Sunday, December 31, 2017

2018 Stitching Plans!

aka look at Rahenna lie about being disciplined yet again. :p

I recently decided to be more relaxed about goals and progress, so this year I'm not going to list all my WIPs and make goals for every single one. Instead, I'll include the ones I'm most excited to make progress on, plus some new starts, of course.

~~~

WIPs to work on in 2018:

I plan to make Nora Corbett Raven and Poppy my first two finishes of the year.


It's kind of hard to see, but I did replace a number of colors in Raven to make everything match better. I pulled out the two darkest purples and replaced them with two of the brand new DMC purples, and I changed the lightest purple to one that's darker and has more of a blue tone. Now the entire thing is in blue-leaning tones of purple and it looks a million times better.

Poppy is going to take a lot more work - her skirt is huge! But she's looking good so far.

As for other WIPs:
- complete Dream of the Sea kit by Hands on Design
- complete Beaded Dragonfly Tile by Chatelaine (I think my ongoing issue with this is that the fabric is slightly too small, which makes it a struggle to work on. I'll sew on some scrap fabric and see if that makes a difference.)
- get at least halfway on Mushroom & Fern Mandala by Chatelaine (I started this a couple of weeks ago but I don't have all the materials, so I didn't get very far!)
- some progress on Chinese Garden Mandala by Chatelaine (I love this design but I've been so distracted by other things! Also need to put this on a bigger q-snap to make it easier to work.)

So yeah, it's kind of shaping up to be a Chatelaine year. I fell in love with Mushroom & Fern the moment I saw it, and that sparked my renewed interest in my other WIPs.

~~~

New starts for 2018:

I haven't really decided what I want to start next year! There's a lot of patterns that are fully kitted or at least have fabric selected for them, but I'm not sure what I'll be in the mood for after working on a bunch of Mira and Chatelaine patterns. There's always the bucket list, of course, but I think I need to go over that again and make some changes.

Considering Prosperity Fae by Passione Ricamo, but on a dark green fabric so she looks very festive and holiday-ish.


Also considering either Dreaming of Daisies or Dreaming of Tulips by Rosewood Manor, to stitch on 45ct Vintage Lentil linen. Because I'm crazy.


I don't know, it's too hard to decide! There's about 25 charts all matched up with fabric already, and every time I look through them I want to make them ALL.

Friday, December 15, 2017

the parade of shame!

I've been stitching, I swear, but I don't have much to show yet. Poppy is a giant red blob, and I'm also working on a tiny Chatelaine freebie that I'll show once it's finished.

So instead, I thought it would be fun to show some pictures of all my completed projects that need finishing or framing! I took these to show to a friend of mine, but of course they fit in perfectly here on my stitching blog too. :3

They're a bit overexposed but hopefully you get the idea!








...I need to get busy, haha.

Tuesday, December 05, 2017

thanks Mii & Justine & OhSewCrafty!

I posted this as an edit to my original post but I wanted to make a new post to make sure everyone could see it in their feed, haha. I want attention. :p

~~~

Hi guys! Thanks for your kind comments! I want to respond individually but for some reason I can't stay logged in on the main page of my blog, only in the admin section. I wish there was a way to respond to comments from the admin panel but it doesn't look possible. :(

Thanks for the support on Raven... I know I must seem nutty but I swear she looks different in real life. Maybe I'll change my mind after taking a break from her, though! Either way, a short time out will give me a chance to cool off and make a better decision. :)

~~~

That said, is anyone else having login issues? If I click the login link in the upper right on my main blog page, it takes me to the admin panel, but if I go back to the blog, I'm logged out immediately! Maybe I need to send in a support ticket or something. :x

Monday, December 04, 2017

banished WIP and new start!

Well, now that I've started exercising my WIP-banishing powers, I feel perfectly justified in sending anything that annoys me to the "you sit here and you think about what you've done" bin.

