Crafty Monday: Frame Stand Review

As some of you may know I'm working on a cross stitch project that can only be described as "TOO FREAKING BIG." For this project I had to buy a 24" scroll frame and have hated it this entire time.

I have two problems with my scroll frame:

1. The tension sucks - I cannot keep my fabric tight to save my life. The screws are as tight as they can go, but it doesn't help the tension. The horizontal tension is non-existant and lacing the fabric to the sides of the frame only helps a bit.
2. It's heavy as hell - not only is it heavy, it's awkward to hold.

There is a solution for the second problem, and that's what I want to talk about now. A few weeks ago I decided that I really had to get working on my BAP (cross stitch terminology post for the n00bs) and decided to purchase a scroll frame stand.



The wait for it was long and hard, but I finally got a chance to get it set up and use it. I've only used it for a few days, but I've got some thoughts on it already and I put them into list form!

Pros

• Can use both hands when I want to (I tried the one under the fabric and one over the fabric method just for fun)
  
• No wrist pain
  
• No awkward and painful moments where I accidentally smack myself in the face with the heavy wooden frame
  
• Faster stitching

Cons

• No fast way to flip it over to check the back
  
• It is insanely difficult to start and stop in places. Any time there is a floss change I have to loosen one part and work on it upside down. I think I might be missing something (see the two photos below)
  
• Awkward placement. I'm used to having my projects at a certain angle (directly in front of my face) and that angle is impossible with the holder.

It's super awkward to start and stop pretty much anywhere. I'm thoroughly convinced there is an easier way to do this without taking it off the stand. If anyone knows please enlighten me!




Final thoughts

For all of the bother this product seems to be giving me, I think it was money well spent. It's saving me the pain of holding a heavy frame and making me learn to use both hands, which is starting to seem like a good thing. I'd love to learn what other people do when they change colors (maybe something that doesn't take several minutes), but other than that I'm really enjoying it.

Crafty Monday: WoCroStiMo Pieces

I've wanted to make this post for about 2 weeks, but I've been waiting until I could post both of the pieces to flickr and then share here. This is the official last post for WoCroStiMo (at least for this year). I wrote most of the post on the 30th and have had it saved, so I'm just going to post what I've got along with some new commentary.

Yesterday was the last day of November and for many people it signaled the end of NaNoWriMo. For me, it was the end of WoCroStiMo, World Cross Stitching Month. If you saw my TTMT post yesterday, you’ll know that I was a “winner” (I met my goal) for the month! My goal was 15,000 stitches, and I’m happy to report that I actually had a total of 16,056!! I did two different projects during the month.

The first project was my swap piece for the Phat Quarter Swap. I finished it early Sunday morning and mailed yesterday, so my partner hasn’t received it yet (and probably won’t for another week and a half or more since the package is going overseas). That piece is the one I’m most proud of. I’ve done a lot of other pieces really like but this one I loved and I was sad to part with it. If I had an extra ninety bajillion hours I would actually consider making another one.

The theme of the swap was OMG! The Horror! and I had a chance to combine the awesomeness of a Peeves (from Harry Potter) quote and the iconic movie cover of Poltergeist. I was a bit ambitious, but once I had the idea I couldn't let it go! The completed stitch was 13430 stitches (not including all of the back stitching) and was done on 22ct fabric using 21 different colors.






The next piece came to me as a sort of favor/commission on Wednesday the 24th. The original plan was to work on my giant cross stitch of d00m for the remaining 2k stitches, but this other project fell into my lap at just the right time. I was contacted by Julie Jackson of Subversive Cross Stitch, Jamie Chalmers known in the stitchy community as Mr X Stitch, and the incredibly awesome Bridget aka Beefranck to stitch a "royal wedding memorabilia on the occasion of Prince William’s engagement" (blatantly stolen from the SCS site because my brain sucks right now).

I tried something totally new for this piece, and that was to dye my fabric. I usually stitch on 18 or 22ct fabric and my color options are pretty limited (always white, basically). Rather than try to find royal blue 22ct anywhere, I got some dye and did it myself. It turned out beautifully with only a couple of weird dye spots, and I am definitely going to dye fabric in the future. Of course, I had way too many issues while stitching but I fought through it and was able to do all 2626 stitches in two evenings.



and because I'm insanely proud of the back


The pattern for this stitch can be found on the Subversive Cross Stitch website. It's a pretty big project and I have no idea how I managed to do it all so quickly.

But yes, a very delayed post on something that ended two weeks ago, but I hope you think it was worth the wait!

Crafty Monday: WoCroStiMo Update

I was going to write a long post about multi-tasking, but I'm just too busy right now! I had to work later today and I'm all sorts of behind in everything, so I'm just going to post the update and get on with my evening.

