She's almost done!

Last night I finished another page (the top right panel) of the behemoth HAED "The Hermit".

I have two exciting panels left to finish and I cannot wait to finish. It will be bittersweet as I have toiled over this baby for almost 5 years.  *sniff*

Long overdue update!

Hello my stitching friends!

It's been so long since I updated this blog.  I have been stitching away on the Hermit and have an update for you!  You can see The Hermit's ear now!!!

Working with a piece of fabric this big has had its challenges.  I used a Q-snap for a long time and then switched to the O-ring.  When I started work on the new page (bottom middle) about a month ago, I started having some issues with numbness in the last two fingers of my right hand.  I deduced that my ulnar nerve was being irritated from having my elbow bent for long periods of time - some nights, I could be stitching for 2-3 hours.  I concluded that I needed a new system for holding my fabric that saved my hand from going numb, so I bought a lap stand.

It has been a Godsend.  The only criticism I have is that the screws don't stay tight on the scroll bar so that the scroll will swivel when I don't want it to. It's not a big deal and my husband actually added a washer which has helped keep the screws tight.

I am starting to see the end is in sight for The Hermit.  I have about 5 pages left to stitch.  It will probably take me the rest of this year to finish.  I can hardly wait!

Hermit Update!

Well, it's been 4 months and another page of the mammoth project, The Hermit, is complete. This was actually page 1 of the chart.  As some of my readers will recall, I started stitching in the middle of the chart. 

This was the fastest page completion in a while.  6 weeks!!!

I have a little over 8 pages left to complete.  Hard to believe how far it's come along since starting way back in March, 2012.

Hermit Update.

Well, it's been four months so it must be time for another page finish!  And it is!!  I completed the lower right panel late last night.  This is one mammoth of a project!

Winter Stitching

Stitching in the winter really is the best.  There's no better excuse to stitch when it's -30°C outside.

I started page 2 of The Witching Hour in early January and finished it last night.    This mini HAED really is a lot of fun to stitch.  I do miss the Hermit a little but have decided to stick with this one for another month or two and will get started on page 3 tonight.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Project Rotation

I decided to put The Hermit away for a little while and get back to work on The Witching Hour.  I forgot how much greys and blacks there are in WH.  It's been moving pretty quickly as it's fairly easy to stitch blocks of one color at a time as opposed to having to switch thread every few stitches.  The former can become monotonous and boring but the latter is just plain annoying.

See all that black?!  That was about 800 stitches which took me about 3 days.  I had the most massive headache for days and had to put all stitching away for almost a week.  I think I am going to need glasses one of these days. 

Here is my progress over the last week.

When Surfin' the 'Net gets dangerous.

I really need to stay away from a certain website.  I came into work a bit early and after getting all my "paperwork" out of the way I had some time to browse the internet.  I found myself at the HAED website and immediately found two beauties that I can't stop thinking about.

The first is this one:

Stunning, am I right?  I just love the reflection of the cat in the window by the candle light.  So, so beautiful! 

But then I saw this one:

I love the colors and all the different cats!!!  While the first one is beautiful, I think I might get tired of all the dark colors.  I think I need more color in my life.  Perhaps I'll have to choose the bookshelf. 

Oh dear. 

Happy New Year 2015!

It's January 1, 2015.  I have been working on the Hermit since March 6, 2012.  Almost 3 years. Certainly the longest I have ever worked on a single project.  It truly is a labor of love.

On New Years Eve I completed another page.  I've done ten so far. 

 

It never ceases to amaze me how it looks when I take the  Q-snap or the O-ring off and lay her all out flat on a table.  It's hard to see the picture when I'm stitching a particular section/page but when seen like this, wow! Blows my mind.

So today, on this first day of a brand new year, I started a new page.  I reckon I have completed 50% of the Hermit.  I wonder if it will take me another 3 years to finish?  Anyone wanna place bets?

Progress on the Hermit

I've been working away on the Hermit.  She's a bitch I tell ya! It is still quite daunting to me this task I have embarked upon.  About a month ago I showed it to a friend of mine and she just looked at me like I was crazy.  I laughed at her.  It is crazy but I love it.

The page I am working on is the very bottom right corner of the design.  I fiddled with the Q-snap for ages trying to get the fabric tight enough and it just wasn't working.  So for a few nights I just stitched holding the fabric in my hand - that was not easy, there's a lot of fabric and it was really hard to keep it tight.  So off to the craft store I went in search of those wooden round holdy-thingys.

Brilliant!  Brilliant, I tell you.  This this is amazing! It was so worth the $3 I spent on it!  It is perfect for the area I am stitching right now.  I am so in love with it.
 

Hermit update!

I am so happy to be able to finally post an update on the Hermit.  Another page is done! Yay!!  And can I just say how sick I am of the grey tones?  So much grey!!!

She is a beauty though, don't you think?! I forget how big she's going to be.  I think I am going to move away from the door and start working on the wall near the lantern again.  I need some new colour in my life.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Two Hours of Stitching Doesn't Look Like Much.

Ha ha!

I am always amazed at how long it takes to cross stitch.  Just the other night, I started work on a new page of the Hermit and took a before stitching photo and two hours later, took another picture. Didn't look like I'd done much!

Hermit Update!!

Well, I finally managed to finish a chart page of the Hermit. 

Yay!!!

This one took forever it seems.  I had run out of floss for one colour - not sure how that happened  - so I couldn't finish it. I mentioned it to my husband and he offered to get it for me since he is home with the kids and I work. So the hunt began to find a store close to us and that proved to be challenging. But being the resourceful man he is, a few hours later he texted me that he found the floss at a Michaels and was on his way to get it!! What a sweetie!!!

So, without further ado.... 

The page I completed is the top left section. 

As always, thanks for looking!!

Hermit update!

Nope, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (if anyone was wondering).

Still here and still cross stitching, though not as often as I'd like.  Having kids makes it kind of difficult.  But I'm back to work now and hoping that there will be a little bit more of an opportunity to stitch in the evenings after everyone is in bed.

I haven't updated the Hermit in a long time, and usually I like to do it when I've finished a charting page but I'm going against the grain here and going to post a picture of an unfinished page.

Oooh... how daring! ;)

One more down ...

... page, that is.

Yes, that's right folks!  Another page of the Hermit is complete.  This page was a bit repetitive which in some ways is easier to work on because I only needed 4-6 color threads to do the majority of the work.  I attacked this page a bit differently - I worked more consistently on each 10 x 10 square, which helped to minimize counting errors, though somehow I still ended up with a few. 

Anyway, I think it looks great and certainly no one will notice where the errors are - so, without further ado, I give you the latest update of the Hermit. 

  

Once again, thanks for looking! 

... and page 4 is DONE!!

As I watch Dr. No on this, the 50th anniversary of the film's theatrical release, I am finally finished page 4 of the Hermit. 

I was left with a lot of confetti which I am beginning to detest.  It's very annoying to do one cross stitch and then change thread.  Repeat x ten.  Ugh.  I have decided that as I start page 5, I am going to do my best to avoid ending up with confetti.  Let's see how I do.

And so, without further ado --- here is the Hermit, 5 pages (out of 20) complete!

The Hermit! First progress photos.

Hello all!  I am pleased to start posting pictures of my progress on the biggest project I have ever embarked on.  The Hermit Baba is going to take me years to finish.  I kid you not.  The chart is 20 pages long.  TWENTY!!  Don't believe me?  Take a look at this!

Yep, that's me, lying next to it for perspective.  Those are standard 8.5"x11" sheets of paper.  I'm crazy, right?? What the hell am I thinking??  


Where the heck do you even start such a project?  


I have always started my projects in the centre - this is easy to do when the charts are two or three pages.  But twenty??  With the help of my handy husband, we actually found the centre of this chart (there are nifty little arrows on the vertical and horizontal aspects of the chart).  I highlighted the four centre squares.


A lot of seasoned cross-stitchers start with page 1 of their charts, and "grid" their fabric.  I learned this from the Cross Stitch Forum and is demonstrated here.  This blogger used floss which she presumably removes as she approaches it.  Another way of "gridding" is using a washable pen. 


Gridding seemed a rather daunting task and for me, much harder to do than working from the centre outwards.  It also occurred to me that if I were to stitch page by page then I might havevisible lines in my stitching indicating where one page starts and one ends.  I actually saw this demonstrated while at the store where I purchased my supplies for the Hermit.  There was a beautiful HAED design, framed on the wall. From a distance it was gorgeous, but up close one could see lines in the stitching.  I tried looking for a photo to describe what I saw but I don't want to use someone else's work, so suffice it to say that I decided to do what I am most comfortable with and that is starting my stitching in the middle.  


I started The Hermit on March 6, 2012.  Here are two progress photos.  The one on the left was after the first few days of stitching.  Remember, I started in the middle.  The one on the right is about 3 weeks in.  I'm stitching a fabric that is 19.5" wide and 26.5' long.  (I'm crazy, remember?!)  


You can see from the progress photo on the right that I am stitching the Hermit's paw and a bit of his cloak.  Neat, eh?

Embarking on the crazy...

About a month ago, I needed a stronger distraction from a certain online forum (which will remain nameless), so I did a search on trusty Google for cross stitching forums.  I joined a lovely site, Cross Stitch Forum and started reading.  


A large proportion of stitchers were doing something called HAED.  Never heard of it.  So, I went on another hunt. I found a link to Heaven and Earth Designs. Ding! Ding! Ding!  Wow.  Stunned by what I'm seeing.  On this website are some of the most elaborate cross stitching designs I have ever seen.  I started browsing.  About 20 minutes later, I stumble upon this guy, herein called "The Hermit".  


I showed the Hermit to my husband who immediately verbalized why I fell in love with him.  He looks exactly like my darling cat, Scully.  Here, you be there judge.

The Hermit

Scully

I spent over a week researching how to do the Hermit.  For the first time, I wasn't buying a pre-made kit that had everything, ie. floss, fabric, chart, instructions.  First step was to buy the chart.  So I did, then downloaded and printed it.  All 25+ pages.  HUH???? Excuse me?!  How many stitches is that?! 140,000+ stitches.

Next, fabric.  All I had ever stitched on was 14 ct Aida.  I didn't even know what that meant!!  This design called for 25 ct.  What the heck does that mean?  So, back I go to the trusty cross stitch forum and start asking a bazillion questions.  The stitchers there are amazing.  Over the course of a few days, I was suddenly sounding like a pro, explaining to my husband that 22 ct means 22 squares per inch rather than 14 squares per inch.  I learned how to figure out the size of my finished design based on whether or not I did it on 22ct or 25 ct.  I learned all about fabric - Aida, Hardanger, Lugana, Linen.  Since I was a novice, I decided to split the difference, sort of, and stitch this monstrosity on 22 ct.  All my research pointed to Hardanger as being the best fabric choice for this project.  

Next, needles.  I'd need newer, finer needles, right?  Cue another few days of research on which needles were the best.

Next, floss.  I'd need how much?  87 different colours?  Am I crazy?! (Please, don't answer that!)   Should I buy the floss online?  Is it cheaper than in a retail store? How do I store all that floss, anyway?  Thankfully, I found a store in my area (well, not really, but we'll pretend it was close by) that sold the floss I needed (DMC for those that care), as well as everything else I'd need.  I was set!  The most expensive, elaborate project I'd ever embarked on was about to begin.

Stay tuned!!!  ;)