I started Raven pixie by Nora Corbett soon after finishing Mermaid Azure and made a good amount of progress, but I've put her away for now. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the colors in the pattern are just... off. The darker shades of purple are very red purples, but the highlight colors are very blue-leaning purples, and they look so wrong together. Plus the highlight colors are too bright, and two of the three are almost impossible to tell apart! I know it doesn't seem bad in the photo, but it's ten times worse in real life.

I kept stitching despite not liking it, thinking that it might all come together after I got more done, but... nah. This looks awful. So now she's off to the bin of shame until I can figure out what I want to do. In other words, until my wife gets back to help me frog all the light colors. Haha.


So, while Raven's in time out, I'll start another NC project. I asked a friend to help me decide, and he chose Poppy as the winner. :)


The fabric is Picture This Plus Sterling, which will make her reds really pop! I'm excited to work on her because the color combo is so nice and she's been waiting in my stash for ages. :)

~~~

Hi guys! Thanks for your kind comments! I want to respond individually but for some reason I can't stay logged in on the main page of my blog, only in the admin section. I wish there was a way to respond to comments from the admin panel but it doesn't look possible. :(

Thanks for the support on Raven... I know I must seem nutty but I swear she looks different in real life. Maybe I'll change my mind after taking a break from her, though! Either way, a short time out will give me a chance to cool off and make a better decision. :)

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

sisters together at last!

Oops, I haven't posted in a long time! I haven't been stitching too much because I got a new laptop, which means I can actually play games again. But I did finish Mermaid Verde last week, so I took a group pic with her sister, Mermaid Azure. :)

The colors on these pictures are horrible, by the way. I can't get them adjusted properly, and I've already retaken these photos twice, so... we'll just have to pretend they look right. The fabric on the right should be a really intense, bright blue. Oh well.


And here's Verde by herself...



I've already started another small Nora/Mirabilia project, so I'll show that one next time. :)

Friday, November 03, 2017

clean slate & new starts!

I've been feeling bogged down by old, complicated, or just plain boring WIPs recently. I'm the type of person who stresses out about "finishing what you start" and "making progress" and all that sort of self-imposed nonsense, so I've felt compelled to keep working on things that weren't very enjoyable. As a result, things had gotten to the point where I didn't feel like stitching at all.

So I decided to pack up all my old WIPs and store them out of sight until I feel a genuine urge to work on them again. The moment I made that decision, I pulled out all those projects, popped them off the qsnaps, packed them neatly into bags, and hid them away.

Instant relief. It's just a mental trick, sure, but sometimes a mental trick is exactly what you need!

Oddly enough, I think this will help with impulse buying as well. I've gotten a lot better this year, but I'll still buy the odd pretty thing because buying things is fun and exciting. But you know what else is fun and exciting? Starting a new project that I already have in my stash. I think I've been trying to find the joy of something new in buying instead of using. Buying works for a short time, then makes me feel bad about myself because I gave into temptation again. Using makes me feel good about reducing my stash, appreciating what I already have, and rediscovering forgotten gems.

So... what forgotten gems did I dig up? Check it out. :)

~~~

First up, Mini Beautiful Light by HAED. This is actually a new purchase that I picked up in the recent anniversary sale. I wanted to try a project with a limited number of colors (only 15 in this one) and see how I liked the new 32ct pregridded fabric they sell.


Small start, as you'd expect from a HAED, but it works up fast - this is only two days of stitching! I'm working the colors from light to dark, so the whole thing honestly looks kind of bad until the black goes in and ties it all together. I was really doubting some of the colors used in the thin white lines, but it looks pretty good once it's filled in.

