Sense and Stitchability

Return of Winter's Majesty

2012-02-25T10:30:00.002Z

She's back. Although I haven't done much on her, as I only picked her up again on Thursday evening after posting my Dragon Rider post. However the rugby is on today, so I'm hopnig I can get plenty done while Ben's watching that. Especially as I've got a couple of nights out this week, so I don't know how much time I'm actually going to get this week, so it's today or not much I think.

By the way, the word verification on blogger now are awful. After getting very confused trying to work out how to turn it off, I've come to the conclusion that I actually never turned it on in the first place. So, please. If you leave a comment and it insists on word verification, could you let me know, and I'll have another go at turning it off.

The first column of Dragon Rider

2012-02-23T21:05:00.000Z

I finished the first column of Dragon Rider, I'm so excited (it's probably quite sad just how excited actually). I'm going to work across the bottom now, which means that the next page will have motorbike on it, even more excited!

I'm loving the fact that I can now see the path properly, and the fern crossing the path, and I am (as Topcho said as she commented last time) completely in love with the little mushrooms. They haven't come out very well on the photo because of the flash but trust me, in real life, they're adorable.

I'm a little concerned, the line down the left isn't very straight, I think my photography isn't helping matters, it's not as bad in life, but it is there. I'm hoping that it's something that I can stretch out, and that's it's just where I've not put it on the frame properly, but if anyone can offer any advice I'd be grateful.

And who else has had sersious issues with the HAED sale? I caved and bought two (Smartie Pants by Hannah Lynn and Enchanted Evening by Rebecca Sinz). I'm not sure about the pink background on Smartie Pants, but it's only two colours so I'm thinking of converting it to purple instead. Still girly but not as painfully girly (and also, closer to the original colours on Hannah Lynn's site. For those of you on facebook, how many of your favourite artists have to linked to - I think I officially class as an artist stalker!). And the day after the sale Michele releases three more that I really want. Charka Fae by Linda Ravenscroft, Hope by Rebecca Sinz and So Many Books So Little Time by Randal Spangler. I love the colours of the Ravenscroft one, I've really liked the Sinz one, ever since I saw it on her site, and So Many Books So Little Time is just me, I've got a to read heap that's so big it runs the entire length of my bed and half way across the foot as well.

Happy Stitching (and reading) all.

Did you have a good IHSW?

2012-02-20T20:16:00.000Z

Mine got better. By Saturday evening I was feeling very guilty about how little I'd done, and resorted to doing a block of colour, just to make it look like I'd actually done something, but then, on Sunday evening, I actually managed to get some of the more confetti bits done. Doing a bit more block colour in the evening, when I'd forgotten how to count!

I hope you all had a good stitchathon yourselves.

Happy International Hermit & Stitch Weekend

2012-02-18T10:14:00.000Z

This is why I like blogging, it's usually the first time I step back and look at my stitching as a whole, so it's usually the first time I see the picture rather than the tiny little stitches, and it's usually the first time that I see my progress as well.

That said, here is this weeks progress, more than I thought again. There's green developing into the smush at the bottom, the thing that I described as a stripe last week is now starting to resemble the path/road that the dragon is driving on, and the roots of the tree are slowly spreading. I'm hoping to get this page finished next weekend, so hopefully international hermit and stitch will help me towards that. I was certain that I was going to manage it, until Ben changed his mind about going away next weekend, so now I'm plotting how I can get him out of the house to give me time to stitch. He must have some friends that he can go and watch the rugby with next weekend, surely, and then, once they're in the pub, being the loving girlfriend that I am, I won't say a word if he wants to stay out all day :-)

A Little Update

2012-02-11T11:55:00.000Z

I was going to say that I haven't done as much as I was hoping to this week, especially considering I had a day off, and that's true I haven't, but looking at the picture now I've actually realised that I've done more that I though I had.

I've pretty much finished the mushrooms, which is very exciting (for me anyway).

It's quite a funny page, it looks quite stripey because the path is across the bottom of the whole piece, but I've only just realised that that's why it's stripey!

In other news (and the reason I had some time off) is that we've discovered that I really can't ski. I haven't broken any limbs, which means that I did actually do better than I expected, but it turns out that I am what skiing cartoon characters are based on, I actually managed the cartoon favourite where you go down the hill and hit a tree with one arm and one leg on either side, although I used the end of a padded wall rather than a tree. So, as that shows, I was truly terrible. I've decided that I'm going to try snow boarding instead, because skiing and I really didn't suit each other. Although amusingly I didn't manage to injure myself skiing, which I thought I would, but I walked home in the cold after work yesterday and went flying on the ice and injured myself, bruised knee and hip, and haven't quite worked out what I've done to my ankle yet. So it turns out that walking home from work is more dangerous than skiing like a cartoon character.

