Where is the rewind button?

Seriously, I need to find the rewind button for this year. I just looked at the calendar and realized that today is the last day of February. How did that happen? That leaves a month and half before the April online Needlework show and just at 3 months before June TNNA. And I was just recovering from Nashville insanity! Seriously, my head is busting with ideas, but I need time for them to get out!

Progress has been made: almost all of the house is at a relatively clean state. I probably wouldn't invite the Queen of England over, but she's not likely to drop in unexpectedly. The dishes need doing again, but most of the laundry is done.

Most of the baby gift are made, which is good because one baby has arrive, and another two are imminent.

I am working on new designs, at least on paper. I need to get something graphed because tomorrow is stitch night - what will I stitch?

Do Do Do Da Da Da

Whoosh! Was that the sound of a week going by? How did that happen? I'm still scratching my head. Well, at least it has been a somewhat productive week.

First, the weekend revolved around this activity:

That is DH completing the Jalepeno Hundred in Haligen, Texas. Yes, 100 miles on a bicycle. And it was very windy. I went shopping (and was there for the start and finish of the ride). This also involved driving from Houston to south Texas and back for the weekend, so much time was spent on the road. Again.

Luckily, I had President's day off to recover, so much laundry was done (yay). Preparations for Nashville Market had also left a trail of destruction that somehow invovled most of the house, so I have been slowly cleaning. Not my favorite activity, but I know I function better when the house is cleaned up. My craft room/office is usable again! I can sit in there and draw/pull colors/paint! More cleaning remains for the weekend.

I made it to one of the two LNS's near me with my new products (I should get to the other one today or tomorrow). I dropped off copies of all of the new designs as well as a sample T-Shirt. I'm so excited about this - I didn't sell any t-shirts at market, but the LNS owner took orders the first day it was hanging up in the shop!

The big event of the week relates to the title of the post. If you don't recognize it then, "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da is all I want to say to you!" That's right, it is The Police! And we have tickets! If you are a fan and are interested in going to one of the concerts, then I highly recommend getting in on a presale, either through Best Buy (if you're already a Reward Zone Member) or through joining the Police Fan Club.

Finally, a confession: I haven't been working on my cross stitch much this week. I have been trying to figure out booties to go with all the hats that were in the previous post. One came out too big, so I'll have to alter the pattern and do it again. The designs are starting to shout at me in my head, so I'll work on them this weekend!

In the meantime, here is a better picture of "X Marks the Spot":

Everyone I know is having a boy

That's three hads done in shades of blue and one almost done in white with blue hearts. All of our friends who are currently due to have a kid are expecting boys. Booties will follow. However, somehow my knitting is speeding up because I think the second one of these only took me about 3 hours, and the same with the third. The last one is taking longer because of the hearts, but it will fly now.

I'm also working on some color conversions for more Ribbons and sketching for June! Cool new designs on their way, I promise!

Mayan Mystery

To everyone out there who shops at INS's, this is what "Myan Mystery" really looks like:

It doesn't have the same quote as the Roman design, and the glyphs aren't blue (unless you don't stitch them with the variegated thread). The top left corner looks different because it is showing what the hardanger alternative looks like when it is stitched up.

Also, "Triangularity" was actually stitched on a light-brown background, not white as is being shown on many websites:

Some preliminary computer mock-ups of designs were sent out, and I didn't realize that they would be used on a web site. Now other web sites are scarfing the images from the original website, so the problem is being compounded. I have sent better images to the orginal website, but I don't know if all the scarfers will re-scarf the images. Very sad.

Anyway, if you like the concept of these designs (and Easter Ellipse and Violet), they stitch up beautifully! Ok, I am a bit biased. You can see more pictures from one model stitcher here: http://stop-the-world-i-want-to-get-off.blogspot.com/

2000 miles to Nashville (and back)

This may be a bit like a hobbits tale: there and back again.

I left on a balmy Wednesday night; my Houston helper had bummed her knee out, so instead of doing the drive in one big jump, I was doing it in stages. I went to lovely Baton Rouge and caught some Z's at Mom's Manor.

Thursday I got up early and started the journey North.

It wasn't long before I was entering the third state of my journey: Mississippi. I made a brief stop at the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson. No, I wasn't in trouble or anything, a good friend of mine works there and we met up for lunch! After lunch, I was on my way again, although the temperature was rapidly dropping. I stopped for the night in Southhaven, MS and visited with my Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle. I stayed in my Grandmother's house, which was a bit strange since it was now empty. Well, it wasn't completely empty; my father is getting it ready to be sold, so there are tools and cans of paint everywhere. In a way that was comforting because it reminded me of Dad. I took my Great-Aunt out for dinner (we had the early-bird), then after chatting for a while, I went back to the house to finish putting patterns together! I thought I would never get done! But I did (after watching Survivor, CSI and ER). The next morning, I was supposed to get up early and pick up Amy, who was going to help me out at the show, but I woke up to reports of freezing rain and bridges and overpasses closed. I waited a bit and then called the 1-800 number for Tennessee road information. I was expecting a recorded message, but someone answered the phone! He very nicely told me that all the roads were open, so out I went. The roads were indeed fine, but nice and empty. I did see several accidents, so it must've been slick earlier. I picked up Amy, and away to Nashville we went.

