SBQ- Who likes a challenge?

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Ish and is:

What has been your most challenging project and why?

I think it would have to be TW's English Garden Sampler. First time over 1, first time with lots of specialty stitches, first time with blends, first time with beads, first time with cutwork. And it all turned out quite nicely! I'm at work right now, but I'll add a pic when I get home.

ETA: Pic added! Not the best one in the world, but you get the picture.

Needles galore!

Today's SBQ was suggested Kathryn and is:

How many needles do you use during a project? Have you ever loaded
up a needle for every color? Do you use a new needle for every
project or recycle your favorite needle?


Let's see. Usually just one, unless it tarnishes mid-way through and I toss it. That's the only time I toss them, when they tarnish. Or if the eye breaks, which isn't often.

I've sort of loaded up a needle for every color. I've got on TW under my belt, English Garden Sampler, and the blends were overwhelming me. Enter the Pako Needle Organizer! Wonderful thing, that. I had 64 threaded needles stuck in that thing. One for every blend. But I finished the piece with my sanity intact. And a monstrous surplus of needles! I really should hang onto them for my next TW- Lady of Shallot.

SBQ- spending spree!

Today's SBQ comes from Danielle and is:

If you had $500 to spend on stitching-related items, what would you buy?


What would I buy....... I'd spend about $100 of it on hand-dyed fabric. And then a full set of Dinky Dyes silks, about $50 on Vikki Clayton silks, then the kit and class for Chatelaine Mystery X. If there was anything left over after that, I'm not really sure what I'd get.

SBQ- Size matters

Today's SBQ was suggested by Kathryn and is:

What is the smallest count fabric you have ever used? Did you stitch over one? Conversely, what is the largest count fabric you have ever used?

The smallest count I've ever used would be 32, but over 2. I will be doing over one on 32ct once I start the Chatelaine St. Petersburg Garden. Smallest over 1 count as of right now is 28ct for an M Designs ornament.

The highest count I've ever stitched on would be 25ct over 2 for a TW. Not something I'll do again. Over 2 on 25 is just too big for my tastes. I only love 25ct when it's over 1.

Silly me

Wednesday came and went and I didn't get the SBQ question. Couldn't figure out why, since I knew there was one. It hit me just now. My email changed Sunday and I uhm, hadn't gone to the Yahoo site yet to change my email. I'm feeling kinda sheepish. I remembered to change all my other Yahoo groups!

So here it is!

Have you had a happy dance yet this year? If so, tell us about it! (Or
just point to the entry that talks about it.) If not, when do you
predict it will be?

Yes, I have actually. I stitched my square for the Hurricane Katrina quilt project. Started it Wednesday when I was home all day because the weather was too nasty to go to work, then I finished it Thursday. Will be taking a pic tomorrow and then I have to get it in the mail.

My next HD will be my brother's wedding announcement. Before April 20th, lol. Ordered the last batch of silks I need to floss toss, and they should be arriving middle of the week. Lots of Vikki Clayton silks! And I just had to get more than the 2 skeins I was after to make the shipping worthwhile. Ah, the hardships of being a silk addict.

SBQ- Oh those knots

Today's SBQ is:

How do you secure your thread when you begin a new one? Specifically, do you or have you ever used a waste knot?

No, I have never used a waste knot. For over 2, I use the pinhead to start. Over 1 is started by running under. I always end with running under. I've never worked up the nerve to try the pinhead for ending.

Alternative Reality is progressing nicely. Still in blob form, but I expect that for at least several more pages. Lots of detail takes longer to pop out I've noticed. Will probably take another picture this weekend.

Don't have to work Saturday after all!!! God bless Wayne. So I'll be dressing my dolls for Christmas and finish at least one of my letters into its ornament form. I have trim and fabric for L, but none for R. So will require a trip to Hancock's or Hobby Lobby.

Just prattling on and the SBQ

Finished my other Arabesque letter today!! Will post pictures this weekend. My kitty is in my lap and I don't want to stand up to take the pictures right now.

Knitting For Victory is a new charity effort being sponsored by the D-Day museum. They're collecting knit scarves for veterans. Since a knitted scarf is supposed to be your first project, I'm going to do mine up and send it in! You don't have to knit the pattern on the site and you don't have to use those colors. They're aiming to have enough to send the first batch out in time for Christmas, so the deadline for that delivery is December 11th. I don't think I'll make that one, lol.