Ben chose Dragon Rider

2012-02-04T10:33:00.001Z

I let Ben choose what I worked on next, and he decided Dragon Rider, which I do love, so that was a good choice by him. I've basically only been stitching 310 since I started back on this week, but the good thing about the black on this page is it then gives me something to work round for the other colours. Not much to show at the moment, but I've got a couple of days off this week, one of which I intend to use for stitching, so hopefully I'll have more progress to show next week.

I'm having slight problems with blogger at the moment, I decided to update my blog list on the right side, adding in the new blogs that I've started following and instead I've managed to delete them all and now can't get the list to re-populate. I'm trying to get it sorted so hopefully, for people who care, I'll be able to get the list back this morning.

Sooner than expected

2012-01-29T12:59:00.000Z

I didn't think that I'd be putting the post up as soon as I have, but I've managed to finish the second page after a surprisingly productive day yesterday. I'm quite excited because when I start the next page I'll start to stitch Lancelot & Guinevere, which is quite exciting.

The problem I'm having now is that as I've finished my page, as per my new rotation plans it's time to move on to another project, and I can't decide what to work on next.

Happy Stitching!

I love Lance & Gwen

2012-01-28T11:28:00.003Z

Progress is slow, but I'm getting there. I've finished all the white (woohoo) and am now finishing up the wall. I was hoping to get this finished before the end of January, but I don't quite think that's going to happen, although I don't think that it'll be too far off. And there's a football match that Ben wants to watch this afternoon, so that'll give me a bit of stitching time anyway. I keep looking at the wall thinking that it doesn't quite look right, there's a slight curve in it that looks odd, but I keep referring back to Selina's original art work and the curve is in there as well. It's one of those one where I think that a couple of other pages will make it look a bit more settled.

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend and World Book Night!

2012-01-23T20:16:00.001Z

Did everyone had a good International Hermit and Stitch Weekend? I didn't get as much done as I meant to, but I still got a fairly decent amount done, more that I expected to so that's okay. It was a pretty busy weekend, so I can live with it. And I managed to get some more white done, which is in itself an achievement, because it's evil and I hate it. Excuse the bad picture by the way, I got a new computer this weekend (so happy, it actually works, I've started being able to comment on peoples blogs again), but I don't yet have picture editing software to trim my pictures like I normally do.

For the Brits, has anyone heard of World Book Night? Part of it is that you can volunteer to be a book giver (there are 24 different books to choose between) and give out 10 books to random people to encourage them to read.

This year World Book Night hasn't yet reached it's target number of givers, so if you fancy signing up then why not give it a go. World Book Night Giver I actually can't remember which book I've signed up for, it was either Small Island, Good Omens or Remains of the Day, I think it was Small Island by Andrea Levy (an absolutely brilliant book by the way). I've also convinced my other half to sign up, he's a chiropractor so he's going to give them out to patients if he gets it, which I think is cool.

Back in Love with Lance & Gwen

2012-01-21T10:55:00.003Z

Again, the title says it all, I'm loving working on this again, even if there is a lot of white on white at the moment... grrrr!

However, I'm loving the little flast of green which is some leaves outside the window.

So I've mostly finished the arches now, and am back to working on the wall, and am continuing to fill in my windows, white joy that it is.

It's International Hermit and Stitch this weekend, so I'm hoping to get some work done, although I'm not sure how much time I'll get.

Happy stitching everyone.

I passed my driving test!

2012-01-16T16:39:00.001Z

That is literally all I'm posting to say, but I'm quite excited about it, so it gets a mid week post all to itself! I really didn't think I was going to, so much so that when the examiner told her I had I answered her with one word, but I screetched it at the poor lass and all I said was 'WHAT?' My instructor had to get out of the car so that she could laugh!

I'm also developing a bit of a Joan Elliott addiction, but been into town to buy Cross Stitch Gold because I wanted the 'At the Stroke of Midnight' Chart that was in that, and there are another two in that series. And I've just discovered that Blue Geisha and Summer Geisha are both much more vibrant than I thought they were when stitched. Oh bother!

Anyway, I'm off to celebrate with some stitching.

Don't forget International Hermit and Stitch this weekend! Head on over to Random Ramblings if you want to sign up!

