"I Quit", Ikea, and Other Musings

I rage-quit cross stitching yesterday. It's definitely a temporary thing, but I'm really burnt on it for the moment. I have been putting every spare ounce of energy I have into finishing Yoshi and when I finally decided to give myself a break and work on a different project, I found out a few minutes into it that I had made an everlasting screw up toward the beginning. There was no way of fixing it, and thus I threw it in the trash. (Honestly, it felt sort of refreshing, but it was the first time I'd ever junked a cross stitch piece, so it felt pretty foreign.)

It's dead to me now...

So, after relieving myself of the gift that never gave, I decided to start another project--again an image of a present--that I'd wanted to complete as a Christmas gift. I, however, miscounted and had to completely start over twice. Needless to say, I was pissed, so I threw that one out, too. And now I have no other projects in my queue that I intend to work on for quite some time.

My guess is that an enormous haul at IKEA may have done me in yesterday. Fiance and I decided to get the vast majority of our furniture shopping done before moving in to our new home, but we didn't realize the consequences of buying things without a place to store them, so not only were we frazzled by our shopping trip, but we ended up being flummoxed by what to do with everything once we got back to his parents' house.

Everything ended up in our gaming area/my crafting spot...

See that bin in the left-hand corner with all the boxes of thread in it? That's where I like to sit and stitch when there is natural light available to me. IKEA has taken over the family room and until everything is assembled and put into it's proper place at the new house, I think I'm going the be a cross stitch retiree/quitter.

That should only be about seven to ten days, though, if we work quickly. Fiance and I are set to close on our condo tomorrow, so we should be able to go in and do all of our upgrades starting this week. Today I'm actually headed over to pick out paint and set up our internet package, so we're progressing, but it seems to be at the expense of my free time.

In all reality, I will likely begin working on Yoshi again tonight. It's not a hard project and all I have left is fill work, but right now there's just no joy in the process for me. It's a race against time to get HSHY done before we move in--I still need to learn how to frame the thing--and since we're moving in super duper soon, things will be tight, but I think that getting it done will be a huge boost to my morale and sanity.

There is always a silver lining to things, though, and the result of my misadventures is that I'm going to teach myself to grid my fabrics for my next big project. I plan on practicing on a smaller project first, but I have a feeling that the practice will make things easier over time. Fingers crossed, right?

2014 Xmas Cross Stitch #1: Cute Penguin

Last year, I stitched a really simple penguin Christmas ornament for my best friend Frie. I wasn't planning on stitching her another penguin this year, but when I found such a cute and easy pattern on ministitches.tumblr.com, I really couldn't resist. And I finished it so quickly! From start to finish, I had it done in less than an evening. It was a bit weird since I'm so accustomed to large pieces like Yoshi and Lissa, but it was a nice change of pace and I'm really looking forward to finishing up my other Christmas items over the next few weeks.

Site Updates, Christmas Planning, and October Goals

I think the only good thing about having contracted walking pneumonia last week was the fact that I had an excuse to stay home and rest. While I clearly did not get much done online, I was able to get some cross stitch work done and sleep as much as I could before my three exams. Let me just say for the record that I am very much looking forward to being done with my university in the next year.

In the crafting world, though, things are going well. Slowly, but surely, I am creating and adding patterns to the site and intend to have weekly pattern releases through March of next year. These patterns will be released on Sundays and posted to the Patterns page as well as the main page of this blog. Last week's release was Anna from Fire Emblem Awakening. This upcoming Sunday will be introducing two more FEA sprite patterns for Robin.

Yoshi is currently on the back burner due to a Size 28 tapestry needle shortage. I have looked for them at four different stores and still haven't been able to find them, so I've had to change gears and begin working on new projects that I can work on with my stash of Size 26 needles. Primarily, I have been focusing on my Sprite Stitch Charity Quilt Square and as silly as it sounds I feel like I'm working on it faster just because the X's are so much larger. So far, I'm about three days into it and plan on having a significant portion of it complete by the end of the year. I have also begun my annual pattern hunt for Christmas ornaments. So far, I have found five tiny patterns to complete and plan on having the cross stitch work done on them by the end of the month. (I'd tell you more on the subject, but that might ruin the surprise for the readers that are also on my Christmas list.)

