Another photo finish! A useful present!

This will be the last finish for a while.  I didn't expect to get it done before my trip, but we went to Hobby Lobby today, so I was able to get the last thing I needed to finish it.

Today's achievement is a plastic canvas tissue box cover featuring everyone's favorite depressed donkey, Eeyore.  The kit is by Janlynn and the price tag informs me that I purchased it at Hobby Lobby.  I bought this kit two or three years ago, intending to make it as a gift for my fiancé, as he is particularly fond of Eeyore (I personally prefer Tigger).

So I worked really hard on it at first and got a lot done.  I got everything except some of the back stitching and the French knots completed.  But I ran out of white yarn, which meant I couldn't put it together.  This was frustrating.  I got some more, but one thing led to another, and I got stalled again for some reason.  I know I wasn't particularly motivated to finish as there wasn't much use for it in Japan since tissue boxes don't seem to come in this size there.  They come in the short rectangular boxes rather than the taller square ones. 

But then we came home and unpacked some boxes and I found it again, and told myself that it needed to get done now that it could be used.  So, after being stalled by another project that ran out of materials, I got going again, finished up all the back stitching, did all the French knots (which I really, really hate), and tied on the cute little bows all in one evening.  I was all ready to put it together, then I noticed that only three of the four sides had the dark green stitching along the top.  I got about halfway across and ran out of thread.  *cue rage*

This was the second thing I ran out of with this kit and I am rather annoyed with it.  The directions gave the color of the thread, so I wasn't too worried about being able to find more, it was mostly just that I really shouldn't have had to go out and get more.  I paid for a kit with materials to complete a project and I did not get what I paid for.  And unfortunately the color given seems to be mostly an approximation as it didn't match as well as I had hoped.  I ended up ripping out the half I had done on the last side and just doing that one side in the new color.  I don't think you can really tell the difference on the finished project, so that's a relief.

All four sides are the same and they turned out pretty cute.  The backstitching isn't as precise as I'm used to with cross stitch, but it gives it a kind of charm.  I like the combination of the thread details with the basic yarn stitches.  There is a clear difference in the thickness of the materials and I like the visual variety it provides. 

The instructions were really easy to follow and the pattern was clear.  I moved the peach stitching along the bottom of the sides up a line since they weren't laying flat very well without the overcastting on the bottom edge (which was the very last step) and I'm happy with the decision.

Assembly was pretty basic with all straight edges.  This project was on 7 count plastic canvas, making it a larger mesh than the previously posted penguin coasters.  I like working with plastic canvas as it is very sturdy and makes for projects that are not only decorative but functional.

While this project has not been a surprise for quite a while (and I'm not even entirely positive if it ever was a surprise...) I am very happy to have it finished so that my fiancé can enjoy it.  He has lots of allergies, so a tissue box cover is very useful for him.  I hope that whenever his allergies make him miserable and he reaches for a tissue he can smile a little when greeted by these cute Eeyores.  He deemed the project "Awesome," which may just be because he loves me, but I'm okay with that.

Kitty Completion! It's finished, you fool!

I'm sure everyone thinks that I am a liar as I said that I never finish anything and here I am, posting my second finished project.  But perhaps that just means that having this blog is encouraging me as I hoped it would. 

Anyway, I am happy to say that my latch hook kitty cat is finished!  I’m quite pleased with how quickly this project went together, less than two weeks from start to finish.  I really wanted to get it done before I head off on a long vacation and thankfully all went smoothly.  Assembly was tricky, and I did a few things wrong, but I learned quite a bit doing it, had fun, and am pretty happy with the result.

The project is a M.C.G Textiles latch hook Huggables kit called Pretty Kitty.  It's on 3.75 mesh canvas and the kit included everything except the latch hook tool, the stuffing, and the thread for the whiskers.  And unlike other kits I've recently been frustrated with, this one had more than enough of everything I needed.  I could have used a tiny bit more white assembly yarn, but it really doesn't detract from the finished project.

