Two new project photos :)

    So I finished up two little mini-xstitch projects 🙂 With the rush of daily life, I’ve been struggling to get in any crafting time at all so I am actually proud that I’ve managed to accomplish this much. The first little design is actually inspired by a picture I found on Tumblr & I {confession-time} did it for the sole purpose of being able to make it my cell phone background. It only took about 30 minutes to complete once I made up the chart. The part that took the longest was actually trying to find my needle. It had somehow gotten out of its holder and was buried amidst the myriad skeins of thread in my cross stitch hat box. Talk about the proverbial needle in a haystack. And now, for those of you who are easily offended, please look away now. This is the beginning of the NSFW portion of this entry.

Here I give you the first in a series of subversive cross stitch designs 🙂 I’ll also be including the chart for them. I do all of my designing with a free program called KG-Chart and you can download it here. For this design, as it is fully customizable, I didn’t include floss color #s, even I didn’t use the colors I charted with. Lol. Hope you enjoy!!

And here is the screenshot of the chart I came up with. If you like, you can windowbox the design by using a backstitch around the outside edge, all the way around. See, totally customizable 🙂

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Holy FO, Batman!

So this is a rare treat. I get to blog several times in one day. My digital camera is still in storage 3 hours away, so these photos will not be stellar, but at least I can show that I haven’t been sitting on my ass the whole time I’ve been out of work 🙂

This first is a baby bib I made for Michelle Sargent’s baby shower. I made everything in cream, chocolate brown & pink and called it my “Chocolate Strawbaby Gift Set”. I didn’t get a pic of the blanket before I sent it to its new home, but I did get photographic evidence of the bibs 🙂

This is the same bib in chocolate brown. The picture makes it appear much darker than it truly is. The thing I love about these bibs (aside from them looking like adorable purses) is that they are so modern that they could be heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation until they fall apart from overuse. For that reason, I made these in durable but soft yarn and doubled it up so they would be thick. I am really digging this assymetry too!

This dragon is from Dragon Dreams as well. She designed it for the tsunami that swept the pacific ocean, but her continent silhouette didn’t include New Zealand, so I reworked mine to include it. It’s barely visible over the dragon’s hand, but it’s there 🙂 I would have preferred this little guy in green, but then the earth wouldn’t have been in such contrast to the body, so I’m pretty ok with how this turned out.

This one is a cute little dragon in a tea cup from Dragon Dreams. The text says “A Spot of Tea.” I think if I do this design again, I’ll change the color scheme a bit.

This last little project is a garden square from Joannesanderson.com. I liked this little guy a whole lot & it’s going to be a present for Brandon’s mom. I’ve lost touch with her over the past couple of months and I need to rectify that. I didn’t get to give her a b-day present this year because of the breakup, but I’m going to mat & frame this little bugger & give that to her 🙂 This woman has the greenest thumb I have ever been witness to in my life!

My next couple of projects are going to be adult-themed cross stitches. I love it when these shocking phrases are so lovingly cross stitched. It’s especially awesome when they have cutesy little borders and such. So keep the little ones away from the computer & keep an eye out for my next projects 🙂 They’ll be originals.

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Heather attempts Blackwork…

I have had these photos for quite some time now, just haven’t posted them. I’ve been sidetracked with my knitting & crochet. However, I stumbled upon a blackwork design book by and I fell in love with the style. I did my first blackwork project (a sampler from her book) in dark green thread, and then moved on to attempt to design my own sampler. Here is the almost end result of my first blackwork piece, and then some pictures of the piece framed.

For my own sampler, I decided to rely mostly on traditional blackwork designs and then took some smaller motifs and worked them in amidst some repeated patterns. I have yet to finish this sampler, but I am still working on it.

I really do get easily distracted before finishing what I start 😦 But I am quite proud of what I have accomplished in this new form. And the back of the piece doesn’t look too shabby either. I’m starting to become proficient in the Holbein running stitch. If you’re interested in blackwork at all, there are some amazing sites online (http://www.blackworkarchives.com/bwbib.html), and I highly recommend Beginner’s Guide to Blackwork and Beautiful Blackwork Samplers by Lesley Wilkins.

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