All in all, life is moseying along at quite a nice speed. Because I'll be spending over two weeks at clients' homes this month, I'll have a considerable amount of free time on my hands, so I anticipate that I'll be able to complete all of my October goals which are listed below:

1. Stitch in significant portions of my SS Charity Square (500-1,000 stitches).
2. Cross stitch at least four Christmas pieces.

I'll be posting WIP pictures of my Lissa square as soon as I can get them typed up, so stay tuned!

August Goal #1 Complete!

Well, after almost eight months of procrastination, Charmander is finally done! After I set my month's goals on the first, I decided that I was just going to finish my "Complete a Pokemon Ornament" as soon as possible. I didn't touch any of my other projects until Charmander was done, even though I was incredibly tempted by Home Sweet Home Yoshi and some undisclosed patterns that I'll be working on over the course of the next year for the Sprite Stitch Charity Quilt. (I should have those two projects announced by October at the very latest. I just don't want to spoil the surprise until I officially have the games I want by my name on the annual spreadsheet.)

But back to Charmander! I worked on him furiously over the first weekend of this month and I was completely done by early Sunday morning, so I decided to just to dive head in head first and printed off a Ditto pattern to work on, as well. Turns out that by the end of August 3rd I had TWO pokemon ornaments to show for this month! SO is really happy and I have to admit that I am, too. I'm not on track to finish my goal of 20 ornaments for the year, but in total I have 5 done so far. If I'm smart and I choose easy-to-sew patterns, I can definitely get the last fifteen done by the end of 2014, but that's only if all 18 units of classes this semester, plus dog sitting, plus work don't take all of my time up first.

HEY LISTEN!

As promised in my post from last Friday, today's post is all about Christmas ornaments. The last few days of July were really busy again. I was dog sitting, but somehow managed to schedule three nearly back to back evenings of concert outings with SO. On July 24th, 25th, and 27th we were supposed to see Video Games Live, Danny Elfman's The Music of Tim Burton, and Othello respectively. The shows on the 24th and 25th were San Diego Comic-Con specials performed by the San Diego Symphony. Because of the traffic during SDCC, we decided to ride the trolley both days. The first night was fantastic, but SO had a bad cold, so he didn't make it to the next night's show. Instead, I took Frie and she had a blast. SO was feeling well enough after a day's rest to attend Othello.

I must say, taking the trolley  to and from these shows was wonderful for my cross stitching projects. I got an entire Christmas ornament done between the four hours of travel to and from Downtown. I found a really cute pattern for a Navi in a Bottle on dA a while back and decided that it would be a good one to take along with my dog sitting since it was a simple pattern with just a few colors and a big block of white to fill in. Like I mentioned before, it was a quick one to finish and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Finished dimensions are approximately 2 inches by 3 inches.

July Recap & August Goals

Well, it's hard to believe, but happy August 2014! I have no idea where summer has gone, but as of Monday it's officially ended for me. I start my new position at work come Monday, but no University until the end of the month, so summer may be winding down, but luckily it isn't over yet.

Last month I set out four goals for myself:

1. Use up remaining cotton yarn.
2. Add 2,000 stitches to HSHY.
3. Finish one Pokemon ornament.
4. Add 20 rounds to Ian's blanket. (Sort of.)

I blew my goals for Yoshi out of the water and added at least 2,000 stitches, if not closer to 3,000. I also managed to use up almost all of my remaining cotton yarn from my stash--pictures to come Wednesday. And even though I technically didn't finish my 4th goal of adding 20 rounds to Ian's blanket, I did finish up another blanket very similar to his and it's all wrapped up waiting for me to give to a good friend once I see her at work again come late August. The only goal that I didn't complete was #3. I did not work on Pokemon ornaments at all, but I did manage to get sidetracked and finish two other cross stitch ornaments for our future video game Christmas tree. I should have them posted on Monday, but I'm really happy with how they've turned out so far.

As for August goals, I'm not really sure how things with my new job are going to work out, so I'm setting the bar pretty low for this month.