Starting to come together

2012-01-14T10:05:00.003Z

It's starting to come together and look like the two pages are actually related in someway, which is nice. Although I'm not sure about one of the patches of white, now that I look at this picture I can't quite work out why it's there. But if I look at the full picture it does kinda make sense, it just looks odd at the moment. It's been another surprisingly productive week actually, even though it's included white on white (which I'm trying to do a bit at a time, if I did it all at once I think I'd go crazy). Hope I can keep this kind of productivity up, it's quite nice actually being able to see progress happening.

Ben's out this evening so I'm thinking that I'm going to have a dvd and stitching evening. Hope everyone else is having a good weekend.

Latest acquisitions (A Little Picture Heavy)

2012-01-08T20:38:00.001Z

I've had a couple of requests from my last post to give in and show my new HAED charts, so here goes. I'd like to point out that I didn't buy all of these at once, these are my last three sets of buys, all in the sale, but I haven't shown any of my new ones recently, so I'm just showing you everything new.

Rachel Anderson - Ruby

Marta Dahlig - Light

Marta Dahlig - Love (really reminds me of Miss Havisham)

Rachel Anderson - Emerald

Selina Fenech - Nephalina

Linda Tso - Ice Winds 2

Selina Fenech - Bewitched (want to do all three of thses)

Selina Fenech - Mab

There's a bit of a theme, lots of Selina Fenech (love her work), and I've recently become quite obsessed with Marta Dahlig's designs! Also very fond of Rachel Anderson's birthstone fairies. Anyway, there are all the latest acquisitions, now do me a favour, don't tell Ben!

The Return of Lancelot and Guinevere

2012-01-07T10:54:00.002Z

I'm so happy to see the return of Lancelot and Guinevere. I am completely back in love with it. I ought to point out that at no point did I fall out with this piece, I just had other projects that I had to/wanted to work on, but now that I'm in the New Year I've got nothing that I need to work on, I'm completely allowed to work on what I want, so I went back to the long neglected Lancelot and Guinevere.

I've had a quite productive week actually, which is partially assisted by the fact that I thought I was ushering on Thursday, got to the theatre to find that I'd got my week wrong and it's next Thursday I'm ushering instead, so I suddenly had a free evening. I've managed to get a lot more done than I normally would I think, although I am aware that it still doesn't look like much. It is and will be a window, and there will be some little flowery bits when I get that far, but I haven't started stitching those yet.

I've decided that I'm actually going to change my rotation plans slightly this year (although you know my rotation plans never last for long anyway). My plan is that I'm now going to work a page at a time instead of a week at a time. I'll work on a project until I finish a page and then work on another project until I finish a page and so on and so forth. I don't think it'll achieve me actually stitching any faster, but I think it'll give me more of a sense of achievement because I'll see page finishes more often and actually get to see the progress. That's the plan anyway, it might not work like that.

And the Heaven and Earth Design sales were very dangerous for me, I'm not even admitting to what I got, that's how bad it was!

Hope everyone who celebrates is had a brilliant Christmas and New Year, we were really busy, I went back to work for a break! Hope everyone is good. Happy Stitching!

Updated Bucket List

2011-12-30T15:00:00.000Z

Unfortunately the Bucket List has grown a little bit since I originally created it, it's now a little longer.

Ben seemed to think that a Bucket List was quite a depressing thing to do, but I look upon it as quite positive, because it means that I've got to last forever to finish everything that's on the list.

Technically I've managed to make the list go down because I've managed to cross 4 off as completed, unfortunately I've added nearly a hundred on that I want to complete, so I'm basically in big trouble.

Happy Stitching!

I'm now up to 126, and consequently am in a lot of trouble!

HAED: Lancelot and Guinevere (Fenech)

HAED: Dragon Rider (Spangler)

Maia: Winter's Majesty

Dragon Dreams: Fairy Tale Sampler

Bothy Threads: Kings & Queens

Bothy: Cut Thru Castle

Cross Stitch Collection: Heathcliffe

Cross Stitch Collection: Robin Hood

Cross Stitch Collection: Regency Ballroom

Cross Stitcher: King Arthur Sampler

Cross Stitcher: Medieval Lady

Dimensions Gold: Elegance of the Orient

Dimensions Gold: Enchanting Geisha

Dimensions Gold: Japanese Maiden

Dimensions Gold: Jewels of the Orient (again)

