Floss · Storage

My Floss Storage

My Time Stitching46 Comments

I was pulling threads for my next project and realized that I never shared where I store my skeins of floss.  DMC cabinet

I think that Hubby ordered this for me back in 1998.  It is a limited edition DMC floss cabinet.  I have number 1386 of 2000 made in 1999.  I remember it took a long time to get as they were ordered in advance and made after ordering.  It’s in my living room, so it is a little scratched up from 2 boys and their toys over the years.  But I love it!  I have patterns to stitch panels for the doors that will have my initials on them.  I just haven’t gotten to yet.  I’ve liked the wood doors for years, and only this last year dug out the patterns to do in the near future.  Here is what it looks like when I open the doors:

dmc cabinet open

It has 13 drawers and the first 12 drawers are numbered with dmc floss numbers. The drawers have sections in the front and back for the floss.

close of dmc cabinet drawers

dmc drawer

Whenever I need floss for a project, I usually check my boxes of bobbins first and then pull the threads that I need from here.  I make a list of what is empty and the next time I go to Joannes or Michaels I pick up the colors and replace them.  I have noticed that some of my floss skeins are really old and a slightly different color than a newer skein.  I hope I pay attention to this when I want to use those colors on a project and make sure that I don’t use them together.  I love my floss cabinet.  It’s so fun to open a drawer and see all the beautiful colors.  The bottom drawer is my “junk drawer” of the cabinet.  It’s full of black and white floss and duplicate skeins.  I also store all of my needles, small scissors and some varigated floss in there.  Where do you store you embroidery floss?

DMC logo plate

Fabric · Mermaids

Emerald is Getting Beaded

My Time Stitching11 Comments

I’m about half way through beading Emerald Mermaid.  She is looking awesome!

Beading Emerald

I should be finished with her this week.  She really has a lot of beads on her.  But the more beads, the more sparkle 🙂  When I finish her, it will be time to start my Asian design for the Joan Eliott Round Robin.  I received my fabric from Stephanie on Saturday. It was a long time trying to get what I wanted.  Stephanie worked really hard to make me happy.  Here is what she came up with:

Mocha Delight

It is 28 ct Jobelan Mocha Delight.  There isn’t a lot of color variations in the fabric but the color is really going to make my Geisha girls pop as well as the cherry blossoms I intend to put on my layout.  I will post a picture when I get it stitched and ready to go.  Thank you Stephanie for taking the time to make me happy 🙂

Uncategorized

A Chance to Win Some Goodies

My Time StitchingLeave a comment

Good morning.  I don’t have any stitchy stuff to share at the moment, but I do have some info on a blog give-away.  My friend Karen, over at My Stitchy Ramblings is celebrating on getting 100 followers.  She has some awesome prizes you can try to win.  But you have to go to her website here to get in on the drawing.

Fabric · New stash! · Pillows · Uncategorized

Some Pillows and some new stash

My Time Stitching5 Comments

Today I realized that I never posted my February Pillow.  In fact, I never put it out 😦  So in putting January pillow away and getting out the March pillow, I took some pictures.

February pillow

The February pillow case, no pillow in it.

March Pillow

The March Pillow.  I love all the blues and greens.  Makes me thing Spring!  Is it here yet?  Kind of felt like it today.  Sunny and in the low 40’s.  Beautiful! Now onto some new stash I received this week.  First some goodies from a very sweet friend:

Goodies from Johanna

The latest Just Cross Stitch magazine and some of the limited edition DMC floss.  I love all the shades of blue in this floss.  The magazine has a cute teapot design in it.  Johanna knows I love tea pots.  Here is the tea pot.

teapot in magazine

Very cute and springy.  I love the colors in this one.  It will be added to my long list of projects to do 🙂  Thank you Johanna.  You are so sweet to think of me.

Next I have some more of Stephanie’s fabrics.  This first batch I received on Tuesday:

Stephys fabbies

The top left is Bliss, next to that is Twixt N Tween, under Bliss is Orange/tan, next to that is Turquoise, and on the bottom is Banshee.  All are 16 ct Aida except for the Orange/tan-that is 28ct Lugana.  They are all just beautiful.  And on Thursday, I received these:

More Stephanie fabrics

Regular Banshee on top and Banshee Brown on the bottom.  They are both beautiful and Banshee Brown is awesome!  It is what I want for my Asian JE Round Robin!  Both of these are 16ct Aida.  Stephanie is in the process of making me the Banshee Brown in 28ct Lugana for my RR.  I can’t wait to get the fabric and get started on my layout.

So it’s been a good week with lots of fun stitchy stuffs to add to my stash.  Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to:)

Mermaids

Emerald Update

My Time Stitching2 Comments

Here is my progress on Emerald as of last night:

progress on Emerald Mermaid 2

Sorry I didn’t get back the other day to post a pic.  I am almost finished the stitching on her. I hope to get most if not all done tonight.  Then I can start the beading.  Then she will really start to come alive and sparkle.  Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to.

Fabric · New stash!

NEW MERMAID STASH!

My Time StitchingLeave a comment

I have to share some new stitchy stuff I received in the mail today:

Mermaid stash and fabric

Stitches N Things called me yesterday to say that all of beads, treasures, pattern and fabric were in.  They mailed and I received today!  They are so good to me 🙂  The pattern is Siren and the Shipwreck by Mirabilia and I will tell you that I just want to get started on her right now!  But I can’t.  I have to finish Emerald and then I have to get my next Round Robin going.  More about that in a minute.  The fabric above is Sea Lily in 16ct Aida.  Since I have not been having a lot of luck with the hand dyed fabrics, I have decided to stick with the solid Aida for Siren.  I may change my mind by the time I get ready to start stitching her, but for now that is the plan .  There are some other pretty beads that the pattern calls for, but they are already in my stash.

