I’m not really running away, I’m just going to a stitching retreat for the weekend! I’m counting down the hours. Last night I was a tornado of cleaning and packing. We have company coming in on Sunday, and I won’t be home to do anything else. The husband will have to care of anything that needs it! And feed Mocha!

The big dilemma when going off to a stitching retreat is what project(s) to bring? I packed the Cheshire Cat, along with two more Advent Ornaments, one of which is half-way done. I also packed four new ornaments (a set of three knotwork ornaments and another). I’ve just picked out the thread for these (Dinky Dyes silk!) so I’m all excited to work on them. Then while I was working on the computer, I ended up in my “Incomplete” designs folder and saw a dragon that I had charted two years ago (could it be that long?). The poor dragon languished because I didn’t know what color it wanted to be, so I couldn’t pick fabric and threads for it. It finally told me – Green! And I had the perfect fabric for it. I’m going to do my color testing on it this weekend and try out the new Kreinik holographic threads.

So my tally for the weekend is eight projects packed, with at least four pairs of scissors. I’m going to play with Enchanted Lair fabric, Dinky Dyes silk and Kreinik holographic threads. And that’s not even counting the three projects we’ll get at the retreat!

T-minus 62 minutes!

For the record, I stitched the “Oak Tree Biscornu“, but didn’t do the finishing. Also, for the record, stitching with white thread through two other white threads on white fabric is hard on the eyes, but I like the finished effect.

This design has a different knotwork design on each side and uses Celtic knots to give the impression of an Iris. It uses Dinky Dyes silk thread (including two new colors that will be available at the Nashville Market). This design is being released at the Nashville Market, so look for it at your local shops in late February (or ask your shop owner to bring it home from Market for you!)

Here’s an obligatory first picture of Mocha:

She’s not sure about all the papparazzi flashes going off.

Here’s a picture of an ornament I did for an exchange:

The one in the middle, not the one in the upper right corner of the picture. The “Love” ornament I stitched in December of 2000, and I’d guess it is from the 2000 JCS Ornament issue. The one I did for the exchange is, of course, an original Cross Eyed Kat design. It will probably be commercially available in the summer of 2010. I’m doing several of these little four-square designs for next year. This ornament is finished as a needlebook, and I’ll probably add a couple of other “stitching things” to the charts. Currently, I’m stitching on a spring-themed version of this for a class I’ll be teaching in March on different stitching techniques with overdyed threads. When you’re a cross-stitch designer, you end up stitching on off-season designs!

Thanks for all the comments on Christmas ornaments. It was interesting to read Mel’s comments about not wanting snowy stuff in Austrailia, because here in Texas, the weather could be cold or hot. I often wonder if people in more nothern climates decorate houses with icicle lights. Would you want icicle lights if you’re likely to have the real thing? On the other hand, we did have a white Christmas one year in the Rio Grande Valley!

Nashville market is coming up soon, so here’s my current stitching to do list:
1. Spring 4-square and any accessories
2. Dragon design (close to finishing this and really loving how it looks)
3. 15th Advent Ornament
4. Design and stitch project “T” if possible
5. Cheshire Cat (not a priority for Nashville)

Note: that design won’t be out until October – it still has to be finished!

Cross stitch designs are like any other creative endeavor, sometimes they have to be cajoled into showing themselves, and sometimes they just show up on your doorstep! The more restrictions, the harder it can be. The Advent Ornaments not only have thematic restriction, they are also a set size, with a set fabric and a semi-restricted color palatte. Beyond that, they have to be Cross-Eyed-Katish. I know I want to do a Santa for the series, but what does that Santa look like and how does he fit into a 46×46 square area? These are the questions to ponder. Personally, I cannot sit in front of a piece of paper and tell myself to make a new design. I have to have some inspiration, anything from an idea, a word, or a doodle. Many times, I’ll have design ideas rolling in my brain for months or years before they are mature enough to put on paper. If only there were more hours in a day, I’d doodle more and get more designs out!

As a random aside, I came across these while piddling in Walmart the other day:

And I did smile.

I had a bit of Christmas in July as the next three Advent Ornaments are now ready:

Advent 7: Snow

Advent 8: Christmas Tree

Advent 9: Mouse King

Now to get to work on the next three! 10-12 will come out in October, and then 12-24 will be available next year as quarterly releases.

Also, I finally finished, framed and photographed “Octagonal”.

