Another W.I.P. Photo

Diane Graebner - Christmas Eve:

19.2% complete as of 22nd December 2008.

Monarch Beauty

Kustom Krafts - Monarch Beauty:

Seven parts of the Mystery SAL on the Kustom Krafts group finished. 48% complete.

Cabin in the Woods

HAED - Cabin In The Woods (Faulkner):

Page 19 Finished. 1 page (of 42 pages) stitched which is 3%

Latest Update

HAED - Tomboy (Fenech):

24 pages (of 36 pages) stitched which is 69.1%

HAED - Serengeti Glow (Schimmel):

10 pages (of 12 pages) stitched which is 77.8%

Kustom Krafts - Monarch Beauty:

Six parts of the Mystery SAL on the Kustom Krafts group. 36.6% complete.

HAED - Cabin In The Woods (Faulkner):

Half of page 19 (of 42 pages) stitched which is 1.8%

HAED - Sampler Letter R (Fenech):

Page 1 (of 4 pages) stitched which is 40.6%

HAED - Kustom Krafts - Blue Eyes:

Page 1 (of 9 pages) stitched which is 13.9%

Finishes:

Whispered by the Wind - Snow:

Finished on 24th November 2008

Stitched on 14 count Hand Dyed (by me) Aida.

Angel Stitchin - Candle Light:

Finished on 17th November 2008

From Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments 2008. Stitched on 18 count Blue Cloud Aida.

August and September Progress

HAED - Tomboy (Fenech):

22 pages (of 36 pages) stitched which is 64.3%

HAED - Serengeti Glow (Schimmel):

7 pages (of 12 pages) stitched which is 72.7%

Kustom Krafts - Monarch Beauty:

Three parts of the Mystery SAL on the Kustom Krafts group. 6.4% complete.

Shinysun - Shades of Blue (Marsh)

Half a page (of 6 pages) stitched which is 10.8%

HAED - QS Hang in There (Middleton):

Half a page (of 4 pages) stitched which is 15.4%

HAED - The Pink Rose (Lenoir)

1.5 pages (of 35 pages) stitched which is 5.2%

A couple of progress pictures

Lizzie*Kate 12 Blessings of Christmas Flip-it - Faith:

Finished on 2nd August 2008

HAED - Invariance (Bowser):

1.5 of 42 pages stitched which is 4.5%

Kustom Krafts - Monarch Beauty:

This is the first part of the Mystery SAL on the Kustom Krafts group. 1.5% complete.

Two Finishes and Four Updates

First the finishes.


HAED - TT Snow Family (Raisch):

Finished on 19th May 2008

Derwentwater Designs - Cliff Top:

Finished on 28th June 2008

Now the updates.

HAED - Serengeti Glow (Schimmel):

6 of 12 pages stitched which is 58.5%

HAED - Tomboy (Fenech):

21 of 36 pages stitched which is 61.2%

HAED - Desert Princess (Bowser)

1 of 18 pages stitched which is 5.6%

HAED - Celestial Night (Fain)

1 of 36 pages stitched which is 3.6%

Stitching Update

Here is my stitching update since the last post:

Lizzie*Kate - Winter Boxer:

Finished at last! I am celebrating this finish as I have had it on my to-do list for what seems like forever. It is stitched on 28 count flax linen and I really don’t like stitching on this fabric. I just have the Summer Boxer left to stitch.

Lizzie*Kate - 12 Blessings of Christmas Flip-it - Hope:

This was my first attempt at dying fabric and I am pleased how it worked out. The design is the first I have stitched of the '12 Blessings of Christmas'. I have the other 11 charts and will stitch them all one day.

CNSC - The Visitor:

I have stitched 1 of 4 pages which is 25%

HAED - Invariance:

This has so many colour changes it took a long time to get this far. I was ready for a change when I reached the end of the page!
I have stitched 1 of 42 pages which is 3%

HAED - TT Snow Family:

34% stitched

HAED - Serengeti Glow:

I have stitched 2 of 12 pages which is 20%
This is a lovely chart to work on. I was tempted to stay on it awhile longer, but Tomboy was next on my rotation and I haven't stitched on that one for a few months.

I am currently stitching on two projects, HAED - "Tomboy" and Solaria Gallery - "Girl from Alhambra", which I will show in my next post.

I’m back again – well sort of.

Thank you for all the messages and emails. I will get around to replying ASAP.

It was an unplanned absence due to a couple of things. Firstly out of the blue Richard talked about us moving and after a long discussion we decided it would be the right thing to do. We spoke to the estate agent who said he thought our house would sell quickly as there was a shortage of this size house on the market in this area. We rushed getting things ready, doing all the jobs that have been put off. I also had to go through everything I own and try and get rid of half of it as we will be moving to a smaller house. Wow, I have a lot of stuff! As soon as we put our house on the market things cooled down and houses are now not selling in the area (well this size anyway).

Well amongst that I had health problems. I am receiving treatment which is going well.

My stitching has suffered as although I am stitching sometimes, there have been a few weeks when I couldn’t do any at all. In fact this is one of them as I just don’t feel well enough, I am missing it though.

I don’t know how often I will be able to write my blog, but hopefully things will get back to normal (whatever that is) soon.

Even though I haven’t done as much stitching, I still have some to share with you as it has been so long since I last did an update. I haven’t stuck to the rotation, just stitched on whatever, whenever.

