Another Fairy Day has been and gone ...

so here is my post-Fairy Day SAL update ....

For Fairy Day itself I was working on SK Sunny (from last years SAL!). I'm still on the dreaded confetti that is her hair and boy is it frustrating! Over the four days I had allowed for her I only managed to complete the column I had left her at in November 2010, so still a long way to go :-( Here she is:

After that, I made a start on Ice Wind for this year's SK SAL.

Opinion was divided on this one and the wonderful Michele at HAED has, as a result, done a rechart of her face and neck as some stitchers thought she didn't look enough of a 'English Rose' with the colours she had used. I have both versions and originally intended to stitch the alternative version, but after I had put the first few stitches of her neck in I have now gone with the original. It seemed to me that the neck colour was just too similar to her hair. So, we will see how she goes.

I had hoped to get half the page done but I ran out of steam halfway through the week, so managed just three columns. Hopefully next month I will be able to complete the page and will be back on target. Here she is stitched one over one, full crosses on 28ct ice blue jobelan:

So SAL week this week is the QS, so back to my little draggie on Curl Up. Fudgey has sent page 4 through this month but I am sooooo far off that it is untrue lol. I am hoping to get page one done this week - but we shall see ...

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!

A small breathing space

.. away from FF88 this week. Tomorrow the Board SAL starts again and I think I will make an early start on Sunny today to get away from the total disaster that is my Faery :-( I have started to prepare a new piece of fabby and I've ordered a couple of threads to restock what I used on the other one. So, I guess I'm 99% certain that I will restart her. I just can't face it yet. Hopefully having a week on Sunny will help.

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

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!?

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!

It's been quite a Sunny week ..

Not only has the weather been surprisingly and uncharacteristically warm for this time of year, I have also been taking part in the Sunny SK SAL this week. I was hoping to complete the page but after finishing the confetti in the flower and the hat, I was burnt out! So I'm trying to decide between Aurora and FF88. Aurora is slightly more tempting as she has more done, and I really would like to get at least one of my goals done this half year. Whichever I decide on, I think that I am going to practise parking on it - ready for when Sunny comes back round as her hair is a nightmare.

Sunny after October SAL

I went to AllyPally this weekend and met up with T. We had a great time! I was very reserved and only spent a little, unusual for me. I got some more scissors (like I needed more of those!), a pretty pink needle keep, a flamingo kit (DD1 loves flamingoes) and one of the Pinemountain Designs pillows. I found the snowman one half price at the show, and it is the same style as the owl one I have ordered for DD3 from the States (which hopefully will arrive this week). I've done the snowman pillow already, it took about 3 hours :-) I would like to say that I made the pillow, but I would be lying! Here it is:

Snowman pillow stitched 10 October 2010

Stitching along ..

I've been busy this week on the Sunny SAL. I avoided the flower on her hat for so long but I finally had to tackle it. There are only a few more stitches to go and I will have done it. It has taken ages :-( But it does look very effective. I have decided that I will probably stay working on her for a bit after the SAL finishes - I want to get the first page finished and hopefully make a start on her hair.

Talking about her hair, when you look at it, it is obvious that I really need to get to grips with parking, and now. Luckily one of my fellow stitchers has a great guide to parking on her blog and that has been invaluable, as has the HAED BB. I just don't think that cross-country will work with it, there are so many confetti stitches that I will just get lost and it'll take forever.

I will have to post a picture of Sunny when I move on again. Hopefully I will be able to take some of the gridding out and have a proper look at her!

I've been adding stuff to my wishlist again lol. A Gathering of Faeries by JBG and also Aquarius by Josephine Wall. I'm thinking I could stitch Aquarius for DD3 as that is actually her birthsign but I think I will have to work up to it as Wall's designs seem to be notorius for confetti! No rush though as she is only 2 and I don't think she will quite appreciate it yet :-D

It's been a long time baby ....

Well it has! Over a month since I last added anything to my blog .. not good.

It's been an odd sort of month stitchy-wise. I've either got loads or nothing done. I had a whole week where my stitchy bug just upped and left :-( by the end of that week the stress levels were sky high and I just had to get something done, even if it was just 10 stitches. I managed to stitch some of Sunny, making a start on that flower at last, and when I have been stitching I've been working pretty solidly on Vanity.

I got my first Q-Snaps this month too! I got an 8x8 set and wanted to try them out so I popped Aurora on them. She fits pretty good and I like the tension of them. Can't imagine using them on a bigger project though .. although I wonder if I can just rest them on my Needleneeds as I would any other frame? I guess so. I have to admit that is has been nice not being stuck behind a floorstand and being part of the family again .. I think that novelty will wear off soon enough!

I've also put Aurora into the SWIP SAL on the HAED BB this week so I'll work on her until Thursday and then rotate back to Vanity, although I might have a little go at Alice, not sure yet!

I have applied to join HAED Friends blog but that is full so luckily I have been accepted for the My First HAED blog. So, I will try and post on there, as well as here!

