Stitching The Days Away

First and foremost, Max is still with us.  He's gone from being given a sudden prognosis of only a couple of days, to still here almost a month later.  He's still happy, still smiling, still likes cheese.  However, we know the tumors are still there, still growing.  We are still very much in limbo, it's a hard place to stay for very long.

Jeff and his puppy, last week at the beach

I've been seeing a counselor to work though a bunch of things, mainly goal setting and trying to get out of my own way (a never ending battle).  Last week we talked about Max.  I told her I am just exhausted.  I feel like I have nothing left to give.  She talked about "caretaker fatigue" and stressed how important it is to remember self care in these situations.  She described what's going on as hospice care for a family member.  I thought that was a good way to put it.

Much like last summer, the previous time I found myself on "Max watch", I've been primarily filling the hours with cross stitching.

Early last month I posted about a couple of 22 count cross-stitch projects that I had started.  They are both done now, as a result of spending a few more weeks on Max watch.

The first one mentioned was another set of panels for an Arabian costume.

Here they are, all done:

Last time I'd posted about them, I had only started on the first side panel, to re-acclimate my eyes to working in the smaller scale.  This was so that I could move on to the saddle pad down below.  Once that was done, I circled back and finished the rest of the panels. 

Next up was my very first 22 count saddle pad.  It was a commission, made to be a miniature version of a real saddle pad.  I felt that 22 count was the best way to capture the details in the full size version.

I think it turned out well:

I numbered it as 22 in the Stitched In Japan series.  I think that is actually skipping a few numbers (I believe I had left off in the mid teens...) but I thought it would be appropriate to dub this one "22".

Right before I popped it in the mail, I held up Native Son for a quick modeling session.  It's tradition, after all.

Once I finished up the pad and the costume panels, I decided to press on with another set of costume panels.  Actually, I had drawn up the patterns for a few more sets already.

Two years ago (ugh, really??) I made my first few batches of tassels.  At the time I had NO idea what I'd use them for, but I'd decided to dip some sort of toe into Arabian costume making and thought that's where I'd start.  The colors I'd randomly chosen ended up looking good together and I figured they'd end up in a project...  someday.

One of the patterns I'd drawn up recently had yellow and brown in it, the other color was red.  I played around with the pattern, added a bit of green, found a red floss in my stash that compliments the other three colors, and away we go!

This one is actually going to be Classic scale!  I sized my measurements roughly for the Classic Arab mare.  The base color of the halter, collar, and trim will be the brown (since I have the most of that color on hand).  I haven't decided if I'll make red tassels or just use the red as an accent color somehow.  Oh, I added a tiny bit of black to the pattern as well, since the original tassels are all tied with black.

I have quite a log jam at the panels stage for costuming.  That's what I'm having the most fun with now and so I figure I may as well keep cranking them out.

And watching Max

Twenty-Two Count Tuesday

Last July I finished up my first set of cross stitched panels for an Arabian costume.  

Here's how they look now:

I've gotten the edging done and gotten them shaped and ready to put on a saddle - which does not exist yet.  I was really happy with the results of the stitching and knew that I wanted to do more cross stitched panels in the future.  

It took me a while to revisit the idea, but a couple of weeks ago I decided to take the next step in the evolution of my saddle pad adventures.  This would be to start on a 22 count saddle pad.  

As a warm up, I decided to start on another set of panels first.  Here's what I got done during the first long day of working on one of them:

I'm really excited about this pattern!  The first set that I did was adapted straight from a narrow strip of cross stitch pattern that I'd come across.  This next set is modified (heavily modified in the case of the smaller side panels) from part of a larger, beautiful pattern that I'd found.  

After getting confirmation on size from the new owner, I started on my first ever 22 count saddle pad.  It is a commission, and is a scaled down version of a real saddle pad.  I'd been thinking about doing my first 22 count pad since this past spring, when I drew up a few patterns for them.  However, it wasn't until this project that I took the plunge.  I decided this was the only way to do justice to the original intricate pattern on the real pad.

Here's where I am so far:

The pattern has six rows of the larger oval shapes on it, so I'm "almost" there...?  Certainly closer to the end than the beginning.  I'm tracking my time on this project and so far I'm at 15.5 hours (and I'm sure I've missed a couple of hours tracking along the way, since I haven't been super diligent about tracking my time - it's a new thing for me).

After this pad is finished, I'll rotate back around to the blue and yellow panels.  Oh and I already have the pattern drawn up for a THIRD set of panels.  I think I enjoy coming up with the patterns as much as actually making the projects.  It's certainly faster to do the patterns than the actual stitching!

Busy Makin' Stuff

While things have been relatively quiet here on the blog front, I've been busy making (or finishing) a bunch of things.

Here are a few quick pictures of what I've been up to.

The next batch of saddlepads are now finished with felt backings and signature tags:

I've also been making a bunch of saddle stands.

Four of them are unfinished wood:

Eight stands are in a variety of colors: slate blue, black, dark pink, red, and green.  I've done two of each color.

They turned out kinda cool!

Next up is the daunting task of (properly - or as best I can) photographing each new thing and getting them listed in my shop.  This is not the fun stuff, for me, which - as I've said before - is why I constantly have a backlog of finished pieces that need to be photographed and listed.  Oh, I do enjoy taking pictures, but I'm not that good at it and my product photography often leaves much to be desired, so it's not something I look forward to.  Still really need to work on that...

I'm going to try and buckle down though and get all of these squared away and up for sale.  Be on the lookout for them!  ;)

Quick post - Latest Saddle pad(s)

I haven't posted some in progress saddle pad pictures in a bit, so I thought I'd share a quick picture of the one I've been chipping away at lately.

This is actually the third one in this pattern that I've done.  It has taken me quite a while to do this one in particular and I think I might take a break after this one... Though I may always have one in the works, they do make a great portable project, I think I may take a break from "cranking them out".  ;)

Floss Backstock Storage

Dealing with my (ever growing) floss hoard- er, "collection" haha - has been an ongoing thing and subject of a handful of posts here already.

Last summer, I launched into making my own bobbins and storing my floss in plastic "bead boxes", or so I call them.  I had seen that's how my Granny keeps hers, and thought it was an awesome idea!

So that's how I've kept most of it, save for colors that I have a lot of, which have been stored in their original packaging, for multipacks,

or in plastic pencil boxes, for the loose skeins.  As I used up a bobbin, I'd find another skein of that color, if I had one, and wind it on.

That system was working okay, until...

The Great Floss Acquisition of 2016, as it shall forever be known.  I added 935 skeins (in 250 colors) to the collection.  I wasn't quite sure how I was going to store them, but started by winding one of each color onto my recycled bobbins and integrating them into the bead box system.  However, that still left me with several hundred skeins that were homeless.  I had sorted them into color groups, crammed into my pencil boxes and left it at that.

Until now.

First, after wondering if it was necessary - and finally deciding that it is - I started an inventory spreadsheet.  Until recently, I've done everything by color, the numbers on each skein don't mean much to me.  But I've been following some patterns lately (for things other than saddle pads designed in my brain)  and for those projects, the numbers ARE important.  I've had a couple of time consuming, frustrating sessions of digging through everything to see if I even have such and such number.  You'd think I'd have everything by now, but I don't!  I'm making due by using similar colors/numbers for the ones I'm missing and so far that's been fine.  I'm NOT looking to buy any more of this stuff for a good while.

An odd collection of random pencil boxes, crammed with floss, isn't a very useful solution.  And it would make doing inventory a nightmare (so far I've only inventoried my floss on bobbins).  So, a few days ago I was searching Pinterest (good ol' Pinterest..) for some ideas on how to deal with my backstock.

I settled on using this tutorial for inspiration and decided to give it a whirl.

The last few days I've been bagging the backstock skeins into snack bags, by number, or grouped with sequential numbers if I only have a couple of each, like 403 and 404 below.

Each has an index card, which I may write some information on later, or I might not, depending on how crazy I want to get with all of this.  They are mainly there to help keep a shape to the bag and not let things get all smooshed.

I quickly filled two plastic shoe boxes (all I had available) and..  I estimate I'm maybe only half way through.  Hmmm.

This morning, I went to the BX (base exchange) to check out their plastic shoe boxes.  They are a different design that the old ones I have, which vexed me, but I thought they were the only solution.  Unfortunately, they are even more tapered at the bottom and my snack floss bags won't even fit in them without significant smooshing (I took a bag of floss with me for size checking).

Next to the shoe boxes were these, the next largest size of plastic storage box.

Test bag indicated that they were way too big.  Sure, they'd fit in there, but a massive waste of space inside.  What to do?

