It's that time of the year again .. already

And the sign up for the HAED SK SAL has started. It only seems like 5 minutes ago we were signing up for the QS SAL but we are already 5 months in! As entry for the new SAL doesn't close until the end of the month, I'm not going to say here what I'm doing and you will have to wait until sign up is closed before I post a picture lol! As usual I have signed up despite already having sooooo many wips! 

The one good thing to come out of it though is that I have at long last made a start on the QS SAL Curl Up with a Good Book. I felt so guilty even contemplating another new start when I hadn't even started my draggie, that I quickly gridded up and got started. Some of the threads have been pinched for other projects but they were easily found. 

So far it is a little slow going as there is quite a bit of confetti and colour changes, but not too bad. I've managed to get about 700 stitches done in the space of the last three nights so I'm quite pleased with progress. I'll post a picture when it's worth showing. So far, when you are looking up close, it looks like nothing but already from a small distance you can see the swirl on the book. Very clever charting as usual from HAED.

And now for something completely different ...

What with the girls' Easter holidays from school and the extra long Bank Holiday weekend for the Royal Wedding and DH going off to Italy for training before he starts his new job in Saudi, it's been a couple of weeks since I was here last. I have been stitching ... honest gov! But I have also been doing something else - my completely different - running.

I have long battled with self-confidence and depression and one thing the doctor always said was "do something for yourself, it will help". Well yeah whatever I thought and promptly ignored her. Then, I set up my little stitching corner and lost myself in lots and lots of tiny crosses. I carried on doing this for a long time, but the problems never quite went away. Then I realised, I really needed to get up and do something else for me ... something that was outside the house, where there was no "mum! I need a drink!" or "muuuuum, I'm hungry"! So 10 weeks ago, I started running around the footpath on the estate.

To start with, I could just about manage to run the distance of 3 lampposts. I managed to get round 2.5K doing this but would be just flattened afterwards. So my running buddy and I decided we needed to be told what we needed to do, both being running novices and also having, in a complete moment of madness, signed up the 5K Race for Life. Couch 2 5K was the answer and, although it has been a struggle, in the space of 7 weeks I have gone from being able to run for a minute, to running (in the loosest sense of the word) for 25 minutes at a time.

We run 3 times a week - even when we don't feel like it lol! With just 2 weeks of the training programme left that time will gradually be built up to 30 minutes and the elusive 5K! So, has it helped with the 'me' problems? I don't know yet ... somedays my doubts kick in and I struggle (like today when I actually gave up because I just couldn't run any longer) but there is a great sense of "yay, I've done it!" when you finish. I haven't lost any weight yet, which of course would be fab, but I am definitely more toned and fitter than when I started! And yes, I am ever so slightly hooked :-) So, I'll carry on.

Anyway, back to my first love, my stitching :-D After kitting up and gridding Ophelia I started her last Tuesday. Two and a bit columns in and I am going insane already. It's just black, black and more black! I don't mind block stitching but I know that I stitch slower with black, trying to ensure that my coverage is good. On 28ct it looks patchy when under a daylight bulb and close up but once you get a normal distance away, it looks good. Here is progress so far, as you see, not much.

Portrait of Ophelia (c) JBG and HAED

So as that black is driving me crazy, I'm going to swap projects this week .. to my Wall. Talk about one extreme to the other lol! I've not stitched on Dragon Charmer in what seems like forever but seeing her finished by another stitcher on the BB recently has put her in mind. No doubt my next post will be about how much the confetti is driving me mad - but lets face it, us stitchers are never happy are we?! Here she is as I left her last (threads all over the place) I think in October of last year. Stitched on 28ct light blue jobelan, one over one, full crosses.

Dragon Charmer (c) Josephine Wall and HAED

Finally, FF150. I stitched on her for a bit for the themed SAL last week but starting Ophelia got in the way. I have managed to make good progress on her though so here she is. Not sure about the green on her face, it looks a lot brighter in real life but I'll trust the charting and go with it!

FF150 (c) JBG and HAED

Lastly in an effort to clear away some cobwebs, I've changed my online profile pic. The old one was taken last April and has been there far too long. The new one was taken on our 10th wedding anniversary last year at 15 (Jamie Oliver's restaurant). I've put a photo filter over it to jazz it up a bit because it was a bit grainy. How long will this one be around for I wonder?

At last!

.. the gorgeous Ophelia by JBG has been released! I requested her a while ago (it seems like forever) and yesterday she arrived. And during sale time too! :-D Needless to say, she jumped straight into my basket, I think within 10 minutes of her hitting the HAED site lol.

Now I am just debating fabric choices for her. I did think I might try 32ct but my common sense eventually kicked in and I think I will stick with the 28ct. My coverage is great on 28ct, except for the usual black. There are occasional spots of fabby showing through. Not too bad in small patches, but Ophelia has 47,088 stitches in black, and a fair few of those are on the first page which is almost entirely black! I usually stitch on bone jobelan, but this time I am thinking something slightly darker like tan or english rose or prairie grain. Hopefully with a slightly darker fabby behind any show through will be less noticable.

Back to my current wip, FF150. This is the supercute JBG HAED released for their Japan fundraiser. Here she is 5 columns done, so just over half a page. I wouldn't normally post until I had a complete page, but it's been a while!

FF150 as at 15 April 2011

Don't you just love that eye? JBG always does good eye!

Naughty, naughty!

I've done it again *blush* I've made ANOTHER new start.

I had started Early Visit (aka Talia) last week and got a couple of thousand stitches in but then HAED released a JBG as a fundraiser for Japan that was sooooo cute! Straight into the basket and off of the printer :-D

I had the fabby already and when I checked my threads, I had all of them except two! Definitely fate that I start her ;-) So, last night, I got enough gridding in to make a start and put 300 stitches in. Here is how she will look when she is done:

Totally fab yes?!?!

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.