Getting the Family Involved (Stash Finish #7)

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Today I finished Nefertiti, and I had a bit of help from the family. With only three stitches left, I had my hubby and kids each put in one stitch so that this project was worked on by all of us. Naturally, Adrienne (5) had the easiest time with it because I have given her threads and a needle in the past. Aaron also did pretty well. But my poor husband couldn’t see the holes in the fabric so I had to help him out a bit. And here she is, finally finished, although she has not been washed or ironed yet!

egyptqueen

XXX
Carrie


Progress!

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egyptmay1

I finally got time to sit down and work on this! The kids had a day off of school and spent most of it at grandma’s, and hubby went away for a few days to work on the cabin he is building. So I decided to spend the day stitching and cleaning. I am so glad that I am done with the hieroglyphics on this and can start on her bodice. It won’t be long now before this project is done. And I am super excited that there is absolutely no backstitching in this design. The quality of this photo is pretty bad but hopefully in a couple of days I will have a finished one to post. I am not sure what I will do about framing, though. I don’t think this will end up being a “normal” sized piece so I will probably have to have something custom made.

XXX
Carrie



What a month!

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Stitching has been just about the last thing on my mind lately. I thought bad things were supposed to happen in threes, but I guess not. Actually, the whole month of March has just stunk. It seems like nothing is going right. But there are definitely three “bad things” that stand out. A week ago vehicle #1 died. Okay, not the end of the world; we still had another one to drive. For about four days, that is. Yep, vehicle #2 decided not to start right when it was time to take the kids to school in the morning. Luckily my in-laws live nearby, and they let us use their car. We dropped the kids off at school and went new car shopping. We didn’t want to buy a new car when there was still so much snow on the ground (yes, it is almost April, and yes, we still have snow). But we didn’t have much choice, so we stopped at a few dealers and found something we could both agree on. We picked up the new car on Friday, the last day of school before Spring Break. And of course, the next day our daughter gets sick with a stomach bug. So I was up all night both Saturday and Sunday nights with her. Today (Monday) she was still throwing up and had stomach pains, so we decided to take her to the doctor. Our second trip in our new car was to the doctor’s office, keeping our fingers crossed that she would keep her breakfast down the whole way (she did!). We also dropped off vehicle #2 at the shop to get the battery/alternator/whatever is the problem looked at. Now my little girl is finally sleeping, so I was able to snap a picture of what little cross stitching I have done recently.

So here is my progress on Nefertiti for the past 10 days. I know, it’s pathetic. But at least it is something. I have no idea what is up with her ears. They are actually supposed to look like that. The one on (my) right looks really weird. My daughter noticed it as well.

nefertiti2

XXX
Carrie


Progress on Nefertiti

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Nefertiti is coming along nicely! I doubt I will finish this by the end of the month, which means I won’t have a finish for March. But I should be able to get her done for April and maybe I’ll stitch another small card kit as well. So far I am at 4 (small) finishes for the year.

nefertiti

XXX
Carrie


An exhausting day!

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Today was pizza delivery day, and now that we are home I am completely exhausted! My husband and I delivered pizzas to 13 classrooms, plus the office staff. We had to make three separate trips to the pizza place in order to pick up all of the pies (10-20 at a time)! The great thing was getting handmade cards and notes from some of the classes, and having kids stop us in the hallway to thank us for the pizza party. The kids all worked so hard to get 360 books read (actually, it was more like 410!) so they totally deserved it. And my geeky math family loved being able to celebrate Pi Day on Friday, Saturday, AND Monday! I took some video of the Pi Day celebrations at school on Friday. First we have my daughter, who is 5 and in kindergarten. She got to recite what she knew from memory and managed to do 16 digits! Then it was my son’s turn. He managed to recite 160 digits of Pi! And the best part of the assembly was when three kids got to throw pies in the faces of faculty members, whose names were drawn from a hat. You can see the videos by clicking on the links below:

5 year old recites Pi for Pi Day of the Century

160 digits of Pi for Pi Day 2015

Teachers get a pie in the face for pi day 2015

Nefertiti is coming along nicely! I can’t decide if I want to stitch her head covering next, or do her neck and shoulders. I think I might start on the head covering first just because it is full of some wonderful blue colors. Plus, it will make her more recognizable.

nefertiti3

Unfortunately, I got very little done on A Summer Ball this past week. I did not even bother to take a progress photo. If I can manage to lift a needle tonight, I think I will work on it. But It is only 5:00 and I can already hear bed calling my name…

XXX
Carrie


Pharoahs, Pi Day, and Pepperoni

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I have gotten some of the skin color done on Nefertiti’s face and… wow!

nefertiti2

I am liking how this is turning out. I think I am going to have a hard time stopping work on this one to go back to A Summer Ball. I might have to put that one on hold for a bit and try to just finish this one up.