It dawned on me to try standing them up.  Yes, that would work!  I can get two rows in each box with room for a divider and room to put the lid on.  Perfect!

So I bought two of these and I HOPE that alllll of the rest of the floss hoard will fit into them.  I also bought a roll of contact paper to line the bottoms, as per the tutorial.  I'm going to use some cardboard to make a divider.  Things might get fiddly until I get the boxes loaded - I don't want to permanently attach the divider I don't think.  But once the boxes are full, it should sit in there just fine between the rows I think.

The plan is to have additional dividers in the rows, by brand, and I'm thinking by number groups (100s, 200s, etc.) for the main batch -  which is Cosmo, a Japanese floss brand.

After everything is bagged by number, I'll add them into my inventory spreadsheet and then I should be good to go!

It may seem like a lot of work to get all of this sorted in such a way, but I think it will be well worth it when I don't have to spend so much time digging around to find such and such color and then determine how much of it that I have if working on a large project.

Today = Tassels

Today all I've done on the studio front is make more tassels, continuing yesterday's start, and getting some of them topped with beads.

They are being made to go with the cross-stitched panels that I completed in July, while on "Max watch".

The trim and most likely breast collar and bridle will be the green color of the pattern.  The whole thing will be quite a colorful affair when it is finally done.  I think it will be a neat experiment, actually having cross-stitched panels in an Arabian costume.  I'm anxious to see how it all turns out.

Sad to say, my very first Arabian costume attempt still looks the way it did back in... January.  It currently consists of a the saddle and attached panels, shaped for the PAM it is being built on.  I did finish (I think) enough tassels for that one.  They all "just" need to be attached.  I think I have all of the braidwork done for it too, everything still needs to be assembled.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to spend the majority of the day in the studio.

Stitching Monsters

On the train on the way to Tokyo, I started a cross-stitch project that is... slightly different from my usual work.  I worked on it a tiny bit while in Tokyo, but finally finished the wee thing last night!

Ponyta!

I never was into Pokemon at all, until GO came out and I decided to give it a try.  I haven't even played that one much, because my old phone could baaaarely run the app.  Mostly it just froze and/or crashed.  However, I've got a shiny, Fast, new phone now, so I see a lot more monster catching in my future.  ;)  (I caught several more in Tokyo after getting the new phone)

As for cross-stitched critters, I started another one last night and he is almost finished already - as of this evening.  He's not as detailed, I'm stitching him on 16ct cloth, as opposed to the one on 18ct above.

Bulbasaur!

I'll be putting them both into frames.  The Ponyta I plan to keep, but the Bulbasaur might be a gift, I haven't decided yet.


(In reference to the title of this post - I have learned that, in Japan, another name for Pokemon is: "Pocket Monsters"!)

Stitched In Japan - Part One

I've been making cross-stitch saddle pads for a few years now.  I enjoy making them and creating new patterns.  Most of my patterns are based off of real saddle pads.  Occasionally they are just random geometric designs that I come up with or see somewhere and turn into a pattern.

When we made the big move overseas, I toyed around with the idea of signing the pads stitched here in a way that would say they had been created in Japan.

I decided to go for it and though it's been over a year since the first one was made, I now formally present the first batch of "Stitched in Japan" saddlepads.  Each one is signed with my usual stitched "HorseTender" tag on the back, but the addition is a tiny stitched pink flower (meant to symbolize a cherry blossom), and a number.  Each of them also has a bit of a story, particularly the first two, and I'll share them here, with links to other posts about them if anyone is curious.

These are all Traditional scale pads, stitched on 18ct Adia.

Number One is the one Jeff dubbed the "Prettiest Ever".  He thought this was the prettiest one I'd ever made.  It was the first one finished in Japan, though it was started while we camped out at the Seattle airport, before our flight over.

Back of Number One.

Number Two is the "Seattle Stripes" pad.  I started drawing up the pattern for this one at the Seattle airport as we waited to board the plane, but it was all stitched over here.  It was challenging and probably the most intensive one I've done, with so many color changes, stripes and dots.

Back of Number Two.

Number Three... kicked my butt.  I still don't know why, but this "simple" zig-zag pattern was one of the hardest I've ever had to figure out and stitch.  Part of that may have been my inspiration was a picture of a pad under a saddle.  I could only see tiny bits of the original and had to make up the rest.  I love the the finished product though.  I don't have a catchy name for this one, but I've thought of it as the: "fall colors zig-zag pad".    

