Disappointment, Christmas Cards, UCJC, and My Boy

I have lost my stitching bug. It's gone -- been MIA for almost a week now. I was working like mad trying to finish page 3 of HSH, and as I got to the last 5-7%, I got bogged down. Not because of confetti or anything like that, but because I HATED the colours. I was stitching pinks and purples, a wonderful change from the array of mustards, oranges, and browns I'd previously been working with. I should have been delighted, delirious, or over the moon!! But, I hate the colours. They look nothing like they should and I think it looks hideous. I was so upset that I had to stop stitching and tuck the piece away. I don't know what to do with it now. Bleh.

See what I mean? (Here's a close up.) Compare it with the pic in my sidebar. Not even remotely close. Grr.

I (of course) didn't make enough Christmas cards in the last 3 months, so I have been a little frantic trying to make a few last minute cards. I used Versamark to do a subtle holly and berries pattern on the background, but it didn't work out quite as well as I hoped. I'll try clear embossing next time, that might give it a little more oomph.

This next one is for my parents. It's simple, but I really like it. Some of the best fussy cutting I've done to date.

The trick is to use distress inks on the little white edges to cover them up (worked like a charm), then I spritzed it with shimmer mist. They look magical now!

I have been preparing for the 2012 Ultimate Crazy January Challenge. I have 30 of the 31 projects kitted up and ready to go. The only one I'm missing is Metamorphasis by Ink Circles, and I still need the chart, fabric and threads! I'm hoping my LNS comes through for me before January!

See -- my semi-organized piles! (And my treadmill put to good use.)

Lastly, I have pictures of my boy to show you. I've never done this before, but he's so freaking cute, I just couldn't resist. He's a 5-year-old Miniature Schnauzer named Toka.

He hates the rain, so sometimes I let him run inside instead.

PS -- IHSW is coming up this weekend. It's the last one of 2011. Cross your fingers that my mojo comes back in time!

Do you see what I see?

That's right! The roof!! The roof!! Woohoo!!

I needed a break from the confetti nightmare that is DQ, so I pulled out my long neglected Home Sweet Home and put a dent in page 3. Page 3 was about 30% done, and now it's 90.4% complete. (Overall I have 15,103 stitches stitched.) You can now see the peak of the roof and part of the tiny top window, and all that's left on this page is to fill in the pinks and purples. I am so EXCITED about pinks and purples after all the orange, mustard, and brown I've stitched on this piece.

I also have a recently made card to share. I hate making sympathy cards :( but I think this was a simple and elegant design. Plus I had a chance to use my new Perfect Pearls for the first time. (Side note - I LOVE VERSAMARK. Where has it been all my life?!?)

There is something so appealing about a clean, simple, and neutral card with a single pop of colour. Variations on this might be forthcoming. :P

It's STASHMAS !!!

Today is STASHMAS!! It's a "stitching holiday" created by the members of crossstitchforum.com to celebrate all things stitchy and delight in the giving and receiving of stash!

I received my gift from Octoberlace, and it is wonderful! Thank you!!

I received a beautiful piece of hand-painted 28 ct lugana from Crossed Wing, and a smaller cut of hand-painted fabric from Dovestitch. I got a pack of Piecemaker neddles, and she slipped in a Bohin needle (her favourite) for me to try. I got a great butterfly pattern with some simple hardanger in it too. It doesn't end there! I got some Carrie's Creations and Threadworx threads, some thread sorting cards, a notebook and some lovely bags of tea. (Which is perfect, cause I love to sip tea and stitch!) How spoiled am I?!?

Below are pics of the stashmas present that I sent to Noctifyre.

And I stitched my first ever humbug just to commemorate Stashmas!! (This is one of Kell's designs.)

All packages should arrive full of stitchy goodness -- seriously!!

What's better than stash in the mail?

The answer is easy -- stash in the mail with extra surprise stash inside!!

I ordered some threads from Carrie's Creations a month ago for one of my UCJC projects (Cirque des Carreaux by Ink Circles). Of course I couldn't just order the 5 skeins of silk in Epiphany. (Though they are gorgeous!)

I had to add to my silk collection , so I ordered 2 skeins of Fantasm, and a skein each of Foxfire and Tiger Eye. I also ordered a skein of Hearts on Fire (even though it only comes in cotton and not silk).

I was beginning to wonder where my order was, it hadn't ever taken this long to get my threads before. I'm not sure what the delay was, and I'm not even sure that's why the extra special surprise was in my parcel, but I was OVER THE MOON excited when I realized that Carrie had included 4 limited edition skeins of silk floss. *DROOL*

My big dilemma now is that I need to revisit all of my floss decisions for my UCJC projects, because I just have to use some of this beautiful silk. Did I mention that I am addicted to stitching with silk? Seriously -- I would stitch everything in silk if I could afford it!

A Couple of Firsts

Today I am trying something new -- I'm entering a card in a blog challenge. Eek!

I saw the current challenge over at Young Crafters Unite, which is to incorporate die cuts into your card design, and I immediately had a card idea pop into my head, so I started creating!

