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

Themed SAL week

Well, I joined in with the themed SAL this week on the HAED bulletin board. The theme was creatures, which fitted Porthole brilliantly. So, here is my before:

And here is my after:

I didn't think that I had got much done, but it amounts to about three columns - so not bad at all!

Not much more to go now and I will have finished the page. And then it's just two and a half columns to the finish!

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!