anonymityblaize | Entries tagged with serenity

Anyone remember when I made this lovely cross stitch o' doom?

Well, some ~~crazy~~ brave soul was interested in making one of their own, so here's the pattern for it.

( Read more... )

As always, feel free to do whatever you want with it, but credit or a link back here would be very much appreciated. And I'd love to see the results if anyone does stitch it!

Crossposts: http://anonymityblaize.livejournal.com/58077.html

I've been trying to make this widget work so that I can post dynamic versions of etsy treasuries, but I don't think LJ will let you do embed script type thingies, will it? Anyhow, here's another treasury in a boring clicky pic version for now!

And a quick recommendation for anyone who needs some help making photos look clean and professional (I know I certainly do!). Try FotoFuze - they call themselves "the better photo generator and dimension amplifier" and I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. ( But it does this... )

Current Mood: pensive

Oh, stencils. You are still my happy place. (Let us not speak of my attempts at screenprinting.) And I will apparently never tire of making spaceship related crafts.

Three different versions of Serenity on a shopping bag, a drawstring bag, and a t-shirt await you under the cut.

( More pics... )

Current Mood: cold

So, nearly six months, 8,165 stitches, and 32.1 metres of 20 different colours of thread later, my Serenity cross stitch is completed.

Despite being considerably smaller than either Peter or the Enterprise, this particular Cross Stitch of Doom has somehow caused me more stress than both of them combined! But she's turned out rather beautiful and I'm quite a bit proud.

"Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down... tells you she's hurting before she keels."

( Lots more pictures under the cut! )

More pictures to be found here, and you can look back on the various ups and (many, many) downs of my progress here.

Onwards! To the next gigantic project!

Current Mood: accomplished

Random post is random and has bullet points.

· My Serenity cross stitch is FINISHED! Hallelujah. Shall have it all prettified and posted tomorrow probably. Such a weight off my shoulders. (Although I am, of course, now bereft of things to do with my hands and am plotting my next project.)

· Screen printing attempt number one was an absolute disaster of monstrous proportions. But I'm trying again. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, however, I'm getting stuff organised to put some of my dictionary definition t-shirts on cafepress at some point this week.

· After Friday's post, I wanted to add some more linkspam on the #twitterjoketrial - Charlie Brooker does what he does best (that'd be misanthropic hyperbole and reductio ad absurdum in the face of idiocy), and here's an idea of how the whole thing could have been avoided (bonus points for random Gary Oldman as the Police).

· New Take That album is out and I love it so. Has a very Scissor Sisters meets Muse vibe about it, which I heartily approve of. SOS and Kidz seem to be my favourite tracks so far. I think it'll make for a fantastic tour. Roll on June!

· Oh sweet baby Jesus waiting for a palfrey: This Means War is going to knock me over with hottness. I have a terrible weakness for pretty boys getting beat up on screen. Yum.

· And finally, a t-shirt I didn't want to post until it had been gifted:

( More pics of empirical proof of Doctor Who's awesomeness )

Edited umpteen million times because the LJ cut hates me.

Current Mood: lethargic

Mwah ha ha hah!

Mine is an evil laugh for I am nearly finished with this project! I have bested the great cross stitch of doom once more. I spent so long being really frustrated by it that I didn't notice until last night how close to the end I really am. The finish line is in sight!

I'm so close to finished, in fact, that this is the last pic I'm going to post until she is done and cleaned and pressed and framed, and ready to be presented to the world.

And then I'm going to start mithering about what my next cross stitch project will be...

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Take That - Progress

I haz my cross stitching mojo back! Hoorah! And huzzah! And other exclamations of joy!

Don't know why, don't know how, but it's just suddenly become much easier, and progress is much, much faster. And I've barely even cussed her out in days! Being able to take some of the guidelines out, because certain bits are complete, was a major psychological boost I think. I'll definitely have it finished by Christmas now I'm sure. Not quite ready to bust out the "nearly finished" tag, but almost!

Current Mood: accomplished

This week has been very strange, but mostly in a good way.

Saw John Barrowman (Barrowmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! *shakes fist at sky*) in concert on Wednesday, which was all kinds of fabulous. It was cheesy as all get out, of course, but in a wonderful way. To hear him sing in person was a fantastic experience, but what really surprised me was how I could have listened to him tell his showbiz anecdotes all night long. The man could have a career in stand up if he wanted! (Although this feeling may have been intensified by him using his Glaswegian accent for most of the show, and the extra cheekiness of a home town gig.) And I really like the way he has his support act on for two short sets in the middle of each act, rather than as a warm up act. Also, Wonder Woman/Spiderman mash-up. Really.

Then Friday was Take That ticket day. Hrrrrrrrrrrrrrrffffffffffffffffffffffffffggggggggggggggnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. That was ridiculous. I have never had to work so hard in my life to get someone to take my money. Total capitalism fail. You'd think Ticketmaster of all things might be somewhat prepared for the onslaught of people wanting tickets. (Although, fair enough, selling over a million tickets in one day is pretty huge.) But I succeeded (after four bloody hours) and all is well with the world!

