Tuesday, February 26, 2013

birdie!

Are you sick of this bird yet?  Well, fine, this is the last* you'll see of him. :p

* until he's framed, ahaha


Taken without flash so the colors are a bit dark, but it's totally washed out with the flash so this will have to do.  Next up... get a hoop and frame as shown in the booklet!

Hmm, what to do now? :D

Oops, forgot this pic of my PR SAL piece.  I finally finished part four. :)


Monday, February 25, 2013

sooo close! (and fabric possibilities)

Bah, I wish I didn't have to go to bed, I want to finish my birdie!  Work ruins my life. :p

Just a tiny bit of nest and some backstitching to go!


And because I'm a lying liarpants, I bought a few fabrics from Sunny Dyes on Facebook, and they just arrived today!  I plan to join a FB SAL for Nora pixies, so I decided to try a few fabrics out.

The first one is from Under the Sea Fabrics, and the other two are the Sunny Dyes fabrics.  I like the blue one, it looks like she's stepping out of water and into the air. (Wifey agrees that this is the best.)  I think the middle one is too busy, but the last one is kind of cute.  Hmm.  Oh well, I have time to decide...


Okay, bedtime for realz.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

tweet tweet :)

A while back, I bought an issue of Cross Stitcher magazine just for the cute booklet of bonus patterns. Well, okay, for the pattern on the cover of the booklet, because I had no idea what else was in it!  Yesterday I was feeling a bit bummed by my lack of progress on my large projects, and started the little birdie.  Isn't he CUTE?  I love the colors, and I'm going to finish him just like the cover shows, using a small hoop as a frame. :3

I changed the nest colors as the DMC selected were too green/yellow and they didn't match the cover picture.  I'm using 434, 436, and 676 instead of 420, 3045, and 3046... just in case this helps someone else. :)

Little Garden Helper by Lesley Teare:

And a floss toss for a redo of Mediterranean Mermaid... I got some good ideas on FB of how to salvage the one I already have (too close to the edge on one side) but I still want a perfect mermaid to frame.  Plus one of my good friends is stitching her too, and I can't resist a good SAL... :p


Well, back to Skyrim! Bwahaha!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

fun with Photoshop

I played with my fabric images a bit and made myself a huge PSD file in Photoshop with the fabrics sorted by color.  Now I can grab images of different charts I have and make overlays with actual fabrics I own!  I have to say this has really helped with my fabric lust. :)

Here are some of the best overlays I've done...

Mirabilia Archangel on Polstitches Rumbles of Thunder:

Joan Elliott Ladybird Fairy on Steph's Fabby Confetti:

Mirabilia Waiting for Ships on Sunny Dyes Deep Pool:

Mirabilia Emerald Mermaid on Polstitches Stormy Seas:

The only problem with this is now I want to start something new!  I do have an update on my PR mystery SAL, but I don't feel like taking it off the snaps to get a picture right now, so that will have to wait until next time. :)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

a stunning lack of progress

This looks like a lot of progress but it's only because I held off on taking pictures for a while because I felt that there wasn't enough to show.  But I give up, here are some sad updates on four projects.  Gee, maybe spreading my efforts over multiple projects is WHY nothing's getting done on any of them...

First up, Angel Procession.  I added the cream/gold area on the incomplete angel on the right at the beginning of the month and haven't touched it again.  I think this was all done in one day.  Bah.


Transcendence is coming along, but I haven't worked on him in a few days.  I was hoping to have a page finish to show, but I guess this is pretty good anyway!


Then today I thought I'd work on Bluebeard's Princess.  But somehow I was defeated by all the color changes in her hair and I didn't feel like dealing with it.  It's hard to work a lot of different colors in one area when you're stitching a full cross.  So the pathetic blob of purpley blue at the bottom is all I did before moving on...


This is actually pretty good!  I'm almost done with part four of the PR SAL, just need to do a bit more of the purple in the border, plus a tiny more of the last scrolly bit.  Once I finish I'll only be four parts behind.  Yay?


Well, I guess it's not all that bad but I'm normally more focused than this, so it's kind of annoying to feel like I stitched a lot but didn't get anywhere.

I blame Skyrim.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

confessions of a fabric addict!

I have no exciting stitching pictures to show today as Transcendence is just a slowly-growing blob of green, mostly due to the new Skyrim expansion which has been eating much of my free time...  Hey, they set the DLC in Morrowind, okay, one of my favorite fictional places!  And everyone knows Morrowind was the best Elder Scrolls game, right?

