Jasmine Becket-Griffith is so cool!

Jasmine

When I completed Porthole of Fantasy 1, I sent a photo of her to Jasmine as I thought she might like to see how she turned out. Well, I got a reply today and here it is (I'm pretty sure she won't mind me putting this here):

"Hey Jo!!

I was going through my ancient Spam folder and for some reason this was in here! =)

I wanted to thank you so much for sending this pic over - she looks awesome!!!

Hope your summer is going well!!

Jasmine"

I really wasn't expecting her to reply so this was a great surprise and really made my day :-)

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

Page 4 done!

Well, it seemed really quick, but I think it took about the same amount of time as the last page, but page 4 is done! I've just starting stitching the green in her tail and the colours really are stunning - the photo just doesn't do them justice.

I'm still waiting for some threads to come, so I think that maybe I will skip the SAL again this month, and start Curl Up in April. I really really want to get Porthole done!

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!

Ta da!

Here she is, my pretty Porthole mermaid - halfway done. I am loving stitching her!

Porthole as at 3 February 2011

I have at last ordered my threads for the 2011 SAL (stitching Curl Up with a Good Book). I only needed 21 colours which was a great bonus! I just need to grid my fabby and then hopefully I can make a start for the March SAL week. I'm not going to be able to keep up with those that have already started, but hopefully I will be able to make my yearly goal of at least getting one page finished :-)

In the meantime, onwards with my mermie!

ohhhh we're halfway there ...

Just a quick update - I've finally got halfway with Porthole! 18,130 stitches and 52% complete. Hooray! I've taken a photo and will post it up tomorrow.

New Year, new project, new goals

It's been a long time! I just couldn't face anything for a while after the disaster on FF88. I ended up having to just bin her :-( I knew that I wouldn't be able to carry on stitching when I knew there was a messy bit - my OCD just wouldn't let me lol

So, on 2 December I started a(nother!) new HAED. This one is Porthole of Fantasy 1 and I love her! She is being stitched whole crosses, one over one on 28ct bone jobelan. I finished the first page last night and I'm really happy with progress so far. It's a good mix of blocks of colour and confetti stitches and there are also some sparklies in her. I'm looking forward to page two as that has the beginning of the pink dragon on it. Here she is:

Porthole of Fantasy 1 JBG at 4 Jan 2011

So .... the New Year is upon us already. Last year went sooooo quickly! Therefore, time to think about new things - new starts and new goals.

First, the new HAED sal has started, this time it's a year long and I have chosen to stitch the QS of Curl Up with a Good Book by Spangler. Surprisingly for me, I haven't started him yet and, in fact, haven't even got my threads! I really want to get some more done on Porthole (and hopefully finish her) before I make a start and if that means joining the sal in March, then *hey* whatever. As long as I post six wip photos through the year then I will be eligible for the other charts, so perfectly achievable :-)

Talking of the perfectly achievable, it's time to think about my stitching goals for the year. My addiction to HAED is as strong as ever and I cannot see myself stitching anything other than them again this year, their pull is just to hard to resist! So, I need to decide what my goals will be. So far, I've got these in mind but I do have a few more days to make my mind up:

• To complete Porthole 1, currently one page done of six (two of which are small partials).
• To complete the Sunny SK sal from last year. I've just started page 2 of 3.
• To start Curl Up and complete at least one page and two pages if possible.
• To complete at least two pages of my Wall, Dragon Charmer. Currently at about half a page done.
• To start and complete at least one page of a new BAP start. This will probably be The Three Fates by JBG but could change nearer the time lol!

More than enough to keep me going for a year I think!

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

Replacing Alice

So here is my first photo of Faces of Faery 88 (FF88) by JBG. I started her to replace Alice on 18 September 2010. She is stitched on 28ct lilac lugana, one over one, whole crosses. She has quite a lot of large blocks of colour so she stitches up quite well, but I have had to make a start on her eye to relieve the boredom of all that 945 on her forehead! Isn't that eye great - it's not finished yet but it's effective already!

Decisions, decisions

Tough decisions to make today .. the wonderful HAED site is having a sale and with 30% off it really is worth stocking up and adding to the stash! So far I have four charts in my basket two big designs and two small. Trouble is I just can't decide which to get!

Let's face it it's not like I really need to get yet more charts, after all I've got several on the go already and sooooo many waiting but I have to say that Vanity by Marta Dahlig is calling to me quite loudly. It would look so good on lilac 28ct evenweave, the purples in it are gorgeous! One of the Faces of Faery is also looking likely - really pretty electric blues and the eyes are so cute!

So after much deliberation, I got Vanity (Dahlig) Faces of Faery 14 (JBG) Afternoon Tea (Spangler) and Heart on her Sleeve (HL)! Vanity has now jumped to the top of my to do pile - over Pink Lightning which I was sure I wanted to do next. I've ordered my fabby, threads, a different coloured gridding thread and some bigger bars for my frame. I now have to wait until it all arrives to make a start. I will definitely have to grid my fabby and I think, given the size of Vanity, that will take a while.

It does mean that it looks like one of my current wips is going to have to take a backseat for some time. As Aurora seems to be out of favour at the moment, I think it will have to be her. So, one of my half year goals is out already :-(

I think I will slip Vanity in as my main piece, taking the majority of the month and then do a week on Alice and carry on with the stitchalong for this year. I will probably not be able to take part in next year's stitchalong (if they do one) that is unless there is a storykeep there that I absolutely have to do!