And I think I have finally hit the home stretch with my Serenity cross stitch. Swearing levels are decreased, accomplishment levels are increasing. I'm starting to like her again! Hurrah!

Current Mood: giddy

Progress: Still slow, but moving at least.

Sanity: Hanging in there.

Times stabbed self with needle this week: Only twice.

Times flung across the room in despair: Just the once.

Profanities uttered whilst cross stitching: All of them. Many times.

Current Mood: aggravated

I think it's fair to say that I have seriously lost momentum with this project. Progress is sloooooo-ooooow. I will not list the things I blame for this, for fear of sounding like a broken record. But one of the best things about this blog is that I can look back at previous large cross stitch projects and know that I always do this. It flies along really fast and easy, and then it gets hard and I start anthropomorphizing colours and threads and getting into arguments with things inanimate, and then somehow, somewhere, I find my sanity and reach the home stretch and it starts getting easier. And then when I finish, I love the project and seem to forget the moments where I nearly tore it apart. So hopefully that third stage will kick in soon. And at least this time I have outside influences to blame rather than just shrieking about how pale colours are evil.

Here's how Serenity looks today:

And here's a close up where you can actually tell that I've started putting in some of the darker colours:

And while I'm here, my TLDR bag got featured in a green and purple themed treasury over at etsy. I'd always encourage y'all to check these kind of things out cos there are so many amazing crafters and artists on etsy (so much better than me!) and you never know what you might find over there!

Current Mood: blah

Aaarrgh. It's been just over a month since I last posted on Serenity's progress. And there's not actually been that much.

It would seem that no matter how much I love the subject, or feel like I'm enjoying the project, there will always be a point where one of my cross stitches of doom just starts to annoy me and makes me want to be violent toward it. I am currently blaming my sore shoulder issues and the new shiny fandom of distraction for my lack of progress, but it won't be long until I start taking it out on Serenity herself and fling her across the room in despair.

Bloody hell, I'm a melodramatic cross stitcher, aren't I? Shall shut up now...

Current Mood: frustrated

Still having slightly weird shoulder issues, but Serenity seems to be coming along fine, if a little slower than I'd like. Don't know if I should stop doing all crafts for a few days to give it a rest (that may drive me slightly crazy) or whether I should go get a massage or something.

Also I found about a dozen stitches in the starboard engine that are all placed one row below where they ought to be. Have yet to work out whether I could just stitch over them or if I'll have to cut them out, but I remain remarkably sanguine about it. I'll fix it at some point, I just can't be mithered right now. Seems a better attitude than my usual mania!

Current Mood: mellow

Oh, LJ, how I have abandoned you of late. I really do mean to post more often. Anyway...

Took a week or so off stitching Serenity as I'd hurt my shoulder due to poor crafting and computer-using posture . But thanks to some wonderful family members and a handily timed birthday, I now have a kneeling chair so I can't slouch at the computer and a graphics tablet so I don't end up with what I refer to as "mouse claw". Both are taking some getting used to but my body seems grateful for the change.

And now that I've gotten back into my stitching rhythm Serenity is really starting to look like a spaceship!

Current Mood: working

It's all going so well! And so fast! I am afeared of the moment it all goes horribly wrong. Admittedly she is about half the size of my Enterprise cross stitch, so you would hope it'd be quicker and easier than that one. But I am using many of the exact same thread colours (yup, my waste-not-want-not philosophy extends even to thread) so I may experience just as much angst before it's done. Aaaaargh. Why do I feel the need to turn every craft project into a battle? Bah. But she is looking pretty. Woot!

Is there such a thing as crafting-bipolar-ness?

Today:

Two days ago:

Current Mood: accomplished

Despite my fears she's really starting to come along nicely now. And no unpleasant unstitching situations since my unfortunate jinxing in my last post. It could still come back to bite me in the arse at any point though!

Me and the macro setting on my camera are getting better acquainted, so the colours are more accurately represented, but the focus has gone a little less, well, focused. I'll get a tripod at some point and everything should look much better. It seems like for every new crafty or artsy skill I learn, it just opens up a new area of things I need to investigate. It's like falling down the rabbit hole.

Here's how Serenity looks today:

( And here's how she looked earlier in the week )

Current Mood: productive

Eleven of the twenty colours are in there now, and some of them you can even tell apart! The blue part in the top left is the light of Serenity's port engine (if that makes any sense to anyone). I'm starting to see the shape of her, which is quite exciting to experience this early on. And I've only had one incident so far that required the unpicking of stitches and copious swearing. It's all going ridiculously well thus far.

I really shouldn't have said that, should I?

( Pictures of previous progress... )

Current Mood: chipper

"We live in a space ship, dear."

Day One of stitching Serenity.

There's four different colours in there so far. Honest. Me and pale colours look set to resume our grudge match. But she's smaller and therefore this should be less head-hurty than the Enterprise.