Here's what I started with today. 

Here's a look at some of the seam work.  I wish I had taken a picture when I was putting the feet together as it would have probably turned out better.  Most of the pieces are stitched up with the right sides together and using a back stitch.  The example below is one side of the body being attached to the tummy.  For most of the smaller pieces that meant stitching up three sides then turning it right side out to stitch up the last side with a ladder stitch, which was used for those places where you had to stitch with the right sides facing out. 

It was pretty hard to get everything to line up right.  I had to redo at least four entire sections while working today.  It was frustrating, and I figured out that I had done a few things wrong that were too late to fix, but that hopefully I can hide and no one else will notice (I did some of the seams on the wrong square so that you can sorta see the mesh at the seams if I don't hide it right).  But after fighting with it all evening and stuffing it to the brim I had a completed kitty!

I am NOT happy with the nose, but I really don't want to redo it, so it's going to just have to stay that way.  It's kinda off center and I'm not completely sure what I should have done differently, but I am just going to chalk it up to being overly critical and try to ignore it.

The kitty is about 12 inches long, but I do wish they had given it a longer tail. 

Despite all the little problems with it (that I'm not even sure you can see in these pictures thankfully) I'm happy with it.  I'm not sure I'd be happy enough with it to give it to someone, but I am confident that if I do another stuffed animal (and there are a bunch more in this set) that it will be much better.

The instructions for this kit were pretty good, although I am almost certain that there was at least one mistake.  At least there was something that I deemed impossible to do as directed and moved the point that should match up and it worked.  Some of the numbered points that you are supposed to match up during assembly are a little unclear, but I could follow along for the most part.  I am really happy that I stuffed up the legs before I attached the head though, as I'm not sure that the gap left for stuffing would have allowed me to really maneuver the stuffing into its proper place.

In case anyone was curious, I randomly decided to make all of my blog post titles excited titles (be warned that following the link may leave you lost on tv tropes for the rest of the day).  And today's title is a reference to this:

Crafting a Kitty! Slightly creepy progress!

So before the penguin coasters got finished I got stalled by, not one, but two separate projects that came as kits but did not include enough materials.  I'll rant about each of those in their turn, but for today we'll talk about something that, for the moment at least, is actually getting closer to being done. 

I'll give the full details when its finished, but I'm making a latch hook kitty cat stuffed animal.  I was thrilled when I found this kit in the store as the only things I knew you could make with latch hook previous to this were rugs and wall hangings.  I've long been tempted by the Amigurumi books in the knitting and crochet sections of the craft stores, so this was a pretty close project with a medium I was already familiar with.  My "plan" is to buy many of these kits to try to get a grip on how the patterns come together so that, eventually, I can try my hand at making my own.

That's still a long way off though, and for now I'm working on this black and white kitty.  I'd say I'm currently about 2/3 of the way done with it, and am moderately pleased with my progress.

Work began by hooking all of the kitty pieces.  I finished that in just under a week.  This went so much faster than the rug I was working on before this, probably because there are only two colors and there wasn't much counting needed.  I designated this as one of my "downstairs projects" so I work on it mostly while watching TV.  I discovered that marathons of Criminal Minds make for much latch hooking progress.  I traced all the lines I would need for cutting, which was a bit more difficult than I expected it to be, since all of the corners are in empty space and my brain was having a hard time transitioning between the two.

Then I cut out the first few pieces and began assembly.  I've never really done anything quite like this before, so its been challenging but fun.  I had to stitch up some darts, and a few I had to do twice because they didn't lay right the first time.  Some pieces, like the front and back of the ears, go together pretty easily as they are the same shape.  Others, like the muzzle, were challenging because they are not the same size as the piece you are attaching it to and thus you have to ease it into place.  It's supposed to give the animal more shape and definition, but I'm worried it will end up crazy lopsided.

