Walking Through The Stars Zodiac Sampler - Aquarius

I finished Aquarius yesterday and am now completely caught up on this SAL. I will admit, I had the song Age of Aquarius in my head while I was stitching this. Heh.

Here is Aquarius - I used quite a bit of silk with this section. I really like that I substituted the Weeks Dye Works flosses with the silk, I think it's turning out quite lovely:

And here is the entire piece (this is a much better picture of the actual fabric color - thanks phone in non-natural light):

Just like with Capricorn, the designers included some interesting information about Aquarius:

Aquarius – January 20 – February 18  Called by the Greeks Hydrochoos, "the Water-Pourer." "Aquarius" is a Latin translation of the Greek name.

Aquarius sees possibilities at the edge of the future. Many are ahead-of-their-time as visionaries, trendsetters, inventors, genius-artists, eccentrics, humanitarians. Aquarius has a mental sovereignty that gives them distance from the noise of life. They move in networks, and are very social, though also fiercely private.

At the extreme edges, Aquarius is unreachable, fixed in their ideas, condescending.

Aquarius thrives at the cutting edge, and keeps up with the latest in art, movies, technology, music and style.

Constellation: Aquarius
Element: Air
Ruling Planet: Uranus and Saturn
Stone: Amethyst
Metal: Aluminium
Phrase: “I know”
Colors: Sky blue, metallic silver and gold, electric or fluorescent shades of blue, green, violet, purple Animals: tropical birds, dolphins
Birth Flowers: Orchid flowers
Other flowers associated with Aquarius are: Solomon's seal, Golden rain, Goldenrod, Jack-in-the-pulpits, Birds of paradise, Gladiolus, Trillium

Now that I'm completely caught up with this SAL, I'm putting it away and getting back to my normal rotation, which means another new start today. Yay!

Until next time!
~Katy

Walking Through The Stars Zodiac Sampler - Capricorn

Yesterday I was very grateful I had picked up the B5200 because it was the color used the most in Capricorn:

The pattern comes with information about each astrological sign, which I found very interesting. I don't place much stock in astrology, but it is always interesting to see what each sign represents! Here is the information that came with Capricorn's pattern:

Capricorn – December 22 – January 19:  Capricornus is a Latin compound of "she-goat" (capra) and "horn" (cornus), which translates the original Greek Aegocerus, "goat-horned."  

Capricorn is the hardest-working sign of the Zodiac. They're apt to work smart, though, and make it clear to others that their time is valuable. Capricorn rises to the top in their field, through dedication, drive, patience and stamina. They're known to age in reverse, growing younger and less burdened as they get older. At the extreme edges, Capricorn is judgmental, an elitist, and humorless. Capricorn has a strong sense of duty, tradition and loyalty to the family line. It takes time to get to know the Goat, who becomes a steadfast mate or friend. They're drawn to the classics, in style, culture and literature.

Constellation: Capricorn
Element: Earth
Ruling Planet: Saturn
Stone: Ruby, Agate
Metal: Lead
Phrase: “I use”
Colors: earth tones, classy navy or gray, black, dark blue/brown, burgundy, gold, rust-orange. Animals: goats and other cloven-foot creatures. The giants of the sea - whales
Birth Flowers: Pansy and Ivy flower. Other special blooms are hyacinth, tulips, black and purple orchid and the desert rose. Flowers and fauna under Capricorn's rule include: Heartsease, Love-lies-bleeding, Knapweed, Hemp, Scotch broom, Trillium, Baby's breath, Camellias.

Onto Aquarius!

Until next time!
~Katy

Walking Through The Stars Zodiac Sampler - Frames Completed

Yesterday I finished all of the inner circle frames as well as the frames for January (Capricorn) and February (Aquarius) and I'm really pleased how they turned out!

The rest of the larger frames come out with each month's installment, or else I would be working on those too! I will admit, it was a bit difficult to get these done at times. Between using silk, which I'm not as good at using, the fact that this is linen and not evenweave and some really (beautifully) darkly dyed parts of fabric, I had my share of frogging and frustrations, but I'm really pleased with how it looks so far. And I just absolutely love this fabric choice! It's going to look great!

