High Tide: Backstitched Beach Section

The backstitching on the beach section of High Tide is complete.  The grass... was a challenge.  :)

My posts may be more sporadic for a little while.  My camera broke!!  It's a shame the universe can't tell you these things ahead of time...

Sorry for such an overexposed picture.  I had to use the scanner and it turned out super bright.

Nap Mat, Pillow, and Blanket

My kids started a new daycare today.  I spent the weekend machine stitching since my toddler needed a nap mat and my preschooler needed a pillow and blanket.

They both wanted Spongebob.  Add that to the Spongebob lunchkit and we look like a family much obsessed.

My preschooler's pillow and blanket:

In the folded down corner, you can see a little bit of where I sewed his name into the blanket. The pillow has something similar.

My toddler's napmat:

The entire thing is one piece and rolls up with velcro tabs and a shoulder strap. His name is sewn into the shoulder strap, but I scrambled his name for the picture.

I made the pillow removable for washing. It has been through an entire wash cycle unscathed so I'm calling it a success!

Hide Tide Beach Section

The High Tide beach section is done.  It obviously needs a lot of backstitching!  It doesn't look like I'm going to make my July goal, but I only have one section left and the overall border before High Tide is complete.

New Start: Harvest Moon and IHSW

This past weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend (IHSW) over at Joyce's Random Ramblings.

I decided it was the perfect time to treat myself to a new start with Harvest Moon.

I was able to hermit up on Saturday with a bajillion episodes of Destination Truth on Netflix and get in a lot of stitching time.

My kids were unexpectedly excited to see me stitching on dark cloth. I brought out their lacing cards and let them stitch with me.

I didn't have as much time on Sunday to stitch, but I did get to spend some time finishing the bushes and stitching in the fence and a tree.

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!  Did you watch anything great while you stitched?  I'm apparently addicted to Destination Truth now...

Update on Harvest Moon

Fabric Update

I mentioned a month ago I ordered fabric for Harvest Moon.  It didn't go as well as I'd hoped (no stores actually have the fabric) so I'm giving up on Colonial Blue Aida.  The middle part of the sky in Harvest Moon is the aida fabric showing through.

I'm instead going to stitch the colonial blue color and make the project cover the entire fabric.  I was trying to decide last night when I could order more fabric, and it dawned on me I had a large piece of navy Aida in a kit I would probably never use!  Crisis solved!  The color shouldn't matter much now that the fabric will be covered.

I got out the navy Aida and cut it to size (with enough left over for some small projects I'm planning for my nephew!) and whip stitched all of the edges.  I started gridding the fabric and realized there is an error in the chart.  One of the columns is only 9 squares wide instead of 10!  It became obvious pretty quickly how much of a nightmare it would be trying to grid right wrong right.  I'm so glad I noticed before gridding the entire piece!

Joyce over at Random Ramblings is hosting the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend (IHSW) this weekend.  I've decided I'm going to treat myself to a weekend of Harvest Moon.

Floss Update

I posted about my 2 year old taking all the DMC labels off my Harvest Moon floss.  Like Rhona suggested, I found a DMC color chart at Michael's and it helped tremendously!  It truly saved me.  I want to thank Jo from Serendipitous Stitching for offering to send me snippets of DMC so I could match and renumber my threads.  What a sweet and selfless offer!

I hope to have some Harvest Moon progress to share next week.

High Tide Fishing Section Complete

The fishing section is done!

This is the entire progress on High Tide:

New Start: Sharla (HAED)

I had a new start over the July 4th weekend!  It took me a while to take a picture so I could post about it!

This will be my first HEAD project.  Actually this will be my first BAP project of any kind.  I'm stitching Sharla.  She is a mermaid from artist Hannah Lynn Disney.  I've been a fan of Hannah Lynn's for many years.  I thought it would be really hard to select my first HAED until I saw they had charted some Hannah Lynns!

I'm stitching her one over one on 28 ct mushroom Lugana.  I've stitched on 28 ct Lugana before but never one over one.  It's so tiny!  I'm really enjoying it, though, (minus how horribly hard it is to unstitch a mistake).

I'm trying not to let her overtake High Tide as I'm hoping to finish High Tide this month. 

Sharla: started July 2nd.

Ignore the ugly waste knots.  :)  I'm using them to end my threads.

High Tide Outlined Sailboat and Bait Shop

The sailboat and waves have been backstitched.  The sailboat was supposed to have some rope hanging over the side, but I didn't like how it looked so I made an executive to decision to leave it off.

I love how the bait shop and FISHING sign turned out after backstitching the outlines! 

I still need to backstitch the shading on the shop, roof, and pier posts, so the bait shop isn't quite finished yet.

High Tide Fishing Section

Yay!  The fishing section of High Tide is finished and ready for backstitching!  (I'm backstitching each section as I go.  It just makes me happier that way.)

High Tide Bait Shop

The bait shop is done.  I love the shading on the shop and on the roof.  I think it's going to turn out great.  I can't wait to backstitch it when I am finished with this section.

Disassemblage of Harvest Moon Floss

Oh no.  I brought out my bag of Harvest Moon floss - not just because I ordered the fabric yesterday - but to lust after the color palette.  I love the colors of autumn.

I left my bag unattended.  I have a two year old.

I walked in to find him pulling off the very last DMC number label.  I didn't salvage a single one.  He had every single paper off of the floss.  He also had thread around his legs, his shoes...

He was so cute helping me put the pile of thread and millions (slight exaggeration) of little labels back in the big bag.  Then he stood up and a bunch fell out of his clothes. We put those in the bag, too.

I was crying to my husband about how many shades of the same colors were in Harvest Moon.  7 greens, 15 yellow/tan/brown... Why can I not tell the difference between yellow, tan, and brown for crying out loud?

My sweet hubby said he would figure out which color was which.  Really?  Awesome!  He's an artist and formally trained in color theory.  Surely he can decipher the colors!  Off I went to fix dinner!

I walked back in to find my husband trying to untangle a mass of floss.  Oh no.  I should have seen that coming.

I spent all night decoding half the colors.  I completely failed at the other half.  They are all just living in a label-less bag together.  I'll figure it out.  Somehow.  :)

Fabric for Harvest Moon

Next up in my queue is Harvest Moon.

I have the chart and the thread ready to go.  Today I ordered the fabric - so I'm almost set!  Since the fabric will only show in various parts of the sky, I decided to go with some Zweigart Aida 14 ct. (Colonial Blue).  The rest of the fabric will be completely covered.

I'm so in love with this pumpkin farm. I can't wait for my fabric to arrive so I can add Harvest Moon to the rotation.

High Tide Sailboat and Dock

We have a sailboat and dock!

I need to go back in with the white for the life preserver. I really love the wacky colors of High Tide.

Best stitches,
Delphyne

Resurrecting "Delphyne in Stitches"

Some of you may remember my needlework blog "Delphyne in Stitches".  It was mostly a cross stitch blog with some knitting and crochet mixed in.  I got thrown a real life curve ball that greatly affected my stitching.  Since I was no longer stitching, I eventually deleted my blog.  I'm happy to report I've rediscovered my love of stitching, and I'm anxious to begin blogging and sharing my work again.

I was in the middle of High Tide when I last left you:

Best stitches,
Delphyne