Melitastitches4fun's Blog

As you may recall, not long ago I showed Sky 23 from Stitch Landscape by Little Shoppe Canvas Company.  My one negative was that the diagrams do blur a tad when you open to the 2x size on iPad but not so horrible that you can’t look at it. Elaine from Little Shoppe Canvas Company commented that an upgrade was coming – it came.

But, when I went to upgrade on my iPad, I got a message that I needed iOS5 or greater to upgrade. Well, I’d just bought this iPad in Sept 2011, so back to the Apple store to find out what was going on.  I found the oldest clerk in the store to help me. And, he was patient, helpful, & explained that I am supposed to plug the iPad into my computer & the upgrade will practically occur by itself. Yeah, sure. I was not optimistic but I went home to try.  I never knew that I was supposed to plug this into the computer – you don’t get manuals any more!

Well, messages automatically came up all right – but it told me that in order to upgrade the iPad, I had to upgrade iTunes version to 10.2 or greater. You got to be kidding me! Can’t they ever just STOP upgrading I lamented to myself, knew “they” wouldn’t, & bit the bullet.

So, I bravely went to apple.com, looked at the support tab, & then downloads. Amazingly, I located the right thing & it worked!! It took hours to do it it’s thing – it must have needed a ton of updates because as little as I use iTunes, I recall ignoring those annoying pop-ups telling me an upgrade was available. But, this latest upgrade went much smoother. Maybe “they” are listening to us computer light weights & making it easy for us to stay in the game.

So, back to the iPad for its update & it worked as easy as the Apple clerk had said. Then, to the app updates on my iPad for Stitch Landscape & it worked!! And, the diagrams at 2X are clearer.   I only wish the pictures showed the improvement because even though they weren’t bad before it was worth the effort!!  So, thanks to Elaine for her update & Apple for making updates easier.  And,  I’ll probably still ignore updates until I am forced to download.

Before 

After 

I went to Rittenhouse Needlepoint to get more Arctic Rays (AR2) & Fuzzy Stuff (FZ15) but they were out of FZ15, a very bleached white. It was fortuitous because I prefer the more natural FZ26. And, they had an antique white (FZ27) with Fuzzy Stuff (AR3) that I think will be nice as the 2 background trees keeping the whitest one in the front center.

Here’s the first tree (center whiter one) from different angles so you can see the fluffy effect of the thread.

I like the pattern because it resembles branches going in different directions cathing the snow – it is Tree 16 from Stitch Landscape.

After replenishing my stock of Gold Rush 14 (WG84C), I was able to finish the sky. I have decided to to use Stitch Landscape, an iPad app, exclusively to select stitches for this piece.

Stitch Landscape is by Little Shoppe Canvas Company. And, the app is $10.99 at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stitch-landscape/id469541089?mt=8 (I have no financial connection to them or sadly, Apple). The landscape categories are clouds (28), flowers (27), grass (40), mountains (41), sand (30), shrubbery (18), sky (40), snow (27), soil (18), stone (18), tree (30), tree bark (12), & water (25). So, I think I should be able to find enough suitable stitches to finish this ornament which consists of sky, trees, & snow with 354 stitches to select from (the Description on iTunes says there are 370 stitches & within the hints section there could be more)! The diagrams are very clear at the smaller iPhone size. They do blur a tad when you open to the 2x size on iPad but not so horrible that you can’t look at it. And, the diagrams are easy to follow.

The Stitch Hints for sky are very helpful as they speak to what colors to select for the dynamics of the sky (fair weather, storm, time of day), coverage. For my sky, I reviewed the 40 patterns, narrowed down to 6 potential & selected pattern 23. It is difficult to pick this up on the stitched canvas. I have found that darker colors do not tend to display patterns as well as lighter ones. Here are 2 pictures to show that pattern I selected & to display the differences between the 1x & 2x for those you considering purchasing the app.

And, I love how the Gold Rush is dark black & blue with the sparkles when stitched. I still have to fill in some falling snow and I think you can see the slant of the stitch just enough to aid the impression of falling snow.

Our Mainline Stitchers Chapter of ANG did a Holiday Santa Exchange (steal) again this year at our Dec meeting. And, I got a beautiful ornament to stitch.

I don’t know the designer & I can’t tell by the mark in the lower left corner.  If anyone knows, please leave comment & let me know.

The threads are now ready – I went through my stash yesterday. Next, I need to select stitches.  Then, I can get started just as soon as I finish my small cross-stitch ones. It’s a lovely piece.