Not sure I'd use the 32ct on a project with 90 colors, though. The fabric is very sturdy without a lot of give (I'm used to stitching on linen which has a ton of give), and there's a fair amount of confetti and carried threads in this piece even though it's only 15 colors. In short, the back is THICK with carried threads and it can be hard to get the needle up through the fabric in places with a lot of color changes. I still have a FE sized piece of this fabric but I dunno what I'll use it for now...

~~~

And next, a good start on Mermaid Verde by Nora Corbett, since one of the Mira FB groups is having a "Mervember" SAL. I'm not officially participating but thought this would be a good chance to start a project that's been waiting a long time!


I love how fast Mira patterns stitch up. All this was done last night and this morning, and I plan to stitch quite a bit more this afternoon and evening! Maybe I'll get her entire tail done this weekend if I don't have other stuff to do. :)

Monday, October 23, 2017

Flight of Freedom - update #2

This isn't my favorite project, but it's pretty satisfying to work on because it comes together so quickly. The background is all half stitches so it's zoom zoom zoom. I think I've only put about five hours of work into this one since last time and I've already reached the other corner!


That's almost all of the sky, so I'll be working on the mountains on the left side next. Nothing against the eagle, but it's all full crosses and I'm enjoying the fast progress, so yeah. :p

Not sure what I'll work on next. Maybe I'll stick with this one for a while.

Friday, October 20, 2017

I'm not perfect...

Mistakes were made.


I know, I know. After dealing with the Great Fabric Purge of 2017, why on earth am I bringing in MORE fabric? I'm going to be honest, I had a moment of weakness. I found a new-to-me dyer who had some fabulous vibrant colors I haven't seen elsewhere, including the beautiful green in the bottom left. It's exactly the color I've had in mind for Prosperity Fae by Passione Ricamo, and I haven't found a rich "pure" green like this with other dyers I like.

Okay, but why did I need seven other pieces? I can't really answer that, except to say I'm a fallible person who makes mistakes sometimes.

Only one of the seven other fabrics was purchased with a specific pattern in mind. I have an idea for one more of them. But that leaves five fabrics that are just stash items right now.

I like these fabrics. They're beautiful.
I didn't need them.

But that's okay. I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Instead, I'm going to remember that I have wonderful things already and it's important to appreciate them. Which means... I need to stitch faster! Can't have all this potential going to waste, right?

~~~

On a more positive note, I've been doing a pretty good job of paring down my stash aside from this one slip. More fabric has gone out than has come in, and a bunch of charts have found new homes. And I've had some finishes so things have been used up the "right" way, too. :p

One thing I'm starting to realize is that even after cutting down to only the things I genuinely like and want to stitch, it's still too much. There's no way I can realistically stitch ALL of my charts and kits, even if I never buy another thing again.

For now, I'm going to sit on this idea. Nothing is busting out of the designated storage space, and I'd rather focus on selling and/or donating the items I don't want first, instead of adding more to the pile. But once that stuff is gone, it'll be time for another pass through my stash, I think...

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Night - update #1 (and a small finish)

Argh, another long break between posts! I've been bouncing around between projects for a while so I didn't have much to show. An hour here and there on stuff like a Chatelaine doesn't really make for an exciting update. :p

I picked up Night by Teresa Wentzler again. This is the first time I've shown it because my start was so small it wasn't worth showing, but now there's a small chunk of border to share.


A small start, but any amount of progress on a Wentzler is good progress! Night is a project I originally started when I was in high school, and back then I started in the center and stitched most of the figure. Unfortunately, the fabric wasn't quite big enough (it fit, but barely) and my stitching was honestly terrible. I threw away that project years ago, intending to redo it once my skills were up to the task. Took me a while to get back to it, but here it is!

And since all of my current WIPs are relatively difficult stuff (Chatelaine, HAED, Wentzler, and a Dimensions kit that I'm only making because it's a gift for my FIL), I decided to work on a series of simple projects alongside them. A while back, Down Sunshine Lane had an exclusive kit from Hands on Design with a beach theme, and I had to have it. Because reasons. And I've decided that I'm not going to let an expensive kit sit in my stash forever - it's getting made ASAP.

