Mermaids & Sea Monsters

It's been a while since my last post, but I have another new project to share. My newest WIP is Maria Diaz's "Seafarer's Globe". It was featured in an issue of the UK magazine CrossStitcher a couple years ago. I came across it by accident while looking for a different issue. As soon as I saw it, the piece called to me for some reason. I bought & downloaded the pattern from the designer's website and went to the store the next day to get the supplies.

Maria Diaz's "Seafarer's Globe". The picture is linked to designer's site, where the pattern was purchased.

It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing (no pun intended). Sometimes I feel like I frog more than I stitch and that's led to me putting it down and not picking it up for 2-3 days. I'm not sure why it's been so hard to get everything placed right, but there were several spots that I ended up sitching, frogging and restitching several times. The mermaid has been my favorite thing to stich so far. I love the colors, it's subtle but there are 3 greens in the hair, 4 pinks & peaches in the skin and 5 blues & purples in the tail!

Here is a picture of all the blocks of Lizzie Kate's Boo Club. I finished it a couple weeks ago and now it just needs the buttons. I'm waiting for the candy corn buttons to put them all on at once.

Hope everyone has had a great week so far! I've been trying to catch up on everyone's blogs, so many great projects to see! Nick

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!

Boyd's Bears Starsley Family. Robert, Chase, Adele, Lucy w Munchkin, Sara Lynn, Tessa and Corey

I hope everyone is having a nice Memorial Day weekend! The rain and cooler temps the past couple days have given way to sunny & 80* temps today. While we enjoy our family, friends & cook-outs, hopefully we all remember to take a moment and remember and thank all of those who have served our country!

I finished Lizzie Kate's Boo Club, but forgot to take a picture! All the blocks and borders are done, all it needs are the buttons! As soon as I have it completely finished, I'll be sure to get a picture.

SanMan SAL Calendar October, November & December

While doing some "cleaning" (more like rummaging, but cleaning makes it sound like I was getting someone accomplished) I found the 2010 SanMan calendar piece I had been working on last year. I had finished up to September and when we moved, it got packed away and forgotten about. Luckily sometime after moving I saved the October, November & December patterns when they were released. The last month I shared here was July. I had August & September done and then finished the year off by finishing October, November & December this weekend.

SanMan 2010 SAL Calendar Bell Pull

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend & thanks for stopping by! Nick

A Maize & Blue Finish

Last night, shortly after 12 AM, I put the last stitches in Biff the Wolverine! I finished the hat Friday night and filled in teh block M last night. He took just short of 2 months to finish (I started him the first week of March). He was a fun stitch and I can't wait to take him to be matted and framed Tuesday! :D

Here are all the progress pictures I posted of Biff along the way. Hard to believe he was ever just an eye and some nose!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend - we're enjoying another weekend of wonderful, Spring weather here in Michigan! Thanks for stopping by! Nick

Lemonade & Hacked E-mail

Thank you everyone for the comments on Hot Stuff! Hopefully this weekend I can get it framed. Until Sharon mentioned painting a frame red, the thought had never crossed my mind. Well duh, of course it would be much easier to paint a unfinished or white wood frame than spend forever looking for the right red frame, especially since its a standard 8x10! lol

Here is SanMan's June calendar piece "Fresh Squeezed", the calender is 1/2 finished now! I redid the backstitching in darker colors and I like how the blue ice cubes show up but still don't care for the yellow. It's weird in the picture you can really see the outline but when you actually look at the piece it's still really hard to tell the lemon slices from the lemonade, the flash must make it show up better. Now I'm all caught up with all my SanMan SALs, just waiting for the June blackwork and next Inky Dinky snowman to be posted.

