FFVII Framed

I will try to spare you the exclamation points that are punctuating the excitement in my head, haha. Jo, I didn't cry, LOL!

But here it is, in all it's professionally framed glory. Don't mind the cardboard on the corners; I'm currently at my mother's house and I wanted to leave them on to transport it back to my house.

She did a good job though, and it really is super close to what I had in mind. It isn't exactly what I was envisioning but she doesn't live inside my brain so I can't fault her for not knowing what goes on in there. Half the time, I don't even know. I think I'll have to learn framing fo' sho because it was a splurge to have it done. And when I consider there are still at the very least, 15 more to stitch and get framed...

BUT YAY LOOK AT IT EEEEEEEEE.

Okay, okay, I'll get my TUSAL up soon, and I hope your fingers are having a fabulously productive IHSW! I'll actually have pictures for it myself but I had to get this post up before I exploded with exclamation points!!

Blog Hop #11, a Visit To the Framers, and a Finish!

Once again, I'm grateful for Blog Hops to break me of my radio silences, haha. I'll jump right into it, iffins you don't mind!

What has been your most unusual or most interesting stash acquisition to date?

I pondered my (frequent) trips to various thrift stores and the wealth that they sometimes bestow upon my stash... as far as interesting (to me), I think I would have to go with floss. On one excursion, I picked up a sandwich-sized baggie of floss. Being the hoarder stash builder that I am, I think "yay floss!" and don't even bother to go through the baggie. When I get it home and start playing with it, I discover that they aren't all new, but Star (3 for 10¢? Can I go back to those days, please?), Brillanté D'alger (French DMC?), and some older labels of DMC. I know they're not really unusual but for someone who only has new DMC and Sullivans around, they were kinda neat to look at. Maybe someday I'll get lucky and find specialty flosses at a thrift store!

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
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Next up in my excitement was... are you ready? A trip to the framers! (!!!!!) That was a fun experience, playing with all the various frame pieces and mats and how to put them all together. I had no idea there were so many options out there. Nor just how expensive framing is, omygosh! Even with various discounts, it will still be $160 and that is really a lot of money to me. I went ahead with it as I had already picked out everything but is this really a normal price for framing? I suppose it's a good thing that I finish things slowly. And it's apparent that I need to make figuring out framing a high priority, lol! Anyway, I'll pick it up in a couple of weeks as I only get down to that area on weekends. It'll be so nice to have something to display on the wall!

Lastly, I haven't been entirely neglectful of my stitching. It's Sprite Stitch's 5th birthday so they're having different challenges on the forums for the month of November. I've always shied away from participating in the challenges because I feel as creative as a potato next to the talent there but I thought I could at least give the mini challenges a try! I couldn't post WIPs of it because it was a challenge, but the first one was "something birthday" so here is what I created:

More video game stuffs here! :D

I got the idea from my friend who reminded me of this blog post on SS who in turn got it from @Shereebedee on twitter. Even though I didn't win, it was a fun little stitch and I think it would work great as a birthday card for the geeky group. :D If you can't read it, it says, "This time, the cake isn't a lie." which is a little play on "The cake is a lie." from the video game Portal. The black forest cake is resting on a be-doilied Companion Cube which I already had made a pattern for ages ago. In a flash of inspiration, I added little turrets shooting into portal holes... and thus, each other. Silly turrets. I don't hate you.

That's all I got for today, folks! I'm sure you're tired of reading anyway. :D May your fingers be productive until the next time~

Small and Late IHSW!

Well first of all you guys need to kick me in the pants!! I had no idea that the spectacular Jo had offered to put $10 toward getting a piece framed! Her entries don't show up in my reader. Nor do Daffycat's. I hope there aren't more people not showing up -- if so, I'M SORRY!! I just thought you all were quiet posters, lol! But now that I know people are hiding from my reader (LOL) I can google the blogs. If I've been missing anyone else, let me know. I may have to create a bookmark folder so I know I'm checking them all! :)

BUT YAY I can get something framed! I have e-mailed a local framer for info regarding FFVII options. We'll see if she breaks the bank. I hope not, 'cause then I can get FFVIII done too! And then I can really call my home The Home of a Needleworker! :D

And now, IHSW! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get anything done this weekend as it was the Fall Festival and I'd be out of the house quite a bit. I got something finished even though it was technically finished before, haha. I got the felt backing sewed on, yay!

