EPK

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

First Attempts

Here's the first of my attempts I made on Friday. My first fob. Yes I simplified it down to bare minimum, but it was well recieved. I gave this to Gail who is back in her apartment and itching to come back to work. She'd been eyeing my bird sissors for a few years now.....so in guilt I picked up a pair and made this. I was told that she immediatly put her other scissors away and was now using these entirely.
These were given to Betty a co-worker and my floor-mate (we share the same floor at work for cleaning.) She loves birds and especially hummingbirds, gave good memories of watching them with her late husband in their backyard.
First attempt at a needlebook. Horrible and the inside was worse. Luckily she doesn't know what these are supposed to look like and she's pretty easy to please. Suffice to say she loved it.

For those of you wondering why it took even longer for me to put a new post up, or at just starting to realize this. When I got up on Friday morning the lights on the modem were flashing all wrong. DH and I thought that the service was down and thought very little of it. By the time I was ready to come home and called for a ride, there was a busy signal. Not strange to some folks, but call waiting came with the package and I can't get rid of it, so a busy signal is not a good thing. No, I don't have dial-up, but the phone and internet run off the same box. We didn't figure out that it wasn't the service till after they were closed on Saturday and had to wait till Monday to call. I never realized just how much I rely on the internet for things. That and this weekend wasn't good, had to train a newbie, won't say much since it wouldn't be polite lets just say I hope most of it was never really doing the job before and nerves. Trust me it wasn't a pretty sight.
Concert went well, they had changed the line-up a bit which was nice. And a bit strange since we hadn't seen them in almost a year. Good changes. Now I'm going to gush a little. Since DH and I had seen them so much over the last few years we're known by sight and a few even know me by name. It's always nice to be recognized. But some comments caught me by surprise. I dye my hair and re-did it the night before the concert....and low and behold one of the group mentioned that my hair was a bit redder than usual. At least he noticed right?

I tried to stitch my first charity square...horrible encounter, worst in my memory. It's for Operation Elderly Charity Stitchers. Figured it'd be a great way to stitch all my small stuff and not worry too much about what I'm going to do with it. The only thing to watch being the overall space use. I cut out the 7-inch square from 14ct aida, and started the block off. Everything said it would be a 6-inch square. Got the inside backstitching done at work and started the patchwork border when I started running out of room. So much for an easy stitch. I'm not sure exactly where that square is now. I'm not proud of my temper, but that took the cake last night. Too much stress over the 4 day period and I snapped...the square went flying. I'll probably find it next clean up. But then again, I still haven't found the quilt top I made for a friend of mine 5 years ago. And that wasn't done in by anger. I put it away till I could afford the backing material and batting. It's been AWOL since. Like I've stated before, I live in a small apartment, there's not many hiding spots. But it's doing a wonderful job of it.

Anywho, still don't know what happened with the stitching of the square. I may try again on 18ct which is what I actually prefer when it comes to aida. Supposedly according the calculator I use to calculate fabric says on 18ct the pattern should be a 5 by 5. Though I did settle down and started a teddy bear for my first charity square instead. Already it's about half done. I'm just too backlogged in trying to get caught up with everything to take a photo of it.
No work on Guard This Keep. Friday I worked on the birds, needlebook and fob, the training took alot out of me and got me home late and yesterday was just a mess. So hopefully with the teddy being so close and hopefully it looks like things are going back to somewhat normalacy maybe I'll get to sit down with it tomorrow night or the next. Okay, I just looked at the time...Yikes! I know I'm a night owl but I didn't realize it had changed dates.

Take care peeps and thanks Lili for giving me a bit of a nudge to let you know I didn't fall off the edge of the planet, and I haven't died yet. Kim, Wizard of Oz-ish was a very apt name for what I saw. It's not normal for around here, or at least in my experiance. Though Lili's Twilight Zone referance is apt as well. Didn't seem real at all. Thank-you all for the reassurance that GTK isn't boring the daylights out of you. Greg I've seen Dani the stitching Dragon, she's really something. Hope you get to her soon. Haven't seen any progress photos of her anywhere (though I really havent been looking)

Carol, I'm thinking of doing a two week stitch fest between Fairy Flora and Celtic Christmas. May join the Mirabilia Sal with FF whenever I get GTK done. On the way back from the concert we ran through a bit of your town. DH made a remark that I should've had your addie with me and we'd drop in. Didn't think you'd want visitors after 10:30pm. Told him so, but he said you were probably still stiching and would welcome the break. Leave it to him to find a plausible excuse for anything. Barbara, I hope to heaven that he really enjoys Guard this keep. He appreciates anything that's handmade (he already owns one of my medium projects and his mother has 3 small ones) And he also loves dragons. Does the Reiessance Fairs and things when he can. Lana..the whole blogg? Nice to know that someone else has found thier way to the blogg. Thanks for the visit and kind words, hope to see you again. Okay, definatley have to go to bed now, it's almost 1am here. If I missed a question or something, I'm extremly sorry. I'm way out in left field right now. Night folks!

5 Comments:

Blogger Kitty Couture said...

Wow Amanda, sounds like you had a stressful few days. Here's to hoping this week will be better!

Love those little birdies you made. And for the needlebook - don't worry, practice makes perfect, and next time you'll know exactly what to be watchful for. It's pretty anyway!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006 1:56:00 AM  
Blogger Kim said...

I think your projects look great! You have to remember that it does take a while to get the hang of making these things. I have to laugh when I see some of the stuff I made just last year. But you get better over time w/ practice.

I got the biggest chuckle out of the part about tossing the project out of frustration! I did the same thing when working on my blue moon project two years ago. Ask Greg, it just went flying. LOL At the time it wasn't funny though. I have a terrible time w/ counting and am easily frustrated (Irish temper). Let's just say that sometimes it's not pretty. ;)

Good luck w/ your next charity project, I'm sure it will be great! :D

Wednesday, January 25, 2006 10:58:00 AM  
Blogger mainely stitching said...

Hey, sounds like you've had a few days of it. I sure hope that things go a lot smoother now! Those OECS designs are very small, I know.

Your projects and first-times look GREAT!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006 2:12:00 PM  
Blogger Leeland said...

Thank you for sharing, Amanda (got your mail, thanks!). It feels so good to me to see that I'm not the only one having a raw deal with sewing...
I love these frames, this is all very cute!
Training newbies can be a nightmare... in particular when they're not "motivated" or slow at understanding... Sorry for you!
Glad you're back on the internet, it's amazing how we can rely on this!
Charity square: What frustration, really! I relate to this, I had that problem the first time I tried cross-stitching: the cat never had the upper part of her head, and so visited the bin...
I think I'll try some of these quizzes too...
Lots of hugs!

Thursday, January 26, 2006 4:59:00 AM  
Blogger Dani - tkdchick said...

A valliant effort with finishing! It just gets better with practice!

Friday, January 27, 2006 2:32:00 PM  

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