Christmas before time

I'm writing you from my overheated appartement ( I think the landlord is allergic to cold ), while the snow begins falling outside, slowly and gently. Weather forecast announce 25 cm tomorrow, with super strong winds of 70km/h.
Readers, I present you Canadian Winter. Canadian winter, here are blog readers. Maybe I'll have picture for you ^_^ (Because I still got 2 exams tomorrow, and 25 cm of snow is NOT a reason to close the university. )

But, the snow is not the main reason for my title here.  Something more exciting !
My mom told me yesterday she had no idea what to offer me for Christmas. I suggested : Why not one of the Millenium frame I showed her last time ? My dad is CabinetWorker ( Erf, google translate, he makes wood furnitures ) and maybe he could make me one of those ?

Well, since my dad have too much too do, she decided to buy me one !  I was sooo glad !

And more over, my little sister bought me a one year subscription for The World of Cross stitch magazine ( Insisting on the fact that she want me too do the littles freebies for her baby... which will be done with great pleasure ! )

And you, have you asked for something specific for Christmas ?

****

I have done a little work on my two pieces this week ( Even if i should not, and study instead )

Jazz Cafe from Maia Anchor , I have done a little bit of the hair, maybe more than the half, and began the white flower.

(With a closer look)

And then Elegance of the Orient, by Dimensions

I've done a little of the blue since the last time, and more of the .... hem, yellow shawl the she holds (the grey on the left) 

And in exclusivity today, a picture of a "New" Start !

 I've began this one during the summer, but since I want to offer the Jazz Cafe to my mom, i've put it on the side for the moment to concentrate on my future gift.

Here is The Mad Hatter from HAED design, made by Hanna Lynn (I'm a total fan of her work !)

And this is my progress so far

Made on Lugana 28 ct

Tent stitch, 2 over 1

This is the first time I stitch on evenweave fabric and I love it ! I think it is smoother than Aida, and the finish is less rought.

I will gladly show you what is tent stitch in another post ! This sort of stitch is the easiest (in my opinion) with HAED design. It's a kind of Half-stitch, but with better cover than the regular one. I use the parking method too because ... well because I'm not crazy enough to try to do this with the perfect back technique.
And the big hole on the latest picture it is because I dont have this exact colour of thread. Since I bought almost 250 skeins the last time, and rolling them was a real nightmare, I thought making a break was not a bad idea. ( Ok the little boutique that sells embroidery stuff had 13 colours missing in the ones I needed for this, and I was too lazy to go back 2 weeks after )


Soooo this is it for this week. Pray for me to have success in my exams that are beginning tomorrow until Friday. May all the gods me on my side, and the spirit of all the mathematicians who would be terribly mad against me not doing my homeworks !

(And please, If somewhere I had a bad use of a word in English, I will be very happy to know. I'm writing this blog to be better in with the Shakespeare language. Don't be shy to correct me :)  )

Autumn Stitching

Ahh, Autumn ! Colour changing trees, Starbuck's Spicy Pumpkin Latte and... New School session. Yep.

I've just begun my 2nd year of 3 of my undergraduate in mMathematics and Population Studies. This is one of the hardest undergraduates in the Faculty of Social Sciences of University of Montreal (The worst is Mathematics and Economics, cold chills in my back just to think about it).

This is why I don't have all the time I wished to stitch. With more than 20 hours of courses and TP each week (Practical Work if I translate, kind of homework courses), this is terrible. But I keep a good minding about it, because, unlike the others undergraduates in social sciences, like sociology or anthropology, there is a good job waiting for every students who complete the grad course. Since we are only 20 each year to begin the courses, the employers usually hire the students before they finish.

I found what I wanted to do in life only at 22 years old. Dears readers, if your kids don't know what they want to be in the future, it's okay. Let them find their way and don't put pressure on them. The most important thing is to be happy in where you are in life. And this is the only thing you should wish for your children   :)

*** 

Sensitive is now over, Pictures time !

