A Finish and a New Start

Hey guys,

After all the backstitches, this is done!

I even made a small checklist/timeline of the project 🙂

Here’s the start of a new project :D.

This update was super short and sweet, no? 🙂

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Half Cross-stitches: Done

Small update: I have finished the background to the Bears project not too long ago. I used the sewing method mainly and I’ve got to say the stitches don’t look that noticeably different than the ones stitched without using method (just if they aren’t looked at too closely, haha).

I did miscount some of the stitches in the ground area with the long rows of different shades of brown. Slight mistake that’s probably unnoticeable, but a mistake nontheless.

Now to the backstitches. I already started today and I’m already dreading them..

Blanket

I’ve been a bit tied up with renovations at my boyfriend’s new place. There will be a hobby/cross-stitching room for me :). Before he got the place, the room used to look like this:

The place used to be a 3 bedroom and 2 bath, and then the previous owner tore down one of the bedrooms and made an open area to make it a 2 bedroom and 2 bath. My boyfriend put in the recessed lighting and I have yet to get a pic to reflect the painting to the walls that we’ve done. (EDIT: Meant to add that we’ve been taking out the popcorn on the ceiling and the open den was no exception.)

As for the cross-stitching, the blanket took a while to finish up. While I cross-stitch, I like to watch a tv show or listen to music/podcast. I’ve been watching Danny Phantom and listening to Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me. Do you guys watch or listen to something while cross-stitching like I do? If so, what have you been watching or listening to?

Playhouse and Flowers

Small update here:

This was the progress from a week and a half ago. I’ve been using the sewing method here and there and although the stitching has been faster, the stitches don’t lay as flat against the aida cloth as the regular stitching does.

The difference (between the center and the area a little above it) pictured in the center with the black/green stitches is somewhat noticeable and has convinced me to not use this method (despite how it cuts down on time) in my next cross stitch project.

Life and Teddy Bear Gathering Update

Here are a few pictures (creds go to my boyfriend) from December 2017. There were six of us who traveled to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. I feel like this blog is slowly turning into a travel blog haha.

I guess I didn’t factor in time and rest because I got myself sent to the hospital twice since coming back from the Asia trip. I’ve had to take a medical leave from work and had to take a mental break from things. The hospital provided a lot of resources for me while I’m recovering and I’ve had a lot of time to work and improve on myself. I’m finally going back to work on an as-needed basis thankfully, and will be interviewing at another place early next week. Throughout this whole experience, my mood has improved drastically and am super touched by the support my loved ones have shown me.

As for my cross-stitching progress, got the basket and most of the chair completed. The black half cross-stitches kinda remind me of someone drawing diagonal lines with a Sharpie.

This blog is close to having 100 followers and I think I’ve come up with a small giveaway to celebrate :D. Stay tuned!

Bears x 3, Another Finish, and Q&A

Hi guys,

Be right back with life updates while I post a belated Q&A from a Mystery Blogger Nomination. Thanks ivyjade234! 🙂

Rules: 

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link their blog, 

2. Tell your readers three things about yourself, 

3. Nominate people, notify your nominees by commenting on their blogs, 

4. Ask your nominees five questions of your choice and share a link or links to your favourite posts.

Answering Questions:

• What is your favorite thing in the world to do? I’d say my favorite thing to do is to cross-stitch even though it’s such a cliched answer for this blog, haha
• If you could go anywhere in the world right now, right this second where would you go? I’d like to go to Iceland :(. Had to cancel the trip with my boyfriend for mental reasons. I’d like to think that we can go anytime in the future.
• If you could buy anything right now, doesn’t matter how much, what would you buy. Remember only one thing? A new car, maybe a Honda Accord, (I love my boyfriend’s one even though it’d be a waste to get the same car!) or a Nissan Altima
• What do you think or believe is your true passion in life? Can I pick two? Acquiring knowledge and being the best version of myself that I can be!
• When you are 75 or over what do you want to be doing? Will I even live up to that age? If so, hopefully still cross-stitching 😀

Three things about myself:

1. I know I’m usually away from this blog and take forever to answer comments, but if anyone reads this, I might have a lot to mention in my next post. I’ve taken a mental leave and feel a little more and more comfortable to delve into my personal life.
2. I think I tend to mention my boyfriend a lot in this blog. Even though this isn’t necessarily about me, I tried breaking up (my first time initiating a breakup) with him, but the break was short-lived and for some reason I think the break brought us closer together.
3. Speaking of mental health, I think I’m the most happy and comfortable with myself I’ve ever been.

