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.

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! ;)

Page 6 is done!!

Not much to say here - I finally got the 6th page of charting done.  Yay!!  I completed it last night and am sooooo happy it's done.

 

Now the decision is where to stitch from here???

 

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 ;)

Moving On.

So, I'm over the frustration of not being able to finish the 3rd page of chart due to missing thread.  I've ordered it from 1-2-3 Stitch and it'll probably arrive sometime next week.  In the meantime, I have started the 4th page of chart.  Gotta keep moving, right?

Oh, and speaking of moving, I have started running.  Crazy!  I used to work out at a gym years ago but since having children and cross-stitching, I have become lazy.  I was starting to notice that I was getting more and more out of breath just carrying the kids up and down the stairs and decided it was time to do something about it.  I don't' think I'll ever be running marathons, but at least I'm getting up off the couch.

And speaking of the couch... it's time to do some stitching.  But first, here's a updated photo.  You can see at the very bottom where I'm missing those stitches.

Outdoor Stitching

Finally, I was able to do some stitching in the backyard, by the pond.  It was awesome, but bloody hot!  I lasted about a half hour.  Suddenly I got worried that stitching in the sunlight would bleach the fabric.  I couldn't get the idea out of my head so I had to stop.  That, and my son woke up from his nap.  Still, it was heaven and I hope to do more of it this summer though I might have to wait until later in the afternoon/early evening.

Here's a progress photo! And, it was taken outdoors!  Note the natural lighting.

Page 2 DONE!

I am so thrilled to be posting this update.

I finished page 2 of the Hermit chart with 1 day to spare.  It is so exciting to see this project evolve.  My hand is cramping a bit from all the late night stitching and with the summer weather arriving, I might be limited in how much work I can get done, but I will plug along and see how it goes.

Now the big decision is where to go from here?  I'll be starting page 3 tonight, and I think I'll continue on the upper left side of the design and work on the wall in the background.

Thanks so much to all those following along!!  It's nice to have this way of tracking my progress.

Grr.... confetti!

So, I'm back to the Hermit.  I am so close to finishing the first page of chart, I am giddy with excitement!  I have discovered a few things that I think will change the way I move forward.

As you may remember, I started stitching from the center of the chart.  It's how I've always started my kits and so I went with what I know.  As I near completion of the first page, I am left with a lot of confetti. Those who are not in the know, may ask, "what the heck is confetti?"

Confetti:  Definition: Stitchers often refer to scattered single stitches as confetti stitches. The stitches are spread across the fabric as if they had been sprinkled like confetti.

Exhibit A:

Can you see the scattered little white dots of fabric?  That's confetti.

I like my definition better - a huge pain in the ass.

Having to do single cross stitches means having to re-thread my needle a lot.  It's time consuming and irritation. Not to mention BORING!!!

So, once this page is complete and I move on to the next, I am going to try stitching in blocks of 10x10 squares.  Seasoned stitchers will say that this may lead to more re-threading more often, but another trick I learned is parking the thread, like this.

Oy, that looks like a god-awful mess, doesn't it?  Well, I'm going to give it a shot and see how it goes. 
Wish me luck!

Stitchy Stitch ... is it nighttime yet?

I have been stitching like a fiend!


Every night, after the kids are in bed and we've had our dinner, I pull out the Hermit and get to work.  Poor husband!  He's been wanting to watch his new Blu-Ray copy of "Deer Hunter" but I'm so absorbed in my project that I can't possibly devote 3 hours to a movie when I could be stitching!  I suppose I will have to give in one night and put the Hermit away.  Sigh ... the sacrifices we make for marriage. ;)


So I've made quite a bit of progress, though it may not look like it to anyone else.  As I mentioned in my first post about the Hermit, this is going to be a very time consuming project.  Target completion date is 2017.  


Here is a photo I took last week.  The black stitching is the Hermit's lantern and the yellow is the light.  I know it doesn't look like much yet, but there you have it.  Thanks for reading!

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!!!  ;)