Friday 28 November 2014

November SFS

Oh boy (Or rather 'Oh girls'? I don't think I have lots of male readers, or if I have, they never leave comments), time really does fly...is it really the end of November already? Which also means, I don't have much time left to finish my thesis, but on the other hand, I have so much exciting, fun stuff to share with you today, so this post is probably going to be a bit on the long side anyways. Don't worry, there will be pretty pictures amongst all the rambling as well!

Let's start of with this month's SFS. I've done a bit more of pattern-gathering, but well within my budget - in the beginning of the month, I bought Cloudsfatory's 'Magical Creatures' Sampler, the 2014 SAL, for $16.99 - I will stitch it some day in one piece, just wanted to secure the patter before the year is over because I don't know if they will still offer it afterwards. And just today, I signed up for Stacy's Mystery Band Sampler SAL for $7, I'm planning to actually stitch along with this one, so I will need to get supplies soon. This brings my total for this month to $23.99. I also made use of the current exemption - Love Thy Thread will be going out of business in a few days, so we ware allowed to get the patterns without it eating away on our budget. It took me a while to decide, but I finally got two of them - Fragile and The Loneliness of Autumn.


I also bought a kit off ebay - Bothy Threads 'Cut Thru Cottage' - but that shouldn't cont for SFS, as it's going to be stitched right away as a gift for Felix' sister and her boyfriend, for when the move into their new home next year. I saved about 9€ by buying it from someone who's cleaning out their stash of un-opened kits, so at least I made some right budgeting choices!

To be honest, I've been eying th Cut Thru' series for quite a while now. They are all so cute, so colorful and look really fun to stich. If stitching this is only half as fun as I imagine, it won't be the last one I stitched from the series...there's also Noah's Arc, and a pirate ship, a fairy hill, a castle...so much fun!

So much for my new stash, lets got on to the happy and exciting things mentioned earlier:
The first bit of happy news is that I finished-finished Peter Polarbear. It was my first try at any kind of ornament finish, so I kept it simple - he has a backing of red felt and is stuffed with the thread-bits I collected while stitching AoF, which makes him kind of extra special, at least that's what I like to tell myself! He's by no means perfect as an ornament, but I'm still pretty pleased by how he has turned out, and I sincerly hope that whoever will get to get him will love him as much as I do!

Of course, I also continued stitching on Angel of Frost, and...I finished! Not the whole thing, of course, but the stitching part. I just need to add beads now. Thankfully, there wasn't that much stitching left to do anyways: I just had to backstitch around the inner and outer edge of the border, do onther line of wrapped backstitch around the picture area, then add the cords to her cloak and basket (I'm starting to actually like wrapped backstitch)  and do the details on her skirt (I loooved those, so much detail, and not at all repetitive!). Now I'll need to get started on the beading, which makes me a bit nervous...but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.




So with only the beading left, I have a bit of free stitching time at my hands - I can only do the beading at my desk (and only when the light is good because I don't have a proper lamp there yet). I'll try to get a bit done every day, but most of the time I have put aside for stitching is in the evenings, when I watch shows with Felix, so did start Cut Thru Cottage for that (I actually got a few stitches done on Lady before CTC arrived, but really not enough to show - I promise you'll see her again before the end of the year, however!).

I haven't gotten much stitching in yet, but let me say a few words about the kit itself - it's marvelous, probably the best kit I ever had! The thread came pre sorted on two color cards, marked with the symbols already instead of some name or number; the chart is divided in 9 regular sized pages (big print), and there are two versions of it - one is the background, so cross stitch only, the other has all the backstitching. So fun to work with! The materials are really good quality as well, 16ct light blue Zweigart aida and Madeira threads. I'm pretty sure I'll stitch some more Bothy kits eventually, but for now I'll focus on this one!

One more thing befoe I commence with non-stitchy stuff (and an apology to my regular readers, who will read this for the second time and probably a few more times in the future): As statistically speaking, quite a few more people read this SAL-checkins then my usual updates, I want to take this opportunity to do a little advertisment for the SAL I will host next year: DESIGN.

DESIGN (Designers Everyone Should Instantly Get to Notice) is a SAL where each month, you pick one project you worked on during the year (doesn't matter whether you just started, finished, or are somewhere in the middle), then talk a bit about the designer of said project - why you like him/her, what's special about them, is it your first (or last?) project by this designer, and so on. I think it should be a fun way to introduce everyone to your favourites, and possibly find news one! No need to participate every month either. For more info and sign up, click here.


