March 03 X-Stitch Diary

26th March 03

I finished "Clever" last night. He took a total of 36 hours: 4 hours back stitching, an unbelievable 10 hours on the lilac background, and the cat himself about 22 hours. I think that "Contented" must have taken about the same length of time, but I did not bother to time myself properly with him.

The contrast between having the backstiching "on" and "off" is quite a contrast as can be clearly seen in the shots on the left and right of the cat. Once I started the backstitching, I really didn't want to stop as I was so close to finishing him, but then my friends turned up and dragged me off to work!! LOL

I am going to Stitch 2003 at Olympia in London on Friday, where hopefully I can meet up with Piwi. I will be on the lookout for the new Margaret Sherry Cattitudes designs, I especially like the one of the cat hanging on the washing line with the Knickers!

23rd March 03

The shot on the right is Clever as at 22 hours of stitching. Vikki's cream aida is 16 count rather than the traditional 14, I think I prefer doing the Cattitudes on a 14 or 28 count. 16 seems to constrict the size of the design quite considerably. Clever is progressing well, all of the cat is now stitched and I am currently working on the lilac background.

19th March 03

I awoke early on the morning of Wednesday the 19th March, the morning they dropped the first bombs in Bagdad. It was strangely compelling sitting there and stitching Clever's cream belly section while the news reports scrolled across the screen. I can often look back at past pieces of stitching and remember where I was or what I was doing or listening to when I look at particular sections of the finished piece. Like the frog I sewed on the beach at La Pineda in Spain, or the bear I finished while coming home after the eclipse non-event in Cornwall. I guess the bombing of Iraq isn't something that we will want to remember as time goes by, but there you go.

15 March 03

I've stitched some more on Clever. I've finished all his Ginger Bits now. LOL!

I joined another Cross Stitch Group on Friday, today I was emailing Sandra from this group and she is stitching the Cattitudes too (individually). She has also done the ginger bits on Clever first.

I heard from Pamela Kellogg about the dark stitch on Wishbone's cheek. I was right, that dark heart symbol shouldn't have been where it was, Pamela thinks that something happened when the design was converted into a PDF file, and is going to ask her web designer to amend it. I suppose typing in the wrong symbol is easily done and it's not as if a Cross Stitch chart is easy to proofread, I'm not sure, but I suppose this is how PDFs are made?

12 March 03

Wishbone is now complete, save attaching the Mill Hill Charm Bead which I still have to get, but it is probably better if I leave the attachment of the charms to the end as they will be pulled around and get in the way of stitching hoops when the other cats are being stitched.

I think that there is a mistake on the chart as one of the symbols on his right cheek a black heart is for a really dark brown thread (dmc 938), and this was not pictured in the picture completed by the model stitcher. I think it should have been a black arrow instead, making it a creamy colour dmc 738 (or 9), which blends into the rest of his cheek. I may email Pam Kellog who designed the Cats in the Hats about this.

I have now gone back to sewing the Daisy Border. But after a couple of days of doing this I though I'd have a break and start off Vikki's "Clever" cat for the Cattitudes RR. To the right is my progress on "Clever" after four and a half hours stitching.

08 March 03

It has taken over 10 days for this computer to be put back together again and reinstalled after it was "gutted" on the last Thursday in February. It now has a 1.8 gigahertz processor and a 64 meg video card, but I still can't get The Sims to work. I wasted 4 hours yesterday reinstalling the game with all the expansion packs (currently numbering 5 additional modules), all was going well until I tried loading "Unleashed" the last pack, and probably the best one because the Sims can have pets, but this just kept crashing back to desktop so it all had to come off again..... booo hoo.

In the week with no machine I've kept busy stitching, and Wishbone the Cat in the Hat is almost complete, I just have to sew his whiskers! Here's a WIP shot that I took of him last weekend.

It is just as well that Wishbone is finished as the Cattitudes RR has arrived from Vikki. I'll be starting that presently, I just wanted to get Wishbone finished first. The backstitching on his hat outlining the berries really brings it into focus.

Diary Entries: