Completed Cross Stitch - Rose Calton's "Pig Pals" for Leisure Arts

Are pigs really that big of a deal around here?  Like with March 1st coming up and being National Pig Day (USA midwest) and all....

While I think about March 1st and why it has been declared a National Pig Day, I will have to piggyback this idea off of another while I put my pigs in a blanket in the oven.

I wonder if my friend will like his birthday present of "101 Manly Uses for Bacon"? I put his present down next to my books of George Orwell's Animal Farm, E.B. White's Charlotte's Web and "The Three Little Pigs"to wrap up and send to him a little later.

As I sit at the kitchen table and sip my coffee, I watch the neighbour's boys toss around the pigskin for a while. Then I go into the other room and turn on the TV for a bit and see all of Jerry Springer's guests hurl pig-phrased obscenities at each other for about a minute (which is all I can stand).

Maybe I should clean up the house so it doesn't look like a pig sty even though I'd be happier than a pig in sh*t if I didn't and just sat around and ate like a pig though.  Ah, so what if I become fat as a pig?  Later, I'll just become a guinea pig and try a new diet next month or something.

What's that loud noise outside?  Oh, it's just someone on their HOG driving by, I guess that person is living pretty high off the hog if they can afford a motorcycle like a Harley Davidson. Meh, hogwash, those motorcycles aren't that expensive I guess.

My friend 'so-and-so' is calling me and she tells me about squealing on her friend at school while she confesses that it's all really just hog slop.  She says she has to go because she has to play a DVD for her kid about Winnie the Pooh and his pal Piglet. We finish talking and after the baking is done I decide to go hog wild and buy up a lot of left over chocolate from Valentine's Day.  I changed into my Miss Piggy/Muppets sweater then put my hair up into pigtails and got into the car.

While I'm driving to the store, I start to think about "This little piggy went to market..."  I'm sitting at the light and I look over and see another car's passenger hamming it up by telling some animated story to her driver.  I drive past a billboard promoting the movie Babe with the phrase in bold letters "That'll do pig, that'll do."

After shopping, I'm waiting in line and take out my cell to watch some old Looney Tunes cartoons with Porky Pig.  And of course, like a pig in a poke I give in to a few temptations of buying some magazines without really flipping through them first. As I leave the store I thought about that outfit I saw but thought if I bought it, it would make me look like I was making a silk purse out of a sow's ear because it wasn't my style.

As I'm driving home, there is a lot of traffic because of the usual road hogs and I wanted to change into another lane but the other driver wouldn't let me in and let me know it by yelling out "in a pig's eye!"

Once home, I put my spare change in my piggy bank and see my boyfriend is completely hogging the couch because he has a touch of the swine flu and is tired from bringing home the bacon.  I'm wearing a sweater that is too hot so I'm sweating like a pig and take it off and after sitting down I realize that I just cannot figure out why March 1st is National Pig Day.  Maybe when pigs fly it will come to me.

WIP LARGE - Mirabilia's "Enchanted Mermaid"

 

 

This is my (reboot) newest gigantic WIP.  Mirabilia's "Enchanted Mermaid".  I started it in Spring, 2012 but really didn't work on it over the summer, well, because it was summer!  This is my second attempted Mirabilia piece.  The first was "Winter Queen" but I abandoned it.  The reason I gave up was that I was still more of a novice back then but have built up more experience and confidence leading up to this pattern.  This one, though, I cannot wait to see finished with all of the fancy treasure beads and seed beads, etc.  I dyed the fabric but really kept it super light though....I was afraid of ruining it.  Since I am back in University full time now, I can only limit my cross stitch time while I am listening to audiobooks for school to maximize my time.  



Completed Cross Stitch - "Seasonal Fantasies - Autumn" by Katrina Farabaugh

 

 

As a few of us begin to move from the Spring of our lives into the next season, sometimes we just start to…change and change without prior warning.  Hey!  What's up with that???

Now you may or may not be thinking that this solely relates to age but I believe that there could be more. 

Maybe the 'more' is a cross-pollination of thoughts and ideas made from your own eye and ear observations, or others’ opinions massaging and assaulting you, or your own positive and negative experiences producing a different hybrid flowering of your own perceptions. 

Or how about this: it is the accumulation of life struggles that instead looks like a savings account built by pennies of experience locked away somewhere to be drawn from at a later and more convenient time. 

But if you're more favourable to the maturity thing, I know I’ve come across several people younger and older than me that are more insightful than someone double in age from me or themselves.

It’s fascinating what triggers a transitional shift that touches off a new period of where we think we are and where we believe we are going.

Where are you in your life right now?  No, seriously, where ARE you?

Me?  It appears that my life is taking shape based on the late Charles Bukowski's prose.  I recently withdrew my application from a potential government-based position after 14 weeks into the process and remain on the cusp of finishing my degree and have 5 courses left (one full-time term).  Five doesn't sound like a lot but please believe me when I say it's the equivalent of two full-time jobs (and without pay).

Since making the firm decision of going back to university FT in 2012, please believe me when I tell you that I hit every xylophone bar of different emotions between the academic process and the strain of sacrifice for the illusion or real security of a greater good. 