No, I didn't only studied this autumn, I've been doing a lot of stitching. (A little too much, my 20 pages paper due for next Thursday have a progression of... 0% -____-  )

Let's take a look to my Elegance Of Orient from Dimensions

Aida 18ct

I think I have made a good progression on it. The roses began to appear, and the bottom of the Blue kimono. I will have closer pics next time.

Here is a picture of the back 

I want my back to be neat and perfect. it's is a little bit more complicated to do the stitching this way, but not very hard. Once you know how it works, it becomes very easy !

I will show you how to do this some day. It is important of you want to do towel or other projects where the back is as important as the front, because people could see it.

***

This autumn, I have made a New start, with one of the kits I received in the end of September

It is called Jazz Cafe from Maia Anchor

(The colours are less bright in real life, it's because of my lamp)

Black Aida, 16ct

This is what I made for the moment. I want to offer this to my parents, because it would fit perfectly in their Living room. They are musician and the theme of the decoration is Jazz music. I hope they will like it !

This picture is a close up to show you.... 3/4 stitch !

Since it is not written anywhere that there is 3/4 stitch, i had the surprise when I opened the package. It was the first time i had to do this kind of stitch. And I didn't had the choice to learn how to do them because they are everywhere ! 

It was the first time too I had to work with black aida. It is harder than the white one, because you don't really see the holes, and you have to guess them sometimes. If I have a negative point for dark Aida, is that you need a very good light to work on it. I'm happy to be young and have good eyes, because this would be very hard.

And finally, a picture of the back. 

This is it for the moment.

A question for you !

Is the back important for you? Do you pay attention of the back when you are stitching ? Have you ever heard of the perfect back technique ? 

I would be glad to read you about it !

For know, I have a semester to finish, and good grades with it, I hope !

Have a nice week ! 

:)

New stuff !

Hello everybody ! Long time no see !
Special greetings to everybody from Buffalo who are experiencing the Great Canadian Winter
＼(^o^)／

I have a loooot of new stuff and pics to show you !

First off all, I bought a box full of Anchor and DMC threads, because I wanted to start new projects that were not the kits i usually have.

So this is what it look liked at first  :

Then I thought : Ok, maybe I should cry. Each skein took 10 min to roll. I had over 250 to roll. 

So, after a few days ...

Again, the only thing i had in mind was : why I didn't bought this f*ckn little plastic sh*t to roll all this. 

(ﾉ｀□´)ﾉ⌒┻━┻

Yeah, lot of anger.

But then after a looong week of doing this, and no cross stitch at all (because the BF would have killed me if i let all this mess there and doing something else )

Tadaa !! 

As you can see: Anchor on the left, DMC on the right. Yep Anchor have a better progression of color when compared to DMC. 

DMC vs Anchor? Bof, almost the same thing. I don't prefer one or another. The two are great quality, the only difference is in the color. But I have not work with enough DMC thread to tell you any significant difference.
It's when you work with one of those two you realise Dimension has sh*tty China made thread.

-___-

And no, it's not over. I just don't ave enough plastic/carton cards to put my skeins on. Need to buy some. (At the back, you can see a specimen of the Probability course book in all it's splendor.. )

Oooook. But have you been working on something during all this time ?

Oh yes, I did !

But let me tell you something about university: 

(Yes, I had a summer session. No beach, no fun. Study and study, and working(Because tuition fees))

Buuuuuuuut ... I did have time. Yeah ! 

My super lovely geisha, Elegance of the Orient had a lot of work done on it during summer.

(The reason i had no tan at the end of August) 

(Aida 18ct, super long to do)

After working a lot of hours on my geisha I thought : Hey, why not buy MORE cross stitch, so i will have a lot of stuff in my stach, knowing I will never have enough time in my life to finish them anyway ?

Yeah, why not? 

