My charming Charmer

I made a start on Dragon Charmer last night, just less than a hundred stitches but a start nonetheless. I am still waiting on most of my threads but I had the ones in the first block, less three colours. I have managed to do almost all of the gridding - the rest of it can wait until I have five minutes when the kids are quiet enough to do something, but not quiet enough to sit and stitch!

I have to say, already I am loving this and I am desperate to get on with it! The colours are great and parking seems to be working a treat. I say that now, but this is pretty confetti light at the moment lol! I am looking forward to seeing how this column turns out. I should be able to get a whole night's stitching in tonight which is great because I won't get any stitchy time tomorrow night or Sunday.

Don't you just hate it when your social life interferes with your stitching! :-D

I gave in (again)!

The HAED sale was just too tempting lol! I caved and bought Dragon Charmer by Josephine Wall. Another Wall, I must be crazy :-D I just couldn't resist her, I love her tattoos, the stars, the colours and the dragon .. and .. and .. and !! Here she is:

Josephine Wall: Dragon Charmer (c) HAED

She is going to be a new start (uh oh). I have the perfect piece of fabby for her, a really nice blue 28ct Jobelan. I'm going to print out the floss list in a minute and put an order in with Donna. Then I just need to grid and, fingers crossed, I can make a start. I hoping all of the pretty colours will cheer me up and help to chase my winter blues away! I think I might put Vanity onto a SWIP as I have been feeling pretty uninspired by her at the moment, poor Vanity :-(

Those HAED sales really are lethal!

Atchooooo !

Feeling a bit rubbish this week, even though I've had some nice stash turn up. I've had a cold and it's made my stitchy bug go to sleep :-( I haven't really stitched much at all. I just couldn't face any of HAEDs so as well as the snowman cushion, I've stitched up the owl cushion for DD3 ready for Christmas. I couldn't decide which HAED to rotate back to, so I went for FF88 as she is relatively new and I can practise parking on her.

I also got my new floorstand this week. I sold my Needleneeds and four frames to my sister - she is an on and off stitcher and has decided she wants to get back into it - and I got a Lowery instead. I really wanted the Lowery in the first place but the cost put me off. I should have bought it as I lost about £90 on what I had paid for the Needleneeds stuff. Ah well, you live and learn! Anyhow, I really love the Lowery. It is much less obtrusive and holds my Q-Snaps a treat. What I like best is that it brings my work really close to me but I can still curl my feet up on the sofa, which I couldn't do before. And, if I want to get up, I don't have to slide out from behind the stand, I just loosen it off and it moves away. Great!

I got an 11x11 Q-Snap too, for Vanity. And I've ordered a grimeguard and also the extension pack. I think I only have two more sizes to get and I'll have the full set.

HAED have a sale this week. I am very tempted to pick up the two charts on my must have list but I really shouldn't! One is Dragon Charmer by Wall - eek am I mad, another Wall! The other is QS Tag Alongs by Hannah Lynn - it's got some really cute baby penguins in it so DD2 would love it. The sale doesn't finish until the end of the month so I've got plenty of time to decide. And you never know, there might be some really nice new releases ....... :-D

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

No willpower!

Well I really have no willpower! After seeing Aquarius yesterday I've been doing my usual obsessing about it and so ... I've just bought it! It really is stunning, but at 41 pages (and most of those confetti) it is going to have to wait a while as Vanity must come first!

Here she is, isn't she a stunner?!

Josephine Wall: Aquarius (c) HAED

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

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!

So excited!!!

Just had to say, I've been accepted onto the HAED Our Friends SAL blog! I am so excited! I've just made my first post, I put up photos of Aurora and Vanity and I'll post a picture of FF88 when I swap over for the Sunny SAL which I think starts again tomorrow! OMG I'm a proper blogger now! :-D

Catching up .. and giving up

This past week I have been back working on Aurora's Garden. I haven't done any stitching on her for quite a while but took the opportunity to do so with the HAED slow WIP stitchalong. There are some really odd colours in her face - like lime green! and her hair is quite bizarre too but they work. It's only when you stand back that you can see how it works. I'm really pleased with how much I got done, so here is a picture of her now:

Aurora's Garden as at 17 September 2010

Bad new this week though :-( I started to stitch again on Alice but I really wasn't happy with the coverage I was getting on the 25ct with one over one. There was just simply too much show through on all the dark colours, whereas usually this is only an occasional problem with black. So reluctantly I have decided to scrap her altogether for now. There is no point carrying on with her when everytime I look at her all I can see is the gaps :-( I can't face restarting her straight away so I am going to have a new start instead, something smaller to pick up and down between Vanity and the other SALs. So, I am going with Faces of Faery 88 by JBG. Purple again but quite a lot of large blocks of colours so hopefully she will stitch up quite quickly. I'm going to do her on 28ct this time, NO MORE 25ct for me!!

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