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!

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.

Or maybe not ..

I've had another look at FF88 and I'm just not sure that I can live with it. Every time I look at her I can just see a huge muckup. Quite frankly, if I stitch on her for goodness knows how many more hours and still feel like that, then it will all have been a total waste of time. So, it's looking likely that I will restart :-( I've got some more of the lilac 28ct and I've ordered the two threads that I've already used a fair bit of. I'm off to see Harry Potter tonight so no stitching for me .. maybe a break away from it will help me decide what to do.

Disaster avoided

... I think!

I was finishing off the column on FF88 last night and I found a hole in my fabby! It looked like the top bit of the weave going horizontally had either snapped from my gridding or I'd snipped it. So when you stitched over it, the stitches collapsed into each other.

At 1.15am last night, that was so not funny. Unpicking the bottom of the page was not an option. Nor was starting again, not now that I am nearly a quarter through!

I looked at it again this morning, and even got the magnifier out lol. I ran the same colour thread up down and across all the stitches at the back all the way round the broken one to create a sort of patch and to hold the stitches in. I then took out the piece of gridding that seemed to be supporting in and held my breath. Luckily the stitches seem to be holding and, when the underneath page is stitched, it should be even stronger.

Lesson learned! Do not grid so tightly and be careful with scissors!

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!?

First picture

of Dragon Charmer. I have loved working on her, despite the fact that it really is all confetti! I must admit that I still can't see anything - it just looks like loads of blobs to colour to me lol. I was hoping to have finished at least half a page before the Sunny SAL but it just didn't happen, oh well :-)

Dragon Charmer at 5 November 2010

I am loving parking! I am really really surprised as I was very sure that I wouldn't like it at all. That said, I don't think I could cross-country a Wall - there would definitely be lots of frogging :-D I have had to frog a couple of times, but it was so easy to see where I had gone wrong, that I didn't have to spend too long doing it which is always a bonus.

This week it's back to Sunny for the SAL. I really want to get page one finished and make a proper start on page 2. Page 3 came through the other day - there are lots of nice blocks of colour on that one which will be nice after the confetti mess of page 2!

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!

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!