Artsy-fartsy. A little bit gutsy... ...and everything in between

29.8.12

A STITCHY BIRTHDAY

My little group of stitchy friends and I have gotten into the habit of celebrating our birthdays at our local DMC store. (yes, they lovingly let us and we in turn lovingly support them 100%).

Last June was my turn...and given how I love to have fun, I had party hats, loot bags, kiddie tablecloths... and we potlucked ourselves full.

The Little Mermaid design was in honor of the Mermaid SAL that is ongoing... the Looney Tunes in honor of the latest series that DMC has launched here... every little thing had a meaning. And it was so much fun!

Ofcourse, it wasn't just food... we brought our stitchy stuff to show and share. No get-together is complete without some form of "okrayan". (**okrayan- critiquing).

But it's all done in good faith. :) End goal being us laughing and our stitching improving.

Here are some pictures to show you the fun we had during my birthday. And no... I'm not 12 (though the hats may say otherwise). Multiply that by 3 and you'd roughly get to my age. LOL!

This is Yeya, one of my stitchpert teachers

Nina, our resident Lizzie Kate fan

I had two cakes that afternoon. Oh and by the way, that's Rene's famous spaghetti. It's TO-DIE-FOR.

Group shot!

Their gift to me. Stitched by Honey, beaded by Yeya, framed by Rene and all around supported by the rest. I'm treasuring this forever!!!

Cake from Angel. Thanks Gel!

Loot bags filled with either beads, patterns, thread heaven, tiny hoops, invisible thread for beading, fabric.... I prepared a month in advance and shopped for this party :D

This is HONEY. One of the stitchperts. She taught me how to TUCK AWAY and generally is my stitching mentor. :)

Kathie, my stash shopping buddy.

Mega Stitchpert Rene. Who stitches majority of the DMC patterns for their displays etc. He's done this LAST SUPPER at least 3 or 4 times...

Look at how NEAT his back is.

These stitchies gave me the itchies.

I realize it's been quite some time since I've updated my blog. A lot has happened. First, there was another local stitchy get-together by DMC Philippines. This was when they launched their Team Manila patterns. I'll be updating a little bit at a time as I don't want to jumble everything up.

Sheer loyalty to my local DMC makes me temper my words... before anything else, I want to say I LOVE DMC. But I don't want to sugar coat and pretend I like the latest designs.

The patterns are designed by Team Manila. Funky designs for Printed shirts. Yes, it promotes the country. (Of all people, you'd hear me cheer for that. Go PHILIPPINES!!) Yes, we hear you say you were targeting the youth. But here's my constructive thoughts on it:

Cross Stitching is done by those who want TIMELESS designs that would stand the test of time. If you were targeting the youth, the patterns are great but it would've been better making them into SMALL KITS instead. I don't think the youth, especially teenagers, would take hours of their life stitching the same color... over and over again. It's like a poster! I know I wouldn't have the patience for it. You're talking thousands of stitches...on the same color. Now on the other hand, if they had made patterns of the actual sceneries or landmarks... then, it would be worth stitching such a big size. But why would we want to stitch up a poster? I wouldn't even buy the poster, let alone stitch it up. Designs like Team Manila's belong on the funky Tshirts they were originally designed for.

Whoever approved the team manila designs and decided to make it into BIG poster sizes... hmm... may I suggest asking/making a survey of the local stitchers and asking them what they would want to stitch/spend on? I can't believe no one thought of making them into small kits-- since they did say they're targetting the youth. These are team manila designs...I've seen their SMALL posters in their shops. I wonder why the marketing person/folk decided to make it as a BIGGER cross stitch pattern. Bet he or she does not stitch. Or else she'd know how...err... mind-numbing it is to stitch the same color for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours...

Here are the pics so you can see for yourself what I mean... take note-- each project is huge... forgot the stitch counts but let's just say it's more or less 200++ x 250++ stitches...

I love this sign post. If they can make the arrows into a shirt or better yet a bag, I'll totally buy it.

Now, with all that being said, I do want to say DMC came up with a brill plan. They called me aside and asked me to form a local club. A local stitching club. And with the people that came to support DMC that day, we decided to call the club EKIS@KARAYOM (literal translation is X's and Needles).

