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My obsession with HAED and crochet and yarn and stuff . . . . .

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Disaster avoided

... I think!

I was finishing off the column on FF88 last night and I found a hole in my fabby! It looked like the top bit of the weave going horizontally had either snapped from my gridding or I'd snipped it. So when you stitched over it, the stitches collapsed into each other.

At 1.15am last night, that was so not funny. Unpicking the bottom of the page was not an option. Nor was starting again, not now that I am nearly a quarter through!

I looked at it again this morning, and even got the magnifier out lol. I ran the same colour thread up down and across all the stitches at the back all the way round the broken one to create a sort of patch and to hold the stitches in. I then took out the piece of gridding that seemed to be supporting in and held my breath. Luckily the stitches seem to be holding and, when the underneath page is stitched, it should be even stronger.

Lesson learned! Do not grid so tightly and be careful with scissors!

Monday 29 November 2010

Here's looking at you ...

It's been a while, but I'm back to stitching FF88. After the nightmare that was the confetti stitching on Sunny, I think that the last thing my needle wanted to do was Dragon Charmer! So FF88 it was. I am loving her! The eye has a ton of colours in it but it really was worth it. The eye just draws you in. From close up it doesn't look that great but from a distance, and in a photo .. well, you can see what I mean. There is just another three and a half partial columns and I will have finished the page. I am still parking amongst my previous cross-country stitching but the next column is the last one that should cause any problems.

Faces of Faery (JBG) 29 November 2010

I think I will stay stitching her for a while as I really would like to get something else finished this year or at least be near to it. Ideally I would like to get Sunny and FF88 done but it's not looking good! FF88 has three more whole and two partial pages, and I have only just started page two of three for Sunny. A bit over-optimistic as usual! And the trouble is they have started to release details of the next SAL and there is a Spangler draggie in there. It is going to be very hard to resist! Just waiting for details of the last two charts and then I will have to decide. I could do without another new start but hey, the more the merrier :-D

In the meantime, I've been buying again. This time another JBG - The Three Fates. I am going to reward myself by starting this once I have finished FF88 and Sunny.

(c) Heaven and Earth Designs 2010

I'm still waiting for the Snapdragon Faery QS to be released, but that will be another definite one to add to the stash. And then of course there will be a Christmas sale and I'll just have to pick up a couple of charts then, won't I? :-D

Friday 19 November 2010

It's a little bit Sunny

It's been a while since I've been on here but I have been stitching - honest! I've had a couple of weeks on Sunny this time around, the SAL week and also an extra one to try and catch up with myself. I've now found that her hair is a right *whatsit* and is a pain in the parking! Sorry the photo is so messy, but I stopped mid-column (in disgust really) and so there are parked threads everyone. It really is a nightmare changing from cross-country to parking midway through a project so I really must make sure that I stick to parking from the start from now on!

Anyway, off her now for a while thank goodness. I'll get back to her in December for another week. I was going to go back to Dragon Charmer but I've got the urge to do FF88 so I'm going to work on her for a while.

True to form I am thinking about my next project! I've picked up some gorgeous hand-dyed lime green 28ct jobelan and I'm going to have a go at one of the Ink Circles patterns called Cirque des Carreaux shown here. I've ordered some hand-dyed threads to do it with. They are Carrie's Threads in Berry Swirl. I've got to wait a couple of weeks for the threads to come from the States so I am hoping the colour combination works although I am now wondering a bit about the blue! I went for a clash rather than co-ordination - can you tell!?

Friday 5 November 2010

First picture

of Dragon Charmer. I have loved working on her, despite the fact that it really is all confetti! I must admit that I still can't see anything - it just looks like loads of blobs to colour to me lol. I was hoping to have finished at least half a page before the Sunny SAL but it just didn't happen, oh well :-)

Dragon Charmer at 5 November 2010

I am loving parking! I am really really surprised as I was very sure that I wouldn't like it at all. That said, I don't think I could cross-country a Wall - there would definitely be lots of frogging :-D I have had to frog a couple of times, but it was so easy to see where I had gone wrong, that I didn't have to spend too long doing it which is always a bonus.

This week it's back to Sunny for the SAL. I really want to get page one finished and make a proper start on page 2. Page 3 came through the other day - there are lots of nice blocks of colour on that one which will be nice after the confetti mess of page 2!

Monday 1 November 2010

Just plugging away ..

.. at my Dragon Charmer. I've been working pretty solidly on her and I've got nearly three columns done. I am still enjoying parking (which I didn't think I would!). I like the fact that it is so methodical and you can just plod from box to box. There is definitely something satisfying about filling in those little boxes and knowing that there are 100 stitches in each. It also makes it much easier to count the amount of stitches done. I was tempted to post a picture, but I think I will wait until the end of the week when I take a break from her to carry on with Sunny for the SAL week. At the moment it doesn't look like anything except a jumbled up load of colours. I can't see any of the details in it - and I certainly can't see the castle that is supposed to be there! Hopefully once I have done the fourth column things will become more apparent!

Thinking about SALs, it looks like next year's HAED SAL will be a year long one, with a Quick Stitch rather than a Story Keep. It will be interesting to see which charts are going to be on offer - apparently fudgey is sorting this now and we should find out soon. I am sort of hoping that there is nothing that I want to stitch as I really do have quite enough on the go already but, chances are, there will be something that grabs me and I will have to join in! I don't think I will be able to resist temptation. At least if it is a year SAL I will have time to get Sunny done first! I'm not going to make any of my 6 month goals - one of which was to finish Sunny. I think I was a bit enthusiastic and overstretched myself lol, that's not like me is it?! I will have to try to make any new goals more achievable (yeah right) :-)

I've been enjoying working with my new Lowery stand as it definitely suits my style of working much more than my old stand. The QSnaps are better for me too. I like to have my work right under my nose and this new combination certainly achieves that. I'm looking forward too, to going to the NEC this weekend for the Crafts for Christmas show. I've got the money from selling my old kit to spend - lets hope I can find something to spend it on this time!