As I've been working on different things this month, here are all the update photos. I'll put up a photo of Aurora once the SAL is finished.

Sunny after the September 2010 SAL

Vanity as at 2 September 2010

The end of the first Sunny week ...

Thursday (the 8th) was the end of the first week for the Sunny stitchalong.

Basically, the HAED bulletin board put up five charts and I got to choose the one I wanted to stitch. I was sent the info for the chart I had chosen (Sunny by Myka Jelina) and then one week a month - from the first Friday to the following Thursday - I stitch on that chart. I have to put progress pictures on the board and, as long as I've put at least two pictures on between July and December this year, I will qualify to get the other four charts free! These get sent to me some time in January and I can add them to my (rapidly expanding HAED) collection!

I think this is a brilliant idea and the ladies that organize it are fab, it must take such a lot of work. It's amazing to think that there are stitchers all over the world stitching on the same chart as me! It has been really interesting to see how far everyone has got within the week. Some people have done a little, some a bit more and I think there is one poster who has done the whole page! I wish I could stitch that fast but you have to remember never to measure yourself against others! Everyone stitches differently and some have more time to stitch (time to stitch is pretty rare round here although I can usually get a couple of hours a night in).

I am pretty pleased with how far I have got. You can just make out where her eyes are going to be. I think I have got about a third of the page done although I do need to bite the bullet and stitch the flower that should be in the top right hand corner. It's got loads of confetti stitches in it and I think I'll come back to it next time - it'll help break up the monotony of stitching the white of her face. The colours are gorgeous though, so many shades of purple but it really is effective. The crosses you can see all over the fabby is my gridding - this is really useful on HAED designs as it is sooooo easy to lose your place and if you do you're in trouble! They are such a pain to frog as the count is so high the stitches come out really tight and you just can't get the needle in to unpick then without the thread fraying all over the place!

I think managed to get about 2300 stitches in and I spent about 19 and a half hours on her. It doesn't look much for that amount of time does it! It has been really hot though this week so it's made it really hard to actually just sit and stitch. And the bugs have been driving me crazy - I've got all the windows open because it is so hot but the daylight lamp seems to attract every bug in town! I've had to resort to a citronella candle by the side of me to try to keep them away - doesn't seem to be working that well unfortunately :-(

So, that's Sunny's week done. Back onto Aurora now for the next week, the greens and blues will make a change from the purples and black. I've not stitched on Aurora since 20th June so it will be nice to get back to her.

making a start .... with some half yearly goals

Well I've hit 40 and decided that I would do something a bit different this year. Quite why that means I've started a blog, I've no idea. Not normally the sort of thing I would do at all! I guess it is just an extension of the paper stitching diary I have already been keeping for a few months - just with more photos! Anyway, this is one first for me.

Another first is that I've set myself some half yearly goals on the HAED bulletin board. I've never done this with my stitching before, I've always just gone with the flow and picked up projects here and there as I've fancied. I've started things when I wanted to and that's probably why I have a box full of UFOs! I'm only stitching HAEDs at the moment, nothing else seems to be grabbing my attention. There are so many designs to chose from I don't think I will have enough time ever to do all the ones I want to. The tiny crosses are sooooo addictive and the satisfaction you get from finishing, knowing that you have completed over 25 thousand stitches, is great. I've already got a collection of charts waiting to be stitched but they will have to wait their turn as the goals for July to December are:

1. Finish the Sunny SK
2. Finish Aurora's Garden QS
3. Complete pages 1-4 of Alice Descending (two whole and two partial pages)

I'm not sure how I will get on with these goals but I'll give it a go. I am fairly sure I will finish Sunny and Aurora, it's just whether or not stitching in a rotation of 3 projects will let me have enough time on Alice to get the pages in. I'm aiming to do a week on Sunny, a week on Aurora and then the other two weeks on Alice. Any fifth week in the month I will probably spend on Alice. I suppose if it gets near the end of the year and the finishes aren't looking likely then I can always drop Alice out so that at least I reach two out of three.

Here are all three projects at their current stages, they are all stitched on 25ct lugana, Alice on cream and Aurora and Sunny on antique white:

Alice Descending - HAED Jasmine Becket-Griffith

Sunny SK SAL - HAED Myka Jelina

Aurora's Garden QS - HAED BK Lusk

I'll probably post update photos at the end of each project's week of the month, but I'll see how it goes.

And of course I am already planning my next couple of starts, probably Pink Lightning for my main project (this will be the biggest HAED I will have attempted) and also one of the Faces of Faery as a smaller project. Whichever ones I decide on they will probably both be by Jasmine Becket-Griffith as I really love her stuff. I've already got some baby pink 28 ct for Pink Lightning (I've not tried 28ct before so it should be interesting) and I think I might get a bit of lilac as well as a couple of the Faces are quite purpley. I also need to get another set of bars for my Needleneeds frame as I don't have a wide enough pair but I think I will get them when I go to the Ally Pally craft show in October with T.

Right, enough waffle time to get on with it.