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 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. :)

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.

2007 Goals

I've realised that I haven't put my 2007 stitching goals into writing so better late than never:

1. I would like to start a rotation of at least 20 projects, most of them large including quite a few HAED. As of 1st January I only had 3 WIP projects, which means a lot of new starts.

2. Get HAED - Tomboy to the 50% mark. I started the year at 29.9% (around 9 and a half pages).

3. Finish more than 4 projects.

Progress as of 22 April 07:

1. I have started 12 of the 20 projects.

2. Tomboy is at the 37.3% mark (12 pages). I have 6 more pages to stitch this year to reach my target.

3. I have finished 1 project (Diane Graebner's - Home for the Holidays)

Week's Progress

The following photos show my stitching progress for the week. The first is Dimensions - Sleigh Ride:

It is 15.7% complete. I am doing the backstitch as I go so it isn't all left to the end.

The second photo is my progress on Celtic Winter:

It is 48.6% complete. I finished the cloak and face and just started the dress as originally charted (although I have changed the colours). So far the two halves are fitting together nicely. I was worried how the original charted half would fit together with the cloak. The cloak was designed by Nathalie for a mirror image of Celtic Spring. I am stitching it for the actual Celtic Winter.

I am starting back on HAED - Tomboy today and can't wait!

Weekly News

This week our main water tap into the house developed a leak. I noticed a strange patch on the wall (which was recently decorated) which turned out to be caused by the leak. What could have been a quick repair turned into a saga, but thankfully it is fixed now. Although the wall does need to be sorted out!

We decided to move HandsOnHobbies to a new web server but it didn't go well and we haven't been able to get it to work correctly so the shop has been closed since Thursday evening. We decided to move it back to the old server for now and then probably start the shop from scratch using new software, which should be fun! Watch this space.

On top of which my PC is still throwing tantrums. Considering everything that is going on I am somehow managing to keep calm.

My sister is starting a new chapter in her life as she has just got the keys to her new house and is in the process of moving in. I wish her luck with her new start.

I have adapted my cross stitch rotation. I wasn't enjoying stitching on Sleigh Ride and Celtic Winter for just one evening a week. I prefer to spend at least a few days on a project before packing it away. With Sleigh Ride in particular I never looked forward to starting it and when I had to pack it away I had just started to get into it, so it wasn’t progressing very quickly. I have therefore adapted my rotation so both Sleigh Ride and Celtic Winter have slots every month and I can spend longer on them than just one evening. Also I wanted to have Tomboy as more of a focus piece. My new rotation looks like this:

Diane Graebner - Home for the Holidays
HAED - Pink Rose
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy
Diane Graebner - Christmas Eve
Solaria Gallery – Girl from Alhambra
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy
DMC - Tiger and Cub
HAED - Cabin in the Woods
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy
HAED - At First Sight
L&L - The Quiltmaker
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy
CNSC - The Visitor (Fox)
HAED - Invariance
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy

I have now also got a list of "Office Projects" which are smaller designs that I will stitch on when I have a few minutes to spare. They are:

Waxing Moon - Bring on the Snow
Lizzie*Kate - Winter Boxer
CSC - Holly Cottage
Derwentwater Designs - Cliff Top
Lizzie*Kate - Flip-it Blessings

My progress photos for the week include Celtic Winter which I did still stitch on Tuesday as usual:

and Tomboy:

I stitched half a page.

As soon as I get a chance I am starting Diane Graebner - Home for the Holidays. I am looking forward to this one. It should be an easier stitch. I wonder if it will make me feel Christmassy in March!

Happy Golden Wedding Anniversary Mum and Dad!

Being married for 50 years is quite an act to follow.

Back to the story of my PC. I spoke too soon, although not as drastic as the week before I did lose a day's work. Although it is working I am having to be very careful as it could crash at any time. It is slowing up my work so much it is driving me crazy.

I did manage in the end to get some of the new stock entered into the webshop, but not all of it. I did get all the new Clear Magic Stamps entered and the gallery with examples of some cards made with the stamps. To see the stamps click here and the gallery click here. There are so many lovely new designs I can't wait to start using them myself.

Now for my stitching update. First of all Sleigh Ride:

Although I didn't get too much done this week the picture doesn't show my progress very well. I did do more than it looks.

Then Celtic Winter:

I think a few more weeks and I will have the cloak finished and I can start on the dress.

Last of all is Evening Lights by Mystic Stitch:

I started stitching this last Saturday. There were a lot of confetti stitches! Hopefully when I finish the trees there will be more patches of one colour. I was delighted to start stitching with a different colour - yeah for pink.

I forgot to mention last week that I have started Bring on the Snow by Waxing Moon Designs (Design 11 - Position 5 in my rotation) I haven't taken a progress pic yet. As it is a smaller design I am stitching on this gradually when I have a few minutes here or there.

I am going back to Tomboy later today, so hopefully will have an update next week.

Thanks for all your comments. I will be visiting your blogs later - PC willing!

What a week! It started off with me feeling terrible with the tiredness being joined by a sore throat, ear ache etc. Then on Monday evening my PC went wrong. I have no idea what happened but it was working fine when I left it to do some stitching on Sleigh Ride and when I went back an hour later to do more work it had crashed. Richard (who is a computer genius) came to look at it but he couldn't get it to start. We spent hours trying things and in the end had to leave it to sleep as it was around 4am. I was doing my best to keep calm but it was a struggle as I realised my backup was out of date and I would have lost my years accounts which I had only just got up to date and balanced as well as so much other important work. Tuesday after only a couple of hours sleep was spent sorting out my PC. In the end Richard managed to get it working and I spent the remainder of the week re-installing software and generally getting things set up. It was such a relief when I found out I hadn't lost anything important. I have now done a full backup and plan to keep it up to date. I don't want to go through that again! Thankfully both of us (that is me and my computer) are feeling much better now.

