ishkabibble

Gifted Gorgeousness - January Edition

Yay, my first Gifted Gorgeousness post! Thanks to Jo for hosting these~ :D

It's amazing how even our best-laid plans go wonky, or at least mine do. I was so excited to start the Muppets sampler. First, I washed the fabric because, learning from experience, washing after you've stitched does not always mean any fabric creases will magically go away and it becomes impossible to iron! So, washed, dried, and nicely ironed. Then I decided to cut the fabric down to a 20" x 20" square which would leave me a little room to play around with other projects on the smaller piece. Easy enough. Next, I wanted to mark the center of the fabric and toyed around with actually making a grid on this so I wouldn't have quite so many counting mistakes. I folded the fabric, found the center, and marked it.

With a blue permanent marker instead of the fabric pen sitting beside it.

Of course there's a nice empty space right in the center so it can't be stitched over and the colors for that area wouldn't really hide the blue anyway. I decided to try bleach... it lightened it extensively but still there is a nice little blue dot and the bleach did something strange to the fabric.

So, while the fabric isn't destroyed, it's not useable for this particular project. It was large enough that I could cut it up for several smaller works or, if there was a pattern that fully covered the center... Bah. I did so hope to have a whole array of adorable Muppet letters to show off this month. :(

Lesson learned: Keep your fabric pens separate! (!!!)

Before

So I instead worked a bit on Dolphin Trio! This little kit was a gift from my husband's grandmother(s) who like to encourage hobbies and know I like dolphins. There's really not too much left on this piece. Here's where I was previously, back in May 2012.

updated

updateder

And here's the after! Most obviously filled in the bottom right corner because I like to see edges. Gives me a goal, haha. Not too sure how I feel about the dark half stitches, though. Easy to stitch but ehhhhh. There's a lot of them too!

Blah. Not at all how I wanted to start out the year! But I did work on something that really should've been finished eons ago so there's that~ :D

2014 Recap & 2015 Ambitions (Image-Heavy)

Welp, I'm still not used to writing 2014 so it must be time to add a new year into the mix. 2014 was not a spectacular year for me in the creative world but as it was better than 2013, I suppose there are small victories to be joyful about! :D This is an image-heavy post for those of you who may have somewhat questionable Internet connections. It took me several days of adding things to get this post fixed up.

Cross-Stitch

Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein

As a part of MMMM, I managed to get two little Halloween stitches worked up which "effectively" caught me up after skipping one in 2013. They're adorable, easy to stitch, and are festive... yet still took me an absurdly long time to get done. I was afraid of the Mrs's hair for far too long.

Noel ornament

Also a part of MMMM, my only Christmas stitch for the year, yikes. I'll have to buckle down and get two done for next year to catch up. :b

Pusheen Sailor Moon

A gift for a couple of hobos overseas who decided the time was right to get married. My sanity was tested with all that pink. It was an interesting experiment in finishing though, I had never used lace or added ribbons for hanging or had a felt backing like this....... yes, it was an adventure and was ONLY two months late! A miracle!

Mother's Love

A quicky kit worked up one IHSW in summer. I snuck it onto my mother's fridge one time we were down there and I am not entirely sure she has noticed it yet (she has MANY magnets haha).

Crochet
A new hobby for me, picked up in October.

A giant potholder!

My first finished crochet piece. Pattern was for a dishcloth, decided to make two and attach them together. Mom got this for Christmas and loved it.

little snowflakes

My foray into thread crochet!! I've always loved the snowflakes (and angels, and wreaths, and doilies and and and...) and I'm so happy to report I know how to make them now! I made these as a thank you for the ladies in our class.

scarf with inspiration gloves

My scarf, yay! I'm a bit impatient to wear it out into the world but so far, our December has been quite mild. Maybe it'll be a new scarf for a new year. :)

jellyfish hat?

And I squeezed in a last minute finish while listening to my husband yell at the WiiU playing "Dark Souls Pokemon" as he calls Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. I now have a goofy, floppy, matching hat! It started out as a beanie and well, I have no idea what happened. I guess my increases didn't increase fast enough and I wound up with a sort of basket that I put a ruffle on. Lol. Please note the little paws that came creeping into the picture after I sat the hat in front of the Christmas tree. Peanut likes to help.

