Gift post

 So this is a post of the cross-stitch gift projects I finished in 2023. In no particular order.

First up is a gift for a workmate. His wife has just had a baby girl in the past few days. 

I do still need to add the name and date of birth before I frame it and pass it on, but obviously I'm not going to put that information on the internet. :)

The pattern is from Whimsical Cross Stitch by Cari Buziak and it's stitched on 16-ct white aida. It's entirely done in shades of pinks and purples with a few yellow highlights and it's very cute in person.

Second is a gift for a friend of mine. (Please excuse the wrinkles, it still needs to be ironed.

Her birthday was in October, but that deadline passed, so the plan was to give it to her for Christmas... ahem. At this point it may just be a very very very very belated birthday present. She's of Dutch heritage, and I'm fairly confident she will love it.

The pattern is by Emma Congdon, and is from Contemporary Cross-Stitch. I stitched it on 16-ct white aida, which is my go-to fabric for basically everything.

Third is destined to be a somewhat belated birthday gift for J's mother. Her birthday was earlier this month.

Again, it needs to be ironed and framed. It's pretty small so I need to search for a rather small frame - I feel some secondhand shopping coming on - you can usually find some nice frames for a few dollars.

The pattern is by Durene Jones, and comes from the magazine 365 Cross Stitch designs. Again stitched on 16-ct white aida.

Fourth was a gift for a friend's 40th birthday, in April 2023.

Obviously, she likes the odd gin. :) This one was ironed, framed and passed on many months ago, so this is the picture I took just after I'd finished it.

The pattern is by Durene Jones and is from the June 2022 issue of Cross Stitcher magazine. Again stitched on 16-ct white aida.

The fifth one was a gift for a workmate. 

I had stitched other gifts for workmates/friends, and she was feeling left out. (She has the WORST fomo).

So I found this chart, and thought it would be perfect.

It has - since this photo - been ironed and framed, and handed on.

And it still sits on her desk. :)

The pattern is designed by Felicity Hall, and is from Contemporary Cross Stitch magazine. Again stitched on 16-ct white aida.

Last (I think) but certainly not least is this festive llama pattern I did for a friend's birthday last year.

She loves llamas and although her birthday is in June, I know she didn't mind getting these Christmas themed ones. :) Again, taken before it was ironed and framed and passed on.

Designed by Cheryl McKinnon, the pattern is from the December 2020 Cross Stitcher magazine. Stitched - I *think* on 16-ct fiddler's blue aida.

That's actually a pretty productive year, for me. :)

Grey Wardens motto - the finished product

I started playing Dragon Age in December 2014. It took me a bit to warm up to the series - not because of the games themselves, but because at the time I had to share a gaming computer with spawn, which wasn't ideal.

However, J - who is handy at that sort of thing - made me up my very own computer, and I splashed out on a fancy gaming rig, and I was all set. (I play on PC. Consoles and I don't get on.) Anyway.

Once I fell, I fell hard, and started looking for fanworks. Fic, art, some meta although I'm not a big meta person as such ... you get the idea.

Then I had the notion of doing a Dragon Age-related cross-stitch and started hunting for something. There are some nice ones out there, but not what I wanted. I decided to stitch up the Grey Wardens motto, which you see above. In some versions, the first two phrases are reversed, but I like this version better. I dug up a piece of fabric - 28ct evenweave - I believe the colour is Purple Haze. I know it's from countrystitch.com.

So then it was a matter of choosing the colours. In-game, the Wardens' armor is blue and grey. Here is a terrible screenshot to give you the idea. So I knew I wanted blue and grey for some of the words, and some kind of red for the rest, representing blood.

To become a Grey Warden, in game, you drink the blood of the darkspawn, taking on their taint, making you the only people in Thedas capable of slaying an archdemon. (That's a terrible explanation but I don't want this post to get too long.)

Initially, the red I chose was brighter than I wanted, and J suggested blending it with a darker red, so the red words are a blend of DMC's 347 and 3777. I think it represents the intertwining of the Grey Wardens' destiny with the darkspawn pretty well. The blue of the "I" and the first letter of the word in the other lines is  336, and the grey is 425. The other colours are pretty minor.

I wanted, at first, for the "I" something like a letter from an old illuminated manuscript, but I couldn't find one I really liked. Then I went to the annual Rotary Book Sale, and found 500 Alphabets in Cross Stitch by Julie Hasler, which I basically picked up for nothing. I went to the sale in the last hour and it was fill a bag for $5. It was great.

So both alphabets I used are from that book. I chose the "I" because it had the height I wanted, plus a certain degree of decoration without being too fancy. And the other alphabet gives me a medieval vibe, which I also wanted.

I was going to do a simple border, but in the end decided against it. Partly out of laziness, and partly because I think it looks fine without - although "vigilance" could be nudged over a bit more. It's rolled  up and put away for now, as I want to get it professionally framed and don't have the $ for it at the moment.