RIGHT.  Enjoy this image of my character (Rahenna, of course) standing in a crater of smoking lava and suffering no ill effects.  What a badass. :p


Anyway, you're not here for nerd rambling, you want FABBY PICTURES!  Cuz that's what I've got today. Oho, and you thought this was going to be all about video games, huh?

In my quest to stop buying fabric, I've decided that knowledge is power.  If I know what I already have, I won't be tempted to buy another piece that's similar!

Behold - the gallery!
http://pics.rahenna.com/index.php?/category/12

It's sorted by file name for now.  The file name lists the dyer, then fabric name, then type, and finally size.  So if you see PTP_Heroic_32B_FQ ...that means dyed by Picture This Plus, color Heroic, 32ct Belfast, fat quarter!

Other abbreviations are:

POL - Polstitches
SF - Steph's Fabby
SMF - Sugar Maple Fabrics (PS - hands off!)
SW - Silkweaver
UTS - Under the Sea

28 or 32 - fabric count
B - Belfast
L - Lugana
O - opal/glitter/shiiiiiny!

Let me put some of the best pics here as a teaser... :)



All pics were taken in natural sunlight with no flash.  The greens and yellows still didn't come out great, but I was able to do some color correction and the pictures are more or less accurate.

Sadly, I didn't take pictures of the PTP fat halves I have... but they're all Lugana and I've decided that I don't really LIKE their 32ct Lugana.  Bah.  I'll deal with that later!

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Transcendence - half of page 3

Er, let's just say I've been a little obsessed with this pretty boy... never mind that I haven't even reached the boy yet.  This is about half of page 3 done, and as you can see, that half a page is about the same size of ALL of page 2!


Too bad I have to be an adult and go to bed at a reasonable hour, or I'd be up all night with this...

Saturday, February 09, 2013

Transcendence - page 2 finish!

This is really only about half a page of stitching total, if that, but hey... since I'm stitching on black I'm going to take credit for anything I can. :)


As a reminder, here's what the full image looks like:


I may have to revise my monthly goals, I really want to work on my pretty boy this month!

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

giveaway results! :D

Okay, here it goes!  Yes, I'm a little early but I'll be busy tomorrow so I decided to pull the names tonight instead of waiting another day.

Prize #1 - FQ of Peppermint Sparkle (7)
Katy/tadamama!  I have your address so I'll mail this out by the weekend. :)

Prize #2 - HAED chart of choice (34)
Hueisei!  Can you email me at rahenna@rahenna.com and let me know what your email address is, and which chart you would like?  It's either one BAP/mini or two QS-sized charts. :)

Prize #3 - Mirabilia/Nora chart of choice (20)
Kimberly!  I'll email you to get your choice and mailing address. :)

No stitchy pics today, sadly, but I did get close to a page finish on Transcendence.  I'll post that next time...

Sunday, February 03, 2013

Titania is done! (and goals!)

It only took about NINE YEARS, but she is finally 100% DONE.



 Bah, my camera isn't cooperating, so this will have to do for now.

Now it's time to work on my oldest WIP - yes, there is an even OLDER one! Angel Procession, which I started while I still lived with my parents, so that has to be at least 12 years old.  Eep.

Oh, wait, how about some GOALS?

January goals:
- finish Bluebell pixie - YES!
- finish Titania (sooo close now!) - almost, so I'll say YES!
- maybe page 2 of Transcendence - Titania ate all my time :p
- no craft shopping (aside from DMC and outstanding orders) - I got two FQs of fabby, so NO. :(

February goals:
- finish angels #1 and #3 on Angel Procession
- finish part 4 of PR Mystery SAL
- do not buy fabric! :(

Saturday, February 02, 2013

Titania - stitching complete!

Don't get TOO excited, she still needs beads.  And I had to restitch a big chunk of her dress because I started her ages ago and stitched waaaay too tight back then.  Blah.

But she got her bath, and luckily came out unharmed even though the fabric bled a bit.  It's a piece of Silkweaver lugana from about 9 years ago, so who knows if it was originally like that, or if something happened over time.  Anyway, I'm very happy the white didn't stain at all, and she is still perfect!

First, a full shot.  You can't tell from the picture but she is HUGE.  She takes up most of the FQ of 28ct fabric!  She's much bigger than Tree of Hope, which was my former biggest project.  Whew.


A couple of angled shots so you can see a bit more detail.  Check out the sparkle in those wings!


Let's not talk about the heartache of getting her face to look right.  Her lips had to be taken out and redone because the way I did her originally made her have some serious duck face action. XD


OFF TO BEADING~~

PS - Don't forget the giveaway!