Front & Back

I think next time I will leave the edges straight omygoodness! That was some crazy stitching all around there. I'm not sure orange was the right choice but I think orange and black for Halloween and that's how that happened. I'm not so good at floss tosses, I suppose. And of course after I stitched the back on, took pictures, and admired her I realized I forgot to stitch her little cape ribbon on!! Aaaa. *facepalm* It'll be an easy fix as long as I'm super careful...

She was stitched on black 14-count perforated plastic in six colors plus the orange blanket stitch for the edge. I backed her with a piece of black felt. She's modeled on my chopstick lamp and is 3.5" tall. You can find the wonderful pattern on Carolyn's blog, along with a whole bunch of others! :D Also her dA has more!

Now I'm off to catch up on everyone's posts~ I'm sure y'all will have productive fingers again this week, much more than mine, haha. :D

TUSAL, Blog Hop #8, FINISH (yay)

Aloha! This is gonna be a busy post with a blog hop, TUSAL, FFVII squee-age, and whatever else pops into my head!

First up, September TUSAL, sporting another Calvin & Hobbes cover!

September TUSAL

Most of the additions were black. Lots of black. All squished down. :D If you're doing the TUSAL, don't forget to link back to it on Daffycat's blog! Like I have been doing, whoops. :)

Nextly, blog hop #8! I've missed having these, haha.

• What has been your favorite project to stitch? (either finished or in progress)

Well, I wasn't expecting such a difficult question! I have pieces that I absolutely adore finished but as for the stitching of them, the honors would have to go to this piece:

Southwest Spirit

I found this piece in a thrift store back in 2010 with the border and a bit of the background started. All of the floss was included in little floss-a-way baggies and the pattern was in pretty decent shape. It smelled horrible. I had to wash it at least twice because I was nearly overwhelmed with cigarettes. Admittedly, I purchased it mind of picking out all the stitches and using the fabric for something else. My mother saw it though and really liked it, so I decided to finish it up. I am glad I did because it was so much fun to stitch! My absolute favorite part was that little brown pot on the left. It was also the first piece I ever stitched on a floor stand and that may have contributed to the love, haha. It's so much easier to stitch using both hands.

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
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Lastly, lastly....!! IT IS TRULY FINISHED. It even gets the Super Special "finish" label!

"We may be retreating, but... we're still victorious."

And then sadness. I washed it and while there was no bleeding (thank goodness!), the creases will not iron out! Argh. I may have to block it or perhaps someone can suggest some sort of magic to get those darn things out. I totally feel Annie's (via The Crafty Pixie) frustration over stubborn wrinkles.

Technical Details

• Chart designed with KG-Chart and featured 10 colors originally. After stitching, I realized that two of the lighter blues were very, very similar so I replaced one with the other.
  
• 1 over 1 on white 22 count (hardanger). Black 2 over 1.
  
• Finished size: 11" x 6" (26.5cm x 15cm) -- need to double check this; I'm not exactly sure it was 6" high.
• Started: April 1, 2012, Finished: September 20, 2012. Roughly ???? hours.

Lessons Learned
(hopefully)

• Tweaking chart forever works out for the better. Getting the colors down to reasonable amounts was the best thing ever.
  
• Confetti the transitions even more. Stop going diagonal!
  
• Doing the colors in half-stitches worked AMAZINGLY. I was able to see the colors and decide if they were acceptable and if there was a mistake, half-stitches are so much easier to pick out. It also makes it easier to do the top leg.
• Black one line at a time, working up makes for the best "fill".
  
• Need to devise a better way of keeping track of the time spent on these. I have no idea how long it takes me to actually stitch them.
• Wash fabric before stitching to get out stubborn wrinkles. Bah.

action shot!

size comparison

I probably should've used a bigger piece of fabric... Oops. It will make framing interesting, I suspect. As for framing, I am not even going to attempt these guys. I'm taking them to a local framer where I can spend a few hours hashing out matte, glass, and frame preferences and then watch them suffer with my lack of fabric on the sides. I'm really a huge fan of the framing done by Jill at Rensel Studio but I don't think I can afford her, haha. Such fantastic work though!

Oh, and I actually washed FFVIII. Yes. With all those reds. I sort of cheated though. I fished out the colors in the chart and stitched them on a little scrap of fabric and then washed the little scrap. Nothing happened on the scrap so I figured I'd be safe washing the big piece, but let me tell you, I held my breath as I submerged that in the sink, ahahaha. It really, really needed a wash after being on the stand for five months and then a drawer for a year. It turned out sublime so this is a deliriously happy post instead of a woebegone gloomy post.

I think I'm (finally) typed out! I hope you enjoyed (or at least had tolerated amusement at) my very excited excitement. I hope you have productive fingers in the next week as well!