We brainstormed on the name and voted for it. And decided to meet once a month, every 4th saturday.

If it weren't for DMC, our little stitching group wouldn't have grown so fast. So... thank you DMC for the idea. :) I'll do my best to promote Cross Stitching and bring it back to the forefront of craftsmaking.

Oh! Here's our beautiful DMC girls. The women who have wholeheartedly supported us and who keeps us smiling. (*clap-clap-clap*)

And here are the folks who helped form EKIS@KARAYOM. :)

30.7.12

3...2...1... LAUNCH!

I've done it!

Every so often I'd come upon a cross stitch pattern that I like and internally I'd say..."hmm... I think I can do that". And so... a dream was born. To be able to design my own cross stitch patterns.

And for the past few weeks... I've dabbled at it.

And finally, I've come up with at least 3 designs I figured are good enough to sell. (or at least I'm going to try to.. )

Come and look?
:)
https://www.craftsy.com/user/pattern/store/862282

22.7.12

Current WIP as of July 23, 2012

My local group had a challenge... post a photo album of ALL your WIPs. (serial starters beware). This way, we figured, we'd actually SEE what we've started and not finished and hopefully, get the inspiration to finally finish them. :)

In my case... I got embarassed that I've YET to finish anything for this year so I have to settle in and move on them. Anyway... here they are... I have 6 WIPs...and 2 UFO's (My 2 HAEDs have been shoved into a box... QS Mermaid Treasure and The Chess Match). I'll bring them out when I'm retired... LOL!

The Little Prince

Holy Family (this is just St Joseph's head)

Faith

Lord is my Shepherd

Maroon Mermaid a.k.a. My Tabachingching

Fairy Idyll

12.7.12

Can dreams come true?

I've been toying with the idea of designing my own patterns... heck, I've always designed my own gowns. I've always doodled fairies and mermaids... ever since I was a young kid!

I wonder... why not combine all of them into just one activity?

Hence, my facebook page LAUGHING IN STITCHES was born.

My little dream? Someday, to be a published cross stitch designer in one of the stitchy magazines. And to be profitable enough (when I do decide to start selling my patterns) to sustain my stash collecting addiction.

Come "LIKE" my page? I'll keep adding my new designs little by little there as that's the place I want to sell them... I've only got 4 so far...

Am I dreaming too much or is it possible for my dreams to come true?

30.6.12

Pin Stitch start, Rail Roading and Tuck Away backs

Here's another way to start off your projects... in a previous blog I showed how to do LOOP STARTS.

Here, I'm going to show how to start with a PIN STITCH. This is useful for those that use floor stands/frames... plus it helps make the backs clean and neat.

At the same time, I also took pics to show how to do RAILROAD STITCHING. This helps keeping your X's nice and full. :) Helps the threads not to twist into a single one (which makes your X's look thin and your fabby shows). This way, your threads lay down nicer. Sorta like a 'laying tool' style.

Lastly, I tucked away the back just to show you it's possible to have a really neat way to end. Again, I'm one of those who believes that it's not needed to be super duper neat in the back if you're going to frame it...but this may work best for bookmarks or gifts where the back can be seen.

Hope the pics make sense :)

** before I forget, just wanted to thank my friend YEYA ALBANO who taught me how to do the PIN STITCH. :) Honor and glory of this blog goes to you. (and Honey who taught me how to tuck away at the back). :)

Start off with a nice length of thread. (Ideal length is from wrist to elbow).

How to start with a PIN STITCH: insert the needle through the middle of the square. (I repeat, in the MIDDLE of the square. Not through the holes. But through the middle).

Pull out your needle all the way... but leave a little tail behind.

THIS is what that tail should look like.

Then reinsert your needle through ALMOST through the same hole. I say almost but you should put the needle through, leaving ONE (1) thread in between the original poke-through hole. (if you look at the picture, you can see a small thread in between the in and out area).

See the thread in between?

This is what the back looks like at this point...

Can you see the small green dot in the middle of the square? That's your PIN STITCH. You can start stitching normal now :)

Your tail is still dangling in the back.

Stitch normal...

Next picture will show you how to railroad....

Going back to make the "X", insert your needle through the two threads. (it helps that when you help the thread by pulling it up to the upper left side--guiding the threads into place).