It will ship today to shops that pre-ordered it during the online Needlework Show. Your local shop can order it from me at anytime!

As a side note, I usually only frame models in matte board to save on cost and weight. However, while I was at Hobby Lobby last week, I noticed that their metal frames were half price. I decided to try one out on “Octagonal” and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. So pleased that I went back and got frames for four more pieces. I’ll be watching the sales and slowly re-framing all the models. This means that I’ll have to find a real trunk to ship them in for tradeshows, since the frames will keep them from all fitting in my suitcase.

I thought this design was also finished:

Unfortunately, I just noticed that the colors for “a” and “b” are reversed from the colors for “y” and “z”. I’m not looking forward to frogging, especially since this one is done over-one on 25 count fabric! A second model is being done with overdyes that is over-two. It is going to be huge!

Looks like have work to do before I’m really finished with the “Ambigram Alphabet”. Today I kitted up the next three Advent Ornaments to stitch, then there’s Briar Rose, a half-done cat, and a brand new dragon to work on. Did I mention that my 22 WIPs didn’t include original designs?

Here’s one from my youth, before I learned about things like fabric margins and keeping the fabric clean:

This is one of Teresa Wentzler’s carousel horses (I think it is Winter). Technically, this could probably be finished with about an inch of fabric left on the left side. On the other hand it is a Teresa Wentzler done on 18 ct. Aida. At least I was persistent in my insanity!

This is another start from my youth:

It was coming along nicely, but there is only so long I can stitch in one color – this is why I don’t design monocromatic samplers. This officially became a UFO when I bought a new fabric for the design. I haven’t restarted it, but I do have the fabric.

This UFO is the result of another fabric change:

The linen was a little too open for my tension and I could tell which direction I stitched a row in the bigger sections of white. This UFO has a happy ending, since I actually restarted and finished the pattern:

Maybe I’ll turn the stitching into an ATC and use the extra fabric for ornaments or something. I’ll have to ponder what to do with lavender linen.

Finally, one more fabric mind-change:

I’m not sure if this really counts as a UFO, since it only has about 12 stitches in it. But I know it was the US Map from Heritage Stitchcraft that was started on it. I’ll probably frog the stitches and reclaim the fabrin. I think this fabric is from a hand-dyer that is now out of business!

In current stitching business, I finally finished stitching “Octagonal” (and learned how to spell it right) on Sunday. It is now framed and awaiting photography. Charts should mail out to shops that pre-ordered on Monday. I’m also working on a new dragon design that has been noodling in my head for at least six months. I’m up to the coloring the line-drawing in phase, so I’m getting close to being able to stitch it. This is a good change, since for the past two years, I always plan to get tons of designing done during the summer and somehow it never happens. It is too hot to do anything else, though, so I’m happy to get some designing done.

This is one dates back to middle school, and is in fact my first original design. I did this design and entered at the state Latin Convention (the language, not the geographic area), and I think it won second or third place in its category. The lettering is from a book, but I charted out the constellations on graph paper using an astronomy book. I only had four-squares-to-the-inch graph paper, so I divided each square into four.

This is another old one. I’m pretty sure this was a kit. I think the appeal is pretty obvious:

Fightin’ Texas Aggie Bonfire! Whoop! Obviously, a piece from my college days, which pre-date the tragic bonfire collapse in 1999.

I know that I picked up the pattern, fabric and supplies for this MLI design in Minnesota. There was a really nice cross-stitch shop in Stillwater, MN that I was able to visit a few times when I was interning in the Twin Cities. Close inspection will find that no one had taught me yet about the 3 inch margin rule. This design barely fit! It was also the first time I did major beading on a project and some of the beads are wonky. I should be able to sew some musling to it and do some finishing with it. I know I have the pattern and fabric for “Spiritdancer” in my stash to go with this one. Hopefully, I learned from my mistake and bought a bigger piece of fabric!

I’m pretty sure I started this one in collge, but it didn’t get finished until several years later! Again, this was a kit. It is supposed to be finished into a pillow and I believe the kit came with the finishing fabric, if I could find it.

This is actually a reproduction done by a model stitcher. This is one of my first original designs done in college, it was published in 2003 by Fanta Cat. I couldn’t find enough dragon designs back in college to stitch, so I made my own. This is one of my favorites.