I had to order B5200 for this piece and I was planning on just completing what I could while I waited for my order, but each of the four smaller frames for these two months are nearly entirely that color, and January's large frame has a big chunk of that color in it too. I could have waited, or just worked on the other colors of course, but my OCD tendencies with stitching didn't like that idea. So what did I do? Picked up a skein of it today while I was out at Wal-Mart for my weekly grocery run! There were only two skeins of it left in their very meager "needlepoint" section, so I grabbed them both! The rest are coming (I think I needed four in all when I added up everything from my three new starts), so now I'll have a spare or two and I don't have to wait! Yay! January's installment of Capricorn will be my focus later today when I can sit down and stitch. Got a lot to do today before that can happen! Best get started!

Until next time!
~Katy

Walking Through the Stars Zodiac Sampler

Yesterday I spent some time doing inventory and floss tosses for my three new starts! It took some time to work out the flosses and fabric that I wanted to use for both this piece and Magical Creatures, but I'm very pleased with what I came up with for the Zodiac!

This is another one of those pieces of fabric I had in my stash that I've been saving for the perfect piece, and I think this is it! It is called Black Magic and it is in 32 count Belfast Linen from Under The Sea Fabrics! I also substituted out all of the flosses but black and white using Mo's Sale flosses and silks. I took a little bit of a different approach this time than in my previous substitutions. I am using cotton floss for all of the DMC substitutes and silks for all of the Weekly Dye Works substitutes. I think I made some good and unique substitutions, so I'm eager to see how it goes! The flosses I'm using are (in alphabetical order): Amazon, Apple Cider, Bark, Cherry, Flesh, Green Apple, Light Bulb, Mouse, Poppy and Twilight. Silks are Caroline, Casey Key, Eggplant, Golden Sun, Ink, Mona, Nellie and Noah.

Here is where I was able to get to yesterday in my first day:

I'm going to stitch the twelve circles in the middle first, then tackle January and February, I think. I'm doing the circles in Golden Sun - I am a little worried I may not have enough to last the entire year, but I will deal with that issue if/when it comes! I did have to place an order for some bright white (B5200) and I know that will be used in both January and February's entries, but if I need to I'll just skip that part until it comes in. There is plenty to do in the meantime! Regardless, this piece will stay in my hoop until I'm caught up and then I'll go back to my regular rotation.

Until next time!
~Katy

Sweet Pea Fairy and Adding to the WIP List

Yesterday I spent a lot of time working one over one skin on my Sweet Pea Fairy:

She looks a little creepy right now with how the skin looks right now, but one over one is going to be worth it! Yes, it quadruples the number of stitches for the skin, but I think the effect looks so much nicer - the skin looks smooth and like skin rather than like a cross stitch. Now, this piece has a TON of skin in it, and I may go blind by the end of it, but I think it's going to look awesome when it's done!

Remember how at the beginning of the year I made my list of WIP's and added four new starts to it but said that was it for the year? I lied. I'm adding three more starts from Cloudsfactoryto the list that I absolutely could not resist after seeing them on several blogs and on FB:

1. The Doctor Who Clock - my four year old son is a huge Doctor Who fan like I am (12 is his favorite Doctor and he loves Clara the most of all the Companions). We jokingly call him the wee ginger Doctor, and he even has a TARDIS (tent) and (play) sonic screwdriver and a (stuffed) red Dalek he likes to defeat. He saw this as I was looking at the Cloudsfactory website and started begging for it. Considering how many pieces I have going on that my daughter asked for, I couldn't resist (pus, I love the design):

2. Magical Creatures Calendar - I believe this was the annual SAL from Cloudsfactory last year. I've talked before about my love of fairies and all things fantasy, and I think this will go well with the Once Upon a Time Sampler and the Story Time Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery when it's all said and done:

3. Walking Through the Stars Zodiac Sampler - This is this year's annual SAL from Cloudsfactory. Like the Story Time Sampler, a new section of this comes out once a month for the whole year. I'm a couple of months behind this one and I'm going to pause my standard rotation to get caught up in time for March's release, then I will be doing what I do with the Story Time Sampler and doing this piece as well each month when the new pattern comes out, no matter where I am in the rotation.

This will put my WIP count up to 25, and I think that's a good number to stop at. Doctor Who and Magical Creatures will just go into my normal alphabetical rotation, so they aren't going to come up quite yet. I do plan on using the recommended flosses for Doctor Who for my son's sake, but I'm going to be making substitutions using Mo's Floss for both Magical Creatures and the Zodiac Sampler. Time to go raid my floss and fabric stash!

Until next time!
~Katy