WIP Wednesday: A Day Late

I know, I know, today is Thursday and it’s almost over, anyway. But we finally got a sunny day and the light was so nice that I actually got to take a picture of the Helix Nebula with natural light!

And now that tax season is (pretty much) over, I might actually have the time and energy to stitch for more than 10 minutes at a time. Hoping to have this finished before the year is out.

I’m also starting on knitting my first sweater; I just ordered some deep blue fingering yarn for it yesterday and I can’t wait for it to arrive.

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WIP Wednesday: Helix Nebula #5 & PDXstitch.net

Somehow the time just flies by when you’re finishing up school & hustling to get a new job at the same time! The past few weeks have felt like a blur (and I still need to put together a post with pictures from my Toronto trip!) but I have so much exciting news.

I (almost!) finished the third page of the helix nebula pattern. I promise I will have the pattern ready for upload soon.

Making great progress on the colorwash quilt kit. I have just two more types of blocks to complete.

I’ve been teaching myself some HTML & CSS and am proud to present a new homepage, pdxstitch.net! The Portfolio section is still under construction, but I would like to direct you to the Tools section, where you can find some sweet thread-organizing spreadsheets.

And the final bit of good news: I got a new job! I start in January and I’m super excited. My goal for now until the end of the year is to get in as much quilting and crafting as I can, because I know I will be really busy in the new year!

WIP Wednesday: Helix Nebula #4 & Colorwash Quilt

When this post publishes, I’m going to be sitting in the Portland airport on my way to Toronto, Ontario, to celebrate my birthday with my mom. But before I left, I wanted to post an update on the Helix Nebula cross stitch.

I’m working on page 3 of 12, and you can see how close I’m coming to the far right edge! It’s actually starting to look like something now. I am going to clean up the pattern and plan to release it on Etsy and Craftsy soon.

And here’s what my quilting and sewing space looks like this morning. I finished piecing the top of the cat quilt. I’m waiting for a chance to borrow my mother-in-law’s nice big kitchen floor for an afternoon to baste it together for quilting. In the meantime I started on this Colorwash quilt kit from Craftsy.

The cutting instructions leave a lot to be desired, so thank goodness there was enough extra fabric in the kit to recut pieces (and by the way, pattern designers, would it kill you to take ten seconds to put a scale on your printable pattern pieces so I can check that the printer actually printed your templates correctly?) So that setback was kind of incredibly frustrating, but I’ll live.

What are you working on today?

WIP Wednesday: Helix Nebula #3 & Cat Quilt

It’s been two months since the last Helix Nebula stitch update. I haven’t finished the second page of the pattern yet, but not for lack of trying.

I’ve also been trying to finish the quilt top for my cat-block quilt. I have to finish it so that I can put the big ironing board away and we can get our living room back.

I have three (of six) rows sewn with sashing. Today I don’t have classes or any pressing homework, so my goal is to finish the rows and (maybe?) start sewing them together.

(Cat-block pattern is from here.)

WIP Wednesday: Helix Nebula #2

With just a week left in #30for30crafting, it looks like I am going to meet my goal of finishing the first page of my Helix Nebula cross stitch.

Incidentally, it is nigh impossible to photograph this thing because of how much black is in it. Unless the light is just right, it looks like a big dark blob.

But I’ve only got a few big sections and all those scattered stitches left to go to finish up the first page! At the current rate, I could probably finish the entire thing in less than a year. Even though it’s as large as the X-Files project, because there’s so many different colors and shapes, so it keeps it interesting.

WIP Wednesday: Helix Nebula #1

Happy Wednesday everyone! I know it’s been a long time since I last did a work-in-progress Wednesday post, but I’ve started a big new project and I’m gearing up for May’s #30for30crafting challenge, so I thought today would be a good day to start posting my WIPs again!

Introducing my latest cross stitch project, the Helix Nebula:

This is just (part) of page one (out of 12).

The finished piece is going to be as big as my X-Files cross stitch, 270 stitches tall and 234 stitches wide on 18 count Aida (that’s 63,180 total stitches). It uses a lot of colors. Not sure exactly how many but this is my box with threads just for the project (and there’s about 6 more that I have out on my worktable and not in the box):

The pattern is self-made, based on this image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).

As you can see, I’m still working on the outer edges and haven’t made it to the nebula yet. Here’s a close up.

Lots of confetti stitches!

WIP Wednesday: Last update of 2015

Happy last Wednesday of 2015, gentle readers! I thought we could ring out 2015 with a round-up of my as-yet-unfinished cross stitches:

First, more progress this week on the Simpsons on the couch.

And an update on the flower of the month project. Just January and February to finish in the new year!

And some older projects I’ve been working on a while, like this sleeping fox.

And the Steotchalong, which I obviously abandoned two weeks in. The half and quarter and blended stitches just got to me too much!

My new year’s resolution is to finish all of these in 2016, and of course to start new projects, too! Do you have any resolutions for 2016, crafting or otherwise?

Simpsons couch: Christmas Eve Update

Happy Christmas eve, dear readers. I missed WIP Wednesday yesterday, but here is an update on the Simpsons couch project. As you can see there is a lot more
color, and the couch is nearly finished. I ran out of the thread for the couch, though, so I have to work on other parts until I get to the store.

Hope you all are having a good holiday, and even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a great day!

WIP Wednesday: Simpsons Couch #4

More Simpsons couch gag cross stitch updates means more colors on the project:

I got a new needlework stand this past weekend which is translating to faster stitching. But I will probably have to take a break on this for a while because I have several sewing commissions to take care of first!

What are you working on this Wednesday?

WIP Wednesday: Simpsons Couch #4

Good morning from the Portland Airport. I write this update on the Simpsons couch project as I wait for a flight across the country to visit my parents. I’ve brought along a lot of WIPs in my carry on luggage; I think the needles and metal hoops and rings that I keep my floss on really confounded the security guy who was running the X-ray machine. He stared at the X-ray of my bag for so long! But they’re all gone safely through.

This update brings new colors to the Simpsons family:

They have skin & Bart has a shirt now! Lisa is all done, except for her popcorn bowl. I am very pleased with how it is turning out.