Remember Me
I should've posted this yesterday, but didn't have time. ;) I totally finished up this block on Monday night watching the most boring movie. I won't go into details but it was perfect for stitching, NO distractions. LOL
As you can see I basically just had to finish the last firework and add "Remember Me" (as Lili pointed out ;D) So now I'm onto block 4 (counting from the first row to the right and down). The bottom of this block is a challenge, but the colors are very nice together. I will try to get a pic of it tonite. I think each block has it's own challenges, which of course makes it fun!
Not much else going on, the summer is just zipping by! We have the 4th off for Independence Day and I'm sure there will be lots of fireworks around. :D The new Superman comes out this week and I know that Greg wants to see it...however I'm more interested in The Devil Wears Prada. LOL, LOL I love Meryl Streep. And of course the new Pirates of the Caribbean is out in a week, can't wait for that one. :D
Happy Stitching!
Almost...
I really have to stop being distracted when I stitch. I could've finished this block if I wasn't so wrapped up in the movies/tv I was watching this weekend. LOL OH WELL! This block has taken 2 weeks, which is a lot longer than I had wanted, but them's the breaks. It does look great! Just a bit more to go. :D
I have to finish the top firework and the words and then it's done! Overall I like how this turned out, although I do have to say that some of the color choices from the conversion did not translate well. So I will be on the look out for those in the future. :D
I don't know how long the next block will take me, right now work is getting crazy....and will be that way till August. So we will have to hold on for this month and see how it all plays out. :D
Had a fun weekend, went bike riding for the first time in forever and had a great time. I was able to do a lot better than I had expected. I guess all those workouts are paying off. ;)
Greg finally did a post about his last project. Go have a look, it turned out great! :D
The Light and The Dark
Is it Wednesday already? It doesn't seem possible! So here I am back with an update. Sadly the block is not finished. I had too many distractions this week and a bit of a redo on part of the house. Still it's getting there! :D
I have the house basically finished, now for the roof and bits and pieces. :D The thing that slowed me down a bit is the fact that when I finished the front of the house I realized that the contrast between the light and dark parts of the house were just too great a contrast. I had wanted the house to be a darker blue and substituted colors to get the look I want. I basically went a shade darker, same colors. However, the darker shade was just too dark and didn't look the way I had hoped. I didn't want to rip out all the light shade so I decided to cover it up a bit to darken it. I half stitched the dark shade of blue over the top of the lighter shade and toned it down. I think it turned out great and though it's not perfect shading it's not a glaring dark to light combo that I had before. I realized after this that I am going to have to trust my judgement on color selections a bit more and if I want to change them to something completely different then I need to go for it. All in all it's looking nice and I love the colors! Can't wait to move to block 4 though. ;)
Also, Greg asked me to let everyone know that he is not dead or captured by aliens. LOL He's just hit a blogging slump and hasn't felt like posting. He has finished his last project "Road to Paris" and I'm sure he will be posting pics of it soon! :D He's now working on a WIP he started a while ago and dropped from boredom. I think it's going nicely and hope to get some pics of it soon as I can pry it away from him. ;D
AND! This Sunday, June 25 is
San's birthday! Everybody stop by and give her lots of birthday greetings!
Have a great week!
Just a Quickie!
Been having weird problems with Blogger all day so that I didn't get to do the post I wanted earlier. So here is a quick update of my progress on house 3. It's not going nearly as fast as the others but that's cuz I haven't had as much time to dedicate to it. I hope to get a lot done this weekend. Although I will admit that the vine on the side of the house is mega slowing me down. ;)
I have to say that I do like the colors of this block a lot, very soothing. :D
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Black Cats at Midnight
Wow, it's Monday already...why do weekends just fly by? :D
I am now onto the third block and it's going very well! The colors are a lot more appealing after all that orange.
I finished that cat about midnight on Saturday. We were up stitching and watching Underworld Evolution and after it was over I switched over to BBC America and they had the pilot for Hex on. I had heard about the show, but had never seen it. Very interesting. I will have to give it a look, as it is on Thursdays here.
I still think the border is the thing that takes the longest for me...counting all those stitches and getting it right. I went ahead and stitched the outline of block four so I would be that much ahead when I get too it. Here's a pic of all four blocks:
I like how it's looking so far! :D
I also finished up the pillow of the Forever Friends project by La D Da. I struggled with what colors to use and bought several different things before I "accidentally" settled on this purple. I had definately liked the blue floral print but couldn't find a suitable coordinating color. This purple I bought to go with something else and then decided it worked perfectly with the project.
The days are getting HOT here, we are signing up for a pool pass today. I think we will be taking advantage of some dunking* time to beat the heat! :D
* You know what they say... I used to skinny dip, but now I chunky dunk. LOL, LOL
A Whole New Neighborhood
Hooray for me! I finished the last house in the second block. And while it didn't turn out exactly as expected, it is finito.