And the SBQ- it's Christmas!

Do you stitch Christmas ornaments? If so, how many do you stitch each
year and for whom? If not, why not?

Yes, I do! Mostly for myself to put in my hope chest, but this year I've stitched initials for my two best friends. I've shown pictures of them. Both are finished stitching-wise, I just have to finish them into ornaments. I love Christmas and ornaments and stitching, so putting the three together puts me in high heaven!

Both of these are from Dana's blog.

You Are a Mermaid

You are a total daydreamer, and people tend to think you're flakier than you actually are. While your head is often in the clouds, you'll always come back to earth to help someone in need. Beyond being a caring person, you are also very intelligent and rational. You understand the connections of the universe better than almost anyone else.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

This one is what Sci-Fi crew would you fit best with.

SG-1 (Stargate) 100% Serenity (Firefly) 88% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 75% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 75% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 75% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 75% Moya (Farscape) 75% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 69% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 56% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 56% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 56% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 44% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

I'm surprised and not surprised by that one. Thought Farscape would be higher though. And working on Serenity would be SO MUCH FUN!!

I have a kitty purring in my lap... And pictures from Sugar Day can be seen here!

SBQ- Floss floss floss!

This week's SBQ was suggested by Jan and is:

How many different brands of "complete" embroidery floss sets do you
own? How do you keep track of it? (i.e., spread sheet program, index
cards, palm pilot, etc.)


Thanks to the infamous Hancock's print mistake, I own 1 complete set of DMC. And that's it, lol. I keep track of it with an Excel spreadsheet. And since I just pulled for an HAED, I need to replace a whole bunch of it.

Zoe was spayed yesterday. She's speaking to me again, begging for her ears to be scratched and chewing on my knuckles. She's still quite perturbed that she can't run though. Until yesterday she had two speed- head on run and asleep. She's recovering slowly and will thank me eventually when the tomcat leaves her alone.

SBQ- What's in a name?

Yeah, yeah. I'm late!

Today's SBQ was submitted by Lee and is:

How did you decide on the title of your stitching blog? Was it random,
or does it have a special meaning to you or about you?


Usually I struggle with titles for things. But for my blog name, it was quite easy! I'm a romantic. And I stitch. My favorite types of designs are romantic designs, like Alternative Reality. (pic coming soon! Right now it's a tiny blob of brown and navy blue) So there ya go. It's two words that describe me beautifully.

SBQ- Brr!

Today's SBQ was suggested by Lee and is:

As we all know, stitching in the winter can really be rough on the
hands. What do you do to treat your hands well in the cold winter
months? Do you have any suggestions for creams or soaps? Or perhaps a
special regimen that you would like to share?

Well, I live in Louisiana. Down here, there's no such thing as winter, lol. So I don't really do anything else special for my hands. It stays very humid (80-110%) year-round, so I don't even use body lotion most of the time.

I've been smoking right along on my first PR Arabesque letter this week. And then today I ran out of silk with a fourth of the stitching left. Woe is me for having to order more Dinky Dyes, lol. So I'll move to the other letter for awhile till the DD's come in. And I have to get more of the other silk color too, the VC Blueberry Creme. And gosh darn it, I'm going to have to order at least 5 other skeins just to make the shipping worth it. Life can be such a hardship for a silk addict, lol. The hard part will be deciding which colors to get!

A cold front is moving through right now, so I'm rather achey and my fingers are getting stiff. I really should put some warmer clothes on and that would help considerably.

SBQ- Mistakes

Still playing catch-up here! This one is 9/28.

Today's SBQ was suggested by Sharon and is:

When you find yourself making a lot of mistakes in various stitching
projects do you find it better to muddle your way through or do you
take a brief break from stitching? If you do take a break, how long do
you take?


I take a brief break. After I've frogged the mistake! If I don't make sure that is taken out, I'll forget where it was and ruin the whole thing, lol. I usually put it down for a day or two. Any longer than that and it'll be months before I pick it up again.



And I have one picture, my letter "L" from the PR Arabesque alphabet. Stitched 2x1 on 20ct Pearl linen with Dinky Dyes silk "Wild Lavendar". I'm planning to finish it off as an ornament. It's not the best pic in the world, but it shows the lovely subtle color variations in the silk.