So here's the first piece, meant to be the front of a pocket that holds a wooden corner gauge/ruler.


The chart calls for backstitching around the sand dollars, but I'm not sure if I want to do it. I'll wait until I finish stitching all the designs and then make a decision.

Oh, and I'm also trying to pick a Mira mermaid to start in November, since there's a SAL starting... not that I'll participate officially, but I'll follow along. Probably Mermaid Verde to go along with Mermaid Azure, who's been done for ages...

Friday, October 06, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #7 (finish!)

Another big finish today! I think Renaissance Mermaid is the most blinged out Mirabilia I've worked on yet! Either that, or I was just slow about getting her beaded for some reason. It took me about three days of work to get all her beads on, but the result... well, you look. :)


Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of the actual fabric color, so I had to do a lot of color correction on these photos, and it's still not great. The fabric is Ocean Belfast by Sugar Maple Fabrics and it's more of a solid aqua blue, not as heavily mottled as these pictures suggest.



Naturally, I made some small changes as always. :p

- over one skin with the usual recharting to smooth the boundaries between colors
- dyed my own variegated blue to use in the fin and tail :)
- replaced blue Kreinik in tail with random color from stash
- replaced all size 11 beads with delicas
- gave her a pearl earring
- used shell instead of heart on... whatever that thing is she's holding
- also used bugle beads and more pearls/gemstones on the thing
- modified shape of beaded curls a bit to allow for easier/cheaper framing!
- changed color of curls to PTP I had in my stash

Whew, I think that's it.

What's next? More Flight of Freedom - checked with MIL and yes, FIL would be thrilled to receive it as a gift, so I feel a lot better about stitchng it now - and Beaded Dragonfly Tile. For real this time. I'm going to finish that blasted tile this year even if it kills me!

Friday, September 29, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #6

Suddenly I'm very motivated to get this over one skin finished! Not sure why, maybe because my wife is traveling for work and I'm home alone for two weeks. *kicks a rock* We've been gaming in the evenings recently so stitching took a backseat, but since I'm alone, I pop on a let's play and go nuts with stitching.

Here's a current progress shot!


When I look at her in real life, I feel like there's soooo much left to stitch. But really, it's just her arms, and I've already gotten a good start on both.

I'm pretty sure I'll just keep going until I finish. :3

Monday, September 25, 2017

Flight of Freedom - update #1

Okay, you'll have to pretend this is a decent picture (it's not) and imagine the background fabric as a nice pale blue.


I started in the center and worked my way up the eagle's wing to reach the sky, which is all half stitches. It's going relatively quickly - this is about eight hours of work - but the sheer magnitude of this project is kind of depressing.

To put it in perspective, this is basically a full coverage project of around 200x250 stitches. I have a few HAED mini charts in my stash that are around 225x325 stitches, or about 1.5 times as many stitches total. And those are images I actually like.

The only thing saving this project is that it's nice blocks of solid color, for the most part. And the sky is very pretty with all those sunset colors.

Trying to resist the urge to pick up something new, because my two main projects right now are this and the endless hell of skin on Renaissance Mermaid. Sigh. :(

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Cirque des Carreaux - update #9 (finish!)

Finished up Cirque des Carreaux last Friday and held off on posting because I thought I could get a better picture but... nah. No matter what I try, this thread color just doesn't want to show up nicely on camera. (Epiphany silk by Carrie's Creations - much prettier than what you see on her website, even!)


It got a bit tedious toward the end but I decided to suck it up and power through. A lot of times, I sit there wondering what part to work on next, or which bit will be easiest, etc, and that's pointless. Just pick up the needle and stitch! Trying to mentally wiggle out of a tedious part isn't going to do anything but make the project take longer as a whole. :p

Speaking of which... I'm now working on an obligation project. Cue the groans. I know, I know... I'm approaching it in the same way. A little bit every day will get it done.

