Another One Bites the Dust!

It's Saturday night at midnight and I just finished it!  I had to share immediately!

Come next weekend, I will go to the fabric store and pick out the loveliest dark red backing and a soft linen lining and take it to the talented Ms. Paige to be sewn into a stocking. I am absolutely over the moon that the recipient of this will have it for Christmas!  It was a fun/frustrating/challenging/time consuming ride, and I loved almost every minute of it!

Henrik Roar, I hope you like this and one day hand it down to your own son.

My magic cloth for my next project hasn't arrived yet, so I may do a Mirabilia in the mean time.  Rose of Sharon.  I'm thinking of doing her in red, although I might play with some colors and see if I can do her in purples, deep purples with red roses.   I'm going to the stitch'n'bitch tomorrow, so it will be a perfect time to play with colors.

Anyway, dear kindreds, I will post a final photo of this piece as soon as it is done.   Thanks for keeping me company while I created this work of art!

~Rai Rai   

 

Page 6 of the Treasure Dragon is Done!!!

I am so close to the end that I can taste it!  Just under 3000 stitches now, and I can see the finish line from where I stand.

I can't wait to see this finished, cleaned and sewn into a stocking.  My goal of having this done by Christmas is obtainable!

I feel like the little engine that could. I've moved from "I think I can, I think I can" to "I know I can, I know I can!"

And this week I ordered more Magic Cloth so I can start a new HaED. Because, kindreds, I am a glutton for punishment!

Just wait until you see the next project.  Just you wait!

~Rai Rai

We Interrupt Your Stitching With an Old, but Funny Story About My Bird

This, boys and girls, is a story about a very bad cockatoo and what she got up to on a rainy day while unsupervised and out of her cage.

I had gone to work, as I did every morning, and I either didn't latch the cage door properly, or she had been reaching through the bars and managed to open the door. But when I came home that night, I found a very exhausted cockatoo who was head-under-her-wing fast asleep on the back of my couch.

This is not a good thing to see, because she is a voracious ripper of all things wood, rubber (like the kind found on remote controls) and plastic.  Or anything that can be ripped into tiny pieces, for that matter.

While I was standing, frozen with dread, my cat came skidding around the corner, batting furiously at something.  I bent down and picked it up. It was the letter A from my keyboard.

I knew then that whatever was around the corner was bad.  Very, very bad.

With heavy feet, I walked down the long hallway and into my living room.  It was worse than I thought.

The stuffing in the chair had been pulled out, my ergonomic mouse was in pieces, bills and invoices had been ripped into teeny tiny pieces that rivaled the best shredders on the market, and just about every key from my keyboard had been ripped off and shewn haphazardly in every direction.

I found my camera on the floor, just n front of the book case and marveled in the fact that it was intact.   Rubber buttons and all!  And, not knowing whether to laugh or cry first, took these two photo's of the mess.

A few days later, I had picked up the developed film and flipping through my photo's I found one that I just didn't remember taking. It was such an odd angle and upon closer inspection of the negatives, it showed up right before I took the two photos above.

Even closer inspection of the camera showed a few nicks out of the rubber ... beak looking nicks.

I'm quite sure that my cockatoo had indeed found the camera and had been settling in to dismantle it, bit by bit, and had, instead, set the auto-photo.  The ensuing flash was likely what saved my camera AND caught a culprit in the act of being naughty.  Very, very naughty.

The following is a photo of a bad, bad girl!

This happened back in 1999.

She eventually killed the camera. 

 It's amazing that such a demure little face can unleash such destruction in a few short hours.

Hurricane Frances after the storm.

HaED's Dragon Stocking Page 5 Complete

Page 5 is done, done, done!

I cannot tell a lie, I am sooooo bored of this project,  just want it to be over, but I also know if I pick up another project no, this will never, ever see the light of day again!  So I plug on!

The end is in sight, though!  Only one more full page to do, and then 2 or 3 partial pages, which are really, really small.

I think this next page will be the hardest of all, because it is the "treasure" part of the dragon, and it won't make much sense until the last few stitches go in.  This is where I just trust the pattern and wait for it to reveal its magic!

~Rai Rai

HAeD's Treasure Dragon Christmas Stocking

Page 4 is complete!

I've decided to try the "parking" method, and omg, it's like taking the escalator instead of the stairs! Soooo much faster!

I wish this photo was clearer, but my iPad doesn't have a flash and it was kind of dark in my office, but you can see some of the outline of his cheeky face.

I am now 61% done! The hump has been crossed, it should be all downhill from here.  (Looks at patten and shudders)  Er, yeah, downhill...

I'll post the next update at the completion of page 5.  I'll be keeping a rather low profile until then.

~Rai Rai

The Happy Endng to My Baby Afghan

Unfortunately attempting to take a photo with my iPad resulted in this crapstacular photo below:

It looks a little washed out, and it was being held up by Mr. Rai-Rai.  The wrinkles are courtesy of having it folded to fit into a bag the size of my change purse.  Time was running out and I neither had the time or the energy to iron again, so this is the result.   BUT, it looks fantastic, and that's the main thing.

I had a very talented girl sew a lining onto the back for me, so baby won't get his pudgy little fingers caught in loose threads. 

She did a beautiful job!  Now this is ready to work as a quilt or a wall hanging.   I also chose not to fray the outside as the pattern call for, because if baby is going to use it as a blanket, I don't want little threads finding their way into his mouth to choke him.

My friend bought baby over today and I finally got to meet the chubby little delight, but I got to spend some quality time laughing with my bff.  Oh how I miss her!  She caught the ferry over and we spent a total of about 2.5 hours together before she had to catch the ferry home.   It was a short visit, but so worth it.

Val and bub enjoying the blanket.

Close up of Val and bub. He was fascinated by how even my stitching was, and the sheer detail in my work!   (Just kidding, he was more interested in the cat).  And I must remind myself, before taking photos for my blog - remove the folded laundry in the background. (Queue a Homer Simpson D'oh right about here.)

So, that's it, dear readers! This is where my journey with this little baby afghan ends. 

Thanks for hanging out with me during my moments of frustration and wibbling over this project.  The end result was worth every moment!

Now, back to my Dragon stocking.  I should have an update in about a month or so.

~Rai Rai

He Ate the Honey, He Ate the Lot....

This, my kindreds, is my VERY LAST PANEL.  The stitching on this piece is officially done, done, done!

Just look at the little greedy guts!   He's so focused on the bee hive that he has no idea he is about to be stung in the ... you-know-where!  And deservedly so!!

I have decided to finish the piece with a lined back, so if my friend wishes to use this as an afghan, she can.  I am off to Fabric Land tomorrow to find something soft and appropriate, then I have another friend lined up to sew everything together.  Then it will be a quick wash, and then in the mail.     Her baby just turned 6 months, so better late than never, I always say.

I will post a picture of the finished project as soon as I have it back.

Now I can take a short breather before I pick up my long forgotten dragon stocking.