SBQ- Statistics

Last week's SBQ was suggested by Elizabeth and is:

How many pieces have you stitched? Out of these, how many have been for you? How many have had specialty stitches or other techniques besides cross stitch?


A primitive head count comes up with about 15. Hey, I'm only 23 and I've only been an avid stitcher for the last 4 years. Out of the ones I do remember, only 1 finish has been for me. Queen Mermaid last fall. Everything else has been given as gifts to family and a couple of friends. I have done a small variety of specialty stitches thanks to English Garden Sampler. Algerian eyelet, diamond eyeles, herringbone, satin and a wrapped straight-stitch. The effect was beautiful! Kreinik cord in Vatican gold wrapped around ecru Perle coton. EGS is the only one that's had more than backstitching or French knots in it.

Need to order the fabric and floss for my fleur de lis for the quilt too. And my Venus threads for the PR Stitchathon in October. I'll be starting Winter Beauty Princess. Also planning to start my two letter ornaments this weekend. Have to work Saturday, so I'll be bringing them with me so I can play with silks! In fact, I'm itching so badly to stitch with my pretty silks that I just might bring the ornaments with me tomorrow too, lol.

SBQ- How do you share?

Today's SBQ is from Carolyn:

How do you share your finished pieces with others? Do you frame them, scan and/or photograph them, or do you have another method that you would like to share?

For online showing, I take pictures. They're shared on message boards and here on my blog and I have a Yahoo album of finished pieces. Need to add that link to my sidebar! I like big projects, and those don't fit on scanners very well. And the scanner is hooked up to another computer, so it can be quite time-consuming to get the pictures transferred. I do have a cheap camera, but the macro setting works very well for taking pictures of my stitched pieces now that I actually have a lamp that I can get at just the right angle for just the right amount of light.

Most things that I have stitched have been framed. To date, I've only ever finished one piece for myself and I only have 3 pieces that aren't framed, 1 is mine, 1 I did for my sister and the other I did for my mom. I should frame my mom's for her... Anyway! Smaller things usually get finished as tree ornaments. I LOVE Christmas and Christmas tree ornaments and am in the camp of you can never have too many ornaments. What if you end up in a house with cathedral ceilings and you can have a ten foot tall tree?

SBQ- Traveling

Today's SBQ was suggested by Anna M. and is:

What do you keep your WIPs and other stitching supplies in when traveling?

Whatever tote bag it will fit in! I have a nice sized stash of tote bags and I can generally find one that fits the bill perfectly. Since I keep my floss in Floss-Away bags on rings, space is rarely an issue.

I'm going to be in the gift shop most of tomorrow and I can't decide if I want to just work on A Favour or start my cell phone pouch. It may end up depending on how my hands feel when I wake up. I've decided to crochet a pouch that I can hang on the outside of my purse in the hopes that I will actually hear my phone when it rings. I'm doing it with the new DMC Senso yarn, the heather purple cotton/wool one. The pattern is a DMC freebie that I found on the Michael's site. The body is done with a 5DC popcorn stitch. Then I'm using the strap from another pattern that I found. It's made with a hook so I can take it on and off my purse and clip it to my jeans if I want to.

SBQ 8/16/06

Yesterday was a day, so I'm a day late. Was offline all day and just played catch-up when I finally got home.

Today's SBQ's are from Ami and Anna.
#1: Do you have an organizational system for your fabric? If so, what is it? If not, what do you store your fabric in?

I use a drawer in my dresser! I have a 10-drawer dresser in my room and all of the pieces are laid out in one of the big drawers. I like to keep them as flat as possible and this lets me do that with my FQ's. I only buy linen, so keeping it organized isn't that hard, lol. I just have it stacked in the drawer laid out as flat as possible with tissue paper between each piece. Right now I have the color name, count and company on pieces of paper pinned to the fabric.

#2:How do people store their fabric, especially those small butpotentially usable pieces? Do they sort by count? How do they label it or otherwise know what each piece is?

I won't buy a piece smaller than 9x12. And I don't buy them very often because I prefer larger designs. Again, pieces of paper with all the info are pinned to each piece. I'm down to only two right now. One is an SMF piece, the other is Pearl linen that I'm going to use to make ornaments for two of my best friends as part of their Christmas presents.