I have finished Lavender & Lace Celtic Winter:

This is waiting to be framed now. It looks better in real life, but then don't they always?

Next I worked on HAED – Tomboy:

I have reached the 52% mark which is 18 pages. This was my target for the year. There are only 18 more pages to go!

Lastly is HAED – QS Believe:

This is at 16%, which is just over half of the first page. I was surprised at how much confetti or isolated stitches this had on the butterfly. Maybe it was just I wasn’t feeling too good while I was working on it, so it seemed worse.

I have also just finished Lizzie*Kate Winter Boxer but haven’t taken a photo yet, will show that next time.

I am currently stitching on The Visitor, which is a picture of a fox. It reminds me of the foxes that visit our back garden. I am trying to get the first page finished before taking a photo, so hopefully I will be able to stitch again soon.

Well that’s it for now, thank you for reading my blog.

I won a HAED chart!

The Heaven and Earth Designs forum ran a game of bingo for fairy day and I nearly fainted when I won it! Two other ladies won as well and instead of selecting one of us to win the prize, HAED very kindly agreed to give all three of us a free chart. I chose Pirate by Selina Fenech. I am delighted to have won and to be able to select a chart that I love.

This week I worked on HAED's 'At First Sight' by Linda Tso. You wouldn't say I was addicted to HAED charts would you. Well here is my progress so far:

If you click on the image it will take you to see what it should look like when finished. I loved working on this design it has been the easiest so far of any of the HAED Charts I have worked on. I didn't spend as much time stitching this week so there isn't a lot done.

I worked on HAED's 'QS Believe' on Wednesday. This is my progress so far (again you can see what is should look like by clicking on the image):

I enjoy stitching this much more on the 18 count.

I am sorting out Lavender and Lace's 'The Quiltmaker' and hope to start stitching on it this weekend. I don't know why but every time I go to type 'Quiltmaker' I end up typing 'Guiltmaker'.

I took the plunge and changed my blog template. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Don't know why but I was in a pink mood. The colour will no doubt change from time to time. I also designed a banner for the top, eventually I want to add something more 'cross stitch' to it.

This week's stitching time was concentrated on Celtic Winter. I didn't have as much time to spend stitching as usual but I am pleased with the progress made anyway. This is what Celtic Winter looks like now:

The dress is finished except for the hem.

Tonight I will start gridding for HAED's 'At First Sight' - YUK. I don't enjoy gridding but I do prefer stitching with it in place. This design (when I start the stitching) fits in with my pink mood. :)

Second Happy Dance of 2007

I would like to share my second cross stitch happy dance of 2007:

This is 'Bring on the Snow' by Waxing Moon.

Here is my progress on Tomboy:

Another 1% done bringing the total complete to 43.2%

I re-started HAED's QS Believe last night on 18 count Aida. I only got a few stitches in after gridding so not worth a photo yet.

For those who would like to know where the seven hearts are hidden in the picture I posted last week, here is the answer:

I have just discovered that some emails are not getting through, so if you have sent me an email and not had a reply please re-send it, thanks.

Tonight I will be stitching on Celtic Winter.

This is my start on HAED's Cabin in the Woods:

I started on page 19 instead of the top left as I usually do. Sorry the photo isn't too good, it does look better IRL. I should get more done the next time I work on this as most of the gridding is done and all the threads are sorted ready and cut into workable lengths.

I haven't been getting as much stitching time lately, so not much to show in this post. I did put a total of 3 stitches into HAED's Seven Hearts on Wednesday. It was our 7th wedding anniversary and although I didn't have time to spend stitching I wanted to have made a start with this chart on the day. We got this design as we thought it was suitable for the occasion.

There are seven hearts hidden in the picture, can you find them?

Update Continued

Following on from my last post here are the two promised photos.

DMC - Tiger and Cub:

I had fun gridding the black and sorting the threads of the kit - not.   It was the worst kit I have had for sorting threads out. For example there were six or seven shades of grey with descriptions such as pale grey and light grey. Then there were the oranges etc.. The totals of the strands didn't help either as mostly they were the same quantity. Luckily I have a DMC shade card (and a fantastic husband, who helped a lot), as in the end I had to use that to work out which thread was which. This is the left ear which is 9.4% of the total. I was gradually getting used to stitching on the black before I moved on. I am looking forward to stitching on this again.

HAED - QS Believe:

I decided to try 28 count Brittney to stitch this but am really not enjoying it. Only 6.2% has been stitched so I've made the decision to restart it on 18 count Aida.

I am just starting HAED's Cabin in the Woods. Hopefully I will get the first stitches in tonight.

Update - At Last

I didn't mean to be away for so long but time just slipped away. It was time to move HandsOnHobbies onto the new server but to do so the shop had to be closed and completely set up from scratch with new software. My DH and I had two weeks to do the job, including a lot of new features and adding thousands of products with larger images! To check out the new (UK) site go to http://www.handsonhobbies.com.

The following are photos of my stitching progress since my last post.

Tomboy:

I have stitched 14 of 36 pages which is 42.3%

Diane Graebner's - Christmas Eve:

Stitched 16 blocks at top left approx. 6.4%

Solaria Gallery – Girl from Alhambra:

Stitched half of page one. I love stitching this design! Stitched approx. 16%

Celtic Winter:

Widened fur on hood, stitched muff and start of dress. Stitched approx. 55.2%

I have two others to sort out photos for and will show them later.