This is another reproduction done by a model stitcher. I stitched this one myself twice. The first time was using waste canvas on black fabric that I then made into a vest (I was interning and had time). Then, when it was being published by Fanta Cat, I made a bell-pull model. Both of those were sold to Fanta Cat, so this is a reproduction.

This is “Blooming Bride” by Mirabilia. I stitched it while getting ready for my own wedding! I changed the fabric and changed a bit of the swirly stuff a the top.

A completed Teresa Wentzler! This is “Tradewinds”. I changed the alphabet blocks to have the quote instead.

Here’s a set of Victoria Sampler deisgns. I remember finding the whole set on sale at an LNS with the embellishment packs! I didn’t change too much with these, until I got to the end, I was too busy learing how to do band samplers and hardanger. I changed the leaves above the bargello on “Green Earth” to a rhodes leaf because the lazy daisy leaves reminded me of marijuana plants! I also changed all the colors for “Fresh Air” because I wanted it to be more like summer with yellow tones.

This is the original design that eventually became “Dragon Medallions” published by Fanta Cat:

Yes, it is stitched over one!

This is one of those weekender type kits. I have some glass and stuff for finishing, but haven’t gotten to that step:

Finally, this is the piece I finished at the 3 Stitches Get-A-Way this past spring. Because I’m a designer, and therefore not good at following someone else’s directions, I accidentally swapped the yellow for the bees and the beehive. Also, I didn’t read the directions for the wings and redid them my way! This was designed by Redbird Designs.

There you have it. It isn’t a complete collection of everything I’ve stitched, but I think it is interesting to observe, especially in a chronological sense. I’ve progressed from kits and aida to stitching on linen with many different threads and, well, designing things myself! I hope to finish “Octogonal” in the next week, which will be good, since my theoretical deadline is the end of June!

This is one of the oldest WIPs I have. It probably dates to fall of 1994. Don’t recognize the pattern? It is “Castle Sampler” by Teresa Wentzler. I bought this kit while I was interning in Minnesota.

This is another old one, since it dates from my college days and is the seal of Texas A&M University. There used to be a wonderful LNS in College Station called The Stitchery. It may have been the first LNS I visited, since I previously bought my supplies mostly at Michael’s. It was here I discovered Jobelan fabric, which this WIP is stitched on. I bought several TAMU patterns there. One of my friends also stitched and did a huge pattern of the Systems Building; I wish I had bought that pattern now, since they have to be licensed by the university now.

Here’s another one from the mid-nineties. This is an Oberlin Sampler design – “Minnesota”. I also own the patterns for “Louisiana” and “Texas”, but haven’t started them.

I have a bad feeling that these two WIPs are the same design:

If they aren’t the same design, then I don’t know what the top one is! I think they are a Stoney Creek design with a cat sleeping under a bush. Looking at it now, I’m pretty sure I restarted this design after discovering hand-dyed fabric.

Following college, I had an explosion of stitching projects starting in 1999 when I found my LNS, TW’s “Millenium” and the TWBB.

“Mermaid of the Pearls” by Mirabilia done on a Murano fabric bought in the great Murano frenzy just before it was discontinued. I have a piece of the same fabric cut for “Waiting for Ships”, but have never started that design.

“Angel of Love”, by Lavender and Lace. I always thought the beadwork on this design looked like a circuit board, so I’m stitching a green/silver conversion to look even more like a circuit board! And this was around the time that I tried out gridding!

I worked on this one, which is “Footprints” by Teresa Wenztler, really close to when I got into designing. The original design has fish along the edge, which I converted to dolphins partly through using the dolphins from “Tradewinds” and partly through my own drawing. I was going to chart 1 Corinthians 13 for the middle, but didn’t get to that.

More Teresa Wentzler:
“Night”

and “Day”

I actually stitched “Night” before. I did it for my BFF from middle school, who saw me stitching in high school and college, picked up a kit for “Night” and tried to do it on her own. I remember trying to help her when coming home from college one holiday, and she had started the border and was stitching over-one. We decided that a TW was an overly-ambitious first ever cross-stitch project. I stitched on it off and on and finally gave it to her five years later!

This was going to be a baby-gift for a friend. Her daughter is now several years old. It is “Fairy Tales” by Mirabilia, but again, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and changed the colors.