Misc

STL Cardinals

mahna mahna

Made up these little onesies for a friend's first baby. I cut the little pieces out of felt and stitched them on and had a terrible time with wrinkles until I discovered the magic of iron on hem tape. I particularly like the way Mahna Mahna came out, he was fun to make. :D

2015 Ambitions
I'm not sure I want to call them goals as if I inevitably fail, the self-abuse kicks in and I'll never get anything done haha. :I Anyway, this year brings stitch-a-longs! MMMM was my first dip into the SAL world and I didn't fail miserably so I'm braving two more (so far).

First, Gifted Gorgeousness as hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. Giving gifts, received gifts, shoehorned gifts, stitch them all!

tossin' bobbin

Muppets Baby Sampler - designed by me, gift for friend. This has high priority, higher than anything else ever at the moment. It's all ready to be started once I get a copy of the pattern printed on a printer that is not mine.

Dolphin Trio - kit from several years ago from my husband's grandmother. Poor thing isn't bad to stitch but it's been a UFO for far too long for my taste. Last touched May 2012.
little kits in stash after I finish the first two. Still to be sorted through.

seventeen hours!

finish FFIII - GIFT FOR MYSELF?!?! I won't sneak this in here. Maybe. Lol. I do want to finish it though, and get the next one started (I won't get overly ambitious here and declare I will finish two next year hah). Last touched March 2014. Must acquire big girl panties to resume.

Next, Flower of the Month as hosted by Alyssa at Brownie's Chair. These are really nice freebie patterns that I've been interested in stitching for a while now. I've completed March's years ago on a huck towel and am thinking to put the rest on 'em too because I like matching sets. This might be hard as it's difficult to find ecru towels around here! I found one though (with a coupon even!), so I've got January's kitted up and ready to go! None of the colors are the ones called for, hah. I only had two of the greens and nothing really "matched" them so I just made up my own scheme. :D

There will also be the usual IHSW (hosted by Joysze at Random Ramblings) and TUSAL (as hosted by Daffycat). Joysze's is a monthly signup and Daffycat's signup will be posted soonish. And of course, make all the crochet things. Already my ravelry library is approaching SABLE.

Two other contenders are a) TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) on Pintangle and b) Frosted Pumpkin's Story Time SAL. I like learning new stitches and TAST seemed like a good way to expand my horizons. I dunno what I'd do with the stitches though. Maybe just a doodle cloth. And the Frosted Pumpkin is just plain cute. It's a bit pricey for me though so I'm holding out for a sale or more courage maybe lol.

Random goal: Get/make a needle minder! (!!!!) I've always wanted one of these and I have an old pin that I think would be cute but regular magnets are not strong enough to hold a needle, bah! This is something I've never come across in a thrift store, and believe you me, I've looked.

I feel like my little selection pales in comparison to, oh, everyone else's but I hope I can achieve them. I also feel like I need a calendar for what few I have joined eek!

Wishing you and yours a

with glitter! :b
See you next year!

Whoop-de-Doo and Dickory-Dock

Hello, world~ I feel like I've been silent for too long. The blame lies totally with our ISP which oddly improves when it rains. Luckily we have a rainy Christmas Eve! (It's Christmas Eve, eeeeek.) What better way to spend a rainy day than catching up on stitchy blogs (sorry for the comment spams)? I've gotten the entries down to 100 but I can tell my Internet is starting to die with the load so I had better get this posted before I lose everything (autosave doesn't play well with bad Internet)! So what have I been up to?

COOKIES! I always make cookies to send out at Christmas and this year I decided to make double batches of everything so we actually have some left over for ourselves after shipping them all over the country. I spent 12 hours one day just making all the doughs, then the next two days baking and creating. This year's lineup was Thin Mints (not like the USA Girl Scout variety, more like peppermint patties), Cocoa Crinkles, Snickerdoodles, Cranberry Almond Bark, Rocks, Cran-Orange Shortbread, and the ever popular Snickers (a mini Snickers candy bar wrapped in peanut butter cookie dough). I ran out of the mints much to my husband's Great Sadness so I made up another batch a few days ago just for him. :b I didn't take a picture of the finished hoard but I had every tupperware thing I own filled, plus a pitcher and an 8-quart stock pot! This is also the time of year I desperately wish for a KitchenAid mixer haha.