So, I'm working on this Dimensions kit, Flight of Freedom:


Totally not my style, but it's for my FIL who has helped us out tremendously with all sorts of things recently. He asked my wife to make this aaaaaages ago, so I've decided to try and surprise him with it for Christmas or something. Not sure how long this will take, especially since it's a bit of a slog to work through. Thankfully, most of the background is half cross stitch, so that part goes relatively fast.

The most annoying part is that I replaced the kit aida with evenweave instead of linen, and holy crap do I hate stitching on evenweave. Whatever fabric type I chose is woven really tightly and the sound of the thread scraping through the holes as I stitch is... ugh. *shiver* But I'm not going to change it at this point because I don't want to be wasteful and the fabric is just the right color to get the proper blending effect with the background, so eh. I'll deal with it.

No pic yet as I haven't done much. Next time!

And I definitely need to pick up another WIP to work alongside of this one, because if I work on this exclusively I'll never want to stitch again. :p

Monday, September 11, 2017

Cirque des Carreaux - update #8

Oops, it's been a while since I've posted. My wrist and elbow are feeling a bit better, so I've been able to do some stitching, but I still have to take it easy, so progress is slow. Still, I was able to do a good chunk of Cirque des Carreaux over the past week, which makes me feel like I could finish it this month if my arm continues to get better.


I really want to hurry and finish, but I know pushing myself is going to lead to more problems in the long run, so I'm trying to be patient. There's just so much good stuff in my stash that's calling to me! Going to resist the siren call of new starts, though... I have enough in progress and I'd like to move some other large projects toward a finish.

Next after this one will be Renaissance Mermaid, and then I'll stop and see what I want to think about doing for the rest of the year. Beaded Dragonfly Tile is going to kill me with guilt, haha. :p

Sunday, September 03, 2017

Blossom Collector - update #3 (finished!)

Blossom Collector is done! The pictures don't show the fabric color very well, but she's stitched on the other half of the FQ I cut in half for Willow Queen - Snickerdoodle by Sugar Maple Fabrics. It's yellowish with some brown/purple/pink areas. Hard to describe and unfortunately even harder to photograph, but hopefully you can get the general idea.




It was difficult to get her finished for a couple of reasons, both of which totally suck. :x

I'd planned to go pick up the beads I needed over the long weekend my wife and I were planning (she took a Friday and Monday off to get a four-day weekend) ...and then Harvey happened. We're completely fine, our house is in an area that doesn't flood, but everything around us was shut down for about a week and businesses are just starting to open again. I'm torn between wanting to go out to support local businesses, and staying home to not get in the way of the people who really need to be out and about right now.

And the other reason is that I have some sort of tendonitis or nerve problem in my right arm - probably the elbow or wrist or, most likely, both - that makes it hard to do anything requiring fine motor control. I've been wearing wrist braces and trying to rest my hand as much as possible, but do you know how many activities require your hands? ALL OF THEM!

In fact, my hand has gone cold and tingly while typing this post, so I'll sign off now... sigh.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Blossom Collector - update #2

Been working away on Blossom Collector! I finished her bottom half and moved on to the top. Not too much left now, though I'll have to pick up the two colors of bugle beads because I don't have any on hand at all. I don't think I have any of the other beads, but I don't care about that - I'll just substitute whatever's in my stash that's close enough.


