United Hearts Wedding Record COMPLETED!!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the United Hearts Wedding Record all finished & framed. One of the pictures shows the detail of the frame that I chose where the other you can see the finished stitched piece better. All together it took about 40 hours of stitching to complete this piece. I am so happy with how it turned out. And I think the frame compliments it very nicely. My big brother & his new wife really liked it! :~)

Close to Finishing United Hearts Wedding Record Progress ...

I'm about 36 hours into this now and the finished piece is drawing near!!! All that is left is the border backstitching and the cording & then to attach the key!!! The cording technique I have never done before, so I hope that is comes out alright.

Still More United Hearts Wedding Record Progress ...

Here I am at about 30 hours of stitching into this piece. All that is left is all of the backstitching & a little bit of cording and a few french knots!!! So excited to be getting close to finishing!!!

Still More United Hearts Wedding Record Progress

Here I am about 23 hours into stitching this beautiful pattern. I am having a lot of fun with it. I am also looking forward to doing the "cording" technique for the "cord" around the edging & also the "cord" that the key is attached to. I have not done this technique before, so it should be interesting. :~)

Happy Stitching to All!!!

More United Hearts Wedding Record Progress ...

I am now about 19 or so hours into stitching this piece. I think it is coming along nicely. I am really enjoying stitching it. It's like a good book ... I just can't put it down! :~)

More United Hearts Wedding Record Progress

Here is some more progress of United Hearts Wedding Record. This is after about 15 or 16 hours of stitching. I am really having fun stitching this pattern. And getting excited seeing the design appearing before my eyes as I stitch. I can't wait to see how my big brother & his new wife like it. :~)

More United Hearts Wedding Record Progress

So I spent the weekend doing a "Stitch-A-Long (SAL)" with my online stitching friends, in between taking care of the kids & such. It was very fun bcuz we kept each other motivated & could IM each other to see how we're all doing once in a while between stitching. Here are pictures of the progress that I made over the weekend on United Hearts Wedding Record ... which I have to have completely finished & framed by 06/11.

More Elemental Masks Progress

Here is the most recent photo of my Elemental Masks progress. This is about 27 hours of stitching or so.

United Hearts Wedding Record Progress

Here is my progress so far on United Hearts Wedding Record. Only a couple of hours of stitching into it.

Elemental Masks Progress

Here is my progress so far on the Elemental Masks pattern. It's a large pattern of solid stitching. 167w X 250h stitches for a total of 41,750 stitches! The finished design is 11 7/8" wide by 17 3/4" tall. The pattern itself is 16 pages long & that doesn't include the floss list or anything. And so far I about halfway finished with the FIRST page! So this pattern has no time limit & I work on it whenever I need a break from the other projects that I am working on. I figure with this one, whenever I get it done is fine. I am in no rush to finish it. Although I can't wait to see it all finished, it has been such a fun & amazing piece to stitch so far. With every row of stitching, I can just see the image come together right before my eyes!

"On Hold" Works in Progress

These are a couple of other projects that I started last year, but I have put on hold to work on some of the ones that I am working on now. They are patterns that I am stitching on tote bags for my kids to trick or treat with every year. On my daughter's, I have only stitched her name and the two bats on top so far. On my son's I have gotten much further. Really all there is left to do with his is the glow in the dark Kreinik floss around where it says Trick or Treat. And then the scarecrow's hands & everything below where it says Trick or Treat.

Additional Current Stitching Projects

I also have these current stitching projects that I am working on. The wedding one is one that I actually just started bcuz my big brother is getting married in a couple of weeks, so I am making it as a wedding gift. And his wife to be is pregnant, so the baby announcement one is for them also! She is due in October. The United States Marine Corps emblem is for my big brother bcuz he is a retired Marine. Currently, I have put aside all of my other projects to work on the wedding one so that I can get it finished in time for the wedding. I am participating in an online Stitch-A-Long this weekend and will be working on the wedding project. Once that is finished, then I can go back to the other projects. I have no time limit for the United States Marine Corps pattern, as I'll just give it to my brother when it's finished. The baby announcement one of course I need to finish by October, which since it's a smaller pattern, shouldn't be a problem. The Song in Your Heart pattern, I want to finish before the holidays. The Elemental Cosmos pattern and America the Beautiful pattern I want to have finished in time for the Arizona State Fair this October, but if I don't get one or the other finished that's ok too. Hopefully will have at least one of them done. And the Elemental Masks pattern, well since that is such a large & solid pattern, I have set no time limit for myself for this one. I'll just enter that one whenever I get it finished. I truly can't wait to finish them all to see how they look all finished! The wedding pattern has a technique that I have not used before called "cording". Where I have to twist strands of floss to make them look like a twisted cord. And then lay it across the pattern in the appropriate places and tack it down securely. Since I have never used this technique before, I hope it comes out ok. Will be posting pictures as I progress! :~)