Here is what I received in the mail onMonday:

New fabric from Stephanie

Four hand dyed fabrics from Stephanie. Top left is Iris, next to that is Bliss.  On the bottom left is Brigid, and next to that is Twixt N Tween.  All are 16 ct Aida except the Twixt N Tween which is 28ct Lugana.  I am torn with this shipment.  Iris and Brigid dyed pretty close to what her website shows.  But Bliss is pretty much a pink fabric with very little other coloring.  I thought it would be more on the blue side with a little pink.  The most disappointing however, is the Twixt N Tween.  I purchased this in 28ct Lugana, and 26 x 36  for an upcoming Joan Elliott Round Robin that I will be participating in.  My theme is Asian and I chose Twixt N Tween because on the website it is more orangy/brownish in color.  I even viewed a few of the Geisha’s that  I want  stitched,  in the fabric viewer and they look awesome with the orangy fabric.  Perfect for Asian.  And the Black lettering and outlining of my boxes would look awesome on it.  But I don’t know if you can tell from the photo above, the fabric is mainly pink and gray.  Totally not what I wanted for my Round Robin.  So I haven’t decided what I am going to do at this point.  It is a pretty fabric, but not what I was expecting.  So…I have some decisions to make.  In the mean time, I have to finish Emerald.  I am getting close to finishing the stitching.  Come back tomorrow for a progress photo.  Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to.

Mermaids

Attack of the Frog!

My Time Stitching6 Comments

First I have to share my progress on Emerald Mermaid and then I will explain my title.  So here is where I am on Emerald since starting her on January 1, 2013:

progress on Emerald Mermaid 1

She is coming along beautifully.  I love all of the colors in her.  But this piece sure has had some challenges.  Mainly the fabric.  Here is my latest mishap with the fabric:

Attack of the frog!

Do you see that hole to the right of the frog?  Yep, the frog did it!  He is my magnet that holds my needle when I am not using it.  When I scrolled up my fabric last week to continue stitching, I forgot to move him and yes…I rolled right over him and he poked a hole right in the fabric 😦  I will take some matching thread and do some whip stitching over it and hope that it will be ok.  I think it is far enough to the right that it will be hidden behind the frame.  I want to have her framed the same exact size as Mediterranean Mermaid, but if I have to go a little smaller to hide my mistake, I will.  So, I had a visit from a frog of a different kind.  I didn’t have to tear out stitches, but I  did get a tear in my fabric.  For some reason, I am not sure I was meant  to do Emerald on this fabric.  I probably should have gone with a beautiful Hand dyed piece from Stephanie, but this is the fabric that I had originally purchased for her so I wanted to use it up.  Let’ s  see if I can get to the end without any more mishaps 🙂  Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to.

Mermaids

Mermaid has a tail!

My Time Stitching7 Comments

Time for an update on Emerald Mermaid’s progress.  I’m not as far along on her as I want to be after starting her one month ago, but at least the end of her tail is done.

Emerald Mermaid progress 2

Well, just about.  I will go back and add the beads when I am finished stitching.  But for now, she has a tail.  I love how she is turning out.  Hopefully I can put more stitches into her over the weekend.

My nails

Sandy Nails

My Time Stitching12 Comments

This morning I had my every other week manicure and I tried something new and fabulous!

liquid sand nails

This is Mariah Carey’s Liquid Sand polish by OPI.  This one is called “Can’t Let Go”. It is a matte finish polish, so no top coat. But there is a lot of  glitter in it to make up for shine.   And it feels kind of gritty, like sand. I think it’s pretty cool and I love the purple color.  There are 3 other colors in the line that I will have to try in the future.  Here is another photo:

liquid nails 2

I hope you can tell how neat looking this kind of polish is from my photo.  It’s very different but I love it!

Mermaids · WIP

Emerald Mermaid Progress

My Time Stitching10 Comments

Yesterday I celebrated my 49th birthday!  Wow, where does the time go?  I celebrated by stitching all day in my jammies 🙂  Here is what I worked on:

Progress on Emerald Mermaid

I know it doesn’t look like much, but I did a lot of confetti stitching yesterday.  Once I finish a bit more greenery, I can move on to adding to her tail.   Here is another photo along with the pattern of how she will look when I am finished; I am stitching her sideways as she is wider than my scroll frame.

Emerald Mermaid progress

I am stitching her on 16 ct Feather Blue Aida.  And I have to tell you that I have had a time with this fabric.  On the back along the bottom rod, I got this stain.  WTH? I’m thinking I must have picked her up one day to put a few stitches in while wearing my black jeans. Some of the dye must have rubbed onto the fabric while on my lap.  I’ve washed those jeans about 7 or 8 times now and the dye still seems to be coming off.  So, I took her off the scroll, washed mainly the bottom half and removed the stain.  The next morning I could see water lines where I only washed up to!  AAAACk!  So I ended up having to wash her 2 more times.  Yesterday morning she looked good as new and I was able to continue stitching on her.  I thought I was going to have to pitch her and start over.  I already had a new fabric picked out for her, too.  I will keep that fabric in mind for a future mermaid.  I would love to get this one finished in about a month.  The word out in the blogging world  is that Nora Corbett is releasing a new mermaid on February 15 and I would love to be able to have Emerald finished before I start a new mermaid.  I doubt that I can finish her in a month as I am not that fast of a stitcher, but it is good to have goals, right?