More Black Belt Stitching Wizard Stuff

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Done! Done! Done!

Part 4 of Mystery 6 has felt like the part that would never end! Finally I have conquered it, I have climbed Mt. Everest! Part 4 is DONE... done like dinner!

Have a look see...
Some Framing and Some Finishing

I wanted to share a picture with you from two weeks ago. If you're a regular blog reader of mine you might recall the piece by Vermillion "Bearygodmother" that I finished. Well I've put on the finishing touches, now its a quilted wall hanging (which I shared with you) I've also put together a hanger with a dowel, wood wheels, ribbon and some beads to decorate.

Completely finished Bearygodmogher

Sunday I had a VERY productive day! I tried to watch the San Marino Grand Prix but fell asleep.. then went back to bed until almost noon! In the afternoon I took my Mum to Dragon's Lair Beads and we went out for a nice lunch at our favorite place. After dropping off Mum I went back home and... cut and assembled 3 frames, also put everything together, did my taxes (getting a refund, YAY), and did the laundry! I am a goddess!

Let me share picture of my latest framing jobs with you... these are 3 photo cards done the same with the same size opening because each of the images on the cards were different sizes and the client wanted it all to match.

Bear 1
Bear 2
Bear 3

The client was super happy with the results.
ARGH!

I am ALMOST done pt4 of Mystery 6! Sooo close but not close enough to stay up past midnight... I'll have a pic for you tomorrow!

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Not the Way I Like to Get a Medal

Yesterday I competed for the first time at a TKD tournament in over two years. It was a small friendship tournament just for Lu's TKD students. There were no adults in my division so I competed against two 17 year old girls who are on the Canadian team to go to World Jr. Championships in Malaysia this year.

Do you think I had a chance in hell?

No!

So I was pretty much just given a bronze medal... I didn't earn it at all. When I do get a bronze, and I KNOW I've earned it I'm happy to get a bronze but when you get a medal this way its a very hollow experience.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Long Time... No Blog!

Well I have to tell you it feels like its been the week from H-E-double hockey sticks. Nothing particuarly bad has happened, no catastrophes but its been a long hard week! I think it also doesn't help that I've felt like I've been a day ahead all week! I woke up this morning thinking, "alright! Its Friday!" WRONG... its Thursday.

I have been walking through this week exhausted! Everyone says its the weather... I just think its been a long tough week! The mornings its been a struggle to get up and in the evenings its been a struggle to not take a nap! I hate getting into the habit of napping because its a hard one to get out of. Your body starts to become dependent on that nap and then my evenings are pretty much toast.

But I have been a good girl on several points this week. I went to TKD twice... there's a tournament on Saturday and I'm competing for the first time in two years. I've also stitched every day on Mystery 6 - Part 4... that's right its still not done.

Tonight so far I've stitched for about an hour and now between surfing the net and writing this blog I'm cutting mats and mounting three more pieces for framing. Three very nice polar bear cards. I plan to cut the frames tomorrow night or Sunday and have them all assembled for Monday.

Friday, April 16, 2004

Hannelore's Thingiee

Two summers ago now my good internet friend Hannelore and I met up in a town south of Boston for a week. We had talked many times on line but had never met, Hanne had flown in from the U.K. I had driven down from Canada. We were sharing accommodations which can be a little iffy with someone you've never met in the flesh before. Needless to say our rappore online was the same in person... we got along famously!

One of the most memorable days we had (in my mind) was the day we spent bombing around Cape Cod in my car. It was THE perfect day! It was sunny and beautiful I had the sun roof open! We went to Cape Cod to specifically hug lighthouses! We visited three lighthouses that day.

Here's what I have made as a gift for Hanne to celebrate that day.

Hanne's Thingiee

Luckily this turned out perfectly! It was a frame that I originally made for something else that got scrapped. I didn't want to even attempt to take it apart and cut it down, it was a custom size as well... 14x11 1/2 However, the photos I took of each light house end up fitting! This project has given me so much grief! From the original project for the frame getting cancelled, to mat cutting and measuring problems, to one photo being askew once I had put everything together and the dust cover on the back (which I then had to take all apart again).

