Snow White Makes Her Debut

I have been working a little on Snow White, I promise. It is just really slow going during the summer. I am proud though that I have been working on it at all, and I am happy that my stitchy bug is just on his off season and not dead. :) Anyway, here I was last time:

And here I am now:

I'm sorry the 2nd picture is so, so blurry. The point-and-shoot camera I usually use is officially not working any more so I had to do it with another camera I have that does not have a flash or the 'no shaky' feature. It's a great camera for outside and underwater (since it's waterproof), and it takes good video, but the indoors photo-taking is not so good. It also doesn't have a macro setting, which is what I always used with the other camera.

Anyway, as you can I see I started on the rocks by the waterfall and did Snow White's hair and her cape. I actually took this photo a few days ago and have done just a little on her skirt now, too, so I think I will go ahead and finish her up before I move on. It's weird because I left the characters until almost the very end on Beauty and the Beast, and now on this one Snow will be done really early on! There are lots of other elements that I am excited for though, so it's all good. 

In other areas of my life, I have been working out for several months now and not seeing the results I wanted to so that's been frustrating. I could tell I was getting stronger, but I weigh as much now as I did 2 weeks after having my son, which means I have actually gained weight in the last few months. Frustrating. So I decided to work harder. This week I have added jump rope to all of my workouts, and it is HARD! I am getting better at not messing up but in a way that makes it harder because I don't get as many mini-breaks while I re-set the rope lol. It's nice though because I can do this inside. I used to 'run' but I HATED running when it was really hot or really cold out, so I never kept with it for very long. And this way I get to do intervals of jump rope mixed with strength training and what-have-you. I am excited, hopefully in the next 6-10 weeks I will be seeing more of what I want to see. 

Also, I am going to go to my first ever Anime Convention in a few weeks! I have some friends that are going and I said, what the heck, let's do this! So I am going to go as Katara, she's the Water Bender from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I have to start figuring out my costume, so I have been looking at pictures all morning to get an idea of what I need. Nerdy-excited about it! 

Alright, that's enough for today. Keep on stitching, I have to keep reminding myself that every stitch counts! :)

A Win at the County Fair!

Waaaaay back around the midway point of Beauty and the Beast, I got the crazy idea that I could maybe enter it into the fair when it was all done. I have never entered anything into any sort of contest, but I figured that Beauty and the Beast might just be worthy. I didn't get it finished in time for the fair that year, but I did get it finished in time for this year's fair. I almost missed the deadline to enter it, but thankfully they allowed me to still enter it with a $5 late fee.

The judging for our fair is open, which means they have chairs set up for people to watch the whole process.  It was really interesting to see how they score, exactly what they are looking for, and how closely they really do look at the pieces. The judges don't know who stitched each piece, and it was fun when they pulled out B&B to see them say 'Oh my gosh look at all of those stitches! Oh! Look at this over here! Would you look at all of those french knots? They are so even! OH! Look at the rose!' and just to see their reaction to the overall piece :) I made the right decision entering it for sure. One judge said, 'I know we don't usually give bonus points for kits, but this is such detailed, intricate work, and she did such a good job, can we give her bonus points for it?' The point that I lost on my score sheet had to do with the framing - they said it was very square and centered in the frame, but it doesn't look quite as flush up against the backing as it could be in some areas. I guess if I were to put a piece of light batting behind that it would help to mask some of the areas with lots of thread on the back.

Anyway, overall, here is how I did:

I took first place in my class (medium-size wall hangings), won Reserve Champion (2nd place) in overall counted work, and received a Special Award for Outstanding Work on 18 count or smaller :) Woo hooooo! And I think, after looking at a lot of what was entered in the Needlework area, that I am going to enter a few items next year, too. I don't know if I will have Snow White finished in time or not (maybe!), but I want to make a biscornu, and do a flour sack towel or something with other embroidery stitches. My mom said she is going to maybe enter something into machine work (she makes the CUTEST kids clothes for her grandkids!) and my mother-in-law said she might enter something in machine work, and possibly a baked good, too. 

It was just such a neat experience, and I encourage everyone to enter something you finish in the next year into your county fair. It would be great to see lots of awards for you all!

Life Happens!

