A Dragon Rider Page Finish

Another page finish, I do love this new rotation system, it means that I seem to get a lot more page finishes than I did with the old system. I know it's still quite slow by the standards of many of you, but this is really good for me. This was an odd page to stitch, it was quite boring because there isn't really anything happening in it, but at the same time I was quite easy, no majorly evil confetti or anything like that. And that's two pages on this finished already this year, so I'm progressing. It's nearly a year ago that I started this, as I started in in between being made redundant and starting my new job which was a year and two weeks ago, So I've done two and two half pages in the last year, which is a pretty appalling stitch rate, however, the two half pages have been in the last three months, so I think that means that the stitch rate is increasing.

Happy Stitching all! I'm off to decide what to work on next, I think it may well be the fairy tale sampler, because I'm already at the point where I can feel the finish getting closer.

Liebster Mark II

I got nominated again, which I'm very proud of, this time by the lovely Otter's Ocean, thank you so much chick.

The rules of the Liebster are listed a couple of posts below. This time I'm going to nominate...

A Riot Patch of Pixels because she's got some absolutely gorgeous patterns, love them

Faerie because she has wonderful taste in charts

Fairies, Dragons & Mermaids, a shared bog with so many beautiful projects on the go, and must if you love fantasy design stitching.

Just Another Flamingo on the Lawn mainly because I love the name, but also because her stitching is beautiful

Stitchandie again, there's some gorgeous stitching going on.

So, 5 more random facts... I struggled to come up with 5 last time.

1. I used to do operetta (Gilbert & Sullivan), and unfortunately there is video evidence

2. Geek and proud (the proud is new, but I'm working on it!)

3. I'm developing a shoe fixation - Irregular Choice are wonderful

4. I think I just burnt the sleeve of my dressing gown (I know, such a classy bird)

5. I want to learn sign language

A Tiny Bit of Brown

My update this week is just the tiniest bit of brown. You can just about see the difference, there's a bit more path and tree, but that's about it. I just don't seem to have had any time to stitch this week, but I don't really have anything planned for the rest of the day now, so I'm thinking I'm going to settle down for a bit of stitching this afternoon and evening.

Couldn't stitch yesterday because we were out on a walk with some friends, only six miles but I'm obviously out of practice because I am aching a bit this morning. It was nice though, we lost a friend last year and she was involved in the set up of the trail so we were doing it in memory of her. It just so happened that we bumped into her parents as well, so it was really nice.

Hope some of you are seeing the glorious weather we're seeing in North Yorkshire at the moment. Talking of North Yorkshire, I know I've got a couple of followers in my area, there's a local stitching group being set up to meet (I think) 3rd Thursday of every month in Harrogate so if you fancy joining us, drop me a message and I'll send you the details.

Finally, I've recently discovered Soda Stitch and Soda Mall, and they have some of the most adorable charts there, so I suggest you go and have a look. Soda Mall is download, so is easier to use as you're not having to worry about postage (also it's priced in dollars rather than indonesian rupees), but it doesn't yet seem to have the full selection up.

Yiota's X-Stitch

I was surprised and honoured recently when I got am email from Yiora at Yiota's X-Stitch contacted me to ask if I've like to review a cross stitch pattern or kit for her.

As you can imagine I had hours of fun going through all the charts on her site, it took me ages to narrow it down to one, but I fell in love with Girl with a Pearl and asked if I could have the chart of that. It arrived in the post super fast, arriving the day after I requested it, which is pretty incredible. She must have put it in the post as soon as the post office opened. So when you order from her you'll get incredible service.

The chart's really clear and easy to follow, and gives you all the information to stitch it up. And the detail is just right, it isn't confetti hell, but there's enough detail to make it smooth and lovely and the colours look terrific.

I recommend that you go and have a look at her site, there as so many gorgeous charts, you'll definitely be able to find something that you love.

Anyway, gotta go, Ben's just put Toys with Robin Williams on, and the fight scene at the end always makes me want to cry!

IHSW and an Honour

Good evening all, did you have a good International Hermit and Stitch Weekend? Mine wasn't bad, better than I expected, but not as good as I would have liked. Thanks to Ben wanting to watch more sport than there can possibly be in the world on Saturday I got to settle down with my stitching, unfortunately I had to clean the bathroom first, which was much less exciting. This page is basically brown and green, which you can see, but it's progressing, and the next time I start a page I think (hope) that there will be tyres. The plan it to finish this page by the end of the month, which I pretty sure should be achieveable, even by my slow standards.

Secondly, the honour... I have to thank weustygirl for nominating me for a Liebster award, which I'm very excited about, it's my first award.

Liebster is a german word meaning favourite, dearest or beloved. The Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other new bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to help spread the word about their blogs and to help them gain wider recognition.

The Liebster award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting.

1. Choose 5 up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers to award the Liebster to

2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blog so they know about the award.

4. Share 5 random facts about yourself that people dont know about you.

So, the five people that I'm going to share it with are...

1. Topcho at bla. bla? bla! where she's doing many projects that I absolutely love, and always leaves lovely comments for other people.