Started on September 11 2015, and finished on July 9, 2016.

Cross-posted to http://janesgravity.dreamwidth.org/

Surely it's still Sunday somewhere (15) and What are you reading on Monday? (3)

I'm a bit late this week, with the Sunday post, anyway.

The Sunday Post is a chance to talk about the week that was, and the week that may be. It's hosted by Kimba, here: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is all about the books, all about the books, no ... something. Anyway. You can go here for that one: http://bookdate.blogspot.co.nz/

The reason today's post is late is because I SAW STAR WARS TODAY. AND IT WAS AWESOME. I loved it so. much. Like. SO VERY MUCH. So I was out and about when I'd normally be doing this and then apparently I had some urgent gaming I just had to do *ahem*.

ANYWAY. I actually blogged last week, and wrote reviews.

Wonders will never cease. I reviewed Witches Abroad: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/witches-abroad-review.html and also Think of England and Dragon Age: Magekiller: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/two-short-reviews.html

Hopefully this week I'll write up a Star Wars review. It will not be spoiler free because it's likely I won't be able to restrain myself.

What else. I picked away a bit more at my Dragon Age cross stitch; I'll try and take a photo of it for next week. At the moment, of course, I can only stitch when the kittens are sleeping - lol.

I also chose my yearly New Project for starting over the end of 2015/start of 2016 as I embark on my yearly re-watch of The Lord of the Rings. Generally speaking, I start on about December 28 and watch half a movie a night. I love them to pieces but I have to be realistic about ... time.

I've chosen an absolutely gorgeous peony pattern, and started it at my friend's on Saturday night, for our weekly stitch and watch, the last for the year as her family descends for the festivities. Once again, I'll try and take a pic of it for next week.

Also ta daaaa!! I made my goodreads reading goal for the year! https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/1882319 I've never done that before!

Let's see ... last week I finished Think of England by K J Charles, and Dragon Age; Magekiller by Greg Rucka ... oh! And also We Were Liars, by E Lockhart, which I really enjoyed. Hopefully I'll get a review up this week.

I also read the first book of Umbrella Academy, by Gerard Way, which was free on the Dark Horse app. It's very interesting and I enjoyed it a lot.

Right now I'm reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik, and absolutely loving it. Just. Loving it. I also took a pass at The Martian by Andy Weir, but I'm not sure how far I'm going to dig into that because I really want to finish Uprooted. It's the kind of fantasy that I love - awesome, well-rounded kick-ass girls, friendships, magic and it's just. Cosy.

So. How was your week? How's your week coming up? What are you reading?

Sunday post - 10

The Sunday Post is a chance to catch up with the blogosphere, as well as people's lives and to bring the blogosphere up to date with your own.

Hosted here: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/

I missed another Sunday last week, but the school holidays took a lot more out of me than I expected. Being home the whole time was certainly ... an experience. Spawn is pretty good at entertaining himself but he's also LOUD and has taken up rather a lot of space in my head these past two weeks.

Not a bad thing, but it has left very little room for my own things and thoughts.

Back to school tomorrow though and as much as I'd step in front of a train for him, I'm relieved!

I haven't been doing much this past week really. A little bit of stitching, which has been nice, and I'm making pretty good progress on the Grey Wardens pattern.

I read Dawn by Octavia E. Butler for A More Diverse Universe, and I'm hoping to put a review up for that tomorrow.

Possibly optimistically, I also listed The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and the collected works of Hone Tuwhare for the challenge, but I'm not sure if I'll get to them or not - the #SalemAlong has begun and I need to catch up on that also.

Having said that though, I might try and get through Hone Tuwhare's book - he was a poet, so it's really a collection of poetry. I'll see how I go.

I did finally manage to blog last week, and wrote rather rushed reviews for The Namesake:
http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/the-namesake-review.html  and also Mad Max Fury Road: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/mad-max-fury-road-review.html

There was no movie watched on Friday night as I ended up playing Inquisition instead. The peace and quite of a sleeping household cannot be underestimated - lol.

Hopefully - in addition to the review for Dawn, I'll also update my progress on the Grey Wardens pattern - I'm really happy with how it's coming out. Optimistically, there'll also be a review of the Hone Tuwhare book.

We shall see.

How's your week looking?

Sunday post 8

What's kicking world?

The Sunday Post is a chance to catch up - chat about what's been going on on your blog and in real life, and what's coming up.

Hosted here: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/

It was my first week as a non-employed person, but spawn was sick for much of it, so I haven't quite settled in to any kind of a routine yet.

It was one of those weeks where you feel like you get absolutely nothing done but you're still exhausted by the end of it.

I did manage to blog a couple of times though.

