Excitement Abounds!!!
I'm not sure why this news makes me wee-my-pants excited, especially considering that I go home and stitch practically every single night anyway, but I have somehow managed to talk my bosses into letting us have a needle club at work! Yea me!! So, once a week, after normal business hours (there is really no such thing as "normal" hours in a lab, but we'll give it our best shot), we shall all conviene together and do whatever kind of needlework we do.
Instead of stitching last night, I got all my stuff together for my chosen project and spent the entire night winding bobbins. So, who's the lucky project, you ask? I've just been itching for an excuse to start work on a HAED Quick Stitch, and I figured this would be the perfect forum for it...Jasmine Becket-Griffith's (no shock there) QS Angel In Lilac! Since my office got redecorated (due to a busted pipe), she shall match my purple walls quite nicely (they are about the color of her dress)!
I have already ran across glitch #1...the chart calls for DMC 776 (Medium Pink) and DMC 3326 (Lt Rose). Problem is, at least at my local Hobby Lobby (the only store we have that carries anything cross stitch in my town), 3326 is rebranded 776 and they are exactly the same color...there is even a 776 in parentheses underneath the 3326. I looked online for the reasoning and about four years ago DMC renamed 776 to 3326, but apparently there wasn't a 3326 before that time (best I could tell), so I'm not sure if Hobby Lobby's thread is four years old (not a shock there) or if DMC still issues the same color with two different names. I frantically scoured my entire thread stash to no avail last night, and, as a last ditch effort, ended up going online and ordering both of them from 123Stitch (as well as their Anchor counterparts). Both were listed as their proper color names, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I'm sure there isn't enough differences in the color to hurt its use in two separate locations, but I do have the little matter of OCD nagging at me constantly. Plus, I was really hoping to do this without spending much money and using the resources I already have, but life's never been kind to me that way, and I should have known better.
Another thing about my local HL that bothers me is that they don't carry 3860 Cocoa, and I don't think I've ever done any project that didn't call for that color, sometimes in bulk! They don't even have a slot for it! Shame on you Hobby Lobby (and for your personal politics...but I'm not going there). Besides, I don't know why HL is a craft store anyway, the amount of crafts they actually carry would fill a closet!
Anyway, I've digressed (again)...back to the main subject...I now have another project that's getting moved to my WIP's! I have four works in progress going at one time! It's complete anarchy! I'm vowing that I will keep the project at work and not take it home for any reason. Hopefully, that will keep it from affecting my work on Pea (which I seem to be avoiding, although by no fault of my own, stupid head).
I do still have my worries about a HAED QS in general. I worry about the quality and the detail level, especially since it will be my co-worker's first view of a HAED (and some of them have never even seen a cross-stitch project in progress). I wanted something that was easy, but looked complicated and a HAED is the best option for that. The lack of backstitching, half-stitching, and quarter-stitching always speeds things up...just straight full crosses. I also always grid a HAED (not usually a kit) and that always makes things much faster for the counting. I will have to be more careful and make my backs look better than I normally would especially since I will have eyes upon me, but I am capable of it (I just usually end up being too lazy and not caring what the back looks like).
So wish us luck! More than likely, after several weeks, I will end up being the only person who shows up, but that's OK!
Instead of stitching last night, I got all my stuff together for my chosen project and spent the entire night winding bobbins. So, who's the lucky project, you ask? I've just been itching for an excuse to start work on a HAED Quick Stitch, and I figured this would be the perfect forum for it...Jasmine Becket-Griffith's (no shock there) QS Angel In Lilac! Since my office got redecorated (due to a busted pipe), she shall match my purple walls quite nicely (they are about the color of her dress)!
I have already ran across glitch #1...the chart calls for DMC 776 (Medium Pink) and DMC 3326 (Lt Rose). Problem is, at least at my local Hobby Lobby (the only store we have that carries anything cross stitch in my town), 3326 is rebranded 776 and they are exactly the same color...there is even a 776 in parentheses underneath the 3326. I looked online for the reasoning and about four years ago DMC renamed 776 to 3326, but apparently there wasn't a 3326 before that time (best I could tell), so I'm not sure if Hobby Lobby's thread is four years old (not a shock there) or if DMC still issues the same color with two different names. I frantically scoured my entire thread stash to no avail last night, and, as a last ditch effort, ended up going online and ordering both of them from 123Stitch (as well as their Anchor counterparts). Both were listed as their proper color names, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I'm sure there isn't enough differences in the color to hurt its use in two separate locations, but I do have the little matter of OCD nagging at me constantly. Plus, I was really hoping to do this without spending much money and using the resources I already have, but life's never been kind to me that way, and I should have known better.
Another thing about my local HL that bothers me is that they don't carry 3860 Cocoa, and I don't think I've ever done any project that didn't call for that color, sometimes in bulk! They don't even have a slot for it! Shame on you Hobby Lobby (and for your personal politics...but I'm not going there). Besides, I don't know why HL is a craft store anyway, the amount of crafts they actually carry would fill a closet!
Anyway, I've digressed (again)...back to the main subject...I now have another project that's getting moved to my WIP's! I have four works in progress going at one time! It's complete anarchy! I'm vowing that I will keep the project at work and not take it home for any reason. Hopefully, that will keep it from affecting my work on Pea (which I seem to be avoiding, although by no fault of my own, stupid head).
I do still have my worries about a HAED QS in general. I worry about the quality and the detail level, especially since it will be my co-worker's first view of a HAED (and some of them have never even seen a cross-stitch project in progress). I wanted something that was easy, but looked complicated and a HAED is the best option for that. The lack of backstitching, half-stitching, and quarter-stitching always speeds things up...just straight full crosses. I also always grid a HAED (not usually a kit) and that always makes things much faster for the counting. I will have to be more careful and make my backs look better than I normally would especially since I will have eyes upon me, but I am capable of it (I just usually end up being too lazy and not caring what the back looks like).
So wish us luck! More than likely, after several weeks, I will end up being the only person who shows up, but that's OK!
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Linda