And this is how my credit card was used during september (after clearing my school bill )

Nice, eh ?

(The BF was soooooooo happy to see this in our postal. Yep *sarcasm*)

Pssssit ...

Pics of new WIP next post !  (⌒▽⌒)☆ 

3, 2, 1 .. Stitch !

Hello and welcome to my new blog !

Doing cross stitching when i was a teenager, i recently open my old embroidery box to find a UFO started and abandoned in 2005... 
Well, time to «retrousser ses manches» as we say in french ! (whehehe sorry, Im French Canadian  ) 

As there were a LOT of mistakes, i have been watching cross stitching videos to learn a second time how to cross stitch  and realize i was doing it all wrong at 14 y-o !!

After 3 months of angers and cries, i finished this little project. And then, i discovered that there were à lot of young people like me who where crazy fans of cross stitch, who posted pictures and videos of their projects. Why not me ?

As my first post here, I will put pictures of my WIP, and those that are finished !

(I take my picture with my phone that is NOT Iphone, sorry for the bad quality )

Soo here are my few projects !



WIP :

#1

This one is called Elegance of the Orient, from Dimensions. I fell in love with this beauty the first time i saw it on Deviantart. As my first project was finished, the one thing i've done after was to order this kit ! I've been working on it since April 25 (the day i received it hehe). It is the first time i work on Aida 18ct and it is harder than expected after ben working for 4 months on Aida 14.

This project, i'm trying to do it with the Perfect Back technique. I will post pictures another time, and tips if you want to do the same !



#2

(Is there someone who knows how to «turn» pictures on this blog? )
This one don't have any name, only a number. It is from Permin of Compenhagen. It is a kind of little kit, really simple to do. This is what my mother bought me when i was very young. I have a lot of them in my embroidery box ! 
I put only 2 hours of works to do it a this point. I wish to give it to my little sister who is waiting for a baby !


Finished :

#1

When they tell you : choose something you really like because at one point, ou will be thinking of throwing it in the fire.. hell yeah this is true ! 
This is called Hummingbirds & Fuchsia from Dimensions, made on Aida 14. It is this one that I found unfinished ( and I remembered why ! ) If it was not of my boyfriend cheering me up, and telling me me that UFOing is bad, i would have throw this one in the garbage. My aunt gave me this 10 years ago and I never really liked it ! But since it is finished, it's okay i feel better ^^

As you notice, there are French Knot in this piece ! They are not perfect, since it was the first time i attempted to do this. Thanks to youtube ^^

#2

This is another Permin of Copenhagen kit with no name, received from my mom when I was very young. Made on Aida 14, it took me only one week to finish ( knowing I was in the end of the semester and studying/exams all over the head).
This one i really love to do it. The colours where wonderful( I looooove pink ! ) and it will match perfectly with the baby room for my little sister ! 

And this is it for now, maybe I will find other treasuries to show you !


And before saying goodbye, a little bit about me !
My name is Marilyn and I am 24 years old. French is my first language and i have some difficulties with English, but i try very hard on this side. I'm living in Montreal, where i do an Undergraduate in Statistics and Population Studies, in University of Montreal ( Even tough i come from Saguenay, which is 6 hours in the north. Yeah, North of Canada \o/ )  I'm working part-time in a restaurant, and studying in the same time ( Yes, i have a summer session -___- ) 
I don't have a lot of time for cross stitching, i wish i had more. But eh ! I want good grades, and i want money... so stitching comes last ! I also love playing Playstation. For the moment i enjoy Oblivion (since my ex coloc «stole» my Skyrim game ). I do RPG too with a group of friend. If you don't know what is Dungeons and Dragons, it will be a pleasure to explain it to you ! 
And this is it !

Well hope you will enjoy my blog, as I enjoy reading about other people !

Have a nice week!

The Crazy Thread Lady 
(No, i don't have any cats, but i have thread. And I'm crazy too.）