I reviewed Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/in-effort-to-broaden-my-own-reading.html#comment-form

and also the movie Scream, which I watched for my Friday movie night: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/scream-review.html

Coming up this week, hopefully will be reviews for The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness and Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller.

I pretty much inhaled the Ness in a couple of days, and I have about 100 pages to go on Our Endless Numbered Days, so fingers crossed. Hopefully spawn will be back at school this week, and I can settle in to something that looks like a routine.

Up next, for reading, I have The Calling, by David Gaider, which is a Dragon Age novel, Prophecy by Ellen Oh, which I picked up at the library and fits with my personal 1/3 diversity reading challenge, and either Uprooted by Naomi Novik, or Finders Keepers by Stephen King.

For non-reading ... I didn't watch a movie this past Friday; instead I watched a couple of episodes of Empire, in order to clear some space on my hard drive. I love Empire - it's so, so, so clever. It's basically King Lear, set in modern times at a recording company wherein the owner is trying to decide which of his sons will succeed him.

I finished my 10 hours of stitching on Circe (I stitch in a rotation, of sorts) and I've started my Grey Wardens pattern. Which I'm keeping very simple because I'm floating without a net on this one.
I'm doing it on 28-ct lugana (I think) hand-dyed purple haze (I think) and I'm using 336 and 415 for the wording. I just need border colour ideas:
https://twitter.com/justaddbooks/status/642244102721945600

I met with the job consultant on Thursday, and I have "homework" of a sort to get done. Nothing taxing - just working on updating my CV and registering with job websites. Our next meeting is Tuesday week.

Speaking of, my redundancy payout came through (yay) so I can feed my family and pay my rent for a bit, which is nice. I'm still waiting on the superannuation though. So that's on the to-do list for this week for sure.

I'm hoping to finish Empire, and maybe Salem this week. I need to choose a movie for Friday night (suggestions welcome) and I'm hoping to finish Our Endless Numbered Days, and read Prophecy. I want to at least catch up on my Goodreads challenge.

I'm still batting at Inquisition and playing it badly but it's so pretty. *_*

How's your week been and/or going?

Inspiration on Monday

From Trish at http://www.lovelaughterinsanity.com/ comes the idea of sharing the creative things in our lives that inspire us.

Every first and third Monday of the month, share your inspirations, and link back to Trish's blog.

For this week, I'm going to talk about cross-stitch. Again - lol.

Specifically, I'm going to talk about rotations.

The idea of a rotation is to give a project a set time - several hours for example, or a week, or whatever works for you, before switching it out for another project. And so on.

Here's a pretty good definition:
http://littlethreadcrafts.com/2014/term-of-the-week-rotation/

For myself, I have cycled through various types of rotations with various success. Or, really, failure. Which is my fault, because I'm terrible at focusing on anything. But a few years ago, I decided to give it a real, proper, grown-up shot.

This, of course, meant buying stationary.  I decided to go for an hours-based rotation because I find that easiest to keep track of. So I bought a spiral-bound exercise book and sallied forth.

On the left you can sort of see how I organise it. I break each hour down to 15-minute slots, and when I've filled a slot, I mark it out with highlighter. I strive (ha!) to do about half an hour at a time. It doesn't seem like much, but it can build quite quickly.

I put the rotation on pause in order to finish the X-Files cross-stitch I'm doing for a friend, but I only have the word "BELIEVE" to complete and then that will be done, so back to the rotation.

I've had large, small and medium-sized rotations over the years. I've had ...well, let's just say it took me a while to settle and focus on what I wanted to do.

These days, I stitch for myself, mostly. So I'm invested in the journey if you like, and not the destination. It's a calming hobby for the most part, and I feel reasonably productive. It's something I can do in front of the TV and it gives my hands something to do.

Because I'm ..... me, I have more WIPs than I really know what to do with, so it was important that I had a rotation that was manageable, and had projects I enjoy working on.

I will admit that I have changed out projects more than once. Sometimes, something I've been working on just makes me grit my teeth and I know it's time for a change.

The one project that has remained constant is Circe, which you can sort of see in the above picture, on the left. The finished product should look like this: http://www.jilloxtonxstitch.com/sample51circe.htm

I've been working on it since about ...2003? 2004  I think? Very much off-and-on but it's a favourite and so it goes in the focus slot, which means that I cycle through 10 hours of Circe between 10 hours of other projects.

For me, the best rotation is a small one, so I try to stick to three projects. Apart from Circe, those projects have changed, for various reasons.

When the X-Files gift is done, my rotation will look like this:

Circe - 10 hours.
Autumn pic from Stoney Creek magazine (I love autumn colours and it's a really lovely picture) - 10 hours
Circe - 10 hours
Yet-to-be-started Dragon Age project - 10 hours
Circe - 10 hours

Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary.

When Circe is finished, I'll likely promote the autumn pic to the focus piece and dig through my other WIPs to keep my rotation constant.

What's inspiring you this week?