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. :)

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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

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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!)

Friday, July 07, 2017

Cirque des Carreaux - update #7

Quick update on Cirque today!


It's not a huge amount of progress because... of course the second I say "I'm not starting anything new until Cirque is done," my wife hands me an early birthday present - Renaissance Mermaid by Mirabilia. You bet I started that sucker five minutes later. :p

No pic yet as I haven't done much, but trust me, she's blingtastic. I was lucky enough to have the kreinik colors used in her tail, but unfortunately, I have two partial spools of one color and they don't match! And she's definitely going to need at least one whole spool, so I need to get to the LNS and find a match for one of my partials...

Also need to pick up the one Waterlilies I don't have because it's used extensively in her tail and I don't have a reasonable substitute. At least the color is also used for Siren and the Shipwreck - also on my extensive to-do list! - so it won't be a purchase for a single project, thankfully. Oh, and I need to figure out which delica beads to sub for the overpriced Mill Hill stuff, cuz that garbage is like $5 a pack and I need SIX total. Nooooope.

I still want to get Cirque done, though, so my plan is to work on goal projects during the week, then bust out the "fun" stuff on the weekend. :)

Monday, July 03, 2017

half year roundup, goals, and Cirque update #6!

Ahhh, the year is half over already? What happened??

I thought it would be fun to do a half year roundup sort of thing to talk about stitchy goals for the rest of the year. I mean, I never do what I say I'm gonna do, but at least I can talk about it. :p

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As for current WIPs, I want to get several done and focus on getting the pile down to just four by the end of the year. Stop laughing.

Here's what I hope to finish, roughly in this order:

Cirque des Carreaux (Ink Circles)
This is my focus WIP and I think I can finish it by the end of July. I'm solidly at the halfway point now, so if I push a bit, I bet I can do it. :)



Beaded Dragonfly Tile (Chatelaine)
This has been lingering at somewhat past the halfway point for way too long. It's killing me because of all the color changes and the black fabric and the over one and jfc I hate jessica stitches and...

Flight of Freedom (Dimensions)
A gift for my FIL, he asked my wife to make this for him ages ago and... she didn't. Haha. So now I'm doing it, with the intention of it being his birthday or Christmas gift this year. I need to get a move on if I want to have enough time to frame it too!

Air ACEO - Butcher (HAED)
I'm done with about one page out of four, which doesn't sound like a lot, but this is a relatively easy project for a HAED and I enjoy working on it. Might be a stretch to stay focused enough to finish this up, but I'll give it a shot.

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And then there's the WIPs I doubt I'll be finishing this year, in simple alphabetical order:

Chinese Garden Mandala (Chatelaine)
I've barely started this one, and it's huge. And a Chatelaine. So yeah. But this is a beauty and I want to focus on it, but not until I finish the dragonfly tile!

Fantasy SAL (Durene Jones)
Of all my WIPs, this is the one that's most likely to be pushed aside forever. The border was adorable and sucked me in, but I just don't like the cartoony art. I should have known it wouldn't be to my taste after seeing the designer's other work, but I wanted to get on the SAL train. Bad move. Frogging all of this would be a pain so I'll just let it sit for a while, I guess...

Night (Wentzler)
I've never even shown a picture of this because I've barely started! This is a pattern I did a good chunk of when I was a teen, but I had to chuck the WIP because the fabric was a bit too small and my stitching was horrible. This one is important to me so it'll be a priority for next year.

Transcendence - Sessler (HAED)
Haha, I'll probably never finish this. It's beautiful, though. Maybe once I finish my smaller HAED, I'll add this one back to my active list. Every once in a while, I have the urge to work on a full coverage piece, but of course I'm going to work on the small one first. :p

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I'm itching to start something new, of course, but I don't want to add more to the WIP pile right now, since it's dangerously close to double digits. Maybe I can bust out something new from my bucket list after Cirque is done...

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And of course, some monthly goals!

For June, I said:

- finish Coffee Quaker - YES!
- NO stash shopping - YES! No spending on "stuff" of any kind! :)
- sort/photograph/post fabrics for sale (yes, I'll post them here first!) - NO, had a mountain of other stuff to sell first :p
- choose pattern & start exchange project :3 - YES! Finished the stitching, even!

And what I want to accomplish in July:

- finish Cirque des Carreaux, or at least get close!
- NO stash shopping (with possible exception of LNS trip for my birthday!)
- sort/photograph/post fabrics for sale
- complete and send exchange package on time