For WoCroStiMo I should be at 7500 today and I am at 7875! YES! I'm still on schedule, so I don't need to worry until tomorrow (which I will be since I have etsy orders and my video to do tomorrow). I would post a photo, but it's actually starting to look like something, and I don't want any pictures floating around that might spoil my partner in this swap. But yes, back to work!

Crafty Monday: WoCroStiMo Day 8

I am now 8 days into WoCroStiMo and going strong! In order to make my goal of 15,000 stitches, I will need to do 500 stitches per day.

Current cross stitch project on Saturday with 2867 stitches done


At the time of writing (Sunday night, since I won't have time on actual Monday), I have 4,419 stitches done. Only 81 stitches until I make my goal for Tuesday (which will be helpful since Talk to me Tuesday videos take time). The best thing though, is that this month includes a lot of time off from work. The 11th is Veterans day, and I get that day off. Thanksgiving is also coming up, so I'll have time off for that. If I keep up the same pace, then I should make the deadline. I just wish it were the weekend already. :P

Crafty Monday: WoCroStiMo

meant to write and post this yesterday, my bad

As many of you know, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) started yesterday and people have been furiously typing away at their computers since (the real procrastination won’t begin for at least another day or so). For the last two years I’ve participated and won NaNo, but I decided not to do it this year. I simply do not have enough time with my new long work schedule, weekly videos, internetting, making music, and of course WoCroStiMo.

WoCroStiMo? No, it isn’t Judoon for something dirty, it’s World Cross Stitching Month! I do like the idea of participating in a big project in November (last year I did NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month) and I have too much stitching to do, I figured I could make it into a fun activity where I don’t have to be alone!

WoCroStiMo is slightly different than NaNo. If you participate in NaNo the main goal is 50k no matter what. That is not the case with WoCroStiMo. While I think we’d all love to be able to stitch 50,000 stitches in a month, we know it is basically impossible (you would need to stitch over 1500 stitches per day, if you can do that, I say go for it!). On my speediest project I only was able to do 1000 stitches a day, and I was stitching constantly.

If you’d like to participate, set a goal. It should be a high number; higher than you think you have time for. If you only stitch about 1000 stitches in a month, go for 1500 or even 2000! With my new work schedule and all of the stuff I need to be doing, I’m setting a goal of 15k stitches. I’m currently participating in the Phat Quarter OMG! The Horror Swap, and the pattern I created is around 13,000 stitches. If you watch my Talk to me Tuesday videos and have seen the progress of my giant DH stitch over the last two months, that is about 17k stitches.

So yes, I may be crazy, but I encourage you to be crazy with me and set your own WoCroStiMo goals! And to everyone that does embroidery, quilting, scrapping, crochet, and knitting – feel free to make your own anagram, crafty goals, and get to it! You know your own work and how long it can take you to do it, so estimate what you think is a formidable goal and start working towards it. Personally, I can’t wait
for my work day to be over so I can start stitching!

Crafty Monday: it's to dye for!

Anyone who knows me is familiar with my t-shirt obsession. I have a closet full of black t-shirts and a growing number of funky art shirts from Teefury, a site known for selling one shirt a day and then never selling it again. An irresistible day on the site is the day they do the grab bag. With the grab bag you can purchase a shirt for only $5; the only catch is that while you can choose the size, you have no control over which shirt you get.

This is both good and bad. I've gotten shirts that I love, some shirts that I grew to love, and a few that I didn't like. The most often course of action with designs I didn't care for is to give them to a family member who loves the design. My most recent grab bag I got had a design that I loved, but the shirt color was white. Since I do not wear white I knew the only solution was to dye the shirt. Below are before, during, and after shots. You can also see my post on the teefury forum (which has been made into a sticky!! This is very exciting for me, lol).

Crafty Monday: Tree Trimmings

I'm a big fan of procrastination. It's just one of those lovely things I do. I like to wait until the very last minute to get anything done. This project is kind of like that. In my recent TTMT, Challenging Myself, I challenged myself to finish the top of the Tree Trimming pattern (available at Sewhooked) by Tuesday. Not only did I finish the top, I finished the whole thing!

I'm insanely proud of it and myself, and I adore the colors. I'm not a big fan of x-mas (except my own family's celebrations) or the decorations, so this is a nice alternative to a tree because when I live by myself there is no way I'll ever buy one.








Also, note of squee - I am featured in a post on MrXStitch.com today! :D

Crafty Monday: Phat Quarter Movie Swap

I just realized I forgot to post last week's ttmt on this blog, you can see it here or wait for the next TTMT which will have both videos.

I love swaps. I was never much of a swappy person, but once the Phat Quarter Flickr Group started having them, I became addicted. I love having embroidery, cross stitch, and all sorts of lovely fiber crafts as decorations. In the past I participated in the NSFW Swap and the Comic Swap, so it was a no-brainer to sign up for the Movie Swap (anyone familiar with the Phat Quarter would notice that I didn't mention the Zen Swap, I couldn't think of anything to make for it so I didn't sign up).

One of the best things about the Phat Quarter swaps is the fact that there is a broad theme and each person can do whatever they wish with it. Everyone has their own style and their own interpretation of the theme. For the movie swap, the possibilities were endless. I have a deep and intense love for movies, so I've already done several movie related projects. No, really, these are just the stitchy things; I didn't even post purses or stenciled things or books that are also movies.





For the swap I chose to do a stitch of one of my most favorite movies of all time (it was hard, because I have about 30 most favorite movies of all time): Party Monster. Party Monster is an amazing movie. If you haven't heard of it, you can watch the trailer here. In the scene I stitched, Seth Green plays James St. James who is dressed as a Troll for a talk show. I spoke about this stitch in a past Talk to me Tuesday video, but here are the stats: 5x4 on 22 ct, 31 colors, 8748 stitches. I was actually pretty sad it send it on its way because it turned out better than I expected. I made it for Carrie_76 and she wrote a post about it.





This weekend I received my piece from miaumau and could not be more excited about it. She asked me if it was okay if she posted the photo before I got it and I said that was fine. I'm really glad she did post it, because it gave me time to watch the movie. Her inspiration was My Neighbor Totoro, a modern classic that was made in 1988 and re-released by Disney in 1993. Because I basically live on the internet, I couldn't miss seeing Totoro everywhere, but I had never watched the movie. Since I would be getting a piece from the movie in the mail I watched it...and it was amazing.

I am not a big fan of cartoons or Disney, but this movie blew me away. I think a large part of what made it so touching to me was the fact that the girls were able to escape into a bit of fantasy while their mother was in the hospital. I believe I mentioned last week that my mom was in the hospital, and watching the movie during that time was good. I loved Totoro, and I love this piece. Thank you miaumau!!

Crafty Monday: Nerding it up, food style

While the last week has been really fun (my sister Kandi's family was visiting), the last few days have been awful. My mom, who blogs about her experiences with Lupus here, was admitted to the hospital on Saturday the 4th and checked herself out today AMA (I'm sure once she can get out of the bed she'll be blogging about her diagnoses, the treatment she got, and her reasons for checking herself out of the hospital. I don't want to stick my foot in my mouth or get any details wrong so I won't be talking about it here).

The house has been pretty tense and quiet, so yesterday my brother and I decided to marathon The Big Bang Theory and toast some marshmallows. Of course, we are nerds, so instead of using a microwave, oven, or a normal fire, we used the crème brûlée torch (we had just had crème brûlée the night before, so it had recently been filled up). We had delicious giant marshmallows and had a bit of fun.







and a video, just for fun

Crafty Monday: RNGG Contest Entry

image made by me

So this week I've been relaxing (see: lazy), and one of the things I wanted to accomplish was making my entry for the Robot, Ninja, and Gay Guy video contest. RNGG is a really funny series on youtube, and I think the actors and creators are doing a great job. So last week when a contest was announced, I knew I wanted to participate in it. The object of the contest was to create a video of some sort that used the episodes of RNGG in some way. I knew what I wanted to do within 5 seconds: use the audio from the Twilight trailer with video from the show.

I'm a Twilight fan (the books, not the movies), so I'd only seen the trailer once before. After working on this video, I never ever have to see it again because I know it by heart. About 7 or so hours of work went into making this, and I'm still not 100% pleased (I don't know why, but some of the clips weren't widescreen? It bugs me, but there's no way I'm going to go through and fix them now). It turned out pretty neat anyway, so please watch and enjoy! :D

Crafty Monday: This is Handmade

I think I'm going to start another Tumblr blog and all it's going to be is 5 minute videos of me or other people weaving, knitting, spinning, embroidering, sewing... whatever. If you can't sit through 5 minutes of mind-numbingly boring ass handwork, then you don't get to whine about how much it costs. Because we have to do this shit for hours and hours and hours and hours. Not even like 6 hours, more like 50 to 100+ hours. And really, it's just as boring for me as it is for the viewer. It really is. - Penny Nickels

This post was published months and months ago, but I thought it was an amazing idea. Two months after seeing the video, I recorded my own five minutes, and then another two months after that I uploaded the video.



Can't make it through mine? I don't blame you! Want to see other examples of super tedious artistry? Of course you do!

This is Handmade

Record yours today and submit it! Penny Nickels has one! And so does Jennifer Ofenstein, and Gigglymama! I know you want to be one of the cool kids!

Click here to see the full post about this awesome project including video rules and how to submit.

Crafty Monday: First Corn

Everything you never wanted to know about First Corn!

I'm going to tell you a story that has spawned some awesome crafts made by friends of mine (sadly, I haven't made any because I suck). This is the story of First Corn and the most awesome vacation I've ever had. It was August 2008 and I was at Terminus, a Harry Potter symposium taking place in Chicago. As is the case with Harry Potter conferences, everyone was a bit silly and totally able to be themselves because they were around fellow Potter-fiends. With nothing else to do, Victor, Laci, Jenn, and I wandered into one of the "Craftable" activities to see what was going on. The current project was, "Make a Magical Feast." Victor was making corn and asked the question that changed the entire rest of the con for us.

"Did you guys ever play First Corn when you were younger?"

We all said that we had never played it and asked Victor to explain. He told us that First Corn was played like this: Corn is ingested during a meal, and one person challenges the other to a game of First Corn. The first person to pass the corn is the winner.

It all went crazy from there. We adopted corn names (I became First Corn, Jenn was Second Corn, Laci was Epic Corn, and Victor was Original Corn), we were Corn Eaters and drew Corn Marks on our arms (like a Dark Mark of the Death Eaters), and we told everyone about First Corn (The first rule of First Corn is that you tell everyone about First Corn).




As is the case with crafty people, it was only inevitable that there would be corn crafts, and in the last month I have been gifted with two insanely awesome corn-related pieces.

Laci's first cross stitch



Made for me by Sasha, aka Internets Corn



Made for me by Jenn




I love corn!

taken while visiting Jenn in Ohio at the end of May

Crafty Monday: Dalek Victory Propaganda Poster

I got home from the airport around 2am last night, so I wasn't able to make my Monday post on Monday. It is worth the wait though...

My friend Jenn, who was the one who convinced me to start watching Doctor Who, sent me this image, and I couldn't help but want to cross stitch it. I've already stitched one propaganda poster (see my luigi largo stitch here), and it is fun to realize how much I adore them.






Lots of people requested the pattern for this, so as soon as I got home I uploaded the pattern and the information for it. :D

Crafty Monday: Printed Fabric

I really love embroidery, but the fact of the matter is, I'm horrible at transferring designs to the fabric. It's just like this video of stupid people in infomercials. I accidentally eat the carbon transfer paper, my face is doodled on with the embroidery markers and pens à la Liar, Liar, and I somehow iron a pattern transfer onto the ironing board rather than my fabric. Seriously, I'm at that point, so a little help is more than welcome.

One of my current favorite ways to embroidery is to print a photo and what I want to embroider directly on the fabric. I've been printing on fabric for a few years thanks to this tutorial on instructables, and have actually broken two printers because I just had to print a couple of 5 foot scrolls (I should have learned my lesson after the first one, but it was a couple of years later and I forgot). The first time I used this technique for embroidery was for the Shut Up Woman Get On My Horse post.

I thought I would share a quick tutorial/process of making one of these super easy embroidery pieces. First of all, I choose my image. I'm majorly into Doctor Who right now, so the TARDIS was a natural choice.



I was suffering a major creative block, so I went with the first thing I could think of, "Fantastic!" and put the text in. I used the font Assiduous (aka - the Doctor Who font) in an outliney way to make it easier for embroidering



Now that I've got the image I want, now it's time to gather the supplies. For this project you'll need:

• Freezer Paper
  
• Fabric
  
• Felt
  
• A sheet of paper
  
• An embroidery hoop
  
• Embroidery floss & needle
  
• Scissors (I used both my normal cutting scissors and my stitch scissors)
  
• Hoop for holding the project (I use Q-Snaps)
  
• Tacky glue

Next comes the parts in the instructables tutorial. Cut your freezer paper the size of a normal sheet of paper, iron the shiny side to a piece of fabric, trim as needed, and put it in your printer. Make sure that the fabric is the side you'll be printing on.



So you're all ready for printing. I've made a couple of these before, so I know roughly what size I need. The project will be put into a 5" hoop when it's done, so I printed it slightly under that size. If you aren't sure and don't want to waste fabric, just print the image (Tip: grayscale will save ink!) on a piece of paper and hold your hoop over it to see how the image will look.



Here is my design straight out of the printer



Remove the freezer paper and hoop the fabric. You're ready to stitch!



If you're using a very thin fabric like I do, the appearance will look kind of wonky until you get it into the tight hoop.



To provide a nice bit of backing to hide the back of your project, you can cut out a circle of felt to stick in the back. I just put the hoop over the felt, draw a circle, and cut the circle out.



Place your fabric into the embroidery hoop and place it how you want. Tighten the hoop as much as you can without causing too much strain on it.



Flip it over and trim the excess fabric, leaving about 1/2" all around. Add the felt circle during this time.



Get out the tacky glue and start gluing! Spread the glue over the hoop and start folding the fabric down.



Turn it over and you're done!






Here are a few of my other projects using the same technique: