Spring in the fall

After the long, drawn out fiasco that was the dolphin project, I picked out a tiny little kit from my stash as my next project. Years ago I signed up to receive a little kit every few months from an online cross stitch store. I got 5 or 6 before they just stopped coming (my credit card also ceased being charged, so it was all good). This easter-coloured one is the second-last one I need to stitch up. In the center will go a little robin's nest charm that came in the package.

I started it in August in the middle of a wilderness canoe trip. Nothing like sitting and stitching by a campfire, listening to irate chipmunks rustle in the bush behind you. It's the perfect size for travelling.

As for stitching notions, when I travel I keep all the essentials in a little tin:

Seriously, Altoids tins are super useful for the travelling crafter. I have another one that holds all my stitch counters and markers for knitting.

Inside everything lives like this:

Clockwise from the top left we have: Thread Heaven (for keeping threads from tangling -awesome stuff), needle case, my cappiest pair of embroidery scissors, and a little finger thingy to make picking up beads easier.

My regular stitching kit has a lot more odds and ends in it, but the Altoids tin holds the basics perfectly. Really need to find a candy store and get some more mints...

Super, big, giant, awesome Happy Dance!!!!!

I started this blog with a post about this project, so it's really only fitting that I break my long silence with another post about it :)

After 9 years, my oldest UFO is finally finished!

9 years of picking it up, putting in a few stitches, and putting it down for months on end. 9 years of loathing the fabric, disliking the pattern, but persisting out of sentimentality and my own masochistic desire to never give up (seriously, ask anyone who knows me irl about my master's thesis).

Done.

It feels good.

This hasn't been the only cross-stitch project I've done in the past 9 years, but awhile ago I decided that I wouldn't let myself work on anything else until this one was finished.

And now I'm free.

Well, crafting-wise anyway. There is still that pesky thesis...

I still need to wash and press the piece, but here are some more pics in the meantime:

It's good to be back :)

My oldest UFO

I supposed its only fitting if I start this blog off with my oldest unfinished object (UFO). I started this cross stitch project in the summer of 2003. It was after my first year of university, instead of moving back home for the summer I lucked into a job in the geology department on campus. My partner, the Tall Hot Viking (henceforth known as THV) and I sublet a little apartment near campus (our first!) and were soon joined by a mutual friend.

I have many good memories of that summer, stitching this project, watching obscene amounts of Buffy on DVD and finally having my own kitchen to cook in.

So why is this tiny project still unfinished after 9 years?

Lets see....

1. I hate the fabric (aida cloth /shudder)
2. I hate the pattern (the style, the lack of detail)
3. While dolphins are awesome, cross stitched dolphins just aren't my thing

But it's small, and was a gift from my mom so I pick it up for a few hours every year and poke away at it. Last winter I finished all the cross stitching and happily moved onto backstitching.

Then

Doom

I'd been doing all of the backstitching in the wrong colour. Totally explained why the dolphins weren't "popping" as much as I expected.

Cover photo, and my project with the wrong back stitching

It has finally been frogged, and now sits on a shelf, waiting for me to finish it properly.

Oh, and I'm not letting myself work on another stitching project until this one is done. Probably why I'm currently diving headfirst into sewing and knitting :)