Despite all the problems I had with this project, my first successful attempt at cutting multiple exposures I think this piece brings back all the memories of that day.

Now to carefully pack it up and ship it to the U.K.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Go Sens Go!

Yup, the boys did it! I had a feeling they would! The Ottawa Senators, our local NHL team beat the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight! All day long as I was out and about there was this thrall of energy over the city. There was a big game tonight and it was here in Ottawa. Ottawa was down 2 games to 1 before the game started tonight. Even if they lost they would not of been eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs yet... but it felt like it. They knew, we all knew it was on the line tonight. The Sens had to win.

And they DID! They kicked the leafs collective a$$ 4-1!!! So now the series is tied 2-2 and it goes back to Toronto for game 5 on Friday.

Go Sens Go!

Oh yeah... I did work on Mystery 6 during the game.

Go Sens!

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

UnStitching

Man, I hate unstitching... there is nothing I hate more. There is nothing more counterproductive than unstitching (frogging). I was so pleased with myself, I had finished all the marlitt... was about to start working with antique gold and ... wait a second... this bit in part 3 where I used it the symbol's not quite the same...

CRAP!

And it was a pain to rip out... its not a lot but the back got all stitched in with other threads so it was pull out 1/2 a stitch snip... pull out 1/2 a stitch snip. Very slow going.

I'm ready to put it all back in tonight.

Once I get off of the comptuer!

Monday, April 12, 2004

April Ornament Finish

Today I took the time to finish my first of two April ornaments, anyone who reads my blog reguarly knows I try to stitch up two Christmas ornaments each month. You might think I'm a little nuts for doing this, but it really takes the pressure off when October/November rolls around and you have no ornaments stitched and you want to give some away. So what do you spend two months doing? Stitching ornaments.

So here's my April offering, From Dragon Dreams The 1996 Christmyth ornament, Dragon. This piece is stitched on 28ct Light Teal Green Annabelle using DMC cotton and kreinik metallics.

Now back to Mystery VI!
Why Can't Every Weekend Be A....

Long weekend? I always come out of a long weekend totally rested! There's time for my friends, time for me and time for family.

I get out to visit with friends and family. I can finally get around to getting the house cleaned and organized. Best of all I can sit and stitch, something I feel I've been lacking lately!

I did get all the black marlitt of Mystery VI part 4 done last night. Now I can move back into the pretty colours!

If it could only be a long weekend every weekend!

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Good Friday...

Good friends, good conversation, good food... and a little stitching!

Could a girl not spend it any better way!

It had been planned for at least a month myself, Christin, Ann and Beth were meeting up in Kingston for a day to visit and stitch. I had been looking forward to it for AGES. I have now decided there is no better way to spend Good Friday... maybe we should make a tradition out of this.

We all turned up at Beth's before 11am. The day started out with us all sitting in Beth's sunny music room while her daughter and husband took care of the last minute details for our lunch. There was much chatting and finally we got around to pulling out our latest cross stitch projects. As usual there was much ooohing and ahhing over each project and discussions over fabrics and threads.

We then moved onto a stupendous lunch! Beth and her family out did themselves! We gorged on the most healthy and delicious of foods! BBQed steak, asparagus, an amazing spinach salad, potatoes, and bread. Oh my! I have to say that I always eat the best food when I visit Beth she takes so much time and care into her meals and I know I'm eating good food!

After lunch we retired to the Music room to start stitching the afternoon away! Before we realized it the afternoon had flown by and Ann's husband called... it was 6PM! Where had the day gone????

What an awesome day... can we make this a tradition girls?

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

A Very Productive Night

Well I was a bad girl... I didn't go to TKD tonight.

However, I did get a lot done around the house! I'm outta here after work tomorrow and I should be back on Friday so... things had to get done.

