I made some really pretty earrings today.

Why do business licenses have to be a thing?? I hate all this legal stuff.

I’d also love to stitch The Last Supper. I think that will be my goal, to finish The Last Supper before 2014.

alisonannestitch:

I was over on Mr. X Stitch this morning, and read an old post from Stitchalicious on Improving the Suck-Awesome Ratio in your work. 

Here’s what she had to say:

I’m clearly not alone (because you’re here reading this) in thinking that this new embroidery movement, typified by the works that are showcased on this site, is awesome. I learnt embroidery way back in the dark ages: the mid eighties, when neon was king (in everything but stitching) and all was staid and proper and creativity was limited to the few designers who’d been picked up by big companies or magazines. Now, since an event that I’d like to dub the SSS (or Sublime Stitching Singularity), the stitch world has opened up with neo-Stitchers expressing whatever they feel like.

The motifs, subjects and ideas portrayed in stitch have exploded but one thing which I’ve found slightly disappointing is that the methods haven’t been challenged in the same way. It’s fantastic to produce cross stitch that make people think, or use a simple stitch to outline images that make people feel, but what I’m hoping to see soon happen is these neo-Stitchers pushing the actual techniques. To revitalize the art of the craft itself and make sure the details, the precision and the beauty that can be attained with thread don’t die out.

Sounds good to me.

I’ve only been at this for a short while (around 6 months), so my goals for improving my personal suck-to-awesome ratio will be pretty modest. Still, I won’t ever be the person making crazy amazing stumpwork hearts if I don’t take the first steps out of my comfort zone.

In 2013, I will:

• Get reasonably good at basic embroidery stitches including (at least) satin stitch, chain stitch, long and short stitch, stem stitch, and burden stitch.
• Put the aida down and try cross stitching on evenweave.
• Experiment with blackwork.
• Experiment with glow-in-the-dark thread.
• Get more serious about pattern-making, and translate all of my current designs into a uniform, shareable format. No more graph paper crammed into clipboards!
• Wean myself off reliance on photo conversion and pre-set fonts for making patterns, and build one entirely by hand.

I promise to update my progress as I check things off my list. You are welcome to publicly shame me for falling short!

How will you become more awesome at your craft in 2013?

Here are my craft resolutions so far:

• First and foremost, I’m going to work on finishing pieces in a timely manner. I tend to get bored halfway through and start something else, so not much actually gets done! :(
• Practice needle painting. I just bought Needle Painting Embroidery: Fresh Ideas for Beginners by Trish Burr, and I plan on going through all the projects in there.
• Work a more intricate cross stitch pattern than I have before.
• Try to make my own cross stitch patterns (and hopefully sell them).
• Start serious work on starting my own craft business.
• Craft every single day.