Finally, headed east, the weather was quite different:

Once we got to Nashville, we unloaded the car and started to set up the room. It doesn't take too long, and this is what it looked like when it was done:

Friday we had one last hurrah before all the hustle and bustle of Market and went to dinner at the Grand Ole Opry (although we almost didn't because of the $12 + tax parking). In the end it was all worth it. The hotel is really neat inside and the food was fabulous!

Unfortunately, after dinner we had to package Snowfight accessory packs and Map Action Packs (for the new complimentary design). The Snowfight accessory packs weren't too bad, there were only 30 of them, but I had made 250 maps to go with the new design, so we were cutting, stuffing and labelling those for quite a while.

Here are pictures of the new releases:

Mayan Mystery: Note there is now a hardanger alternative included for those who don't want to cut their fabric. The glyphs around the border represent the 20 days of the month.

Easter Ellipse: A companion to Angle of Love.

Triangularity: A companion to Labyrinth and Maze

Snowfight: Violet - a new dragon in the snowfight series!

This isn't the best picture (I'll put a better one up later), but I forgot to take a direct picture of this one: "X Marks the Spot", which is the newest in the complimentary design series, The Adventures of Oscar and Ralph. You can see the treasure map in the center of this design, which Oscar (the dragon) is holding and Ralph (the mouse) is studying. The map is actually a Stitchable Fabric Button and is washable and colorfast. A very cool enhancement to the stitching!

Saturday and Sunday were filled with the usual Market stuff, then it was break it all down and pack it all up again. The drive home was long, and I pit-stopped in Baton Rouge again, but I made it home safe and sound.

Moving right along

Nashville Market awaits. The stitching is, miraculously, all done. The printing is, again, miraculously, all done. That's not to say that there isn't some work left to be done.

What got done:

Mayan Mystery turned out beautifully! (Even if I do say so myself) There's even an alternative to the hardanger included.

A little dragon that took a detour in the mail showed up Monday and got turned into an ornament on Tuesday using some gorgeous batik fabric. I love how this one came out.

There are two other designs that were already done.

There is also a new complimentary design (available through shops that buy from Cross Eyed Kat) featuring Oscar the dragon and Ralph the mouse (as seen in "Wanna Trade?", "Celebrate with Me", and "Making Christmas"). This design will also feature a brand new type of embellishment: a stitchable fabric "button".

We will also have mucho cool T-shirts.

Five reams of paper and close to five cartridges of ink went into making patterns for the show. Plus cardstock, bags and other sundries.

Pictures will be up on the website next week. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to post from Market, but if not - everyone stay warm out there! And keep stitching!

Moving right along

Nashville Market awaits. The stitching is, miraculously, all done. The printing is, again, miraculously, all done. That's not to say that there isn't some work left to be done.

What got done:

Mayan Mystery turned out beautifully! (Even if I do say so myself) There's even an alternative to the hardanger included.

A little dragon that took a detour in the mail showed up Monday and got turned into an ornament on Tuesday using some gorgeous batik fabric. I love how this one came out.

There are two other designs that were already done.

There is also a new complimentary design (available through shops that buy from Cross Eyed Kat) featuring Oscar the dragon and Ralph the mouse (as seen in "Wanna Trade?", "Celebrate with Me", and "Making Christmas"). This design will also feature a brand new type of embellishment: a stitchable fabric "button".

We will also have mucho cool T-shirts.

Five reams of paper and close to five cartridges of ink went into making patterns for the show. Plus cardstock, bags and other sundries.

Pictures will be up on the website next week. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to post from Market, but if not - everyone stay warm out there! And keep stitching!

Race to the finish

I didn't get quite as much stitching done as I planned to this weekend. I did finish making the charts for everything except the model that isn't done. I also printed out everything for the patterns for the model that isn't done. Then there was this little thing called the Superbowl. The lights were dim, it was hard to see, I was in charge of some food, so less stitching got done than I had hoped. I did attach a new embellishment to the new complimentary design that will premier at Market. It is something completely new and cool, so I hope people will like it! Pictures will be up after Market.

Anyway, I did bag up some charts after the Superbowl, then I got back to stitching and I finished stitching the entire first line of the quote when I realized that the first word was misspelled. D'oh! Luckily, just two letters were reversed, so they can be switched without having to rejigger the entire line. But remember when I said I had printed out everything for the pattern already? Double d'oh. The first page has to be reprinted again! Guess what I'm doing tonight? Printing and stitching.

I'm going crazy!

Nashville Nashville Nashville Nashville

Ok, that is sort of out of my system. I am getting closer to being ready. The model is almost done. Just the backstitching on the columns to do, then the quote, then the corner motifs. The two other designs have been stretched, now they just have to be matted and photographed. Then they can be printed. I'm running low on cover stock, so I have to run to the store for that.

One little model is still in the hands of the US Postal Service. If it doesn't show up, this will be the first time I've lost a model. And of course, there's no time to stitch a new one before the show. The best we can do is have a printout and get it redone. I'm still crossing my fingers that it will show up today - it is so adorable!

Then of course, there's the Superbowl. I love watching it, especially for the commercials, but it is always the weekend before Nashville Market, and we always have company, so I'm always busy.

Ok, I need a disco ball and an ornament/fob display tree - any thoughts on where I can find these on short notice and cheap?