By jiminie ..

... I think it worked! My stitchy bug has returned :-) After a terribly long (for me) absence, he has finally made his way home thanks to my joining in with the HAED swip SAL!

I worked on Early Visit this week and I managed to complete the whole page, so I actually stitched 5 columns. I've now got to her hair, so the next page should be a little more interesting. Here she is:

The next two weeks are the Fairy Day and SK SALs. So for those, Sunny as I really need to get going on her and, of course, Ice Wind (a lovely new start).

Here is Sunny how I last left her in November 2010!

I'm going to give her my full attention for 4 days and then will settle her into the regular swip SAL each month in the hope that I can get her done. Page 2 is confetti mad but page 3 should be a quicker stitch. She is being stitched on 25ct, which I have now decided is NOT my thing. I don't really like my coverage on it but it does make a nice change from the 28ct and is giving my eyes a bit of a rest :-)

Finally, Ice Wind. No before picture but I will make a start on her on Friday. Hopefully by then I will have the rest of my threads so that I can start her fully kitted up.

A little progress

but not much :-( the ole stitchy bug is still mostly absent, but it is probably not helped by me having jetlag after visiting NY last weekend (which was fab!).

Anyway, in an effort to kick the little bugger up the butt, I've decided to follow the SALs on the HAED board for a bit. So this week it was the freebie SAL week and some progress was made - YAY! That's three columns now done and so only one more of that painfully slow decanter to go.

Curl Up after the June 2011 SAL

So, this week is the swip SAL and, let's face it, most of my HAEDs could qualify for that one! I've decided on Early Visit as she has been sadly neglected for a long time and to be honest, I need a break from the confetti. I'm hoping that the blocks of colour will stitch up quickly and give me some visable progress on something!

Early Visit at April 2011

The week after is the confetti SAL and that will have to be Sunny as I need to complete her for one of my yearly goals.

Speaking of yearly goals, it's review time already! Looking back I think that I may have been overly optimistic lol! So far I have only achieved one of my goals - to finish Porthole. I think that if I follow the SALs I may be able to meet the others, but hey who knows!

And it's a ....

... finish!

After furiously stitching to get her finished all night last night and then having to give up at 1am with just 50 or so stitches to go, Porthole of Fantasy is finally done! I started her on 2 December 2010 and 100's of hours and 1000's of stitches later, here she is:

She's a little crumpled, but then she is hot off the Q-Snap so it's not surprising. Now I just need to put her up on the HAED board and I think I might email JBG a picture, just so she can see what her work stitches up like.

Well I think she's turned out great. It just shows what a great job Michele at HAED dones. I think I'll miss her a bit :-( BUT onwards and upwards, I now need to prep my fabby for the SAL and also my new start, Early Visit :-D

ooops I did it again ...

HAED have a sale! And I've added to my stash again!

First, I bought Early Visit by Rachael Tallamy. Not an artist that I have looked at before, but this one popped up on the review on the HAED site, and I just loved it. She looks so chilled out! I think she will be my next BAP start - which has been taken into account in my goals for the year - so she is guilt free! lol I've already ordered some fabby - my usual 28ct jobelan, this time in wood lilac - from sewandso and I'll check my threads later and then order the rest with Donna.

Early Visit by Rachael Tallamy (c) HAED

Second up, Faces of Faery 141. Another JBG :-) This one is just too cute! And one that I have been waiting for. Safely in the stash ;-)

Faces of Faery 141 by JBG (c) HAED

I'm still working on Porthole 1, I'm now about halfway through the fourth page, so well over halfway. I will have to try and resist starting Early Visit until Porthole is done!