I might not get a lot of stitching done in the next few days. Tomorrow (Saturday) is Pi Day. Actually, it is “the Pi day of the century” because the date falls on 3-14-15. My son, who is 10, is a little genius when it comes to math. He is currently in 7th grade math at school and has about 160 digits of Pi memorized. I am not a math whiz; I can honestly say he does not get it from me. The other day when I made the Dr. Seuss hats, I needed his help to determine how large the circle of fabric for the brim needed to be. I had the tall part of the hat finished, and I needed the inside of the fabric ring for the brim to have the exact same size circumference as the hat. I couldn’t just trace around it because the felt was way too flimsy and it kept falling over. So I measured the distance around the hat and then he used his Pi skills to figure out the diameter of the circle for me to cut out. And if you saw the hats, you know how well they turned out! 🙂 Since Pi Day is on a Saturday, we are celebrating it at school today. There will be an assembly and my son will get to recite as many digits as he can from memory. A few teachers are even supposed to have students throw pies in their faces! Since there is a play at the high school that they have to go over and see in the afternoon, we have to cut our Pi Day celebration a bit short. On Monday we will continue it and deliver pizzas  – complete with pepperonis arranged in the shape of the pi symbol – to each class. This is something my husband really wanted to do for the school, and I think it will be fun for the kids. Since March is reading month, we are tying that in to the celebration. In order to earn the pizza party, the kids have to read a certain number of books. There is a large “pizza” in the hallway and every time a child reads a book they get to add a piece of (paper) pepperoni with their name on it. It should be lots of fun!

XXX
Carrie


The face of Nefertiti

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I just had to jump in and start on Nefertiti! The shading is kind of scary; there is so much black in her face. But I think I need to just trust the chart and carry on. I decided to go with my jeweled needle minder for this one – it seemed very fitting!

nefertiti1

The chart is a pain to stitch from because it is on my iPad. Since it is in color, I can’t print a copy (I only have a black and white laser printer). So I think this will be a “during the week” project when I have a bit of time here and there, and A Summer Ball will be reserved for the weekends when I have more time. But I am hoping this one won’t take too long to complete. If I don’t think I can get it done by the end of the month, I am going to have to come up with another small kit from my stash in order to stay on track with one finish per month!

XXX
Carrie


Egyptian Cross Stitch

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I am fascinated with anything dealing with ancient Egypt. I have been collecting cross stitch charts on this topic for years, but never actually got around to stitching any of them. I have had this chart kitted up for about a year, but other projects always seemed to get in the way. Now I think it is time to dig out the materials that have been waiting, and get to work on Nefertiti.

nefertiti

Nefertiti is probably the second most well known Egyptian woman, after Cleopatra. She was the “main” wife, if you will, of the Pharoah Akhenaten. Akhenaten ruled during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt which was around 1300 BC. His name was originally Amenhotep IV but he changed it when he decided to become pretty much the first ruler in history to believe in only one god. He no longer wanted to worship Amun (the main god at the time) and decided that only the sun god Aten was worth worshiping. Nefertiti ruled along with her husband in one of Egypt’s wealthiest times. Unfortunately, she simply vanished from history. No one really knows what happened to her. Akhenaten also lost his mother (Queen Tiye, pronounced Tee) and a daughter around the same time. After Akhenaten died, Egypt got a new ruler…

egyptxs

Tutankhamun. “King Tut” as he is called today was the son of Akhenaten and a woman who was probably Akhenaten’s sister. Yeah, I know. But in ancient Egypt the kings pretty much always married their sisters. You had to keep the royal blood lines flowing, right? This project pictured above is from a German cross stitch magazine called Burda Special (issue E732) and it is HUGE. We’re talking 25×15 inches on 14 count fabric. This is definitely a “way down the line” project for me. But it would be absolutely stunning! No designer is given for this chart, which is a shame. The gods on either side of Tutankhamun are not identified, but I am guessing the ones on the left are Atum and Hathor. On the right, the god is probably Horus. I actually have no idea who the 4th figure is. Her headdress looks like a combination of the single feather Ma’at (female) wore and the double plumed crown of Amun (male). But, this chart has definitely been on my “must stitch list” for a good two years or more now.

XXX
Carrie