Partially Excited Post!

Ah, goodness me, another week.

But what is this.

Is this... Final Fantasy VII... DONE???

It is... not!

Well. Kinda not. The backstitching is all that is left but I had to set it aside because I was MUCH too excited to be holding anything pointy and doing tiny work with said pointy. I frog enough without distractions of hyper, thank you! And I tend to get very hyper when I'm close to finishing a project. Probably because I don't finish very many. Anyway. I have set it aside for the weekend to cool my head and allow for focus.

As if I could ever focus. >_>

Tadaaaaa!

Until next week, enjoy the productivity of your fingers, yes? :D

FFVII Update... Almost!

Well, I don't think I'm gonna beat my September deadline for FFVII! I did make quite a bit of progress though and considering how busy I was this week, it's a miracle anything at all happened!

Before!

After!

FINAL is all stitched in, excluding backstitching. I finished the line and the meteor underneath the line and started filling in above the line. The gradient seems much sharper in the pictures but really, it's harder to distinguish the color transition. I'm getting better at making up gradients on the fly but I really need to get over my habit of going diagonally for everything!

Giveaway Wins, TUSAL, and FFVII, o my!

I received a spectacular package with beautiful handwriting in the mail containing things that made me squeal like the little girl I am! Steph over at Show And Tell (who is such a fabulous felter and amazing ami artist!) hosted a very generous giveaway and I actually won first place!! I had way too much fun with the ami mushroom; my boyfriend held it up over my head, I did a little hop, and he made the little "brrling~" sound, ahaha (we're possibly dorks). Thank you so much, Steph, I love them all!! :D This cell phone picture does not do them justice but I snapped it in excitement immediately after opening the package.

Squeee!!

Once I got past my excitement, I recalled it's still August so my TUSAL is completely valid. Here it is, modeled with another Calvin & Hobbes background. Weirdos from Another Planet seemed appropriate with the successful landing of Curiosity!

August TUSAL

Also, I've been making more progress on FFVII! It goes quite fast... if I sit down and actually work on it. Here is where I was last time (back in June, yikes!):

FIN... not quite.

And now:

One skein of black down!

I also started to work on the meteor; you can sort of see the darker shades in the portion under the line. My goal is to get this finished before September. Hah, one can dream, right! If I finish it by the 1st, I'll have completed it two-three weeks before the other one, haha (completed on Sept. 19th). I'm in competition with myself!

One week, go, go, gooooo!

FFVII Update & Giveaway Link!

Hello, happy fun magical stitchers~ I hope y'all are ready for a nice, relaxing weekend in your respective corners of the world! We finally, finally got rain here, and I swear, the corn fields have grown a foot since yesterday because of it! They're lovely, blowing in the breezy breeze that's roaring today!

Not much happened on the stitchy front for me this week. Memorial weekend was long and filled with rainbow cake (let's just say I'm a neater stitcher, lol) and general laziness. Then there was my birthday so I was suitably spoiled, ahaha. I did manage to get a letter done.

FIN... not quite.

Another thing! Go follow Melissa's blog, St. John's Stitcher, and enter her lovely giveaway! I do hope that link works; it may direct you to the mobile version of her site. If it does, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click on "view web version" and that should take you to familiar territory! When I edited the post, I fixed the link to link to the non-mobile version of her site! I thought I'd just strike the old text on the chance someone finds the info useful (it applies to all blogger blogs as far as I know).

Speaking of mobile versions, I want to thank y'all for having that enabled on your blogs! I wish Blogger had a more mobile-friendly posting system, and I really, really wish their reader would get its act together! So many blogs don't show up on my list until days (or even a week+) later. I'm not ignoring you, I promise! I can't even load the non-mobile dashboard page to click manually on everyone's blog. Am I the only lucky one having this issue? If not, how did you work around it? Maybe I can make a separate page on my blog with everyone linked...

Oh, country living. :) As always, this post will be cleaned up over the weekend with RealInternet access. Edited June 02.

fINal fantasy vii

Woohoo, a quick lil' update on FFVII -- it hasn't blown away! It's terribly windy here today and because it has been so dry this spring, a lot of dust has been stirred up. I'm normally not troubled with sinus issues but yuck, today is crazy! I had to close all the windows and bring in the patio furniture. Since I'd be blown into another state if I ventured outside, it's a great day to stitch~

I've finished up the basic layout for the meteor; all that remains on it is going back and doing the other leg of stitches. Hopefully the gradient won't be too difficult to work out!

I've also started the black lettering. Luckily they're quite simple to stitch but it will be a lot of black, haha.