I finished the head last night after fighting with the ears for far longer than I would like to admit.  I think the muzzle is a little crooked and the ears are not quite balanced.  This made placing the eyes an interesting challenge as they look a bit lopsided, even though they are even with each other.  Hopefully I'm just being overly critical of my own work and it doesn't look too bad.  I may be able to squish it around a bit more once I stitch the body together and stuff him.

Today I worked on the front and back left legs.  The directions were actually mislabeled at one point, so I was really confused until I figured out what I was supposed to do.  Tomorrow I'll be repeating the process with the right side of the body, then I'll be able to stitch on the belly and tail and it should start looking more like a kitty and less like some disassembled body parts.

Start with a finish! Penguin coasters and igloo holder

So let's start things off with something that I have actually finished!  I probably bought this kit back in junior high or early high school and it was so close to being done its just painful.  All I had left to do was to whip stitch the edges of the coasters.  That was it.  Everything else was done quite a long time ago.

I found it again while digging through some boxes hoping to find a needle with a large enough eye for assembling my current latch hook project.  The mostly finished project was in one box and all of the yarn and instructions were in another.  When I didn't find a satisfactory needle in my search I resolved to get the darn thing done!  I finished it in a few hours while rewatching the end of the first season of Fringe with my family. 

The name of the kit is "Holiday Igloo & Penguins" from Bucilla, and according to the price tag I apparently bought it at Michael's.  It's 10 mesh plastic canvas with acrylic yarn that was all included in the kit to make five coasters and a holder.

Here's the igloo holder.  It's very cute and I really like the Christmas lights.  I think it has a decent amount of detail and don't remember it being too tricky to assemble.

 Open it up and you'll find the coasters snugly tucked inside.

All of the coasters have different designs with penguins doing various winter activities.

The backs were a mess, especially with the border alternating colors, so I bought some craft felt and stuck it on the back.  I really think it finishes them off well.

I'm really happy to be finished with something, especially something that I have had for so long. 

Welcome to the Hellfire of Creation

I've long considered starting a blog to chronicle my craft pursuits and here it finally begins. 

I suppose I should start with a brief introduction of what I'm in to and thus what is likely to appear on this blog.  My mother taught me to cross stitch when I was little.  I still remember my first project.  It was a stamped cross stitch sampler to be made into a pillow based on the one that a character in an American Girl book was making.  The text read "Actions speak louder than words" and had some flowers in the corners.  I know that I finished the stitching, but never completed making it into a pillow.  I'm not sure where that project is at the moment (although I am rather certain that it is in a box...), but it will always hold a special place in my heart.  I remember hating that the pattern was stamped because I felt like it was impossible to line up the stitches exactly like they were supposed to be. 

From there I moved on to lots of little kits, mostly things with penguins as they are my favorite animal.  I tried to avoid stamped patterns and advanced to counting myself.  I did a lot of work with plastic canvas, enjoying how much faster it all seemed to come together.  I started a lot of projects but through moves and just being distracted by other things I managed to have far more things started than I did finished. 

After returning to the US after living in Japan for three years (I have a blog on that as well if it interests you) I began to find several of my old projects, many of which I had never even started.  I have gotten bitten by the craft bug again and am working hard to finish some projects.  I prefer cross stitch and needlepoint, but recently have branched out into latch hook.  I'd love to learn to knit and crochet, but I'm waiting on starting up those for a while.

This blog will mostly be me posting and ranting about my various projects, but I recently began charting a few patterns of my own and may post those as well.  The projects I post will probably be a bit of a disconnect from the blog title.  The title is a quote from an anime that I was watching while trying to think of a name for the blog and it seemed too good to pass up.  My current projects are far more cute than the title would suggest.  But I plan to eventually do more projects to the anime, manga, comic, video game theme once I make some progress on some of my backlog of projects.  I am not joking when I say that some of these projects have been in progress for years...

I've gotten into the habit of taking lots of photos of my works in progress and enjoy seeing the progress over time.  And now I have a place to share them!  So welcome any who wander here and I hope we will enjoy the journeys together!