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*

I caved.

Yesterday, I bought the "mini" Witching Hour" chart I blogged about the other day.  I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I am such a geek. Haha!!

I went to Michael's last night with the husband and got all the DMC floss for the new chart.  I decided I wanted to store this floss a bit differently, so I bought a box and the bobbins and spent most of the evening organizing the floss. I'm embarrassed to admit how much fun it was.

The bill was the longest piece of paper I've received in a while.  Tee hee!

1/4 floss "bobbin'd" after 2 hours

Sadly, Michael's did not have the fabric I needed, so I am off to another shop on Monday, just outside the city, to get it.  The chart suggests 25 ct Linen or 18 ct Aida but I think I will go with the same fabric I used for the Hermit - Hardanger - but will stick to the 25 ct as suggested rather than scale down to the 22 ct. 

Target completion date - January 2016. 

;)

Itching for a new design...

So, I am only a few months into the Hermit BAP (big ass project), and I am already thinking about the next HAED design I want to tackle.

I'm crazy, right?

Never mind that I already have one other unfinished project which I have blogged about previously.  I haven't even gone back to that beautiful little kitty since starting the Hermit!  The Hermit has been all-consuming for me.  Why on earth would I want to start another one equally as difficult?

I know the seasoned stitchers out there will say it's good to have a variety of projects on the go as one might get bored with stitching just one design all.the.time.  But I'm not bored of the Hermit yet.  I am just getting excited about seeing the design unfold that I am already looking to see what other designs are out there.  I have even found a few, and <gasp> not all are cat-related!!!


Here's one I really like, called "The Drinkers".  This photo reminds me of the bar my husband and I went to in Barcelona, called Bar Marsella.  He was so excited to go there to try the Absinthe.  Apparently, Hemingway frequented the place quite a bit.  This was also the spot where I met my first celebrity, Ian Somerhalder.  We drank Absinthe together and partied with him until 6 am.  (Yes, I have photos to prove it!)

And another cute cat- themed design, "Bon Appetit":

And then there's this cute winter cat-themed design, "Winter Twilight":

Gah!  What am I gonna do?!

Frederick the Literate

After Barnyard Kitties,  I was ready for more action.  I was ready for a bigger project.  I continued with the kits, because back then that was all I knew about.  Kits were (are) my comfort zone.  After the usual browsing on eBay, I found the next project.  It would be another black Aida cloth, but the design was larger, more colours, and downright cute!

Frederick the Literate.  This lovely feline fell asleep among the book stack.  If you look closely, all the books are word plays.  For example, "Tale of Two Cities"is renamed "Tale of Two Kitties"; a volume of books has the names, "Great Cat-sup Recipes", "Great Mouse Traps", and "Great Fish Baits".




Frederick was a lot of fun to stitch. I always start in the centre, so see the books evolve one by one, his cute face and body lying hidden beneath the books brought me hours of peaceful stitching and thought.




I began Frederick on April 30, 2007 and completed him just 4 days before the birth of my daughter, on November 20, 2008.  I still remember, quite vividly, walking down the street in a blizzard one Saturday afternoon a few weeks later to pick up the final framed picture.  It was the first time I had left the house, by myself, after having had my daughter just a few weeks earlier.   Here he is, on the wall at home.

Frederick the Literate, on the wall

Next up ... Kitty Litter!  Stay tuned!

How I Got Started Cross Stitching

I never really had a hobby.  I was too busy studying my ass off in high school, then university and throughout my graduate studies, to get into medical school.  But once I got in, during my spare time when I wasn't studying, or partying with my new friends, I found I was kind of bored.  One of my girlfriends in medical school was into painting and horticulture, among other things.  My apartment was kind of lifeless, so she got me started with some household tropicals, terracotta pots and gave me a paintbrush.  It was a lot of fun and for many years thereafter, I amassed quite a collection of potted plants!  But horticulture wasn't my passion, I was soon to discover.

While I was visiting this girlfriend at her family's home, her mother was crocheting.  I remembered my mom doing a lot of needlepoint while I was growing up, her designs were all over the walls of our house.  Watching my friend's mother crocheting, I thought, "I should learn something like that".  So, she tried to teach me  how to crochet, and well, I sucked at it.  It just wasn't for me. My hands cramped up and I just couldn't figure it out.  So, off we went to the local arts and crafts store (Michael's) and we wandered up and down the aisles.  Something caught my eye - a cute little orange cat sitting on a blue chair and above was the writing, "Home Is Where The Cat Is".   Eurkea!  "I want to try that!", I exclaimed.  I picked out a counted cross stitch kit, my girlfriend's mother showed me how to start, and I was hooked.

Here she is.  There are a few mistakes in my stitching.  The most obvious is the letter "r" in "where".  Haha!  This is hanging in the front hallway of my house.  I do love it, despite the flaws.   After I finished it, I decided that I would only do cat-themed projects.  I love cats.  I grew up with a beautiful white long-haired cat named April.  You know how there are dog people and cat people?  I'm a cat person.  Through and through.  

So, that brings me to my next project.  I wasn't brave enough to start anything too large, so I picked a similar sized design, 5x7.  This next one is called, "All Tied Up". I had a lot of fun with this one.  There are some errors in it, I'm sure, but it's hard to pick them out.  I loved the half cross stitching in this one - for those who don't know it's the first stitch in the cross - /.  You can see it - it's the green grass kitty is lying on.  It's wonderful to see how half cross stitches add depth and shading to a project. 

I was on a roll.  Kitty on the blanket was my 3rd kit.  Oh, so I suppose I should explain what a "kit" is.  A kit comes with the fabric (usually Aida 14 count), thread (or floss), needle, and instructions.  It's really easy, actually.  To start, one would fold the fabric and find the middle.  Then you locate the middle of the chart, pick a symbol, search the symbol on the chart to find out what colour thread to use and start!  Easy!  The counting afterwards becomes a bit tricky.  Every single project I have ever done has some counting error in it.  Most of the time it's invisible to everyone else but me.  My husband laughs at me because it's inevitable, at some point during a project, I'll exclaim, "Ah.... fuck!".  Then the frogging begins... "rip, rip, rip".   Stitching is calming, did I forget to mention that?!

Next up -- my first large kit!  Stay tuned!