“Lady of the Flag” by Mirabilia. Since this design came out in 2001, I probably started it in the spring of 2002. I remember all discussion about the number of stripes on the flag when this design first came out. If you look at my start and the original version, you can see where I added the two edge stripes to the design. I also remember stitching on this while watching the movie “Memento” for the first time. I don’t recommend that; “Memento” requires too much attention. There’s an error somewhere in the stitching, and some fudging to work around it!

“Enchantment of Winter” by Dimples Designs. I think this is a fabric I bought from Silkweaver. The gridding definitely helped with this design, since the chart pages don’t show overlap.

“Desiderata” by Indigo Rose. This one is almost half-way done! I decided to stitch this one in two halves instead of one long banner, so that it looked more like a book. I don’t think I ever decided what was going to go in the middle. I also remember driving to three different LNS’s in Houston in one day to try and find all the silks for it. Two of the three shops are now closed and I ended up substituting different colors. This one is stitched on a Silkweaver Solo, which I snatched up because it was big enough!

This is a second start to “Millenium” by Teresa Wentzler. I originally started this design on a light blue fabric, then saw some else’s finished piece on a dark blue fabric and decided that I like that more. I’ll show the original in a UFO discussion later.

This is a USA map from Heritage Stitchcraft.

I’m pretty sure it is a second start because I found this as well:

Yes, that is about eight stitches on a piece of fabric. I’m pretty sure it is the border of the map. I guess I changed my mind about the fabric color, but who knows? I do remember that stitching on this was a bit weird as the designer used skinny vertical stitches (over one vertically, but over two horizontally) and other variations.

This is a Christmas Ornament from one of the Just Cross Stitch magazines. I’m probably really close to finishing it if I could figure out which year the pattern is from. I know I have the carrot button for the nose.

These two are from little Christmas kits and were fillers in between working on designs:

This one is almost done. I think it needs some stitches done in gold braid, which I didn’t have handy at the time. It has the year on the bottom, so I must’ve stitched it in 2006. It is a Redbird Design.

I remember stitching on this design on the way to and back from a Nashville Market, so I must’ve started it in 2005, which was the last time I rode with Jo to market (now we both have way too much stuff for one vehicle). I bought this kit in the fall of 2002, when my husband and I visited Paris and Versailles (which is what the design is of).

Finally, there’s this, which may actually be a UFO:

I can’t remember what this is! It is a fairly small piece of fabric, so the design is probably in the 5×7 inch range. It has dark brown, light brown and medium brown stitches so far. Any ideas?

My fingers itch to work on these designs! I remember how much I love the designs and how much they inspire me to stitch. Maybe I’ll start taking one day a week to work on old designs. Now when I stitch on someone else’s design, it is such a relief to not think about color choices! There is hope for me yet: I did find 17 completed projects when cleaning. That’s in addition to the 36 models I’ve stitched for Cross Eyed Kat designs! For now, I’ll keep designing and stitching. Maybe when I run out of ideas, I’ll go back to stitching on these WIPs!

I was careful not to get any on the stitching:

(note that I am working diligently on “Octogonal”)

Yum yum!

The first Thursday of the month is the stitch in at 3 Stitches. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures there! I worked more on Octogonal and got some ideas for the next 12 Advent Ornaments. Through both events, I got quite a bit of stitching done. I’m on that part of Octogonal where I’m filling in all the circles, so it goes fast but is not very exciting. I’m looking forward to getting back to Briar Rose, the next three Advent Ornaments and Ambigram Alphabet. Wow, I’m really working up a backlog of designs!

I did a little experiment with casting resin as well:

And I learned that modelling clay (which was supporting my molds) melts in Texas heat. A later experiment with polymer clay holding the molds was a bit more successful. I’m still refining the prototypes and have some other issues to work through, but I’m hoping to have a product from this to show at the October Needlework Show.

This week, I got to do a little sketching since I found a 17×22″ graph paper with 10 squares to the inch. 14 square to the inch would better replicate the size of the actual stitching, since I tend to favor 28 count fabric, but this gets the job done. The past two nights I’ve been working on deep cleaning the studio/office. I should take before and after pictures, but I forgot. I did find three pairs of missing scissors, though! One was in my TNNA badge from the Nashville Market (I was probably storing it there while I stitched at the show), and the other two were in with knitting projects. The scissors were rescued and the knitting projects were semi-retired. I don’t take good notes while I’m knitting, so I find it harder to go back to them after a long time. Hopefully, I can get the office in more of a working state soon so that I can get back to sketching!