The range moved back and forth from happiness, satisfaction, frustration, exasperation, feeling fed up/beat up, renewed, defeated, broken, healed, "jailed" and "on parole" (from school terms of course and not the penal system), feeling successful, feeling like a failure, satisfied, scared, euphoric, depressed, feeling invisible to feeling seen and recognized, losing self-esteem, gaining insight, and all at the same time it's as if I ran a marathon while standing still for the last few years.

During school, I lost one of my pets due to long-term illness, and for a while almost lost a parent too for similar reasons.  No amount of care, compassion, or support will ever completely stall the status of someone's else life or death situation.  It's a different season that sits just outside the regular calendar (for all of us I guess..).

So maybe you're in the same situation as me where you may be parachuting down from some remote point and the ground is now coming into focus but are unsure which direction you should head into once you land.

After school is complete I would love to move somewhere new and start a unique and different life (been researching 1-2 states in particular).  It seems that I have already done and experienced everything I can where I am now.

However,  I have never been much of a mover from home to home (no really, I should change my name to Stonehenge ha ha).  I feel terrified to make a huge change on my own  and yet all the while worry about the regret from letting fear take the lead keeping my life on ice and do nothing. 

Have you ever felt this way?  Do you know anyone with or without regrets over life changes?  Is there anything that makes you feel fearful that you want to get past?

A small note about the cross stitch, I dyed the linen piece with green, yellow, and blue RIT dye using brush strokes and the fabric count is between 28-32 pt.

Completed Cross Stitch - R. Ivan's "Alice"

Iconography.  You know who this is without me giving any "deets" (details) which I think is kind of cool actually. 

That is the beauty in seeing an image and understanding who or what it represents and all of its associations without an explicit explanation.  If you have ever read a Dan Brown book:  think Robert Langdon.

This is my first experimental design (I have a gran
d total of 2 btw) that has ever made it to cross stitch completion and I am glad it is still a "back burner" thing because it is very, very time consuming and frankly not very easy LOL.  

There is a lot of agony that comes from finalizing details and design (fashion designers unite and groan all together!) ha ha.

As an example, for those of you who know your shoes, I was hemming and hawing over whether to add socks to be sported with the Mary Janes.  Am I right?  Small, yet important detail.

But the main reason that I wanted to post this is that I wanted to show now matter how a small an idea or big of a desire anyone has, you can make it real and it does not have to be perfect on the first go. 

Now this may apply to you differently and in your own way but whatever your dreams are, start small and try and take some steps to make it real and see how it goes.  You can always change your mind :-)  But challenges are good (e.g. "ahem"...linen vs. aida/evenweave.."ahem").

So, this micro cross stitch is just that....very tiny (1.5" high) and at the time of making it (at night) it was a little tricky to see good placement for back stitching (Ottlite was too far away). 

Although I did not mark this remnant, I believe this is a 22-count Aida cloth that I cut up from a larger bolt and experimented with green RIT dye (I still have to try Kool-Aid, coffee and tea and see the different outcomes).

Instead of dipping it in a wash, I just used a paint brush and painted from the bottom up and also from side to side in one application.

So hey, now I can say I have designed and "published" my first cross stitch picture.  I can't wait to hear about and see some of the steps that you are taking in your life for your desires to come true too!

Completed Cross Stitch - Aliolka’s “Red Fox and Grapes”



Yinka Shonibare’s use of Dutch wax cotton fabric in his “How to Blow Up Two Heads at Once (Ladies)” 2006 was the inspiration for the background.  It was one of my favourite pieces from Art History this year (Thank you Professor S. M.!)

The Dutch colonists first learned about Indonesian Batik in the Dutch East Indies.  The process is putting hot wax on cool fabric to transform plain cloth into patterned cloth through a wax-resistant dye technique.  Dutch wax fabric became popular in West Africa and became to be associated with the bold print designs you still see common today.

 The dye is soaked into the fabric where there is no wax.  The wax gets melted off, the process is repeated until the layers of colour and design are desired.

So, I did just the same but got a little lazy (meaning I had no design in mind) and impatient to try this out.  I took a medium sized candle, waited about 10 seconds after lighting the wick and just poured whatever candle wax drippings would melt fast enough onto the 22-count Hardanger grey cotton fabric. 

The wax looked like a bunch of little ugly blobs and I thought to myself, “uh oh…maybe this isn’t going to turn out like I thought.  This will be my ‘test and throw away’ piece then”. 

In keeping with the Dutch wax boldness, I vamped up the choice of dye to red RIT and purple Kool-Aid.  Here is the list of my steps:

1.       Wax drippings (drops of dots)

2.       Red RIT dye dip #1

3.       Melt wax off

4.       Light bleach wash in the centre of the fabric

5.       Second round of wax drippings (side-to-side splashes this time)

6.       Grape Kool-Aid dip #2

7.       Melt wax off

8.       Red RIT dye dip #3, just the edges of the fabric

The final product is what you see through no pre-planning just experimentation.

The cross stitch subject is based on Aesop’s fable of “The Fox and Grapes” but is inspired from me not getting into my desired program earlier this year.