SanMan's Fresh Squeezed

Also I wanted to let everyone know that my e-mail was hacked yesterday evening. An e-mail with no subject and only a link in the body (to an online pharmacy ???) was sent to everyone in my address book. As I was just telling Shari, I almost never use or check my e-mail so thankfully most of the address in my book were old or are stored address from store websites or newsletters (so their e-mails don't end up in my spam folder). I had tons of "mail undeliverable" e-mails because the message wouldn't send to Yankee Candle or Barnes & Noble! lol I did e-mail the bloggers whose e-mail address' I recognized on the list but if I missed any I just wanted to let you know what was up and that I'm sorry you were bothered with that pesky junk! I reported the problem to AOL, changed my password and changed the setting so that e-mail address aren't automatically saved to my address book when I send an e-mail.

Thanks for stopping by & hope everyone has a great day! Nick

A Hot Finish

Hot Stuff is officially finished! I finished off the 1/2 stitches around the peppers and the last of the backstitching yesterday afternoon. Now all I need to do is frame it. I didn't really find a frame I liked at Hobby Lobby, so I am still on the hunt for an inexpensive red frame.

House-Mouse Designs' Hot Stuff

Started April 11, 2010

Finished June 05, 2010

Here are all of the progress pictures since I started the piece...

I also started and am almost finished with the June SanMan calendar piece, Freshly Squeezed. I have to redo the backstitching because after doing it in the charted colors you couldn't really tell the difference between the color of the stitches and the backstitch, so it looked like a big lump of yellow. lol There also seemed to be a million quarter stitches which was a real pain on the aida and because the design is so small. Quarter stitches and French knots just don't agree with me! lol

Hope everyone is having a great weekend & thanks for stopping by to see my finish! Nick

First Ornament Finish

Last night I finished my first ornament for 2010! Now all I have to do is the actual finish, cutting out and backing Piglet. I think I'm going to try to also make Pooh, Tigger & Eeyore and have all 4 done for Christmas. Didn't work on anything else this weekend since I really wanted to get Piglet finished.

The SanMan calendar freebie for April should be out this week so I think I will wait for that instead of starting a new project. I'm taking a little break from Wash Line Blues. I tend to lose enthusiasm for a piece if I stitch on it constantly without working on other projects. I guess that works as a good excuse for having so many projects going! lol

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

UPDATE: Here is a pic of the ornament actually finished, finished! lol I might move the hanger over a little to the left so the ornament hangs a little more sideways. I can't wait for the leaflet w the other 3 patterns to arrive!

First post for a first time blogger...

This is my first time writing a post for a blog. I guess I will start out with a little intro to myself.

My name is Nick, I am 20 years old and enjoy hanging o

ut with my friends, watching football (esp college, my favorite team being the U of M, hence my name, M GO BLUE Stitcher) shopping, cross stitching and many other things. I know, cross stitching isn't usually on the long list of things most 20 year old guys enjoy, but hey, I guess Im not your typical 20 year old guy! lol

I started this blog to share my love of cross-stitch and to keep a journal of my progress & finishes. My mom taught me to cross stitch when I was young and I have always enjoyed it. Recently, within the last year and a half, I have really gotten into it after discovering a whole world of cross stitch themed blogs. I figured, hey, its about time I start my own! Now on to some stitching...

My latest finish is this flip-its set from Lizzie Kate depicting the months of the year. This is one of the first projects I saw when I first started reading cross stitch blogs and fell in love with it. In January I found the set of patterns 50% off and thought, no better time than the present! I started January on January 16th and finished December on February 5th. Here it is before I attached the buttons and had it framed...

"Bit of..." by Lizzie Kate

Started 01/16/10

Finished 02/05/10

Recommended DMC on 14 ct. Aida

I got the piece back from being framed on Friday but don't have a picture of it yet, maybe that can be the next post. lol

Currently I am working on a Dimensions kit called "Singin' the Wash Line Blues". The kit was on sale @ Jo-Anns and after looking at it the last few times I was there I decided to get it. Its mostly 1/2 stitches using various strands of thread to create the light effects. Here is a pic of the kit, which doesn't even come close to showing the true brightness of the colors, esp of the blues...

Well, that was a much longer post than I intended, but thank you for checking out my blog!

Nick