Tonight I cut and assembled two frames for the mats I cut last night. Tomorrow at lunch I'm going to get the glass and put one of them together over my lunch hour so that the client has the piece for this weekend. I'm still not sure if I'm happy with the way I've framed it. I went with the standard 3" mat and with the photo not being huge it almost feels like I've dwarfed it. But its too late to turn back now, the mats are cut the photo is mounted and the frame is all together. So unless the client really doesn't like it I'm going to leave it as is. I hope she likes it... Once I get it all together I hope I like it! That really is the moment of truth, when everything comes together.

Tonight I STITCHED! Yes, it felt great to get a three hour stretch in! I feel like I'm barely stitching anymore and that's just WRONG. Of course for three hours I've been stitching in black marlitt, like I have been since Monday. We must conquer the evil marlitt!

After work tomorrow I'm off to Kingston for at least overnight. If my friend has gotten back to me I may be in Montreal on Saturday.

Its a busy Easter weekend coming up!

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Framing Frustrations

Well I ruined 3 mats tonight... sigh

I probably shouldn't of tried to cut mats after being sick for the last three days and right after waking up from a nap. I have no common sense some days!

First... I cut the wrong colour! I noticed this before cutting any openings sooo hopefully they can be cut down or used on a future project.

Next ... I messed up the top mat on one of the two double mats I was cutting tonight (both identical for two copies of the same photo).

After that... I messed up the under mats. For some reason I ALWAYS undercut my corners. Often I can fix my way out of that with a razor blade and being careful. Well I totally messed that up on both mats!

So I put it all away and came back to it an hour and a half later... with success!

I'm not sure if I'm going to go to TKD tomorrow night we'll see how I'm feeling (this cold sure knocks you back on your ass!). If not I'll cut and assemble the two frames. But I have to wait until pay day to pick up the glass... I'm broke as usual! LOL.

I have also been plugging away at Mystery VI part 4 I'm still stitching away with all that evil black marlitt! I want to get that out of the way first!
April Goals

Yes I suppose I should declare those shouldn't I???

1. Keep up with Mystery VI ... part 4 is looking to be a lot of stitching!
2. Stitch 2 Christmas Ornaments ... got the first started... lets hope I do better than March
3. Finish pages 1 and 3 on Bandon Light

Monday, April 05, 2004

A Couple of finishes

I finally felt ready to get out of bed at 9pm last night so I watched some TV and got some stitching done! (finally)

I finished up Beary Godmother c2004 Vermillion's February Feebie. Today I finished it into a quilted wall hanging. Its sitched on some mystery hand dyed fabric by Silkweavers

Last night I started my second and very late Christmas Ornament for March and finished that this morning. Here's Lizzie*Kate's Peace*Joy*Love. This is stitched using GAST threads on 25ct Summer Khaki Lugana.

Saturday, April 03, 2004

When Its Perfect

Isn't it fabulous when you do something and it all comes together you can step back and look at it or at what you've accomplished and you know you couldn't do any better?

That's what I did on Thursday night! I framed another piece for a co-worker a watercolors by the art teacher at work. Well its simply perfect!

Watercolour Flowers
Why Do People Have To Do This????

**Dragging my sorry butt up on my soap box**

Why is it when people are sick they have to try to be self-sacrificing and appear strong. You know it does no one favors in the end! A person that I work with has been ill all week. This person has refused to take a sick day.

NOW I'M SICK!!!

And I'm not happy about it!

For weeks I've had plans to go visit a friend of mine and her daughter today to go see Scooby-Doo 2 (her daughter is a big fan). We've not had a visit since February, and I know she needs some cheering up. If she didn't live too far away I'm sure I would have gone anyhow. But she's a 2 hour drive away and I'm just not well enough to handle that there and back again. I have no clue by the end of the day how well or how crappy I might end up feeling.

So needless to say I'm pretty MAD about the whole thing.

If you're sick, do the world a favor... take a sick day please. It really is better to keep your germs to yourself, get a day's rest and you recover much quicker than if you keep running yourself down. You just get even worse that way.

**Stumbling off of my soap box**