My Nominations:

mytimestitching

quiltscatsandme

justanervousgirl

My questions:

1. What is your ideal day?
2. What activities do you do to relax?
3. Something a little more politically driven, what is one thing you’d tell Donald Trump?
4. Do you listen to podcasts? If so, what’s your favorite podcast or what would you recommend that I listen to? 😀
5. What is one thing you’d tell your past and/or your future self?

As always, happy stitching! 🙂

flowers and lace

Bears and Bears

A small update (and more unnecessary reasons for why I’ve been busy)

I made a small New York stop in October with the boyfriend in Queens and Manhattan for more food and sightseeing adventures. Food highlights include helluva lot of Chinese food at New World Mall, Korean fried chicken, Rosa’s pizza, the Halal guys, oysters at Chelsea Market, and omggg shaved ice/bingsu!

mmm…green tea bingsu. This pic of the shaved ice might not look the most appetizing but I swear it was sooooo good!!

Our friend came back from Japan with paper crafts that I was distracted by as well…

My bf got a pretty sick looking Charizard/Lizardon? XD paper theater that I did too and didn’t get to get a picture of, so here’s a pic from Google and a YouTube link to some random person putting it together XD because you guys know I can’t take credit for the pic!

And as always, while binging on tv shows and YouTube videos, here’s the cross-stitch update :). I’ll be getting back to the Flowers and Lace pattern very soon!

I’ll be posting the Q&A from a blogging award soon as well (thanks again Ivy! ^^)

Oh also, the pictures on my blog will most likely have a different quality/dimension/format or whatever starting in my next updates. Come Black Friday, I’ll probably (finally!) be getting a phone upgrade so hopefully, say bye to these potato quality photos!

Bears!

They’re soo cute! I just love the color gradients and shades used in this pattern :).

I think this is the proudest I’ve been of the back of the pattern of any kit I’ve worked on yet. I’ve clipped a lot of the end tails super close to the back of the pattern. I probably will post a pic of how the back looks after the whole pattern is completed.

Since I’ve completed most of these three teddy bears, I’ll be rotating back to my “Flowers and Lace” kit for a little bit!

Faster Cross-stitching?

The bear looks kinda creepy without the eyes stitched in, welp..

Been making lots of progress with the Past, Present, Forever and the Flowers and Lace patterns. I’ll leave it up to you guys, my readers, to take that as sarcasm or not :D. I spent the last few days stitching those two patterns more than I normally would, and I suppose in the process, I got sick of them and started a new one. The new pattern’s called Teddy Bear Gathering, and it’s another from the Dimensions Gold Collection :).

I’m in love with the railroading technique. For those whom this is the first time seeing this term, it’s a stitching technique that helps make two strands in a stitch lie parallel to each other. I don’t think I’ve ever had my stitches lie so flatly and neatly before, and I feel like it’s reduced the times the threads have gotten tangled (knock on wood!). Thank you so much, Nat, for introducing me to the term! Please check out her beautiful stitching here and here. She also writes heartful, and at times, raw posts about her personal dealings with social anxiety.

I’ve been lately hoping to stitch faster, and stumbled upon the term “the sewing method“. I’ve seen the method used before in other videos, but didn’t have a chance to place a name with it until now. I do hope to use the method soon although I probably won’t be able to with the constant color changes I have in the patterns currently. I’ll have to wait until I finish most of those sections, and get to the background since backgrounds have generally large sections of one color.

Another thing I’ve seen a lot of stitchers do in videos that I wish I mastered is poking the needle in the right place from the back of the cloth/pattern to the front without having to flip to look at the back of the cloth. For those of you who stitch like that comfortably, HOW THE HELL DO YOU DO THAT? I always have trouble pushing the needle through the right place and end up poking EVERYWHERE but the right one. It looks like stitching would go sooo much faster if I could do that properly!

Do you ladies have tips and tricks to stitch faster or any other general tricks you like to use? I’d love to hear from you! I have a few cross-stitch tips and tricks videos in my YouTube watchlist and wouldn’t mind adding more :).

Completed Projects and WIPs

 

burrito . ducks . elegant geisha . flowers and lace . good fortune . past, present, forever . surprise/mystery gift – batman! . teddy bear gathering

*linked webpage = completed project. no link = WIP