Eight colors~

 

Nine!

Annnd ten!

IN.

Edited May 27th for picture resizing, formatting, and phone typos. :)

TUSAL and IHSW Results!

Weeee, a timely TUSAL update! I'll also include my IHSW progress! It's quite obvious which Final Fantasy logo this is now, haha.

But first, TUSAL! It doesn't look like much, but I tamp the floss down every now and then with an eraser. I don't know why. :D Maybe I'm hoping to cram a lot of leftovers in that little jar.

Smoosh that floss!

And now, IHSW! I actually got quite a bit done (even if they're still only half stitches) and I tried to take a picture after every color. I'm a little concerned with some of the choices, but we'll see how it turns out once I start doing the other leg and playing with the gradient. Hopefully it will all work out!

Before IHSW - three colors!

Four!

Five!

Six!

Seven!

It's starting to take the shape of the meteor! In case you haven't guessed it yet or aren't familiar with the game, it's the Final Fantasy VII logo. I'm quite fond of FFVII although I've only just finished the game last year, haha. I didn't have a chance to play it growing up so when I found a (black label!!) copy of the game whilst working at a thrift store, I snatched it right up. I'm glad I did because it has a great story. Not quite Xenogears but still pretty awesome. Needed more (obvious) mush.

Welp, I hope you've enjoyed my progress! I look forward to seeing what everyone has created over the weekend!

I did get sooo tired of mining magic pots for materia leveling, ahahaha......

FF??? Update~

Good mornin', wonderful people~ (or possibly evening or nighttime, depending on your global habitation location!). I have for you updates on the Final Fantasy project, weee!

According to the last post, I had one color finished. I was admiring it over the weekend and marveling at how well the stitches were covering the fabric. It must be some magic DMC floss this time around!

And then it hit me. I had stitched that section 2-over-1 instead of 1-over. *facepalm*

I sighed. I resisted the urge to say naughty things and fling my pattern all over the living room. I sighed again. And then I picked out those lil' stitches (sure glad I had only done half stitches) and redid the whole thing.

Ah, well.

To the pictures! Can you tell which one it is now?

Two colors!

Three colors!

And for a little bonus: Peanut with his little heart visible. He's trying his best to blend with the carpet too. He didn't quite succeed, haha.

Peanut + <3

Original posted from phone. Cleaned up online Saturday, May 19th. :)

FF??? Begin!

Happy, Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely moms out there! I'm not a mom myself, but I will honor my wonderful mom by taking her out to eat and other pamperings. :D

I got the next FF project on the stand! I kinda wish I had a fancy floor stand that could be adjusted easily to fit all manner of fabric sizes. But alas, I have a simple one, so I must baste extra fabric onto my hardanger to get it to fit on the bars. I am a horrible baster. Probably because I don't pin anything, la la la~ I think it took me about an hour to attach two pieces of fabric, LOL.

Guess which one! :D

I tried gridding this time. I... I hate it. :( I didn't even fully grid the thing and I feel like it's a colossal waste of floss and then the floss grids get in my way while stitching... just... gah! I found myself not even using them for counting purposes. Do any of y'all grid your projects, and if you do, how do you keep from going crazy?

Despite the gridding fail, I'm trying to be very careful with this pattern, keeping track of the time involved, the mistakes in/changes to the pattern, confusing symbols, etc. So far, the work involved is about two hours in half-stitches. I'm going to do most of it in half-stitches at first because 1) they're easier to pick out when mistakes appear and 2) I want to tweak with the blending. Once I get the blending and placement figured out, I'll go back in and fill in the other stitch.

I'm so excited about this, eeeee.

TUSAL, TUSAL, WIP

Forgive the cell phone post; I have no idea how it will turn out without tweaking!

I have for you today the March and April TUSAL shots, yaaaay!  Now I am all caught up.  Hopefully all will go well and I can get May's up in a timely fashion.  March is empty because I sprinkled the floss remains out in the yard/bushes for the birds to use in their nests.  The floss is gone but it may have blown away as it very windy in these corn fields, lol.

Also I have a WIP pic of The  Dolphin Trio!  This poor guy has been a WIP for almost two years despite being so small.  The previous WIP pic is over to your left (until I edit this entry!) under my info blurb and links.  There's a whole 'nother dolphin plus some coral, woo!

Just for bonuses, a rare Missouri rainbow and a peek at the next project...!

Bah, it put them out of order and won't let me rearrange them, RAR! I've edited the post over the weekend to make it look a bit better and remove typos. I'm not fully a spider with the cell phone keypad yet!