I finished the HAED Santa and Mouse free pattern from the Heaven and Earth Designs website.
This was my first Heaven and Earth Design. I did it in preparation for a really large project I am doing as a gift. It is supposed to be an ornament......HA..... it measures 8.5 x 8.5 inches so it is a little large. I did it on 18 count aida. I did not want to use anything smaller for my first attempt. Not sure how I will mount it. I also note that I did not use the Krenik that was called for as it was only on the outside of the circle. I may do a tent stitch in a square around it to square it up for framing or perhaps a round mat. Have not decided.
What amazes me about this project is that while I was doing it the subject matter was a little hard to distinguish. Then, as it came to life it was pretty inspiring.
I started this on September 19, 2014 and finished it November 21, 2014. It took approximately 140 hours. I used the Hours Tracker app to keep track of the time. I was pretty good about recording the time, but it is still an approximation of the hours.
Lots of left over thread. What I found nice about doing this project is that because I kitted it myself using DMC floss, I did not have to scrimp as I often do when I work from a kit using the thread provided. I like that a lot.
Now to get to work on the rest of those WIPs. I have been spending all my time on this little guy. Glad it is over before December.
I started attempting to use different fabric, the first one being linen. It has been a challenge, but I have a great teacher for support. She has videos of her stitching under Tara C. She is a wealth of knowledge about fabrics and very encouraging. At any rate, I have been working on a small Thea Gouvernour design (a yellow rose) that I got from Overstock.com when I realized I had some credits so I paid nothing.....woohoo. I got it because it was not on aida fabric. I am getting the hang of it, but it is certainly a test of my patience and my eyesight. It is also a challenge to photograph.
I started out using a hoop but changed to a QSnap and like it better. Using the snap seems to help the fabric stay a little straighter and make the counting easier for me. I am having to change the way I usually stitch. I am doing a stitch at a time and I only put the center grid line in for reference. I am also working on stitching horizontally exclusively as I find it easier to keep my place that way. I have also discovered that my tension is an issue with this fabric. I have to take care not to pull the stitches to tight or it distorts so badly that I cannot figure out where the next stitch goes! Believe me, I have done a bit of stitching and pulling out and re-stitching. But Tara C. told me that it would take about 100 stitches before I got into a rhythm, so I am not giving up.
Thanks for checking in.
