My Weeks In Stitches - a "Sampling" of Work

Sorry for skipping out last week, I was focused on getting a baby package ready to mail.  I can't wait for the mommy-to-be to open it and see the cuteness inside!  Also, I was starting a new personal knitting project.  Don't judge me; at least there will be pictures!

Shareable updates!

Fairy Sisters - I really-really-really wanted to finish the night sky on page 3 of Fairy Sisters this month.  (I know, my goal list says both pages.  I'm ambitious at the beginning of the month.)  But you'll see that I at least set myself up with a way to measure progress - by filling in this rectangle.  The right edge of the rectangle is right about the edge of page 3:

And for the Theme-a-Licious update - Great Is Thy Faithfulness.  I'm really happy with the variegated threads, and I'm happy with my other thread choices, too.  This is going to look so pretty in my room.

And I'm "sampling" making socks.  So I had to start a new knitting project.  This green and blue yarn was totally on sale, and begging to become Seahawks-themed socks, so I work on them during games on Sundays.  And they've now won 4 straight.  (I call them Legion of Boom, it's a football reference.  The pattern is Uzu on Ravelry.)

My Week In Stitches and A Mini Rant

I'm way late posting this week's update.  Saturday was a weird day, that's all I can say.  No, really, it's been a weird week.  But it meant a large block of stitching time on Wednesday, and no blogging mojo this weekend.

My kids' school called me during lunch on Tuesday to say my younger one had a fever.  I was able to go pick her up, and a fever in the middle of the day means she won't be clear to go back the next day (she has to be fever-free for 24 hours) so that meant I stayed home with her on Wednesday and worked on Great Is Thy Faithfulness:

(which just happens to be my Theme-a-licious project for September - the theme is Samplers.  And this has words.  From a hymn.  And will have Quaker-ish motifs in the half-circle border.  And in the small sampler section of MBTD's website.  There - all of that = sampler.)  This is turning out to be a very quick stitch, which makes me happy.  I need a quick stitch!

And look at all of this obvious progress on Fairy Sisters - it was the Facebook SAL weekend again, so I devoted some chunks of time to stitching the sky.

I also made some significant progress on the baby gift for T & S on Sunday afternoon.  As in, I'm really happy with how it's turning out and I wish I could show you a picture....

And now for my mini rant.  I enjoy streamlining things, which includes using my Android phone to take picturess of my projects and having those pictures automatically backup to my Google account.  Then I can go in when I'm writing a blog post and edit the photos online, including adding text, before publishing them.  The native photo editor on my phone won't allow me to add text, either.  (Which is strange because my old one would.....)  Well, Google made some changes to their online photo editor, and it looks like the option to add text is gone!  Now I have to either use a "real" camera and load pictures on my computer that way, or I have to open my Picasa photo editor, download/sync the online albums, make the edits, and re-sync them so I can add photos to my post.  I can still do it, but it's extra steps.  And I hate extra steps.  And the text I added looks tiny.  I really wish they would change it back.  I understand that it's free and open-source, but it seems the changes they've made only serve to make photos look more "vintage."  I don't want my photos to look more vintage.  If I want photos I take with my phone to look vintage, I'll put them on Instagram.  (By the way, you can follow me on Instagram if you want - sometimes I share sneak peaks of projects that I don't put on the blog.)

I Told You It Would Be Celtic!

Welcome, Pinners!  I'm blown away every time I see someone has pinned this design - I'm glad you like it or are inspired by it.  If you stitch it, will you share a picture with me?  I may feature some in a future post.  Thanks! - drea

It's less of a sampler, I think.  Although it does feature several different kinds of stitches, it's really an embellished Irish blessing.  And here it is in .jpg - I think you can right-click and "save as":

I've left it at symbols so you can choose your own colors.  But if you want to use the colors in my original design, here's a little help - (I can't figure out how to show the symbols with the color numbers):

Blue (upper left corner) - 820
Green (lower left corner) - 701
Red (upper right corner) - 321
Gold (lower right corner) - 167

Hopefully that will help you match up the symbols to the colors I used.  Or you can choose your own!

Edited!  I figured out how to turn it into a pdf AND share it here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Click here to access the pdf file, which includes a real symbol and color key!

Specialty stitches - in the center, the red is a Smyrna Cross (large X with a + over it) and the green is a Double Leviathan (you could also do a large eyelet here).  The blue is Crow's Foot - Montenegrin would be pretty as well.  And the long stitches cover 5 threads.  You should note that the points where the red and green run together is 4 long stitches!  (I'm working my way into Bargello.)  The blue border is blackwork.

Grid is 100x160 - actual design area is 92x154.  If you stitch this, I'd love to see your finished piece.  I hope I'll have time to stitch it myself soon!

Enjoy!

This Looks Like The Start Of A Sampler

And apparently it has an Irish theme. I don't know, I was just grabbing colored pencils. It's been so long since I designed anything, and I really have no idea when (if) I'll stitch it...