Ain't he CUTE!
I used some of the new? varigated floss from DMC. I can't recall the # right now. But it felt the same as regular DMC, good coverage and it consistantly changed every inch or two. What I think I might like about this stuff is that it is colorfast (or so they claim, I haven't checked) but it would be nice to use overdyed on things I plan on washing.
the pattern can be found here
Ian painted the ceiling yesterday, but I haven't taken a photo of that yet. I thought I would entertain you with his version of a forest that was done last week. It is a bit dark, but he promises it will get lighter as he moves forward and down. To answer some of your comments, no Ian is not a painter, just a self taught sketcher. Normally he does pencil sketches, and accents them with color or a bit of paint. He has never to my knowledge painted anything larger than a sheet of 8x11 paper. His "real" job is an aircraft mechanic, but like me has NUMEROUS hobbies (currently I can count 7 for him and 7 for me, see below) and this doesn't include the dozens we have both tried and stopped over the years. We have so many hobbies that our 3rd bedroom is technically called the Craft Room and is where we throw guests to stay overnight (there is a futon, so no, they don't have to sleep on the big piles of fabric). In fact both of us go far out of our way to avoid aquiring new hobbies because what we have takes up so much time/ money already...It is one of those things that made us wait so long to have a child, we really don't want to give these things up but know that time/money spend on a child will force us do ditch at least most of them for about 18 years.
Hobby List for Me:
Cross stitch
Jewelry making
Candle making
Quilting
Knitting
Reading
Scrapbooking
Hobby List for Ian:
Drawing
RC helicopter
Legos
Auto Mechanics
Woodworking
Reading
Flying (real airplanes)
Is Xbox a hobby?
Let's just say if we won the lottery neither of us would ever get bored.
Portrait of a dog
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist.
So in preparation of the mural painting, Ian recalled that he had seen a muralist ( is that what you call them?) once working using a photograph as a guide. He thought at the time that was kind of "cheating". But now faced with a blank wall and the wish to make a mural look "real" he had decided that using the colors from photographs may be the best way to go. The result is this, a very real looking background of trees reflected in the water. Is it a lake? a river? I am not sure yet. It will be interesting to see how the animals fit in to this. We still have a ways to go
Yeah....Here is my work on Brightneedle's Nine Patch Village that I worked on over at the Tarheel get together on Sat. This is over one on 28 evenweave. I had to break down and buy a magnifier for this one just so I can stitch as fast as I do over two.
I have to say I am a bit dissapointed with the colors..they are just too light. I picked a fabric which I thought matched the model photo pretty closely (and I still think it does.) However as I started stitching I noticed that a couple of my fibers, ones that are called for, not substituted, blend in too well with the fabric. Like in the top block with the house, there is a fence. Can you see it? I can't. and even squinting at the model photo, you can barely tell there is a fence, so I know my fabric isn't that far off. I think I might leave the fence out of some of the other squares since I don't think it really enhanced the piece. The colors are so muted overall that if I darken up one fiber, I would have to bump up the whole lot of them. If I could start all over...which I am NOT I would pick a darker fabric.
I have also been working on another piece but I can't show it to you for a bit as it is a gift I am working on.
as I edge into my 6th month I am noticing more and more that the blogs I read (majority of them about cross stitching) are almost all authored by folks with no children. I am guessing this is because stitchers with children probably barely have time to stitch much less blog. So in deference to my childless readers, so as not to bore you out of your mind with isn't she cute posts, I will try to only post about my baby once every 3 stitching posts Deal?
On the upside of that is that all our baby room prep is about crafting/painting. As you can see from the picture the main part of the sky is done. Ian took 3 original shades of paint and about 4 hours to do the whole room. He used a big brush in a technique I guess is best described as stippling. I think it came out much better than I had hoped for, there is shading and depth and it already looks like a real sky, and clouds are still to come. The ceiling will be done as well in the darker blue tones. Ian is already shopping about for the shades of green we need for the grass.
I recieved my valentines exchange on Mon from a fellow Tarheel, Linda. This was nice because I had someone in mind when I was stitching and shopping.. but I did not realize that she would be sending me stuff too! I thought it was one of those exchanges like we had on the bloggers exchange board where you sent off something but what you recieved was from someone different. Anyway, I got a lovely little scissor fob, a tuck in wall hanging frame, 2 patterns, floss, a candle, a homemade card, and chocolate. Above and beyond what was expected. I did not take a picure of what I sent her but it also had a fob and a candle involved ;) great minds think alike.
A freebie by Passion Broderie. I know it is February, But technically this has been "done" for over a year. Here is the full story: I first saw this as a finished picture on the now defunct Xstitch freebie website , it's still up just no longer added to or maintained. I loved this website to see how you could finish freebies (which is usually just a photocopy without a color picture). and cruised it often. Well since I could no longer find this freebie online, I contacted the original stitcher who kindly sent me the pattern. I decided it would look great on some green fabric with this hand dyed fiber that Aniza sent me long ago. Unfortunately I ran out of the thread on the bottom row. I tried to contact Aniza (who is in Malaysia) with no luck, then just put it away while I tried to figure out what to do. At the Pidgen Forge retreat, I took it with me to see if Brenda (our local dyer) could recreate the thread. But before that happened, my brilliant tarheels said "why don't you just do your initials and/or date in a solid color that matches" DUH. why didn't I think of that? See this is why we need stitching groups. So others help solve problems what you are too close to a project to see.
Well yesterday I pulled out some graph paper, thread, and an hour later....DONE.