Back of Number Three.

Number Four is a blue version of an older pad that I had done before the move.  That was based on a real pad or blanket.  Then over here I saw a blue version of that pad somewhere on the 'net.  It was one of those times when I pretty much had to stop whatever else I was doing and stitch a pad.  That happens to me sometimes.  I love the colors on this one.

Back of Number Four.

Number Five is Jennifer's Pad!  It was made for my friend, Jennifer Buxton, to fit a short-backed horse and go with the saddle colors.  She told me the floss colors she'd like and an idea of how she wanted them arranged: mostly beige, brown accent, little bit of pink.  This is what I came up with.  It's another one based off of my ever-growing library of real saddle pad pictures.  There are a lot of half stitches to make the pink triangles.  It was my very first custom pad and I hope she likes it!  

Back of Number Five.

That's it for the first round of "Stitched in Japan" saddlepads.  I have stitched several more, but they are awaiting the finishing stages.  Look for Part Two, hopefully soon.  I hope you enjoyed seeing them and hearing the stories behind them.

Oh and, if you see one you can't live without...  they are for sale.

Except for that last one.  ;)

Floss Report

A couple of weeks ago, I made a great buy, acquiring a ton of embroidery floss and beads.

Giant tote bag stuffed with goodies!  Traditional Fighting stallion for scale.

For most of last week, I was sorting and winding the floss.

They'd been given to me stuffed into a few plastic grocery bags, inside the big tote.

Supervisor kitteh inspects the new arrival

She'd mentioned that she had tried to sort them by color.  There were a few dividers in the bags, made up of newspaper, and plastic sheets.

What did I do first?

This.

(is he fighting a giant floss monster?)

I couldn't help myself, I thought it'd be fun to see ALL of them, jumbled in a mix of pretty colors, before the great organization project got underway.

After making the "pile", I stuffed them all back into a bag and then had fun sorting them by color type.

Once that was done, I counted the contents of each container.

Because I apparently love numbers (I have an Accounting degree after all), I just had to know how many skeins of floss I'd ended up with.  The woman had said in her ad that it was "300+ skeins".  "Plus", indeed.  The grand total?  935 skeins.  Making them about 3 cents each.

Next up, was to figure out exactly how I was going to make my new floss hoard useable.

I decided to further sort each color group by number and wind one of each number onto bobbins.

That brings us to this: the results from a week of floss sorting, bobbin making, and floss winding.

Further in the number category (more useless information?) the whole lot of 935 ended up including 250 individual colors.  Some had only one skein, but most had at least two, some as many as a dozen or more.

Next up, I'll be integrating them into my current containers.  I use a few of the bead boxes pictured to the left of the above picture.

Me thinks I'll have to order at least a few more of these bead boxes... Sadly, they aren't available here.  At least not the same ones and I'd like to keep them all matching.

Next up will be going through the beads.  However this week I've been busy getting ready for the next vendor show here, which is this coming Saturday!!

Stitching and Staring

"C'mon over!" I told a friend yesterday, "I'll be here, just crafting and staring at Max."


Such is how I've been spending my days the past week.  "Max Watch" hasn't been as intense as it was the first couple of days; we've settled into a routine and I'm (fairly) confident that he won't expire on my watch...

I've been trying to make the most of spending my days on the couch, with one eye on him.  Been watching a lot of Netflix and YouTube videos.  I've also been cross-stitching - a TON.

I finished another saddle pad.

And in typical fashion, immediately loaded my frame to start on the next one.  This will be the same as the one above, with the green and tan colors reversed.

I've also been working away on what will be my first Arabian costume, featuring cross-stitched panels.  I embarked on this particular project a couple of months ago.  Each panel has taken a ridiculous amount of hours to complete!

Here's how everything looked at the start of the weekend:

I finished the third panel...

Then had to reload the first piece into the hoop and expand it for the rear panel of the costume - the part that will lay behind the saddle.

Here's how that piece looks today.

I'm alllllmost done... with the stitching.  Then comes braiding, making tassels, etc.

Hopefully this whole thing will be pretty cool when it's done!

Finished Saddlepads

I did a quick photo shoot of a batch of cross-stitched saddle pads that I've gotten all finished up and ready to go.  Most of them have been featured in posts on here while they were being stitched.  I have a few more needing finishing touches and then I'll be all caught up on finish work for these.