A Few Days' Progress

After spending way too much time experimenting with 28 count Evenweave to no satisfactory results, I decided to give up on QS Kitty Moon Fairy for a while, and work on QS Dryad with a Peacock.  It's coming along pretty well for me so far, I think.  This is my first attempt at one of these patterns, so I don't have much comparison but for online photos other people have posted. 

With 22 count Aida and 2 strands of floss, I basically cannot see the fabric underneath the stitches, so that is a plus I suppose!  You'll notice one of the pictures here I have included for the sole purpose of humor.  I think I'm coming to learn the meaning of "confetti".  I don't know the most efficient way of tackling it yet, but more experimentation lies ahead. 

A Very Rosy Bus Ride

On the left is a photo from a few weeks ago.  It was sort of primitive of me to hang the thing from my bulletin board, but progress was being made at that point (as opposed to laziness being the other reason it was still in the hoop!)  Anyway, on my ride from Reno to Sacramento to San Fransisco to SLO to get here from Lake Tahoe, I worked on this piece for a good part of it.  I met some interesting people on the bus that day.. haha.  Anyway, all that is really left on Mr. Jasper are the golds, white, and little red beads for the rose.  Getting there!

Beginning Stitches

So I've started my QS HAED pattern.  So it turned out the fabric store had no linen, so I settled on 22 count Ivory Aida.  Maybe this transition will be a little bit easier than jumping straight into 25 count from 14.  After extensive technique research, I've begun to try parking my threads with the needles still attached.  After about 3 1/2 10x10 blocks, it seems to be working pretty well, and I am finding that I haven't had to count much at all.  (My previous method was working one color at a time, stitching everything in it until there was nothing left, and then moving to the next color.)  The only problem I'm having is trying to force myself to switch colors and stay in the squares rather than try to do everything of the color I'm currently using.  I hope this method works just as well with the areas of many color changes.

Here are some progress photos:

paraSITE Project

Final installation photos of my group's project.  The last photo I took this morning.. apparently it stormed last night.  The puddles of water looked awesome.  TGFP... thank goodness for polyurethane.

Final Bobbins Wound!

Last night, I finished winding my set of DMC colored embroidery floss, which is 447 skeins total.  My roommate said the mass of bobbins on a metal ring looked like a little dog.  A very colorful dog, at that.  Well, here are the quick photos I took of it.  hehe

Bobbins

Here is an update on my bobbin-winding progress.  It's a bit of a mess right now, but I assure you it is organized by number.  Twine is just for the time being until I can put it all into boxes.  Out of 7 1/2 bags of floss, I'm through 5 with 2 1/2 to go.  Okay, here's the picture.  Brace yourself.

Killer Whales

So this is attempt number two at this one.  I started this when I was a wee thing and I got myself so confused that I couldn't figure out what stitches were wrong.  In hindsight, I was probably just a tad too much of a perfectionist and should have left the teal/blue stitches of the water remain incorrect and go from there.  So I wrote a letter to Dimensions and they sent me a new canvas and replacement floss.  Again, in hindsight I probably should have asked for the total amount of blue rather than what I had used.  But then again I was maybe 10 years old or less and did not know the meaning of dye lots!