friend. Wil Wheaton...get out!! You must be a Trekkie to appreciate this. While other girls were picking up Teen Beat for pictures of Kirk Cameron I refused to buy anything what did not have Wil in it. He was plastered on my wall Backstreet/New Kids style. Wil Weaton was my first serious crush (oxymoronic eh?) And he lives. I haven't heard of him in years. I was an old trekkie by junior high and when TNG came out it was MY Star Trek. Will was pretty beat up by the die hard fans for "saving" the Enterprise one too many times. But that was the writers not Wil. But reading his blog it sounds like he is having a hard time with his new book "Just a Geek" . Boy do I need to learn how to link targets and such!! Wil, I know the media has never been your friend, but I know lots of fans are out here like me and love you for who you are ( and because you are a cutiepie)
I am so going to buy that book tomorrow

Go visit Wil....till i figure out how to link other blogs, just click on the title of this post.



Monday, September 13, 2004

Holy cow It worked


My wedding day 4/26/03

My very own Blog!!!

Oh yeah I must be crazy ...I know nothing....NOTHING about blogs. Exept they are fun to read. I hope to learn quickly how to do all the cool stuff other bloggers have, and if you wil bear with me I'm sure it will be a fun ride.

First allow myself to introduce........myself.
My name is Heather, I'm 30 (oh the trauma), Married 1.5 years, owned a house (ranch, brick, hardwood floors, built 1965) 1.5 years. Currently working on a Masters in Biology. I have numerous intrests which you will discover as we go. But I will attempt to keep this blog focused on my wishy washy passion for cross stitch. That is after all what got me into reading blogs in the first place.

My first concern is how am I going to get pictures of my WIPs on here...I don't have a scanner or a digital camera..hmmm. Told you I was new.

Well lets see if this post works then we shall see if I can maybe put a picture in from my wedding (have a few on Ofoto).

See you soon