2. Shirl at Designs on Craft2 who does many magical things that I have no idea how to do, currently some rather exciting home made felting!

3. Dorothea at Gizzimomo' s Stitchy Place who is definitely the fastest stitcher ever, and works on so many beautiful projects, that I'm just green with envy every time I visit her blog.

4. Ana at Ana ~ Stitch just because she has fabulous taste (ie very similar to mine) and I love watching the progress on her projects.

5. Julie at Julie and Yes Dear's Ravings because she does lovely stitching, and again, leaves lovely comments for people.

So, 5 things about me, I have no idea

1. I've been bowed to by David Bowie, unfortunately I was about 7 at the time and have absolutely no memory of it, and didn't know who he was at the time.

2. I'm obsessed with Penguins and Dragons

3. I've recently discovered an obsession with Anime, and am now desperately trying to find a lovely anime chart to stitch

4. I'm a grammar and spelling b*tch, I mentally spell check, I'm sorry!

5. The country I most want to visit is Japan, because I'm fascinated by Geishas after reading a book when I was a kid.

A quiet page

Good morning everyone. Here's my latest update on Dragon Rider, I had a really productive weekend last weekend, and then have barely had a chance to touch it all week. I'm actually kinda annoyed with myself, because I did get so much done last weekend, and for having a day free I wasted most of my day doing nothing then picked this up early evening. If I'd only got my ass into gear earlier I could have had this page prettym uch finished by now.

It has to be said that there isn't really much happening on this page, just some grass and path. I thought I was going to get onto the tyres this page, but I mis judged and it looks like it's going to be the last page along.

I've been hunting for Mark Spain charts, and requested them from Michele and HAED, but she said they couldn't get permission. Then one of the girls on facebook sent me a link saying that Mystic Stitch had some, so I just accidently bought 5, but 5 charts for $35, which is pretty good. That's why I bought 5, it was the same price as 2 would be normally.

You have to look at this!

I'll do a proper stitching post tomorrow, but a friend showed me this link and it's absolutely incredible.

A double post!

Good morning everyone, I've got a double update this week. Firstly my update of Fiary Tale Sampler, which is really lovely to stitch, it's stitching up really quickly and has been a voyage of discovery for me. This has so many firsts for me, it's my first time stitching on hand dyed fabric, first time stitching with dyed threads, first time stitching with krenik and first time trying the different speciality stitches as well, so it's quite an adventure really. I can't get a decent picture of the fabric unfortunately, and it's such a shame because it's such beautiful fabric and it's got little sparkly bits in it, so gorgeous. It has to be said, after everything that I've read, the Krenik wasn't as horrific as I was expecting, don't get me wrong, not my fabourite thread to stitch with, but not to painful, the joy of thread heaven I guess. However, I think I'll be trying the blending filament when I start using krenish on HAEDs.

My second update is Dragon Rider, it started calling to me again and I just couldn't resist. Ben's away today, getting back late tonight so I'm planning a bit of a stitching and dvd marathon, although I haven't decided which dvds yet. so there's no much progrewss on the next page yet, although I'm loving how you can see this page growing out of the last one. So, hopefully I'll be able to show a good update next week having worked on it loads this weekend. I thought I was going to get to see the motorbike on this page but it doesn't look like it unfortunately, so I'm going to have to keep stitching before that happens.

Winter's Majesty's a little closer

Another page finish for Winter's Majesty. I'm only doing little pages on this because I get frustrated with it quite quickly, and I don't want to fall out with it again. I'm going to wait until I do the next page across before I do the backstitch, and I'm really surprised by how fast this page seems to have stitched up, not that I'm complaining. With it stitching so fast (Okay, so it was already partially done), I'm starting to realise that I might actually finish this one day, which I was beginning to suspect wouldn't happen. I suspect that more than I do about my HAEDs.

I'm loving the new rotation system of a page at a time, I'm seeing progress much more quickly. I can't imagine that I'd have finished three pages already this year if I was still working on my week by week rotation, I just feel more productive this week.

Tiny Little Update

I don't have much of an update this week, due to it being a busy week, I've been out a couple of times, then tired because the out has involved late nights, and I'm only any good at late nights if I can have the late morning the next day to make up for it, thus why I shouldn't go out on a school night. I'm hoping to the this page (half of the vaguel stitched area) finished this week, because I've got it in to my head that I want to be working on Dragon Rider when Ben's away at a conference next weekend. I've got a couple of nights in, plus not much on this weekend, so I'm hoping that it's possible.

For those that are wondering by the way, the yellow/mustard is new, as are the snowflakes. If I don't tell you, you're really going to struggle to notice it.

And who else crumbled like a digestive in hot tea at the latest HAED sale? Four! I really wasn't intending for that to happen. I bought three, then Michele bought another one out that day that I just had to have. Thankfully it was a QS, so it only cost about £3.

So Many Books, So Little Time

Jinxed

QS Clara

Charka Fae

I've also joined the SAL on Facebook for Chakra Fae, but they've currently agreed to let me stitch vicariously through them, because I can't start another one yet.

Happy Stitching!