1. Add 1,000 stitches to HSHY.
2. Finish one Pokemon ornament (Charmander).

Anything else that gets done next month is extra credit, in my opinion. There is going to be a lot that goes on in the next month just in terms of work and school, but SO's dad might be going back in for some elective surgery within the year, so I'm not sure what's going to happen. I'm just going to play it close to the chest for now and whatever gets done gets done. As I always try to remind myself...

New Year Resolution: Pokemon Sprites Coming Out My Ears!

Well, I know that I've said it already, but happy new year, everyone! With the holiday season finally over and a fresh year upon us, new year's resolutions are also looming. This year, I didn't make any resolutions. Instead, I made a promise to SO that by next Christmas, I would have a bunch of Pokemon Christmas ornaments to hang on his Christmas tree. I've already gone to my local craft store and bought out their supply of 14 Count plastic canvas, 20 yards worth of ribbon, jump rings, and felt. Here's the horde from when I got back from Michael's (along with a Makibird pattern for Bulbasaur.)

I actually made Bulba over the course of two days. Working with plastic instead of Aida was an interesting experience to say the least. Hiding my threads as I moved around the piece was a good learning experience with the clear plastic and I've found that the stickiest substance in the universe is the adhesive that felt manufacturers put on the back of the "Peel N Stick" stuff you can buy. I tried using permanent spray glue to adhere to regular, stiffened felt, but for some reason it wouldn't stick, so for now I just plan on continuing to use Peel N Stick until I can find a better alternative.

Here's Bulbasaur in progress and him once he's all finished. I worked on him consistently for two days and I'm glad to say that he turned out amazingly for an experimental run. The next pokemon in my line up is Bellsprout. He's a lot more twiggy than Bulba, but I think with enough patience, he'll look just fine.

#001 Bulbasaur

Snowflakes, Penguins, & Airplanes

Between finals and Christmas chaos, these last few weeks have been a tad bit nutty. I've been able to get some cross stitching done, though. Nothing is 100% done, yet, but I still have nine days until Christmas. I think I can get it all done, still. Here are some pictures of what's done for right now. The snowflake is from Cross Me Not, the plane is from the cross stitch portion of About.com, and the penguin came from a modified perler bead pattern found here.

 

I have about four more projects to get through before Christmas hits. Hopefully I can get a picture of the Christmas tree plus all of this year's gifts posted before the 25th. If for some reason, we don't cross paths until after the holidays, happy holidays and see you next year!

Christmas Ornaments WIP and FOs

With final exams rapidly approaching, crafting has become my main activity to de-stress since the final stretch has begun. I've completely finished four Christmas ornaments and finished an additional two cross stitching portions. I'm not exactly sure how many more I have left, but the number is definitely dwindling down.

The snowman, helicopter, gingerbread man, and candy cane are all done with the biplane and purple snowflake done and ready to be sewn.

My current WIP is a Squirtle for my boyfriend. I plan to be done with it and two more ornaments, a Wartortle and Blastoise, before Christmas, but at this rate, I have no idea if that will happen. He already has other gifts under the tree. I really need to prioritize my projects for the people that I don't have anything for yet!

Snowman WIP

Happy Thanksgiving! This is a very late night/early morning post, so pardon me if I seem a little tuckered out. I spent almost 4 hours with my new little snowman buddy this evening.

I started working on him last weekend and with about 8¾ hours under my belt, I'm almost done. I imagine that if all goes well, then he'll be finished by this afternoon. It's also my birthday today, so I'll have more leisure time than usual.

I'll post more projects soon!

Christmas Is Coming!

Last weekend, to say the least, was terrible. I haven't ever been that sick in my entire adult life. My apologies for being away for the last week or so.

I've been trying to get a leg up on Christmas gifts. So far I've gotten the main cross stitching portions of three ornaments done and I have about 8 to 12 more to get stitched up. The good news is, that these little projects are going very fast (1-2 days per piece), and once I hit the sewing machine to finish them off, these projects should be done lickity split. Below are images of the three pieces I have done so far*. All of the patterns are from Cross Me Not. Enjoy!

 The helicopter isn't technically finished because I'm still working on the background fill, but I finished up the pattern itself last night.