Thank goodness for stitching! Without it I think I would have gone crazy by now - OK more crazy than I usually am.

This week I found that Sleigh Ride stitched up quickly. I am pleased with how much I completed:

Celtic Winter is coming along nicely as well:

I also started The John Clayton Collection - Mountains And Lake. I am adapting it as it has the strange fractional stitches that Heritage Stitchcraft loves using. I personally think they spoil this design so I am removing them. So far I am pleased with how it is working out:

I promise I will introduce a new colour soon! Blue is one of my favourite colours but even so...

Last night I did the gridding for Mystic Stitch - Evening Lights and am looking forward to starting this later today. Although guess what the first colour is? Yep, BLUE!

I have been too tired this week to do a blog entry. I don't know why I have been so tired, but it has been such an effort to do anything.

Monday evening my mum came to visit, we had a great time. I did do some on Sleigh Ride, it was lovely having someone to chat to while stitching even though at times the conversation was reduced to "one, two, three, four ..." Here is my progress on Sleigh Ride:

Mum showed me some of the coasters she has stitched, they were beautiful and I am going to set her up an online gallery to show them off - just need scans.

Tuesday evening I stitched Celtic Winter as usual. This one is stitching up quicker as it is an easy stitch. I love working on this and watching it grow:

Yesterday evening I finished page 14 of HAED - Tomboy, that brings my total of finished pages to 11. It also means I have completed a third of the design, so only two thirds to go. I am pleased how it is stitching up:

Today I am looking forward to going back to my rotation. I have decided to work on the next three projects: Waxing Moon - Bring on the Snow; John Clayton - Mountains and Lakes and Mystic Stitch - Evening Lights before going back to HAED - Tomboy.

I hope this tiredness goes away for next week as I have a lot to fit in to the week. A lot of new stock is due and I need to find time and energy to enter it into the shop system. I am looking forward to it arriving as it looks good in the pictures!

There are three progress pictures this time. The first one is Monday nights SAL Sleigh Ride:

I have finished the main clump of trees top left and stitched the snow at the top of the first roof, although the photo doesn't show this very clearly.


The second photo is Tuesday nights SAL Celtic Winter:

I have finished one page of the cloak and started the next page.


Now let me introduce you to the headless horseman:

This photo is my progress on HAED - A Favour. I had planned to finish his head before posting a progress pic but that would be another page and I want a break from this design. The photo shows page 24 and 28. There are a lot of colour changes and quite a few colours only have one or two stitches per colour!

I am now going back to stitch on HAED - Tomboy. I would like to get the current page finished.

I don't know where this week has gone, it just flew past! Here are the weekly update photos for the two SAL, better late than never.

The first one is Sleigh Ride:

This is Celtic winter. I stitched it on Wednesday for a couple of hours instead of Tuesday as my parents and sister came on Tuesday evening:

I have also been stitching on HAED - A Favour and was going to post an update photo, but at the moment I have a headless rider which is rather alarming! I decided to finish the page before taking a photo.

Weekly Cross Stitch Update

I only managed to stitch on Sleigh Ride for around 30 minutes on Monday evenings SAL, so not much progress. I stitched the tree trunks:

I stitched for much longer on Celtic Winter for Tuesday evenings SAL. I finished all the darker blue on the page:

Here is the current picture of HAED – Tomboy as of 3 Feb:

I didn’t get around to taking the photo until now. I am going to come back and continue this page next week. I have really started to enjoy stitching this now I can see the picture developing.

Celtic Winter Day 3

Yesterday evening I worked a bit more on the Celtic Winter SAL:

I am pleased with the progress. I have completed around 5% in 3 days with only a couple of hours stitching each time. It is stitching up quickly and is fun to do.

Tonight I am planning to stitch on HAED ‘Tomboy’. I am looking forward to working on this again.

I am currently rushing around trying to fit next weeks planned jobs into this week, along side this weeks work. It is my birthday on Sunday and I would like to take a few hours off each day next week for some extra stitching time. If you can’t do it for your birthday when can you?  

Unfortunately though it means I am not getting time to read blogs or visit the groups. I will catch up with them soon though – promise.

Day 2 of Celtic Winter

Here is my progress on Celtic Winter after my second evening of stitching:

The white is wisper thread. It is the first time I have used this and I was surprised how easy it was to stitch with. Although I have to remember to keep the lengths shorter than normal otherwise it is bald before I reach the end, not quite the effect I am after.

I have started with the silver thread and think it will look good on the finished piece. I was going to use gold as charted, but with the blues of the cloak thought the silver would look better. I decided to use Petite Treasure Braid as I find this stitches up easier than other brands I have used in the past. It is more 'sparkly' than it looks in the photo.

Stitch Along 2

I am stitching L&L Celtic Winter as part of a stitch along on Tuesday evenings. This is my progress so far for one evening:This is the original Celtic Winter version with the cloak added. I wish I had more time to stitch as I wanted to carry on with this as I am really enjoying it.

I decided to start at the bottom this time for a change. I want to stitch the cloak first and then see how the original chart fits in with it.

Stitch Along 1

I started Dimensions Sleigh Ride last night as part of a stitch along with the "International & UK Round Robins" ezboard. We are working on this design every Monday evening. My progress so far: