A Sparkly Happy Dance!

This is an exchange item, sparkly, small... like a little jewel, and I am very, very pleased with it. But, as it is an exchange item, you will only get a teaser.

And yes, this is yet another design of mine. First design which has used this amount of sparkle and I am really surprised it turned out this well.

A Happy Dance! O.o

Yes, unbelievable, I know. o.O

It's a model for... well, I won't tell, but still, it is a model of a wintery ornament.

I know that the colour scheme is quite far from traditional, but I kind of like how it turned out. ^^

Now I just need to finish it.

I have been stitching, but as they are models I can't show you anything, except the regular teaser.

As I have been commuting around lately they have been great projects to take with me as they are small and monochromatic - though I have to get another needle minder, I managed to lose yet another needle while I was sitting in the bus in Thursday.

My brother and his kids (they had been travelling all around Southern Finland to see both our parents' cabins, see some relatives etc. - obviously he's enjoying his life now that they are separated with his soon-to-be-ex-wife) came to visit my parents this week and when they came to my mother (in Wednesday) I decided to go to see them (it was also a great excuse to go to Helsinki and find myself new cafetiére (I broke the jug of the old one)). Surprisingly it was not a disaster so I ended up staying over night at my mother's.

And in coming week we'll head to our mother's cabin with bits_2_whole, our mother and our altogether nine cats.
This means that there will be pictures after that and also short gap in blogging - one of those I have had lately - between 19th and 22nd of June.
It's Midsummer weekend and in here people often run away from the life to their cabins (or rented ones).

Before that I see some incoming stash and entries about that... I have three stash-y parcels on their way... as a birthday gift from myself for myself (aren't I so thoughtful? *grin*).

*gasp* A happy dance

Noticing how small the piece is it's amazing how many days I stitched it, but it's finally stitched, now I only need to finish it, which will be rather quick (and remember to add the ribbon to it as one of the definitions of the piece was that it has to be "hangable").
As you know I am not huge fan of pink, but these dusky rose shades looked quite lovely together so I went with the colour scheme.

Teaser, of course, as you never know who reads your blog, right?

Itsy bitsy teenie weenie over one happy dance

Of a complimentary design (for Mothers' Day) published soon. I just want to give it to my mother before I publish it so it won't be available before 5th of April or so.

One could say that it is somewhat art nouveau-ish, but that's all for now.

Ewe's a happy dance!

Har har.

Regardless, a teaser of the Here's to Ewe exchange piece:

The picture is taken while I was still stitching the piece and I am not going to tell you is it the right side up or not...

It is stitched on 40 count Newcastle linen (which I dyed last summer) with GASTs, and the colours in the piece make it quite springlike. I am still pondering over the finishing, maybe a pillow or a modified mattress finishing... regardless what I decide I need more polyester filling.

And some stitchy content with SBQ

Happy dance №7

And as shocking it is I may have the designs ready to be emailed to Jenna day after tomorrow latest... O_o (Remember, the next launch is in Valentine's Day!)

And I still suffer from insomnia caused by creative activity, no matter how much I wanted to sleep - and it shows in my peak flows, last two mornings have been bad in comparison to the previous week. I wouldn't wonder if the doctor would want to check my medication and either up the dosage or change the cortisone completely.
Though, last night's streak was quite a pleasant one (started from one tiny motif I had in my head and evolved to a pile of sketches).

But to the regularly scheduled memesy: this week's

Stitching Bloggers' Question

was suggested by Kathryn and is:

Are there other crafts that you have tried and abandoned? Why do you like stitching better?

I used to be a knitter in my teens and I actually wanted to become a knitted garment designer when I was young. (Well, I became an artisan of textile designing and manufacturing, but majored in weaves and weaving techniques, and ten years later begun to use my skills for good in form of cross stitch designing...)
Nowadays my issue with knitting is that... I have became very easily bored and I always had issues with not being able to make anything too detailed with knitting needles, no matter how small.
In theory I do still like knitting and would like to do it more often, but those tiny crosses just seem to be more suitable to my anal character...

Happy Dance № 6

Fifth model done! (This time a nice foggy teaser...) And I can say that it was done in January as I am still living in January.

While stitching it came to remind me of one person on my P-I-F list (I am so behind....) and therefore it will be moving out right after I get it done, photographed and stitched a tiny something to accompany it.

Happy Dance #48

...even though this is only a stitching happy dance (finishing will follow when I remember to take some fabric with me from home):

But, as it is Linda's bourse and an unpublished design I give you only a teaser...

*gasp* Heaven and Earth Designs has freebies! O_o
I found it out by accident while looking for Sunfire (which I intend to buy in my next stash splurge). In addition to that I think I need few more from the Cats section: Sisters Under The Sun, Old King Cole, Two Of Wands and Fantavisions (though I'd probably stitch only the right side).

Anyway, I have spent my morning looking for interesting degree programmes to apply to and ended up digging out old application exams of business economics... which seem to be desperately easy (multiple choices (based on information acquired from reference material) mostly).
Easy is a real turn-off I must admit, though that is why I plan to study in English - to make it less easy, not to forget that it makes it easier to leave the country... You could kind of say that I am not very patriotic.