So now (as I have been writing on this post on and of for over eight hours), let me just get to the non-stitchy part really quick. Not much happend this week (again), but a bit of watching: The Walking Dead (S3, E8+9) continues to be awesome, The Nanny (S4, E1-8) continues to be funny, and Once Upon a Time...Man (E3-5) is still semi-informative and give me nostalgic feelings. We also watched Breaking Dawn Part 1 + 2...and I feel the need to explain (although I think it's really a shame anyone should feel the need to explain and defend themselves for liking or disliking something): I am by no means a...what do they call themselves no? Twihards? I read the books when I was a teenager, and I really enjoyed them. I can see why other kids that age do. When I got older, I got to realize that they are not that great, really - the image they paint of love is just too unrealistic, too one sided, and they are not that well written either (though I'm afraid that a few figures of speech have found their way into my own vocabluary...my english wasn't that sophisticated [not to say that it is now] when I read them, and I did read them in the original). But there were still a few things that I liked, maybe just by looking at them from another perspective. Those things were what made me drag Felix to the first three movies (and he 'suffered' through them bravely!). We didn't see the last two in the cinema (because by then, ticket prices had risen way too much and it just wasn't worth it for us), but now that both had appeared on amazon prime, we still wanted to watch them - the last one was bound to have some nice special effects, and really, I think it was the best of the five. In fact, the movies were quite good, considering the books - they just used the wrong actors. Seriously, apart from Jacob, Charly and maybe Renesme noone looked even close to what I had in mind while reading. Thank god for stitching, so I was mostly listening to the movies anyways :D

So, after that 'confession' on my part, I'll be going right back to work...and maybe stitching...or shopping, it's Black Friday after all, even online for us Germanys. See you!

11 comments:

katjakay said...

Angel is gorgeous, have fun with the beading.
Can I rig the Secret Santa?
Never apologize or feel the need to explain why you enjoy something, leave that to me, as a Canadian I'm always allowed to say sorry.
Anyway, I enjoy the Twilights as well, except for the second book, I try to erase that from my memory, gave away both book and movie. I haven't seen the very last one, as I have issues there as well, but I have read it. I just really dislike anything with unnaturally fast growing children. However, I like the first and really enjoy the third, I wish there was more about Alice and Jasper as they are my favorite characters.

Susan said...

All your stitching looks great. Angel is beautiful as is, but can't wait to see it with all the beads. Beading is fairly easy. Not sure if you can get it, but Sulky makes a transparent thread in their Sliver line that works great for beading - you don't have to worry about matching the background and I have never had it break or fray even with very rough edged beads. No need to explain anything to anyone. "I like it" is all anyone needs. After that it is their problem if they feel like judging (it has taken me a long time to get to where I really believe that)

Carla - Alaska Wolf Pack said...

I've looked at your pictures over and over and LOVE AoF. I'm amazed at how quickly you stitched that up! I know you will have it beaded and ready to give at Christmas, but It's ridiculously pretty and I cannot stop staring at it!

Please do not ever apologize for liking or disliking anything, like the Twilight series....everyone has something they like that many don't or say they don't just because "someone" has said it's stupid or badly done or whatever. Personally, I read the books because my daughter was flipping out over them and begged me to get the last book for her and when I did she SCREAMED (my girl doesn't scream or squee over anything) when I handed it to her so I figured I would read them too if they made her that happy. Yes, I agree they are tween books, but some of the "love story" parts were for older people (my opinion only...call me a prude if you wish :D ) but I read the series in four days...could NOT put them down and only have ONE thing to say on the bad side...book two had entirely too much drama in it, but then vampires ARE melodramatic right? I did not care for the movies as much, but still liked the story...TEAM JACOB!!

katjakay said...

Team JASPER

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you, I'm sure I will!
I think you will have to bribe Carla for the Secret Santa, Pete would love it in Canada I'm sure :D
I know, you're right, but I'm always quick to say sorry myself...maybe there are a few drops of Canadian blood in me some where!
You're right, the second book really was way to much drama...and poor Jasper was even more under-represented in the movies than he was in the books. At least Alice was pretty, and awesome, and pretty awesome.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh to that Angel of Frost being "semi" completed. Can't wait to see it with bead assortment. I really want to do a cross stitch kit, or project, with some beads. Any projects that I see with beads have a certain "oo la la, fancy schmancy" to them.

Suz said...

Your angel is coming along just beautifully!

Thanks for the heads up regarding the DESIGN SAL. I signed up to join that one - it should be fun!

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you! I will be threading with one strand of DMC ecru, as indicated in the pattern, but I shall look into that transparent thread for further projects :)
You're right in that one shouldn't care what others have to judge, but you're also right that that's not easy feat to achieve...

Leonore Winterer said...

It didn't feel that quickly stitching her up, but I'm really happy with how she's turning out :)

I know I shouldn't apologize for liking stuff, but I'm actually glad that I did - it's nice to find out that my friends liked it as well, even those that were not teenagers the first time they read it ^_^

Leonore Winterer said...

I can't wait to see her with beads either! Unfortunately, that's probably going to take a while longer...maybe you can get something fun and not-so-big with beads in your rotations one KL is done? ^_^

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you! And thanks for signing up as well, the more the merrier! :D