Terrible picture, I know, but I'll be sure to get a good one of the finish. :)

~~~

mindful stitching thoughts!

I feel like this year has been a major turning point for me. I've pretty much stopped spending on my two main vices, stitchy stash and nail polish. What happened? A few things, really.

I've been trying to sell some stash in FB groups, which is the eternal hell struggle of waiting three days to get paid for a $2 chart, etc. In fact, last week I packed up most of the remaining stuff from my mom's old stash (which has been in my closet for EIGHT YEARS now) and hauled it to Goodwill because I couldn't stomach the thought of trying to sell it. So thanks, person who took forever to pay an invoice that netted me less than $1.80. You taught me a valuable lesson about not wasting my time.

And I was buying polish somewhat regularly for a while, but only from one brand... until they sold me a defective product and refused to budge at all on compensating me for it, and then they jacked up their prices a TON about a month after that incident. Yeah, no. I already have about 50 polishes from them, 10 or so of which haven't even been used yet. I'll be working through those before I consider buying anything else in the future. So thanks, crappy customer service, you taught me a valuable lesson about voting with my dollars.

Finally, I've spent the past few months cleaning, testing, photographing, and selling my wife's extensive collection of old school console video games. Now there's a product that's worth the effort! Fast sellers, good prices, happy customers. It's been a pleasure to watch items fly out the door and to reclaim the space those boxes were taking up! Plus we've made enough to rebuild our savings after the mountain of expenses we've faced recently.

Letting go of things has been more fun than piling them up. That feeling of success is absolutely keeping me from buying stuff I don't need. Sure, I'll look at pretty fabrics and threads and feel drawn to them, but I don't feel the need to own them. I can admire them from a distance. :)

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Blossom Collector - update #1

Because when the going gets tough, the tough start a new project, right?

Renaissance Mermaid has been put in time out for a little while to give my eyes a break. Over-one skin looks great, but it's hugely time consuming and can be frustrating. I wanted to stitch, but I didn't feel like working on skin, so I dove into the Mira bucket and pulled out Blossom Collector. I wanted something small and simple, and she fits the bill.

Progress so far:


Not super exciting, but that's her entire skirt complete in three days. I've been stitching a LOT now that I have something simple to work on. I'll probably keep going with her until she's finished, then swap back to the mermaid of doom.

Oh, and I never posted about the swap I did with Kim of Wisdom with Needle and Thread! The swap event was organized by Kaye of Kitten Stitching, and the theme was Christmas in July.

Here's the ornaments we made for each other! I stitched the partridge for Kim and received the pretty holiday house in return. :)


There was also a snack of shortbread cookies, but those are long gone. :p

Working on the swap ornament made me want to finish some of my other smalls into ornaments, but as usual, I gave up on that idea after gluing my fingers together multiple times during the construction process. Whoops. Some day, I'll master finishing skills. Of course, that means I need to stop procrastinating and start practicing... sigh.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #5

This is such a bad idea.


This is... what, not even 20% of her skin? Am I ever going to finish? Seriously tempted to work on something else for a bit to give my eyes/hands/soul a break, but the time I spend on other projects is time not spent on this one, which will make it take even longer to finish.

It'll be worth it in the end. That's what I'm telling myself.

Now if only I actually framed and displayed my stuff, then it would be really worth it! I've been saving up but haven't pulled the trigger on buying frames yet. Mainly because my wife and I do the framing ourselves to save a ton of money, and doing it right is tedious. Like over one skin. :p

Monday, August 07, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #4

Oops, I haven't posted in two weeks! Time flies, I guess. I haven't been stitching as much as usual because I've been busy with decluttering, but I did manage to finish Renaissance Mermaid's tail, including removing and restitching the blue areas.


That fin is a LOT bigger than you think it is, haha...

My goal for this week is to finish up the rest of her hair (I've already done a bunch more since taking this pic!) and then get started on the dreaded over-one skin. Probably. I mean, I'm assuming I'm going to do it that way even though it's a pain, so why fight it? I dunno. We'll see. :p

Monday, July 24, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #3

Still plugging away on Renaissance Mermaid! Her hair is kind of killing me, haha. And of course, the endless debate with myself about over-one skin or not... I've started shaping the places where her hair touches her skin as if I WILL do it, but I dunno.

(Yeah I do... I'll end up doing it because I always do. Why am I even pretending??)


I'll have to move the q-snap soon to work on either the rest of the hair or her tail. I'm leaning toward the tail because it's easier stitching and it feels good to make fast progress. We'll see. :3

And here's a pic of the other stuff my wife got me for my birthday!


I'm excited about the Quaker Mermaid chart because I'm suddenly really fond of quaker style designs, and of course, mermaids! And the Just Nan charts are really cute. I'm going to have to sit down and work on some of my JNs soon, because I have a bunch now and I've only stitched a couple. They're so pretty but I get intimidated by all the color changes, haha.

I was also fortunate enough to get some cash from my in-laws, so I used that to do a bit of online shopping, but I'll show those things when they arrive. :)