Crochet World: Aaaaaaaaaaaa I have a scarf! And of course I ran out of the white mystery yarn two little lines from the end. I found a tiny ball of a close lookalike, enough for one line. Then I found a skein of not-quite-as-close lookalike for the last line. Should've just bought new, laaaaaa~~ >_> But! I have enough of the blue and definitely enough of the sorta-close white left over that I may attempt to make a matching hat!

with inspiration gloves

As you can see from the picture, the last skinny line on the right side is not quite as white as the others. Sigh. It can be the hidden part, right? :) Also present are the inspiration gloves (not at all created by my haha). The scarf wound up being 66" long and it honestly could've been longer (original plans were 60"). I like to bundle up into a Rosey Ball when I am forced out into the cold.

I listened to everyone's advice on this post, thank you muchly! I had four votes for evenweave and two for linen. I rummaged through my stash to see if I had either before I went shopping and this is what came out of the black hole of stash.

options!

From left to right in a very horrible picture (sorry!), MCG Textiles 28-count evenweave, white; Zweigart pastel linen, pink; Flamingo Mills 22-count hardanger, white. It's amazing what one can find in a thrift store (Rosey Motto?)! The evenweave was bought on sale at Micheal's though... I think. It was quite a while ago. Anyway, pink isn't gonna work out for this piece and I use the hardanger for my FF pieces so with everyone's votes and the process of elimination, we arrive at evenweave, weeeee~

tossin' bobbin

I feel like this is a fun floss toss; I love all the bright colors. Out of the 30 the pattern selected, I had about 10 so I got to go shopping for floss~ And then wrap some bobbins~~ I might hire myself out to wind bobbins; I love doing it. Some (most) of the colors are still pending judgement. The pattern maker I use is a bit hit-or-miss with picking appropriate colors so I have to see what I'm up against when I actually start stitching.

someone stole my spot

I think I've talked myself out for the non. I'll try to get up a post detailing 2015 stitchy shenanigans if I survive tomorrow. Merry Christmas to you all, and to all a... sleepy kitty?

Advent Calendar Blog Hop: Day 18!

Mele Kalikimaka, hoppers from around the blogosphere!

Here we are on day 18 of Jo's Advent Calendar Blog Hop and Christmas is now ONE WEEK AWAY. /panic! I hope you're all squared away because I for sure am not! Every year, it's "I'm gonna do things so timely this year!"... and then here we are, a week away, panicking. :) Anyway, I found this cute (freebie!) pattern here along with all 23 other days in case you needed to add more patterns to your stash~

A short introduction: I am Rosey, owned by two derpy cats and owner of one derpy husband all of which I love very much. I am... excitable. And I maybe talk too much. I like ~~hoarding~~ stitching cutesy and possibly nerdy/geeky/dorky patterns although I am very, verrry slow at producing finishes. Not sure I could pick a favorite designer as that seems to change with the wind, but I'm partial to browsing SODA pattern mall, Alessandra Adelaide swirly patterns, Frosted Pumpkin, Sprite Stitch, and Stoney Creek designs. Someday! Also, I've just bounced into the wild world of crochet because I need to ~~hoard~~ admire even more cutesy patterns.

Santa Dave

Firstly, per Blog Hop Rules™ here is my little Christmas piece, stitched up in 2012! Meet Santa Dave, so named because he looks very much like a friend! He's a jumping jack ornament gifted to my mother who likes jumping jack ornaments... a lot. I chose this piece because I am proud of it, rarrrr! It was by far the most fiddly stitch I've ever done with all the strange assembling and whatnot. The picture makes him look sorta tiny; he wound up being around 5-6" tall not including pull cord. I would totally wear his coat. And hat. And because I'm always cold, everything else he's got on.

