Marriage cross stitch

And so it begins...  It is a 8 by 10 bucilla counted cross stitch number 40777 (19 colors).  Since I have two of these to make (not the same pattern) hopeful it won't take too long. 

In the bottom photo you can see my magnifying glass that helps me see the stitches it is on a stand and had a light to illuminate the project making things easier to work on as well... I am not as young as I use to be.  Sadness I use to have 20/15 vision better than perfect but with time we all get older.

The heart you see started is the middle of the cross stitch.  Haven't gotten any progress on this done as I have been sick the last few days so here is hoping I can get this one done before the term starts and I am back in classes and the craziness of life takes over again.

a few projects

Last night I started to knit a pair of what the author calls traditional Portuguese lace socks.  This is in the hopes they would help me to figure out the toe section I want to do on the fair-isle style  yellow and red socks that I want.    Those yellow and red socks I want to make have a stitch  count of 12 to 14 per inch.  That may not seem like much but when you look at a single square inch that equals 144 to 196 stitches which is an insane about of stitches per inch... If you then  compare that to 91.375 stitches per square inch for the lace pattern of the sock just started yep it will take 8 to 12 times longer to knit.  My kids got me sick last night or I would be further along on this.

The pattern for the lace socks can be found In Andrea wong's etsy store
 
Other projects started at my home.

I am doing cross-stitch contract work.  Two of them to be exact, they are wedding samplers.  This is for the same lady I have done all the baby announcements for in the past.

My middle daughter has started to make a few hand made books.  She is using the coptic book binding technique taught on a long time ago on my blog but she is using paper instead of fabric.  I think she is making six of these.  She has been real sick for a while so this is something she can do while in bed.

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There is also another knitting project on the horizon. This is a knitted Christmas stocking for my cousin Eric.   We as children: my 6 cousins and my older sister brother and myself grew up together at my Vova's house  ( grandmother's house).  She had the nuns in the area hand knit us all  Christmas stockings.  Some how a few years back my cousin Eric's went missing his was the second oldest grandchild stocking.   So I am borrowing my oldest cousin Kelly's sock to make a copy of it to give to Eric, this was requested by my Aunt Nonnie.  I could have just bought one on Ebay or Etsy for him for 40 some dollars that would have been the same pattern but it would have been made out of acrylic yarn.  Ours being the age they were are made in all wool.  So I will be making his so it will be made out of wool like the rest of them.  Won't be the original but it is as close as I can do.

Now to just buy the pattern and of course knit it.

Portuguese socks wanted

Need help I want to find out about Portuguese style hand knitted socks.

The things I want to know are

• What size needle is usually used ( I think size 000 or 0000)
• Stitch count per inch or centimeter
• What type of thread or yarn and the type of content ( I think cotton but since that doesn't have much give I assume the stitch count has to be almost perfect with not stretch or a tiny bit small help please)
• In American ( English) terms if possible please I only know a tiny bit of Portuguese my grandmother never taught her children to speak it so as a grandchild I only  know little bits and pieces
• If you know of this and have images please share me 
• why the color scheme of red and yellow 
• how one starts the cuff ( i can tell is is stockinette stitch with a picot edge then stockinette again) but how long is that area
• how one does the spiral toe ( have a pattern that I hope will help me with this)
• on average how many rows in the cuff before picot edge turn
• is the cuff knit closed while knitting or is it stitched afterward
• is there elastic in the cuff
• ... anything any one can help me with to learn to make these

Any and all information is greatly appreciated

My family has its roots in the Portuguese culture and life. ( Azorian to be exact) I want to add this to our lives since I now live so far away from where I started the the little Portuguese community I grew up in.  Little bits of all things Portuguese make me happy I am very much interested in making these for my little family.  They are traditionally worn by female since there are four of those in my family it will keep me busy.

These obviously below are not adult human size just mock up someone did or for small children.  But there are some photo of some adult humans do wear.

 None of these are not my photos not sure who to credit but this is the style I am looking for.  These below are life size

 

There is a current piecework magazine article in it but not enough detail on the process.

Merry Christmas

P-51- Mustang

My husband is addicted to airplanes. So a little over a year ago my oldest daughter, China, did her first attempt at a cross stitch as a gift for him  She finished it about 1:30 A.M. on December 23 2016.   Just in time to give it to him for Christmas.  This is her first attempt at cross stitch so there is always room for improvement but as a first attempt not bad.  Her threads need to be neater on the back and she need to keep her work cleaner.  The easiest way to do that is not to take it on choir tour to work on it.  Just let it sit in one spot so it doesn't get messed up.  But over all I think he will like it.  She will have given it to him before this posts so yes this is posting Christmas Eve but she is giving it to him on Christmas Eve early in the evening.

