Hot Stuff Progress

Since my last update I have been able to work a little bit on Hot Stuff. I'm also just about finished with the grid on the HAED design. The little mouse in Hot Stuff is really starting to take shape. I thought since I had made some progress I would post an update now since I'm spending the day tomorrow babysitting my best friends daughter. She is just the most precious little girl in the world and I love being able to spend time with her.

Hot Stuff before and after.

Thats it for now, just a quick update. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week, and thanks stopping by! Nick

Sweet Land Of Liberty

Boy am I glad it's the start of a new week, last week just seemed like one road block after another so hopefully this week is better! Didn't really get to do any stitching last week, a combination of lots of things going on and not really having any desire to stitch.

This weekend I did work on Hot Stuff. I had finished the marshmallow last week and this weekend I backstitch it, and started some of the peppers and one of the mice.

While doing some cleaning I found a stash of unfinished projects. I worked a little bit on one of them, a Precious Moments piece called God Shed His Grace On Thee. I started this piece last spring/summer but haven't worked on it since then. The only thing added this weekend was filling in some of the stars on the bottom of the dress. For some reason all of the pics came out with the aida looking white, its actually a light baby blue.

The chart is based on a Precious Moments figurine with the same name released after September 11th. I have the figurine and wanted to stitch the pattern to go with. The pattern is actually a reverse of the figurine, if the figurine faces left like the pattern the flag is in front of her face instead of behind her. The stars on the dress are alot more subtle on the figurine as well. The pattern is in leaflet PM51 - Sweet Land of Liberty by Gloria & Pat, now I just need to finish it! lol

Hope everyone had a good weekend & thanks for visiting! Nick

Starts & Finishes

I started and finished SanMan's April blackwork piece this weekend. The 4 center bunnies remind me of Peep bunnies. I love SanMan's blackwork patterns, they always have so many little details. Even though the pattern doesn't have eyes charted for the bunnies I might add them later with beads.

SanMan April 2010 Blackwork

I worked a little bit on Hot Stuff but didn't take a picture, I just worked on the marshmallow and stick. I'm not really enjoying the blending colors on this one, unlike Wash Line Blues where a combination is used in large chucks, there are alot that are only used here and there. It's like confetti stitching with different color combinations. lol

I also started to grid the fabric for the HAED The Journey Begins pattern. My mom ordered this red easy-count gridline floss-like stuff online that grids your fabric and can be taken out as you stitch. Last summer when I bought the pattern we went 1/2 and 1/2 on the supplies so we could both work on it, so maybe if we both work on it on and off it won't take as long.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, thanks for visiting! Nick

The Impossible

After checking out the HAED House-Mouse designs I got to thinking about one of the many patterns I have in my stash, it's one of my favorites. I call it my impossible pattern, it's a HAED design, The Journey Begins based on the painting done by Scott Gustafson.

The Journey Begins by Scott Gustafson

This bad boy is charted over 42 pages, using 50 different colors for a total of 175,000 stitches! There used to be an family owned art gallery & framing shop, which sadly closed a few years ago, right up the street that hosted a Christmas open house, with Scott Gustafson as a guest. I have love Scott Gustafson's artwork (check out his website, it's amazing) since seeing it as a kid at this gallery. Prior to meeting him I had actually seen one of the originals of The Journey Begins there. At the open house I won a pencil sketch of his otter character that he did earlier in the day during a demonstration. He also signed a copy of his book, "Alphabet Soup: A Feast of Letters", for me. Hopefully someday it will turn out to be a non-impossible pattern!

Hello Monday

Well, does anyone know where last week went? lol It just flew on by me, and sadly time didn't fly because I was stitching. I did find a new project to start on Wednesday, funny how it's so much harder to finish a project than it is to find one to start! lol I found a Dimensions House-Mouse kit on sale @ JoAnne's. Growing up my mom always used tons of House-Mouse stationary and had some of the rubber stamps. I regret passing up the Making Lemonade kit (three mice drinking out of a pitcher of lemonade) when I saw it on clearance @ Hobby Lobby last spring. This kit is called Hot Stuff, with a mouse roasting a marshmallow using the fire breath from a pepper eating mouse. The kits even come with a House-Mouse foot-printed mat for finishing the piece.

I started the piece this weekend and got the Hot Stuff across the top stitched. I'm not sure if I like the stitches between the orange & red in the letters that called for a mix of 1 strand red, 1 stand orange. When you look at the piece up close it looks the stitches are funny because some show one of the colors more than the other, oh well, from a distance it helps blend between the colors.

Hope everyone had a great last week and good beginning to this one! I am off to watch some DVDs that need to go back to the video store & catch up on blog reading! Nick

March Blackwork

I finished up SanMan's March Blackwork last night. I love doing blackwork, that's probably because I am in the very slim majority that actually enjoys backstitching. I would say backstitching is one of my favorite parts of working on a piece, maybe because a piece is truly finished once the backstitching is done. Not sure what's up next, I could probably work on Wash Line Blues but I'm still in a new project mood! lol

Here are January, February & March together.

We had another day of amazing weather, near 70 again and very sunny. Took the opportunity to pull Baby out of the garage and do an interior cleaning. Got all the mats & carpets vacuumed and cleaned, conditioned the seats & wheel and detail cleaned the vents and stuff on the dash. Now if only this oil change can get done Baby will be ready for the road! lol

Hope everyone had a nice Easter & thanks for visiting! Nick

Happy Easter!

HAPPY EASTER!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! Not much new in terms of stitching, I'm about 1/2 finished with March's SanMan blackwork pattern. I would have had it done by now but every time I've gone to stitch I've gotten sidetracked with something else! I have also spent most of the past couple days hanging out with friends, enjoying the wonderful weather. It has cooled down, and it rained early yesterday, but still some very Spring like weather, and anything is better than snow! lol Along with the U of M, I may also have to add the Butler Bulldogs to my favorite teams, they beat Michigan State in the final four yesterday evening! One of my best friends, who I hate to admit, is a State fan, and she had a party @ her house to watch the games. I loved ragging on her when they lost! :-) lol

Hope the Easter bunny was good to everyone! Nick

No April Showers Here

Happy April 1st everyone - it's hard to believe 1/4 of the year has passed already! To celebrate the first day of April, and just in time for Easter, I finished the SanMan 2010 Calendar piece for April, a cute chocolate bunny! I finished the bunny this afternoon while sitting on the porch swing.

SanMan 2010 Calendar - April

Poor blind bunny, the eyes are supposed to be French knots. Well, I can not make a good French knot to save my life so I will put two Mill Hill seed beads there. I totally forgot to do so before I took the pic. EDIT: I also just realized I forgot to backstitch the whiskers! Yikes, this poor bunny! lol

All 4 months released so far.

It was an amazing day here today, its been in the low 70s the past two days, so I have just been sitting around outside soaking up the sun. I wish I could take Baby out for a ride in such nice weather but she still needs her oil changed and everything before she's ready for the road. The problem is the Chrysler dealer requires any mechanic that works on a Crossfire to be specially certified to do so, and the dealer only has 1 such certified mechanic. So it's tough to get an appointment not only when he is scheduled to work, but to find a time when I can get over there and they have an opening! My mom had to call earlier to rub it in that when she left work for lunch and to run a few errands, she did so in her car with the top down. lol

I haven't done any other stitching since finishing the candy cane Piglet ornament. The SanMan blackwork pattern for March was also released so that will be my next start. Here is a pic of the first two for January & February. The snowmen are blind for the same reason as the bunny! lol

Hope everyone else is enjoying their week so far, and thanks for stopping by! Nick