So, my stitchy bug is not gone, he has just made room for a few other things in my life right now. Let's see, since my last update, my son also had chicken pox (way worse than his sister's), I played at a wedding, we had the 4th of July, and my hubby has not had as much side work as he did for a while there. He doesn't like to be at home for long periods of time (usually about 12-18 hours is enough for him), so he always wants to be out doing things. It means I don't quite get the time to just be home and stitch as much as I was. My 10 year high school reunion is also in just a few weeks, so I have been trying to lose a little bit of weight. Not much, just a little. I think it's going well, not sure what the scale says but I feel like I look better and I know I am stronger, so it's all good.

Anyway, last time I updated here was Snow White:

And here it is now:

I have reached the bottom of the piece! I know it's kind of a silly way to work across it, but I don't really mind going between pattern pages and this is the way it fits on my scroll frame. You can see the deer and just to the right of the deer is where Snow White will make her appearance. Lots of green and brown in my future, as the path is next to be stitched on the bottom. I know I have slowed way down, but I am still making progress, right? 

Save the Stitches Update

So I took the week off from working on Snow White so that I could actually get a little done on something else. This week I decided to work on my Blackwork Sampler - It's called Save the Stitches and it is by Elizabeth Almond. It is a free pattern available on her website, blackworkjourney.co.uk. I am doing mine in blues, because I love how a deep blue looks on white :) I was able to work on this at the EGA meeting this week, which was fun.

Here was my last update:

And here is where it is today:

The blackwork stitches up so much faster than cross stitches do, and it's fun to figure out a good way to work across the pattern. I had a lot of fun with this, but I think I am ready to go back to Snow White this week. :) 

Week 4 Snow White

My daughter had the chicken pox last week, so we were stuck at home basically the entire time to quarantine her. This was a bummer but I got a lot of stitching done. She got a ton of spots and had about 2 days where she was in pain, but now it is over and she never has to do it again. Next up is my little boy, I'm sure. It's only a matter of time until he gets them, but we found that covering them in calamine lotion really helps.
For my stitching, I worked on Snow White this week (surprise, surprise!). I know, I know, I need to work on something other than Snow White. It's probably boring for all of you to see updates on just this one, but I am really enjoying working on it, so why not keep going, right? Here is my 4th week progress on this one:

Last Week:

And this week:

I have reached the bottom of the tree! And deer is starting to come it, too. Also, to the right of the base of the tree is part of the outline for Snow White herself :) I didn't realize that the french knots add basically ALL of the color in this piece - most of where the flowers are starts off as just greens, so there is a good chance it could be kind of boring for a while. Hopefully it will go quickly though with fewer color changes, and it means that the french knots will really bring a lot of life to the piece when it is time. :)

I love, love, love working on this piece, but I think I will take this week and work on something else. It will make me all the happier to come back to this one next week. 

I love reading everyone else's blogs! Happy stitching!

Beauty and the Beast is Framed!

Guess what just came back from the framer? Woot woot! I am so excited!

The picture doesn't do it justice. It is so pretty in person! Totally worth it, even though the hubby wants a go at the next one to see if we can do it a little cheaper... :)

Week 3 Snow White

Not too many pictures or anything to show this week, just progress on Snow White. Here it was last week:

And here it is this week:

Lots more tree trunk to show this week. I feel like it's going suuuuuper slow, even though I get a decent amount of stitching time in. I think I am just a slow stitcher, and it doesn't help that I am being overly careful about making sure the top threads don't twist. I am just getting more picky. I did pass the halfway mark on the left side though, so that's pretty awesome. Most of the WIPs of this I have seen are mostly just the top left page. Because of the way it is on my scroll frame, I am going to work the entire height of the piece from left to right. 

I did get a good amount of stitching time in, but not quite as much as I wanted to. My husband didn't work his side job this week which mean he was home for a 4 day weekend, and he doesn't like to just be at home. He wants to be OUT and DOING THINGS, even if those things are just going to his parents' house and hanging out there for 8-10 hours. Lol he is silly, but because I don't like to really bring this one out of the house (could get dirty, so many floss colors, etc), I don't get to work on it while we are otherwise un-engaged at the in-laws. No biggie, progress is progress, right? :) And I have been able to work on Count the Stars (do you even remember that one?) bits at a time while we are there. I don't have a picture to show this week though. Bummer. 

Welp, till next week, have fun stitching!