And here is the back for those that like that sort of thing.  You can see if you look close her tails are too long.  Makes the back look fuzzy also when you go to mount this in a frame things like this don't let the piece lay as nicely in the frame.  As a first project it is pretty good all the same.  My first project like this was like 2 inches by 3 inches hers is 11 inches by 18 inches which is a ton more work and takes so much longer to  do.  I did my first cross stitch about the age of 12 seven years earlier than her wish i knew where mine was if I ever find it I will post it was a girl clown.  Hers is much more intricate not a beginner project mine was a beginner project 100%.  Neither of us started with stamped cross stitch both started with counted cross stitch stamped is easier it is sort of like color inside the lines but for stitching.  She added the name of the plane and her initials and the date after I suggested it I think it finishes the piece nicer to have that on there. Encase anyone wants to do this project the pattern is from A & L Designs P.O. Box 945 Pottsville PA 17901, 717/622-6102  that is from the pattern but i don't know if it still works or not. Item number SA003-B Sky Aces Series p-51-Mustang.  Sorry I don't know the publish date.  Looks like there might be a few other planes in this series a

•  Zero A6M2 
•  P- 38 - Lightning 
• Hurricane Mk-2
• P-51- Mustang ( shown in this post)
• F-4- War hawk

not sure if there is more than that.  she found the kit at a thrift shop  and thought her dad might like it.

There is also what is called a warrior series which includes

• F-III Raven
• F- 14 Tomcat
• F-15 eagle
• A-6E Intruder
• panavia tornado

Rosary

My middle daughter was making this as a gift for one of her good friends.  yes we are LDS (Mormons) but when I was a child I was catholic and still own my own child hood rosary.  This one was made by my middle daughter Starr.  She used wire to hold the beads together seed beads wood beads a cross some beads with roses on them and a few beads that came from a necklace her grandmother use to own that broke.  I think it is lovely.

Work Stuff

So UVU is putting on the production of one flew over the cuckoo's nest... This is the main nurses hospital clothes mostly finished it today still have to do the hem.

 

Recently at work we added an embroidery machine my boss is having fun testing it out... Hat she put embroidery on to say thank you to one of  my daughters for helping to wrap Christmas gifts for her.

 This is another item that was embroidered... the machine I am not use to it yet...so yep i really have not used it yet.

Some of the other machines at work ...This is the newest serger... we have three older ones home models .

This is our industrial Juki serger.  Love this machine.

Thus us our industrial bernina we have lots of these.  They do a few fancy stitches and button holes.

Our industrial Juki these sew lightning fast but only do straight stitches and back takes but the machine does cut its own thread love how the foot pedal works with this machine one of my favorite machines for just stitching.

Wedding decorations

 These are just a few of the large amount of wedding decorations that was made at my sister in laws wedding.  It was fun everyone getting together to make things to show we loved her.

 

 

remake of mom's dress

 My youngest sister in law got married today.  She has the kindest soul she  is who took care of my mother in law while she was dieing.  She is very dear to me.  My middle daughter wanted to wear something special to the wedding as did I .  So I made the  dress you see in these first photos for her to wear and I wore one of my mother in laws vintage dresses from the early to late 60's.

This dress in these pictures is a re-make of one that my mother in law wore as a teen ager.  You can see from the original post about that dress it had lots of age damage.

My daughter did wear the original once to a sadies dance.  But we could tell that it should never be worn again which was heart breaking to us.  It is a dress for good memories of that dance and mom now.  The original was brown and green the new version is brown and hot pink.

The fabric for this dress I used two sheer curtains and 1 ink satin sheet I found thrift shopping.  No one I think could tell that without me telling them first.  In fact most people where surprised when I told them that.  The back of the dress has 6 hand covered buttons and the front 4.  It is also boned in the bodice.  I used the original hem of the curtain as the hem of the skirt.  The header of the curtain I made some hair decorations out of but my daughter had already removed them from her hair when I took these photos.

The belt she is wearing is a vintage 1980's belt but it matched well.

The below pictures are of the dress when it was under construction.  You can see the flowers I was talking about in these photos that I used in the hair.  At the time I was debating on using them on the dress.  So they where pined on to see what they looked like.

I lengthened this version of the dress as my daughter wanted it a little longer.  If I make it again I will lengthen the torso as well to make it a few inches longer so the waist I feel more correct for her height.   My mother in law a was a petite woman in height.
We also added a little extra room in the over bodice to make it easier to lift the arms. The straps on the under bodice I also doubled in width to give them a little more strength.

These two photos the one above and the one to the left show off the color better.  These photos where taken one day after work at the costume shop when I stayed late to work on this dress and a few other co works and boss stayed late to work on a play we were doing.

 The picture below is from the one time my daughter wore the original dress for the first and last time.

Knitted mittens

I have not done much knitting in a while because I have been so busy with life I have 3 kits for making mittens.  I have had them for several years so I thought I would pull them out and get started on a set of them before winter is done in the hopes that I might get to wear them.  But it will probably be finished after the winter is over just so busy in life at the moment.

I love the rose pattern in these would love to make a pair of winter stockings to wear with this in the pattern the knee highs.