We were asked to give a ramble about our bestest gift ever. This was a difficult for me as I grew up a bit poor and learned to appreciate any gift but the one that stands out the most for me is my little telescope. Though it wasn't a Big & Fancy High-Powered one, I knew how much my mother had to save to get it at all and let me tell you my level of speechlessness surpassed anything ever. The Great Motor-Mouth was speechless. I also hated the very sun for being out all day, how dare it! It needed to set Right. Now! After I read every last ounce of instructions a million times over all day, assembled it, and that night I put it outside to acclimate (lenses will fog up so it can't be used immediately). I cast it around looking at various fuzzy blobs (remember, not a high-powered scope) and then eyeballed a bright star. Wait, this star is still fuzzy, that can't be right. SATURN O MY GOODNESS I WAS LOOKING AT SATURN. It had rings! I could see another planet! With rings! From my yard! A planet! I teleported back in the house and screamed probably incomprehensible babble at my mom and teleported back outside. A planet!!

So, I suppose it would win as my Best Ever Present. I still have it and still take it out on occasion because it's good to remember just how very tiny we are. And despite it being so close to home, Saturn is still my favorite sky object. :)

Thanks to new and old friends popping in and to Jo for hosting this fun hop~ Be sure to check in tomorrow at Shebafudge for magical door 19. I am going to skedaddle on out of here to finish baking cookies that get shipped seemingly everywhere in a perfectly timely manner. :D

No Reply Fix & Santa Nancy Giveaway & Help Me!

Hello, World! This is gonna be a wordy post with only one picture since we are having a horrible time with our ISP lately. I wish Google Fiber would just roll out to the middle of nowhere and fix all our problems.

First! I've noticed the "no-reply" problem pop up a lot in the blogging world and thought maybe I could have a go at helping out a few of you. Basically, whenever you reply on someone's blog, a copy gets emailed to them but if you're a "no-reply blogger" your reply address shows up as "noreply@blogger.com" or "noreply-comment@blogger.com" which are both nothing! People cannot send a reply back to answer your questions or to thank you for your comments.

I borrowed this handy picture to explain how to fix this problem! Thanks to this blog for the graphic. Even if you haven't yet been called a "no reply" blogger, I would recommend you check these settings~

click on the picture for a larger size!

If you are concerned about privacy (say your blogger email address contains your full name), you can always use an alternate email address. Under "Identity" in step 4, just put an email you wouldn't mind people seeing; it doesn't have to be the same address as you use for logging into blogger. :)

I really hope this helps someone out! Not getting replies is no fun!

The second rambly part of this message is for fantastic giveaways! I know many of you already know about the tremendous 25 Days of Christmas giveaway held on Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe! She has truly awesome giveaways every year; I won a Christmas Ornament Collection one year. :D There is still a little time to enter some so scoot on over there (and maybe say I've sent you :b).

This year I've entered (numbers do not necessarily correspond to days!):

~~80 skeins of floss~~

~~$25 gift certificate (again)~~
~~Fabric or floss?!~~

~~40 skeins of floss~~

~~$25 gift certificate or fabric~~

~~30 skeins of floss~~

~~Floss or Fabric?!~~

~~Pick one!~~
$100 gift certificate

Yes, I pretty much entered fabric or floss things this time. There isn't much of a selection around this neck of the woods so maybe I can branch out a little if I win something?! Those choosing fabric or floss ones would be a stinker for me and every time I think I've decided, I wake up the next day with the unknown again! :)

P.S. I don't think this counts for the 25 extra entries; that's okay. I just needed a way of keeping track~

Lastly, the question! I am considering using something of a higher count than my normal comfort zone of hardanger (22-count) for the baby sampler thing. If I use a higher count, I will probably be stitching two-over-one. I would like the Xs to be smaller than 14-count (so fabric higher count than 28-count). I have very poor eyesight even with correctional lenses! In your opinion, what is easier to work with, linen or evenweave or some other magical fabric I don't know about? Brand? Where to find it?! I doubt I will be able to get a magnifier though I most definitely need one.

Welp that was a lot of words. Thanks for your assistance and hopefully I provided some of my own! :) Now I'm going to run around like a crazy person putting up Christmas decorations. Not including the tree (we always get live), I would say I'm about 3/4 done. Whew.