Every sewers bane!

If you do any type of sewing, you will completely understand this one! lol
I got this freebie chart from the Janlynn website. It's stitched on 22 count aida and with DMC floss. I worked out the time it took me to do, it was about 4 hours. But it felt like longer because of the long breaks that I took from it. :) I know, I'm bad.
It turned out pretty small I might make it into a mini pillow, the kind that you hang on a door knob. Then I'll hang it in my studio (can't call it a craft room because I share it with my hubby's art and music stuff). I found one of the keys in the legend to be confussing. But I figured something out for it and it didn't look wrong at all.

Coolest pillow I own

I love Hello Kitty. I love her so much that I have a Hello Kitty waffle maker. It kicks major butt! Someone had put together a Sanrio craft site a a while ago and I stumbled on to it and squeed, yes I actually squeed out loud. I listed the link for all to see the awesomeness. I have been a HK fan since I was really little, face it that cat's old! I saw this design and just had to do it. It took me a while to do it (like all of my other projects). It was soooo simple though.
And NO BACKSTITCHING!!! YAY!
This is my first project that I made into a pillow and I loved how it turned out. And I will be making a lot more pillows in the future.
The pillow actually doesn't look lopsided in right life, the camera is trying to make me look bad. O.0

My first design!

At the begining of the year I switched jobs via a friend that bugged her supervisor that they needed a new cake decorator. After a long fight (with my superviors at the time) I got the job! It meant a lot to me that my friend went out of her way to help me out. I thought I should make her something. She is a very unqiue indivdual. I have been wanting to make my our cross stitch design for a while so I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity.
"You're one of a kind" fits her to a T! It was very simple and easy to draw up (yay for graph paper!) For the life of me I can not find the stinkin' paper that I drew this on. I'm sad. :(
I used 22 count green aida cloth and learned a lesson. It's small! I should have used a larger count but, oh well! I do learn from my mistakes though. I mixed two different colors of thread and added a few little star busts so it didn't like too plain. I also made a boarder out of some ribbon that I had laying around. The photo was taken right before it was framed. And I don't have a clearer photo :( sorry. Framed it's about 4X6 in.
I'm very happy with how it can out.

When kits go wrong

A couple of years ago I purchased a kit of Good Luck Bear (Care Bears). I LOVED the Care Bears when I was young and I still have my Love a-lot Bear plushie. I started to sort everything out in the kit and noticed that this kit sucked. The colors were off. The instruction said how many of each color and I counted and there was one color that wasn't even listed. The green for the body was not all the same shade, I counted three times to make sure that I wasn't making a mistake, it said 25 strands of medium green and with the two odd shades there was 25 strands. I only used the colors it came with because I hate to be wasteful. In the picture you can see the different shades. I'm going to be very picky next time I want to buy a kit. But it's cute anyway. It has been a while since I have done this kit, and I believe that I actually tossed the chart, it was MCG Textiles I think. And I have heard from others that some of their kits have been like that too.
But at lest it's still cute!

More little things

I did this one a long time ago. It was sitting the a $.50 bin at Wal-Mart. I couldn't pass it up.
It was before I started stitching the same direction. >_<
And those dreaded french knots look terrible but, oh well. I think that I have improved greatly in my technique. This was a little side project that took with me on vacation a few years back, so it took a while to finish since it wasn't first priority.
It hangs in my kitchen now. :)

The little things

I love to cook, so much that I have a degree in it. So when I saw this itty bitty one and had to do it! I think that I will put it on my little recipe notebook.

Recent Finish

A couple of months ago I finished a big project. But it was easy, so easy in fact that I had to put it down off and on for 4 months (staring at the same color, it messed with my eyes). It's all in one color and it's a decent size. I just need to frame it. That's one thing that I'm not good at it frame my projects. A. customs frames, B. expensive. So I try to make my things into pillows or wall hangings and things along those lines.

It is a free design that I got off the internet. It was so pretty that I could not pass up. And I LOVE faeries.
Passione Ricamo has some very beautiful charts and freebies. I plan on stitching more of this artists charts.

Progress over the years

My mom first showed me a needle and thread when I was about the age of 12. For years before, I watch my mom sew clothes for us kids and relax cross stitching. She did some very beautiful work. She kinda stopped after awhile, I'm not sure why but she has her reasons I suppose. But she ended up giving my sister a good chunk of her sewing stuff, and me all of her cross stitch things.
When she taught me x stitch in the beginning, she handed me a kit and I when to town on it... for about two days and then I lost ALL interest in it. I ended up putting it away with keepsakes and such. When I was about 21, I was moving out of my parents house and found it while I was putting things away in my new home. I had done about thirteen rows. Sad, I know. I decided to finish it, 9 years later!
As you can see in the photo that balloons look really crappy. But as finished it I understood that I had to be patience and not to pull so damn hard! I never framed it because after all these years the fabric yellowed and stained. But I keep it with the rest of my cross stitch things.
But over the years I have improved greatly.

Updates and such

In the next few days I wish to put up some links and odds and ends. My day job sucks up most of my time, so I will try to get more stuff up here shortly.
For the time being here is a past project that I've done:

I believe that I did this one in 2002. This photo was taken with my old camera, but I have a better one now, so the photos will look better.

First enrty of many to come!

Hello and welcome to my stitching extravaganza!

Upon hours and time spent on the interwebs searching for fun cross stitch sites (and being disappointed) I just decided to make my own. There are many out there but they seem a little too granny-ish and blah for my tastes. I like fun, whimsical and out of the ordinary. Nothing boring for me!

Lets get acquainted! Here's a little bit about myself:
I have been cross stitching for over 16 years. I also do embroidery, appliqué, and sewing. I also love to make stuffed monsters. In case you are interested, I have an Esty shop full of them.
www.glitterandgloom.etsy.com
So feel free to check it out!
My mom taught me everything I know about the ways of the needle and thread. And I own a lot of her old supplies and books and such too. I have a whole storage container of just cross stitch stuff. Then a different one for all my sewing supplies and on top of that a box full of felt and supplies for my craft shop!
What I love most about my hobby is that it's DIRT CHEAP!

I plan to make this blog a good resource for others for I will have loads of links and photos and tips. I also appreciate comments or questions or just plain chatting. So don't be shy, I don't bite, hard.

Love, Luck and Lollipops!