Here is short summary of the fable:  fox wanted to get some juicy grapes, couldn’t reach them and because he couldn’t reach them, figured they were probably sour anyway.

Since I did not get into the program, I figured that I probably would not have liked it anyway.  Maybe I am right, maybe I am wrong. 

But I got over my “sour grapes” and am still pursuing my degree because it is still my #1 goal.  Why should I give up over one wee minor setback despite my new fuzzy situation?  Have you ever felt the same way about an obstruction?

I k-n-o-w that one day after I grow and learn a little more, my reach will extend far enough to grasp my “juicy grapes” and they won’t be sour.  :-)

Completed Cross Stitch - Linda K. Powell's "Live Each Day with a Happy Heart"

 

 

This is a very old pattern that I found through eBay that was originally published in the '80s.

Do I mind admitting that I have the hugest crush on Linda K. Powell's artwork? No, not at all. But I am very sad that such a wonderful animal artist died at such a young age. Not fair!

I hope you enjoy this completed work and look up Linda's artwork (and yes, dyed this fabric myself too).

Please click on the picture for a close up.

Completed Cross Stitch - Plaid Bucilla's 'So Girly!' series "Forever Friends"

This finished piece is from a kit complete with stitching essentials (micro scissors, 3 needles, a threader and floss organizer - bonus!!).

The finished size is 4" x 7.75" on 14-count Aida cloth (100% cotton).  The original white packaged cloth was hand-dyed by me with my handy dandy RIT dye:  denim.  I ever so lightly bleached out the centre to give it a little brightness in the middle to highlight the subject.  I made the mistake of snapping a Q-Snap frame onto the freshly dyed and iron-dried cloth too quickly...I probably should have waited a day for proper drying.

A girl and her dog...it is a little hard to pinpoint and articulate the special association from the day-to-day interactions that form those bonds; however, if you are an animal lover and your pet has either feathers, scales, chitin or fur, you probably already have experienced that special unspoken connection for yourself. 

But getting back to cross stitch though I noticed that there are few and far between pictures of a girl and her dog with the exception of a female socialite pictured with a pampered pooch here and there.  I know that typically females are associated with cats and males with dogs but hey, what's in a pet stereotype right?

The latest audiobooks that I covered recently (while I was baking and a few extensive walks with my dogs) have been Rick Riordan's "The Lightning Thief", "Sea of Monsters", John Grisham's "The Testament" and what really fueled me during this project was watching AMC's "Breaking Bad" series.  I can see why that show is getting nearly perfect reviews but it is extremely graphic and not for everyone so if you are light-hearted and like gentler programs, you may want to bypass this series.

Completed Cross Stitch - Dragon Dreams' "Dragon's Garden"

Frame view and close up for you

This pattern I think is kind of funny with the knight's armour as the scarecrow in the dragon's garden.

I picked the mats to resemble something "knightly" or have a medieval feel to it.

I changed the threads on the dragon to something sparkly in addition to the knight's armour that was already metal looking. I added the hummingbird and changed the recommended frog button. I dyed the fabric myself.

Completed Cross Stitch - Bent Creek's "Brown Dog"

What can I say? I'm a dog person (but I like cats too but just do not own any right now).  So, anyway I definitely have to have a completed work of a cute, wee, little dog. I love mushrooms and especially the red and white I think is very cute. I hand-dyed this small piece of Aida cloth too. I had already dyed it long before I had the pattern and they seemed to match up perfectly with each other. I had a lot of fun dying this piece because I was trying to create a "ground/grass and sky look".

Completed Cross Stitch - Sam Sarah's "Acorn"

Yes! Another hand-dyed cloth by me! Um....the cloth is nice but I think I made a mistake matching it up with this design. The colours that the pattern called for are beautiful but definitely too light for this colour of cloth. It was my first time I stitched with buttons and can definitely see why stitchers love using embellishments - it adds a little more "oomph" to the finished product for sure!

Completed Cross Stitch - Gloria and Pat's "The Wolf" - Endangered Young'uns

Ah! Another G & Pat design...  The interesting thing about this dyed fabric is that I thought it was way too dark the first time I set it and bleached it light and was ready to toss it because I felt I kept messing it up.

I held on to the fabric and experimented putting this design on it. It didn't come out too bad except I wish I would have moved the moon more into the dark part of the fabric.

What do you think?

Completed Cross Stitch - Patti Connor's "Oh, Holy Night" aka Shrinky Dink buttons / Just Another Button Company

Another experiment with dyed fabric.

The nativity scene is really cute with the buttons. Honestly I wouldn't have bought this button package if it weren't so adorable!

It is still sitting unframed...well, I have a frame sitting on top of it but have yet to actually fit it into it and hang it up in time for Christmas.

Completed Cross Stitch - Stoney Creek's "Cat and Pumpkins"

 

A cute Halloween design from Stoney Creek I finished over about 1 1/2 evenings.

Also, I hand-dyed the fabric myself long before I decided on this pattern and I think it worked out well despite that I obviously didn't mix the RIT dye long enough..hahah