Afternoon was spent productively stitching personalization for Halloween Exchange item. It only lacks finishing which I can do on some slow evening.
And for your viewing pleasure, a teaser:

Those eyes look very disturbing on the shot for some odd reason... It's actually rather cute piece, though some people might disagree as it has quite a few spiders.

HD #30

Spite of having nasty sinus (head) ache I look like this as I had another HD...

Now I only need to stitch rest of the itsybitsies, finish both sets, and this model, and we are ready to roll for the next launch.
I am actually rather impressed by my speed, noticing my current health issues. But it's all good, as there's always something more to do.

Another Happy Dance

If I had been my normal self this would have been stitched days ago, but, nevertheless, we have a happy dance.

Now... I probably will head to take a nap and after it I really need to concentrate on the Monochromatic Exchange as the official mailing date was today and I haven't even finished it yet.
Which is understandable, noticing how sleepy I have been lately... For some reason this would be easier to cope with if it was in my psyche and not in my physique because when my psyche is healthy and my body fails I get really frustrated.

Sign of healthy psyche

... I adore my latest user picture.
Or maybe it is a sign of an unhealthy psyche, adoring yourself.

Double HD

 

Her Highness has been general PITA today so these took quite a bit longer to finish than I anticipated, but now they are done and waiting to be photographed and finished in file level.

Itsy bitsy teeney weeney little pol... Happy dance

Exactly 3,4 cm x 3,4 cm (1.35'' x1.35'') worth of secret happy dance.

You will meet this little thing soon, so stay tuned.
Silly thing in that project was that I accidentally stitched it with two strands on 40 count, which I have never done before (used two strands, that is) and it is not too bulky. It actually looks good: stitches are full and pop out wonderfully from the fabric.

In other news: I noticed that I had started my Monochromatic Exchange piece from wrong place so I had to restart it, but despite that "minor" mishap I am about half done with it after only one evening's stitching. I think it will turn out beautiful (and very springy/ summery, which is very appropriate noticing its send out date (May 14th)) unless I manage to mess up with its finishing.

Periphaeria is now almost ready for May launch, designs (four) are ready and sent to print couple of days ago. Now I only need to write them their individual pages, make a sketch of May newsletter and... we are ready to roll.

Now... I should prepare my RR logbook, pack the dragon with it and prepare my Mystery Exchange partner's parcel to go tomorrow. I am sure she will love it, I am very happy with how it turned out.

ETA 21:05 :

1., 4., 6. and 10. ^^

Two skeins and quite some hours later...

...we have nice pile of thread clippings and a happy dance.
This time for a design which is actually distantly related to Ring of Roses series, but is an individual piece.

Only model left to stitch for May. Though, I need to decide do I want to go with the design I originally intended to stitch next or do I go with something else.
Honestly speaking... I am, once again, getting exhausted with all the models... but still I love this.

And there's actual WIP coming tomorrow (today) as it is RR day.

And the Official Quote

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main..."
-- John Donne

SAT HD

This is what is left from full skein of DMC's 221 after this particular model. I'll need some of it for the finishing, so there won't be much left when $ITEM is finished.

Admittedly the model is a bit different than the published design will be as I noticed while stitching that one part of the design was a bit misplaced. (Fortunately it doesn't show even when you know about it.) In the end the correction is just to move part of the design two stitches to the right.

At least this piece is unique.

Models, problems and a happy dance.

While model stitching I begun to think of something... I haven't heard back from that designer to whom I was to model stitch, even she said she'll contact me in the beginning of this year. I am not going to contact her, I already did it once when I begun to wonder where she has got to as I hadn't got that email she promised to send in October.
And she lost one possible customer in me as I don't want to do business with someone who has that much interest of practical aspects of this industry - or her own possible model stitchers.
If I ever hear from her again I have to decline because I don't have time for that any more... because I model stitch for myself.... Now, when I finally have time for it from designing.

Last two weeks have been crazy in that sense: I have spent dreadful amounts of time every day with my software, and have stitched only a bit.

And apparently my software has got so attached to me that while I was away yesterday, meeting some new people (not so new, but I just had never met them in person before) it lost my default font (which is also the font provided by the software). (It was still in my Fonts folder, but it had got corrupted.)
You can guess that when I came home and wanted to do something I got pile of nice errors and was unable to do anything at all... after panicking a while I did only thing desperate person can do: reinstalled it over the old configuration. And happily designed again (I didn't even need to retype my unlocking key due overwriting the old install without uninstalling it first). Fortunately.

Happy Dancing

One model, itsy bitsy thingy, stitched over one is now finished. And... it looks great! I am getting quite good in the finishing, and selected finishing method it just the right one for this design.

But, due my Copycat Annoyance Program, no pictures, but a toss of the materials.

Now, one chunk of lamb in the oven, some coffee for me and then I'll continue with another model I started few days ago.