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!!

The Final Birth Record is Done!

Late last week, I completed my last child's birth record.  It's actually been finished for a few months, I just had the name, birth date and birth weight to complete.  But now, as his first birthday rapidly approaches, I realized I needed to finish it.  Husband always writes out the last part for me as I am not so great at figuring out where the center of the lettering should be. It's also been his way of contributing to the final product.

On the weekend we took it to our local framing store and spent a good hour deciding on the mattes and frame.  I think it's going to look wonderful.  Here's a sneak peek!

Progress on Witching Hour

I've spent the past month stitching almost nightly, working on the new project, "The Witching Hour".  It's coming along nicely, save for a minor counting error that I'm hoping won't be too noticeable, but of course, when I asked the husband to look for it, he found it right away.  Damn him!  lol!!

Can you see it??

Another Project Begins!

I finally got all the supplies I needed for The Witching Hour this past weekend, including a new Q-Snap.  Since this one is smaller than the Hermit and I really don't like having to mess with the fabric too much, I decided it was better to get a smaller Q-Snap, so it was recommended to me to use the 11x11 square design.  And so I did.

I also decided to start this project a bit differently.  Normally I start all my projects from the center of the image, but this time I wanted a change, so I meticulously figured out where to start the first stitch  on the very first page in the top left corner.

I did this by finding the center square of the fabric and counted out and up.  Yep, I counted all those tiny little squares on my 22 ct Hardanger fabric.  114 squares across from the middle, then 164 squares up.  I counted three times.  Husband always says, "Measure twice, cut once."  After I was certain of my count, I placed the first stitch.

 

Just for fun, I figured out how many stitches this baby has -- 74, 328.  Yikesl

And since you all wondered, cuz I know I certainly did, this is what 400+ stitches looks like.