TUSAL for April

Here's my TUSAL jar,  the kids were playing around in it so you can't really see all that purple from my HAED and my Luna moth.  There are some bits from the wedding chart, Christmas ornies, some roses, and a few other small charts.
Happy stitching all!

Box Finishing Class

This is all for the Box finishing class hosted by a fellow ILCS member.
I went to my Local Craft Store and they had 2 for $5.99 boxes.  I purchased the rectangular set and the square set.  I plan to use the 6x6 larger box for the luna moth chart. seen here



 

Rather then buy more fabric I went through my stash.  Mum was kind enough to give me some hand dyed Aida 18(we think).  If mum can't see the holes she gives it to me.  I feel bad for her eyes, but Yay for me. The picture really doesn't do it justice.  It's got light grey greenish blue accents.  There will be little border around the chart but it's nice to have more then the suggested grey fabric. 






I had most of the colors for the chart itself I only needed to order 1 blue and then the color variations.  It required the same purple as my HAED (like I really need any more purple to work with) This had me laughing for a good five minutes.  I also ordered the mill hill beads and the Kreinik braids from 123 stitch, those are hard to find at and of the stores around me.  My LCS had an unheard of 5 of the spools but they were the wrong colors. 

I am still stitching away on Dizzy Heights and the Vervaco wedding chart that a friend let me borrow. 

Liebster Award

Linda M. over at Stitching in Suburbia passed the Liebster Award to me. 

The origins of the Liebster Blog award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, "Liebster" meaning favorite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.  Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note.

  

Here are the guidelines:

Thank the person who gave me the award and link back to her blog.

She is a wonderful and very talented woman, be sure to visit her blog. (linked above)

Post the award on my blog.

The banner posted above is the award.  

Pass the blog award to five other bloggers.

I have sent emails to five other bloggers advising that I am passing along the Liebster Award to them.

List the bloggers to whom I have passed the Liebster award and let them know by commenting on their blogs.

1. Kim from Granny Stiches

2. Leslie from Leslies craft store

3. Lisa from Lisa's Stitches and Designs

4. Terry from Shut up and stitch! 

5.  Cindy from Home of Cross Stitching

Share five random facts about myself that people do not know about me.

1. I just this week signed up to sell Mary Kay products but I have been thinking about doing this for a long time.

2. I love to paint and I love to take my Nikon out for walks and take pictures of anything I can catch in my lens.

3. My kids keep me crazy....oh wait, that's common knowledge.   Our family consists of myself, hubby, Lily, Kayla, Lucy-Fur (prissy Himalayan kitty), Molly (Cock-a-poo), Thumper (Lion-Head bunny) and 3 fish tanks (2 Bettas in separate tanks and the large tetra tank).  Yes, I live in a zoo.

4. I had plans to go to Art School after high school but was unable to do so.  I wanted to be an Art Teacher.

5. I have lived in the Pittsburgh, PA area my entire life but I love to travel.  I have been up and down the East coast all the way to Florida and then to Nassau Bahamas.  I have been to Canada many times. I went to Nova Scotia by way of Bar Harbor, ME and drove back through Niagara Falls and once came back through Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.  I have gone as far as Utah to the West.  I told my hubby when Kayla reaches 18 we were going to England.  

Tulip is here!

Here it is, my friends!  The tulip you requested.  
Email me at mabscraftmail@yahoo.com if you wish to add this chart to your collection.  

For those of you that voted for the quilt square, I will be posting one very soon.  Thank you all for voting!

My copyright rant

I've seen a number of rants lately on copyright infringement.  How could I let the chance pass by where I could have my rant?  I have very strong feelings on this as you will find.
 

I am just starting as a designer.  Copyright infringement is a big concern of mine. Unfortunately, like anything, we have to take the good with the bad and just do our best to reduce the chance of copyright infringement.  So I am going to play devil's advocate for a bit which as a teacher to my daughter, I tend to do a lot so she learns the value of debate.  I think those that do not cite where the chart was taken are in the wrong, however, the designers are not blameless. 

I think a major way to stop this is to do away with downloadable Pdfs and other files. Pay for snail mail and stop worrying about the customer getting it immediately, if they want the chart that badly they'll wait for it. If it is not meant to be a freebie, make them work for it.  If people intend to pirate the chart they will do so regardless of what you do.

I made my freebie charts available through email request only and made the pictures so small that you can't get a decent screen shot of it.  I am not belittling the designers but if you put a plate of candy in front of children you should expect pieces to be taken.  By making things so easily accessible you are just asking the less moral of society to steal from you.  It is sad that in today's society we have to prepare for the worst, but it's how it is.  If you're not capable of shoring up your defenses then you will have the bad stuff happen to you. 

People's moral compass degrades with every generation that starts.  Parents refuse to spank the bottoms of those naughty children and now those children have no idea of consequences.  Teachers are only skirting the proper way to cite references and copyrights are being ignored across the board.  I home-school my daughter and I basically told her that if she copies someone's words and uses them as her own then she would be in severe trouble as it counts as stealing.  I put it into her perspective as if she made some amazing piece of art or story and said how would you feel if someone stole it and said they did it.  Oh the tears that started and the sincere apology I got from a seven year old.  I felt bad for making her cry but you can be damned sure she'll think twice before she copies again.  I'll go back to my little corner of the world now.  I hope you don't think I am taking the side of the thieves, I have sincere issues with copyright laws in general and I have issues with people wanting things to stay private or semi-private when they post it on a PUBLIC forum.


I post here knowing there is a chance that one of my pictures or freebie charts is likely to get taken if I gain popularity.  I need to create so I make it as hard as possible to just pilfer off my blogs.  It will not stop me from creating. 

What happend to last week?

Cross Stitches

What the heck happened to last week?  I was puttering along on all my projects and WHAM!  It's Monday again!  I hardly got any work on my HAED done maybe another 20 stitches.  I did get a chunk of my wedding piece done for my Sister-in-law's first anniversary. A friend of mine was kind enough to let me borrow the chart.





Crochet
I did manage to make one crochet dish cloth, however it is too tight so I need to adjust and make them more loose.  Then my darling 8 year old convinced me to teach her how.  Now she's got my hook tied up so I'll have to use a different size or steal my hook back when she's not looking. 

Chart Making
The poll came back to a Tulip Freebie so as soon as I manage to get the chart done I'll be posting that.  Thank you all for voting!

The Bookmark and Tea Exchange
Shaunterria sent me a very lovely bookmark with gorgeous red roses, my favorite!
She sent along some Lemon Zinger Tea and Peppermint.  Very yummy with some honey in.
 She also sent along some Victorian Sampler Over-dyed Floss in the color theme of Red Roses.  I was so excited!  I have never had the opportunity to work with over-dyed floss before.  There was also a neat little card with a very sweet note.  We are both relatively new to Stitching and I think for two newbies we did an awesome job on the exchange.  She truly was a wonderful partner. Here are pictures of what we exchanged.