Stitching on Black Evenweave ...

I don't know how many of you have ever stitched on black evenweave before, but let me just say "WOW!" This is not easy at all. There are all different types of light. And although I haven't had the luxury of buying an Ott-Lite myself, I am finding that the best light to stitch on black evenweave is natural sunlight, of course, or fluorescent lighting. You have to be able to have light both above & below the fabric. Otherwise, finding the right holes to put your needle into is near impossible. I have two desk lamps that have fluorescent bulbs in them. So when I am stitching inside my house, I put one on the floor & shine the light up & then set one on the end table next to the couch, of course shining the light towards the piece I'm stitching. This makes it much easier when I am stitching inside on this fabric. Otherwise, depending on the weather, I like to stitch on my back patio so that I have the sunlight instead. I have stitched on black aida before. And it was not nearly as difficult to stitch on or find the holes to put my needle thru. So now that I've gone on this rant about how hard it is to stitch on the black evenweave, let me just add, once this piece is all finished, it is going to look absolutely GORGEOUS on this fabric! Being on the black, the vibrant colors are just going to POP! So the end result will definitely be worth all the work & difficulty of stitching on this dark fabric!!! You can see the Elemental Cosmos pattern below on my first post, which is what I am stitching on this fabric. And this is a picture of what I've completed so far. It's not very much as of yet. But I am stitching a little slower with this one.

Happy Stitching!
Margie

Floss Storage

Lots of people that stitch have many ways to store their floss. And each of us have our preferred way. I myself have tried several ways. I have tried winding my floss on the bobbin cards. But that to me just too way too much time to do the winding, time which I could have spent on stitching. I tried using those ziplock bags on the large silver rings. However, with having all of the colors, this proved to be bulky & not easily or neatly stored. Then I thought about using those storage drawers that a lot of guys use to store nuts & bolts & washers & such in a garage or shop. Seemed neat enough & I thought this would definitely be a great way to store my floss. The only downside was the cost. I have all of the DMC colors in regular floss & also in variegated. The cost for each of these sets of drawers was about $20-$30. So rather than spend a lot of money on those drawers, instead I decided for a lot less cost, I would use the bead storage containers. Each compartment inside holds one color of floss. So each container holds 18 colors of floss. So I have 28 containers to hold all of my floss. It makes it easy to see which colors I need to buy more of. And when selecting floss for a project, I just pull out the container with the color floss I need, and I'm good to go! 

Here are some pictures of my floss storage system so you can see what I am describing.









How do you store your floss? 

Until Next Time,
♥ Margie ♥

The Part of Cross Stitching That No One Likes To Do

UGH!!! Ok, so I have been working on Song in Your Heart. I stitched the entire blue border around the edge of the design. And then started stitching some of the flower pieces around the frame of the pattern. It was going great! I got all the way across the top of the frame, then down the right side of the frame, and then it happened ... somewhere I screwed up bcuz I didn't have enough room for the last stitch on the right side! So I went thru ALL of the little flower pieces that I had already stitched. And they appeared to be right. Then my husband checked them all (yes he stitches too occasionally). They were right. Then he checked the outside border. OMG! There it was. The sides of the border were one stitch too short. So now where am I on this pattern? Tearing out 217 stitches all the way across the bottom of the pattern ~ UGH! This is the part of cross stitching that no one likes to do, tearing out stitches, also known as "frogging". Especially so many of them ~ lol. Oh well so is the world of cross stitching. ☺