This is what I created:

I'm kind of nervous about entering my card -- I'm still rather new at this whole cardmaking thing and I still have tons of tricks and techniques to learn. Gotta start somewhere though eh?

My other first ... I won my first ever blog giveaway!! Kari over at KWCardDesigns picked me at random and I won a most generous prize ... a $30 gift card to Simon Says Stamp. I've been browsing and drooling over that store for a while, and this was just the push I needed to go shopping. Of course I spent more than the $30, but the gift card certainly helped. Thanks Kari!!

My new stash:

I decided I should try something new, so I picked up some Perfect Pearls, some Versamark Watermark ink, and 2 beautiful new Hero Arts stamp sets - Asian Frames & Anytime Messages.

Now I just have to find time to play with it all!!

Terra Update

So I've been sluggishly stitching away on QS Terra, trying to finish my one-page goal. To be honest, I hate stitching her. I don't know what it is, but I hate it. So I am going to give up trying to finish the first page (which has taken me ALL year) and I'm going to put her away indefinitely.

I managed to finish 7251 stitches (92.5% of the page or almost 21% of the whole piece).

Time for a Change

Allow me to direct your attention to the top of the screen -- do you see it? That's right, I changed the name of my blog.

To be honest, I've never really liked the original name of my blog, but at the time it was the best I could come up with. I hadn't really begun to immerse myself in blogland and never expected that anyone would read my blog but me. It was just a place to keep progress pics of my cross stitching.

But now -- I'm an avid blog reader of all things cross stitching and papercrafting, and I'm beginning to explore the world of hooking. (I love how naughty that sounds!) I'm at the point where I feel like I need to solidify my online persona a little more. I've been using the name Trylla online for more than 10 years, (on forums and when gaming) and I'm just as comfortable identifying with that name as my real one. Actually, I think that online I feel MORE comfortable being known as Trylla. And so, I changed the blog name to reflect that.

I hope you continue to enjoy my blog. Thank you for reading and sharing in my creative pursuits.

Insomnia = Organization?

So I can't sleep right now, which sucks. I figure I may as well do something semi-productive.

Normally I organize my floss collection by winding them on bobbins and putting them in bobbin boxes. I have a bobbin box for each of my large projects (HSH, DQ, and Terra) plus one for floss not currently in use on a project. That's four big bobbin boxes!

The problem with this is that there is often a lot of colours that I need in multiple projects. I don't want multiple bobbins of the same colour, so I end up moving bobbins around a lot. I find it very irksome to need a colour, realize it's in a different project box, then have to go find the boxes and figure out which one it's in. So much stitchy time wasted!

I've been flipping between projects a little more often lately, so it's becoming more of a problem. Then I started thinking about UCJC (Ultimate Crazy January Challenge), where I'll have more projects then I have bobbin boxes, and my dilemma became more pressing. Once January is over, I'll have (um math in my head ... 31 + 4) 35 projects on the go! That'll be 13 projects that are strictly using DMC floss.

I needed a new system.

So, I reorganized all of my DMC into number order, which filled 2 and a bit bobbin boxes. It's a little cumbersome to have all the boxes beside me when I stitch, but at least I don't have to get up and search for bobbins anymore.

I need to do a little DMC shopping before January (I need 55 new floss colours), and that means the 3rd box will be almost full as well.

A smidgeon of stitching for IHSW

This weekend was IHSW (International Hermit & Stitch Weekend), but I only got a smidgeon of stitching done (hence the post title).

Even though I was up to my eyeballs in schoolwork, I was bound and determined to pull out my Tree of Stitches and make a little progress. I managed to get part 3 (the dreaded French knots) and part 4 (the eyelet stitch) finished.

I was going to try making colonial knots, but really, I don't see the difference between them and French knots. I know there's a difference in the way you wrap the thread around the needle, but the result looks identical to me. Since a good friend taught me how to do French knots properly last year, I have no fear of them and that part went quite smoothly (although I do find them tedious to do).

Close-up!!

The eyelet stitch, on the other hand, is so fun!! O-M-G!! They take a while to do, but I love them!! I love the way they stitch up and the way they look. Fun, fun, fun! They are the first stitches I've ever done that pulled the threads and manipulated the fabric. It was very cool to do. Did I mention I love them?

Sadly TOS is going away again for a while. Fingers crossed I get a chance to get a little more done in December, otherwise I won't be touching it again till at least February or March because of the Ultimate Crazy January Challenge (UCJC). Click here for details.

First Crochet Project - Finished!

I joined a CAL (crochet-a-long) back in September hosted by Maybe Matilda. Her aim was to help people learn how to crochet. Her instructions were easy to follow and made the entire craft more approachable. I didn't end up making the project that was intended for the CAL (I don't wear cowls), but I did join in by making a bobble scarf from a pattern I cobbled together from pictures of a Bobble Baby Blanket from Maybe Matilda and a tutorial from Tales from Cuckoo Land.

Today I finally finished all 56 inches of it!