~~~

And one final plug for my fabric sale. I'm going to start moving these to FB groups or ebay later on this week, so if you're interested, please take a look before they disappear! :)

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #2 (plus dyeing!)

My birthday was over the weekend, so my wife took a couple of extra days off and we spent a lot of time doing fun stuff, including craft time. I made a ton of progress on Renaissance Mermaid. :)


I still wasn't able to find a thread color I liked for the dark blue at the edge of her fin, so... I busted out the dye kit I bought a while back and dyed a bunch of threads!


The top set was done with a smaller amount of dye, so the colors are more pastel. Only did 6 yards of each color because... I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. But it's really not enough to do much of anything, so I made the rest of them 10 yards each (and one 20 yard color at the very bottom of this picture). Sadly, the second time around, all my reds faded to orange when they were rinsed, so I need to try again and figure out where I went wrong.

Here's a closeup of the tail!


I LOVE this color, it's pretty much exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, that means I need to take out alllllll of the dark blue in the rest of her tail to replace it with this color. Sigh. Oh well, I've already stitched some areas three times, it won't kill me to do this part twice, right? RIGHT?

Next time, if I remember, I'll show the stitchy bits I got for my birthday. :3

~~~

Don't forget about my fabric sale! :)

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

fabric sale is live!

Whew, finally finished taking, editing, and posting photos of my fabrics! As promised, I'm posting them here first. I'll keep them exclusive to the blog for a week or two before I try selling any leftovers on another site. :)

Please check it out here if interested:
Fabric Sale!

It's just a page on this blog, not a separate site or anything.

And a sample of fabrics included! :)


Yeah, lots of green/blue/purple, I know. Those are my favorite colors so I've hoarded a bunch of them. Now it's time to let it goooooooo :p

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #1

*sniiiiiiff* Mm, I love the smell of a new project!

Got a pretty good start on the new Mirabilia, Renaissance Mermaid, though there were some troubles along the way. The blue kreinik in her tail has been stitched three times in some places. First I had dye lot issues with two spools of kreinik (same number, just... not matching), so I got some petite treasure braid in a nearly identical color. Well, that color was too similar to my fabric so it looked like nothing was stitched there at all!

So then I said eff it and put in a completely different color that I had on hand. Except those two partial spools only had about two lengths each! So I'm stuck again. *waves the white flag* Okay, mermaid, you win. For now...

Despite that, I've managed to do a bunch!


Unfortunately... yet another thread problem! The Waterlilies color (041 Blueberry) doesn't look a thing like the model photo. I don't think there's an issue with the dyelot, but with how the colors were adjusted on the model to look more vibrant. Like so:


In the model pic, the dark blue in the fin is BLUE with a good amount of variation. Blueberry is more purple than blue and there's barely any variation in the color. I want a color that matches this picture of the model! But of course, despite having a big tub of specialty threads, there's nothing suitable in there. Whyyyyyyy :x

Looks like I'm heading to the LNS again this weekend for more kreinik and to try and find a color for the fin that isn't going to make me explode in rage. I can deal with the purple-blue of Blueberry in her body (the blue stripe in the tail) but not the fin. Thankfully, the other mermaid that uses this thread actually shows it as purplish in the model photo, so I don't feel completely duped... :(

(Despite all this, I'm loving working on a Mira again! So easy and fun!)