Can I have another BACKGROUND?

/attempt at pop culture reference

Emphasis on attempt.

The purple and grey rectangular blob is growing.  Here is my latest.

A Short Ordeal

 I really wanted to try and embroider my fraternity letters onto something.  Nothing that I own particularly called out to me, and if it did there's no way my first attempt at it was going on something expensive or sentimental.  Besides, perhaps my favorite and oldest pair of shorts I own are bright purple with SWIM in white letters across the back side.  I traced the letters of my sweatshirt to make 6 stencils, for this and for future reference if my insanity actually works.  The stripes on the purple print were vertical..but I thought it looked pretty awesome to slant the letters on it.  I like the result! 

The photos are my first attempt at satin stitches, or a zig-zag stitch at the smallest stitch length.  Oh my goodness I was afraid it would be difficult to maneuver the sewing machine around the shorts.. and it is already causing issues.  Just like half of the one piece of the first letter took a very long time to do.  I wonder why the machine sews so slowly.. bahh this project is a bit of a nightmare.  I went out for fusible web and stabilizer, but a lazy at the fabric store showing me where the stuff was somehow convinced me past my better judgment that I needed interfacing.  Doesn't help me too much when it only attaches fabric to one side.  I was going for the made with love look anyway! *blinks repeatedly*  No the hours I spent trying to make the stencils look just right.. lol  You know, some day I'm going to learn how to sew for real and then I won't have to fake it anymore.  And next time I'll do an APX scarf instead LOL or *gasp* iron-on letters!  Or dang it.. I could have made the letters into a patch and sewn/fused them on.

Six years, what?

I love my puppy.. he's an adorable, loud, 80+ pound lap dog. *nod* I still call him puppy even though 2 months ago he turned 6.

Three Rows

I just finished filling in the first 3 rows on Phoenix 1!  This is just less than one-third of a page, but it still looks awesome!  What a cool blending effect the colors and placing of them creates!  I shall enjoy the rest of this page while it lasts because page 2 is a bit more insane on the confetti.  And I wonder if I started collecting orts for this project how many I'd end up with!  Someone will probably finish the SK before I get to the lady and bird, but I still can't wait to get there, she's going to be gorgeous.

Round Four and Day Four

This is the UFO I sent around the country for a round robin.  The Dimensions kit cover shows the sample stitched version.  The photo above was posted online from the fifth person to receive my piece.  The progress is very exciting.  This photo shows what it looked like when I shipped it in March 2010. Have I ever mentioned that killer whales are just awesome?  Insert mental reference to Pebble and the Penguin here.

 This is after my fourth day of progress on The Stargazer. This Mirabilia pattern has a front and a back. The front is just a little more than what I've stitched here. The back is THE ENTIRE SKIRT. I hope the frogging goddess is feeling nice, as I'm a little afraid to count more than 2 squares away from my stitching with this navy fabric over two. Ack! I am a teeny bit anxious to see it finished, at least the cross stitch part so I can figure out how to do the beads, or at least test how I've read about attaching them.

Stargazer

Here is progress after 3 days of work on her.  The photo on the right is the Mirabilia website stitched sample.

Got Cirque?

This is my rough sketch of one idea.  Maybe all the outline will be black and fill-in will be the colors.  Smaller circles probably grey/silver.  Maybe the outline will alternate black and silver.  Well I guess we'll find out once the photocopies and colored pencils show up under my creative arm.  I did not mean that I am creative, just making up an expression or something.  And gosh, I am glad the pattern is not as primitive as my sketch!