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*

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.

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!

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!!

Another page in the books!

I'm happy to be finally posting an update on another completed page of the Hermit.

The stitching in the bottom-most right of the design is what I finished last night.  Frankly, it was rather a boring page to stitch... mostly purples and plum colors.  Not very challenging at all, yet it was a quick finish as it only took about 6 weeks. 

And now for the decision on which page to do next!  Do I finish the bottom left corner?  Do I work on the upper right and discover what the wall looks like?  Decisions, decisions!  #firstworldproblems ;)

New Project??

I don't know why, but I am thisclose to buying a new HAED chart.  EEEK!  Someone talk me out of it!!!  I'm not bored or tired of the Hermit anymore, I just saw this chart and it screamed at me to buy it.

I have always wanted to do a special chart for each of our cats.  The Hermit is a dead-ringer for my cat, Scully.  I have another cat, Fizzy.  He's an orange tabby (I think) and recently he got sick and my husband and I were worried that he wasn't going to be with us for much longer.  But it turned out he just had a virus and perked up after a week or so and is back to his lovely self.  When I saw this particular chart, I just thought of him.

Here's the design, it's called Winter Friend.

And here is mister Fizzy.

It's a no-brainer, right????

Purple, purple and MORE purple!

I am back to working on the Hermit full-time again.  The first few days were tough - after 14 ct Aida, the 22 ct Hardanger was hard on my eyes!  I was also getting some wrist and neck pain from hold the Qsnap again.  Oh, the things us stitchers go through for our craft!  ;)

Hermit is coming along nicely.  I am stitching a page with a LOT of purple - the cloak, you see.  It's boring, but it has to get done.  It's making for relatively easy stitching with few counting errors, so that's a nice change.

Is it crazy that I am looking again at Heaven and Earth Designs for more charts?  I'm a nut, I know.  I am barely scratching the surface of the Hermit and yet looking for more wonderful cats to stitch. I need some help!

In the meantime, here's a progress photo. 

It's Done!!!

Short post. 

I finished Farm Friends on Sunday night.   It looks amazing, if I do say so myself! I can't post a photo though until it's framed and has been given to the little guy for his birthday. 

I started back to work on The Hermit.  Oh my GOD, after stitching on 14 ct fabric for the better part of the last month, the 22ct squares are shockingly small again!  My eyes hurt after only an hour of work! 

I'll post a Hermit update soon!

Back In The City

Hi everyone!  I am back from a wonderful week at the cottage.  Here's a view of the lake.

I'm not particularly rested (late nights drinking, early mornings with the kids) but I somehow feel rejuvenated.  Spending a week in nature, where the only sounds are birds chirping, loons looning and the crickets cricketing helps centre my gravity.  We went with another couple and their two daughters and everyone got along great.  Despite feeling tired now, it was truly a relaxing week away.  The kids had oodles of fun in the lake, my daughter even did some fishing with her dad!

I was able to get in a bit of stitching, not as much as I would have liked, but enough to satisfy some urges.  It was hard fitting in time to stitch between swimming in the lake, sun tanning on our small, private beach and looking after all the kids.  Still, I was able to get some alone time on the deck.

I returned home to a package in the mail and it wasn't until I opened it that I remembered what I had ordered!  The missing thread from page 3 of the chart.  Yay!!!  Page 3 is officially complete.

We are off for another 3 days this week camping, so there will be no stitching to be had.  It's too dangerous to stitch in the great outdoors, I'm afraid of losing thread and getting my fabric dirty.  It'll be great to get in touch with nature again, this time up close and personal in a tent.

Before I go though, here is an updated photo of my progress on page 4 of charting (an you'll note the bottom of page 3, under the lantern, is now complete).

Hermit update!

I.can't.stop.stitching.  Yet, it feels like I am making zero progress.  I still haven't finished a single page of charting.  Remember there are 20 pages of charts for this beast of a project.  TWENTY!

Here's what a chart looks like --  see all those pen marks?  That's what it looks like after I stitch a square.  I know, crazy!  From chart to stitched design.  Cool, eh?






<-------------Chart




 Stitching ----------->







I mentioned in an earlier post that stitching is relaxing for me.  It really is.  I find I'm able to turn my brain off and just focus on the movement of my hand as I make each 'x'.  Sometimes though, stitching makes me perseverate on something - maybe about a patient I saw that day, or a friend that I'm worrying about.  But that's okay, because as I stitch and think about things, a calmness comes over me.  It's like stitching helps me put things into perspective. 

I am counting the minutes until I can stitch again.

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!!!  ;)