The last house is supposed to have a lighter orange bottom and darker orange top. Well somehow the oranges though appearing to be different shades are not when stitched. So I have a one shade orange house. Not a big deal in the whole scheme of things. I contemplated ripping the roof out, but then decided I just didn't care. LOL Now it's onto the BLUE house, yes I am excited to stitch blue and I don't even *like* blue. LOL, LOL
I calculated and it's taking me approximately nine days per block, so far. At that rate I should be done by September. Let's hope the rest of the blocks go this fast or faster would be better...however there are only so many hours I can dedicate to stitching, sooooo. :D
The latest SBQs caught my attention so here we go:
The first request comes from
Vash who is requesting pictures of the back of your stitching… are you brave enough to give this one a shot?
Sure why not!
Not as neat and tidy as some of you ladies, but since no one ever sees it, it will do. :D
The second request comes from
Singular Stitches, and she is asking for “a pictorial tour of [the] special place that you go to create your wonderful stitched creations.”
I could be answering this for both Greg and I. We share the sofa after all. LOL I sit on the rather messy side with the red cup. As you can see I use a tray to hold my stitching accessories and a metal lap tray for my pattern. And despite having a big comfy couch I need to have a pillow for my back. Without it I tend to schlump over and end up with a backache. Also, from this picture I can see that I need to tidy up a bit. It's funny how we get used to little messes around. ;)
From this view you can see that we have a perfect spot in front of the tv and stereo (harder to see). I *love* having the tv on when stitching. Greg would *love* it if the tv spontaneously burst into flames and disappeared forever. LOL, LOL (No, I'm not kidding.) I am addicted to history shows, home and garden shows, food shows...anything informational. I also love movies and yes I confess I am severely addicted to soap operas. You might suspect from all this that I sit for hours in front of the tv...actually no. If I did, I'd get a lot more stitching done. LOL I usually watch tv 2-3 (more like 2.5) hours a evening, this is the time I stitch as well. Sometimes I will sit longer on the weekends, but mostly not. I have a sit all day job so especially on the weekends I don't want to sit for hours and hours stitching. What about y'all, how many hours a day do you stitch?
I hope everyone has a fun weekend!
The House on the Hill
Or should I say "houses"... LOL The little houses are such a relief to stitch after the mammoth house in the first block. Although I have to say I am getting a bit tired of orange, and that's saying something cuz I "love" orange. ;) I decided the next block I'm working on is the blue house, just so I can see something aside from ORANGE. LOL, LOL
I did have one problem that I *had* to fix. My block was off by one stitch. Normally a glitch like this wouldn't have mattered to me. But in this case if I didn't fix it then the blocks above and below it would've been off by one as well. So it's fixed and I am nearly finished with the third house on the hill. I did that one last night. They go quite fast when they are smaller. :D I anticipate being onto the blue house in a day or so.
I am enjoying stitching the houses, but I do have to warn y'all that the colors can be tricky. My first house on the hill, doesn't look exactly like the one in the picture. I can assume that is because I'm using the DMC conversion. However, the door looks totally different and I followed the pattern colors. It would appear that the model stitch doesn't follow the colors for the door on this little house. Not a big thing, but it you want yours to be *very* similar to the model it can be important. I am now consulting the model before I start stitching away just to make sure that I like how my colors are comparing and tweeking them if needed. For instance my house is a bit oranger than the model, which is the conversion I'm sure. If I had paid attention I could've subbed a darker orange and gotten the same effect as the model. It's a minor thing, but can make the difference in whether you love it or hate it. (Of course if you use the suggested silks, it shouldn't be an issue.)
I also got my "Feed the Birds" project framed. Simple but nice I think. :D
The black frame really makes the blue fabric pop. :D
I was saddened to learn of
Allison's loss of her husband last week. She is definately in my thoughts during this difficult time. I'm sure none of us want to contemplate the loss of a loved one...I know it makes me appreciate the people in my life all that much more. Please send your kind thoughts to Allison.
Hello There World!
Finally able to post after a long weekend and a bout of illness. Seems like forever since I updated...
Had a fun weekend, although it was HOT, HOT, HOT! Greg and I went to a semi-annual flea market in historic Brownville, NE. It's a huge event that encompasses the entire town. The entire main street of the place is wall to wal vendors. It's quite a sight to see. It's always fun and always some interesting things for sale.
As you can see the crowd goes on forever, or a 1/2 mile or so...whichever comes first. ;) I didn't buy much, nothing sparked my interest. But it was a fun day with my brother and his girls.
Obviously I worked away on HOHRH and got the first block done (except the black) and started on the second block. I'm half way through the second block, it's easier I think.
The only down side of this block is that w/out that black it's PALE. So I am still debating whether to go back later and fill in black. At this point I'm not interested in doing it soooo.... But other than that it looks very nice! The blending turned out great!
Here's the second block. I finished all the flowers up last night. I have to confess though that while the outside of this block is counted perfect, not so with the inside. :( Ah well, these things happen...to me...a lot... ;) But I think I covered it well and won't remember it later on when it's all finished. (laughs hysterically knowing I never forget these things) ;) Anyhoo! This block is moving along and it's an enjoyable project to work on. I am ever surprised by the colors though. Thinking things will be a certain color and realizing they aren't is tricky.
Well I hope everyone had a fun Memorial weekend! Now it's almost time for another weekend...how time flies. :D