SBQ

So I'm a couple days late. It's been more than a little weird at work. My computer up here is sick so I'm having to bring my laptop back and forth so I can keep working on all my stuff. Mailing list.

So, here we go.

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Ami and is:
For those of you who use hand or over-dyed floss, how do you store it?

Right now they're all in a pile on the bookshelf by my stitching chair. I have plans to get them into Floss-Away bags and sort them by manufacturer, but I need more Floss-Away first. I keep forgetting to order it. You'd think with placing 3 stash orders this week I would have remembered with one of them! But no, I forgot every single time. My collection is growing though so I really need to get on the ball before they start falling over.

SBQ- Favorite Tool

Today's SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:

Do you have a favorite needlework tool that you like to work with?
What is it and why do you like using it?

Yes, I do! My Gazelle 2 floor stand. I had gotten to the point where holding scrolls, hoops or any other type of frame simply hurt too much and I had nearly stopped stitching altogether. So I bought my Gazelle and it was like being reborn! I've been a stitching maniac ever since.

And life is very good at this particular moment in time. Buble, popsicles and chocolate chip cookies. Heaven bottled up in 5 minutes!

SBQ and a new start

Today's SBQ was suggested by Von and is:

Many of us have a few pairs of embroidery scissors and some even have a "collection". How many pairs of scissors do you have? Feel free to share a photo of your favorite pair or pairs with us!


I have two pair of scissors that I use all the time. One set is the obligatory stork that every embroider/stitcher has probably had at one time or another. The other set- my FAVORITE set, is a Victorian reproduction. The scissors are just perfect for me, on the small side and very very sharp. They hang in a pewter chatelain around my neck so I never lose them and pesky brothers can't play with them. Here's a picture of them. They are very high quality, made in England and I highly recommend them. I also have the needlecase that's pictured at the bottom of that page as well as a thimble and 3 pincushions. The thimble is a reproduction of the one cast in commeroration of Victoria and Albert's wedding in 1840. (btw, all of the Beautiful Girlhood stuff is of the highest quality)


And my new start!!! It is HAED's "A Favour". The one by Leighton. Finished the gridding on it and then got nearly 300 stitches in! Started in the upper left hand corner because I wanted to work on the sky. It is so beautiful! It's my work project so progress will be slow. I'll take a picture when I bring it home. If it'll come out.... The sky colors are very pale, 927, 3742, etc.

And it's raining again. It's been raining off and on since 5 this morning! If it keeps up we're going to have to completely re-arrange History Camp Friday...

SBQ- Framing

Today's SBQ was suggested by Cathy:

When you get a project professionally framed do you get glass inserted
into the frame? Why or why not?


Yes, I do! The house I live in is rather old and was not built very well. There is dust EVERYWHERE. I don't want this dust on my stitching so I always always always have glass put in whether it's professionally framed or I do it myself. My pieces are far too precious to me to let my dusty drafty house mess them up and dull the sparklies.

And my Countrystitch order came yesterday!!!!! It's so pretty. I'm thinking about doing the PR "Dawn" fairy on it...

SBQ and Happy Dance!

First the Happy Dance! It's been nearly 3 years in the making. Finished it Tuesday and I'm STILL on cloud 9! TW's English Garden Sampler. It was started before I knew about framing margins and I ended up not having enough fabric to do the outer border. To be honest, I don't think the piece looses anything without it. Sorry for the funky folds, draping it over the couch arm and back was the only way I could get enough light!


Today's SBQ was suggested by Carol
and is:

Since you started blogging, have you noticed any difference in your stitching habits? Tell us about them.

I have noticed some changes but I can't say it's due to blogging per se. It's more due to finding all of the message boards, which then led to blogging about my stitching. I've tackled more complex projects, I tracked hours on one and I've started a rotation. So far I'm VERY happy with the rotation and don't have any plans to tweak it. I do also stitch more since I've plugged into the online communities. That I can blame on blogging and the boards, lol.





And one more picture! This is St. Basil's Cathedral after one rotation, which is two weeks. I didn't get as much done as I had wanted to though due to interference known as real life. It's stitched 2x2 on 32ct Belfast "Jamaica Sparkle" by SW.