Round Robin #1 Piece ...

Hi Everyone!

I am finally making progress on the first round robin that I became involved in. I am sad to say that I have been lagging for way too long on this round robin. The ladies in the group have been so wonderful and patient. And I am determined to get their pieces finished. I wanted to post what I've completed tonite. The theme on this piece is faeries. She chose the stitching area to only be 50x50 stitches and I found it very hard to find a piece that would work out. And finally the piece I chose I had to cut down quite a bit, but I think it will look alright. She is the EMS Fantasy Babies Geranium Faerie.

So here is a picture of what the entire pattern looks like.




Isn't she adorable?!!! Well in order to make her fit into the 50x50 requirement, I have had to cut off most of everything around the faerie, so that there is barely any flower in the top left corner and only a little bit of leaf in the bottom right. In fact, in order to not cut out any of the faerie, I am actually stitching 54x56. So I am hoping the lady whose piece this is doesn't mind that it's a tiny bit larger than what she asked.

I completed the hair tonite. And here is a picture of it.




You can see where the hair is just slightly above the marks. Again, I am hoping she won't mind.

I'll be posting another update again very soon, as I want to get this piece as well as the other 2 finished by the end of the month ... 8 days and counting! Wish me luck!

Until Next Time,
♥ Margie ♥

Starting an HAED SAL on August 1st!

Hello Fellow Stitching Friends!!!

I will be starting an SAL on August 1st with one of my best friends. We are both going to stitch the same pattern, and both of us are stitching this piece for our daughters bcuz the design fits them so well. It is from Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED). The pattern is called Pale Rose. The pattern is 400x530 stitches. Although all HAED patterns call for 25 count fabric stitched over one, I am going to be stitching on 18 count white aida. This will make the final piece 22 inches wide by 29 7/16 inches tall. There are 90 colors, as is pretty standard for most of their large designs. I have everything ready to go, except for one thing. I have decided to try gridding the aida this time. I have seen a few other people do it, and I think it will make it so much easier for keeping track of where I am on the piece when i stop & start, etc. Have any of you gridded your fabric before stitching a piece? Have you found it helpful?

Here is a picture of what the piece will look like all finished.




Isn't it beautiful?!!! I just love it! My daughter LOVES the color pink as much as I love the color purple. And her favorite flowers are pink roses. So this couldn't be more perfect for her.

This is a picture of my printed out pattern, as well as the entire pattern all enlarged for a working copy, and also all of the floss that I will need to complete this piece.





It's kind of hard to see the colors of the floss just right as I took the picture on my dining room table. I will take a better one with them sitting on top of the fabric and you will be able to see them better. The funny thing is that you would think there would be LOTS of different shades of pinks for this pattern. But really there are more orange/peach/coral type colors than there are pinks. Since I will be using 18 count instead of 25 count, the floss usage will be more than what the floss usage list says. So what I did was, if the list said I would need 4 skeins of a color, then I bought 6 skeins. If it said I would need 8 skeins, then I bought 12, and so on.

So what my friend and I decided to do, bcuz we both know we'll want a break from it once in a while and we will want to work on other things bcuz the holidays will be coming up, etc, we are going to do a one month on and one month off SAL. So we'll start in August, then we'll take September off, then we'll work on it in October and take November off, etc. And we'll keep doing that until we finish the piece! :~) What I thought I would do is at the end of each SAL stitching month, I will post my month long progress here on my blog so you can all see how I'm doing on it.

I am very excited to work on this. My daughter doesn't even know I'm going to stitch this for her. During the first couple of weeks of August it will be harder to hide it from her as she will still be home on summer vacation and I will probably only work on it after she goes to bed. But once she starts school, then I'll be able to work on it while she's at school too. I am going to be starting in the bottom left corner of the pattern. And my friend will be starting at the top left corner.

Yes, I know it will be yet another WIP, but since we are going to be doing the one month on & one month off, that will give me time to work on my other WIPs as well as make the items people order from my business. Plus my friend that I will be stitching with is not an extremely fast stitcher like the last lady I was doing an SAL with. That lady, btw, completed her entire piece a couple months ago. It took her 4 months to stitch the entire piece. Anyway, this is going to be great! :~)

Well, I'm off to finish up some small projects that I want to get done before the end of the month!

Happy Stitching!

Until Next Time,
♥ Margie ♥

Thought I'd Post a Pic ...

I thought I would post a pic of what my RR piece looked like before it was mailed off to the last person. My friend (Henry's owner) sent me this picture so that I would at least know what it looked like. It might be hard to see, but some sparkly blending filament was added to each section (even mine) after it left me in order to give it a little something special.




Aren't they some adorable Lil Devils?!!! My piece was the one in the bottom left corner. My friend stitched the one with the scissors and also came up with the idea of adding the sparklies to it. And the Tatty Teddy lady stitched the one with the thimble. Now, I ask you, how can someone put so much effort into a piece just to convince another to throw it away? Shameful, isn't it?

Again Until Next Time,
♥ Margie ♥

I am sad & upset ...

Yep that describes it. Sad and upset. I know some of you have seen my posts of the Round Robin pieces that I have stitched ... The Tatty Teddy with Hearts and the Autumn Snowman and also Henry the snowman. Well I am taking my time with Henry, bcuz the person who's piece that is completely ok with that while I get some other things done. HOWEVER, the other two ladies in the round robin, have both received their pieces back COMPLETED, but have apparently decided to not send me mine back. It is absolutely absurd! My friend who is getting Henry, had a falling out with the lady who had the Tatty Teddy theme. And the lady who got the Autumn Snowman has sided with Tatty Teddy lady and was supposed to send me my piece back, finished or not, but it has been almost 2 months and I have not only received my piece back, but both of them have removed me from their friends list on facebook and blocked me and will not respond to my emails when I ask about where my piece is. I have done absolutely NOTHING wrong to either of these ladies. Since all of this has happened I have found out that every round robin that Tatty Teddy lady has been in, she has made sure one person does not get their piece back. I wish I had known that before I agreed to join a round robin with her. It's just so upsetting to know that they can be so cruel and keep something from someone for absolutely no reason other than to be just plain mean. How does someone do that to another person?!!! Everyday when I check the mail, I still have hopes that I will open up my mailbox and my piece will be there. But the more time that goes by, the more those hopes fade. I hadn't done a round robin in several years bcuz the first time I was in one, I never received my piece back. There was one lady who kept everyone's pieces. But then I had become friends with these ladies on facebook, and they talked about a round robin and I thought sure why not. I never in a million years thought this would happen. But this one person had to ruin it all for everyone. First she decided to kick out one of the original four and replace her with Autumn Snowman lady. And from what I heard she also was wanting to kick me out too. My friend (Henry's owner) told me I should just back out. I said no I am going to stick to my commitment. I should have listened. But I also know everything happens for a reason and there was a reason that I needed to stay in the round robin. And I know now that the reason was so that my friend would get her piece back. Bcuz I'm sure that if I hadn't stayed in the RR, then she would have been the one to not get her piece back. At this point, although I would really like to get my piece back, I just want to know what has happened to it. There is another friend that still talks to Tatty Teddy lady, and she has tried to ask her if she knows anything about it. But she lies and says that I should contact the last lady who had it. Which is absolutely ridiculous bcuz we all know she knows exactly what happened to it.

Anyways, as you can see I chose not to name any names. I don't want the drama. I just needed to vent about this whole thing. I don't think it's right. And I am sad that I will never see my Lil Stitch Devils in person again.

Until Next Time,
♥ Margie ♥