Dimensions Gold: Mighty Samurai

HAED: A Source of Admiration

HAED: Dahlig: Avarice

HAED: Dahlig: Envy

HAED: Dahlig: Gluttony

HAED: Dahlig: Hope

HAED: Dahlig: Light

HAED: Dahlig: Love

HAED: Dahlig: Lust

HAED: Dahlig: Ophelia

HAED: Dahlig: Pandora

HAED: Dahlig: Sloth

HAED: Dahlig: Vanity

HAED: Dahlig: Wrath

HAED: Hannah Lynn: Alice Lost

HAED: Hannah Lynn: Annabelle

HAED: Hannah Lynn: Glacier Lily

HAED: Hannah Lynn: QS Genevive

HAED: Hannah Lynn: Runaway Princess

HAED: JJB: QS Alice in Clockwork

HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mask of Colours 1

HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mask of Colours 2

HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Rapunzel

HAED: Linda Tso: Ice Winds 2

HAED: Meeting on the Turret Stairs

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Alice in Wonderland

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Blossoming Spring

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Fall Fire

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Queen of the Night

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Raven's Treasure

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Summer Sun

HAED: Nene Thomas: Deidre

HAED: Rachel Anderson: Emerald

HAED: Rachel Anderson: Garnet

HAED: Rachel Anderson: Ruby

HAED: Rachel Anderson: Sapphire

HAED: Randal Spangler: Flights of Imagination

HAED: Randal Spangler: Hit any Key

HAED: Randal Spangler: Medieval Shelf

HAED: Randal Spangler: Sundae Delight

HAED: Randal Spangler: Train of Dreams

HAED: Randal Spangler: Treasure Quest

HAED: Rebecca Sniz: Enchanted Evening

HAED: Rebecca Sniz: Gothic Lament

HAED: Selena Fenech: Bewitched

HAED: Selina Fenech: Bright Skies + Dark Waters + Centre Section

HAED: Selina Fenech: Bubbles

HAED: Selina Fenech: Gloriana

HAED: Selina Fenech: Hide & Seek

HAED: Selina Fenech: Impossible Love

HAED: Selina Fenech: Jinxed

HAED: Selina Fenech: Lady of Avalon

HAED: Selina Fenech: Mab

HAED: Selina Fenech: Nephalia

HAED: Selina Fenech: Titania

HAED: The Soul of the Rose

HAED: The Tempest

Heritage Craft: John Clayton: The Grand Ball

Joan Elliott: Earth, Water, Air and Fire Goddess

Joan Elliott: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Fairies.

Joan Elliott: The Renaissance Ladies

Lanarte: Geisha

Lanarte: Indian Beauty

LOTR: I've got for Lord of the Ring Charts by Fluffy Kittens (I kid you not), I'd like to do one of them, don't mind which)

Maia: Geishas

Maia: Hutari Mai

Maia: Kihaku

Maia: Tsubaki

Maia: Yumezakura

Maia: Zojoji Temple

Memoirs of a Geisha

Mirabilia: Autumn Queen

Mirabilia: Midsummer Nights Fairy

Mirabilia: My Lady of the Mist

Mirabilia: Spring Queen

Mirabilia: Summer Queen

Mirabilia: The Kiss

Mirabilia: Three for Tea

Mirabilia: Venetian Opulence

Mirabilia: Winter Queen

Passione Ricamo: Autumn Fairy Spirit

Passione Ricamo: Fae Eyes

Passione Ricamo: Fairy of Dreams

Passione Ricamo: Mediterrano

Passione Ricamo: Moon Fairy Spirit

Passione Ricamo: My Lady of the Snow

Passione Ricamo: Once Upon a Time

Passione Ricamo: Selene, the Moon Goddess

Passione Ricamo: Serendipity Fae

Passione Ricamo: Spring Fairy Spirit

Passione Ricamo: Summer Fairy Spirit

Passione Ricamo: The Night

Passione Ricamo: Winter Beauty Princess

Passione Ricamo: Winter Fairy Spirit

Penguin Parade (can't remember the make)

Pixel People: Firefly

Pixel People: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Pixel People: The Princess Bride

Self Designed: Princess Bride

Self Designed: Susan Sto Helit (Discworld)

Self Designed: Wicked

~~Pixel People: Big Bang Theory~~

~~Bothy: Dictionary of Tea~~

~~Kustom Krafts: Little Snap Dragon~~

~~Birth Sampler~~

First update of Fairy Tale Sampler

2011-12-29T10:04:00.000Z

Here's the first update of Fairy Tale Sampler, which I'm rather enjoying working on. The fabrics lovely and sparkly, but I can't get the camera to take a picture of the pretty sparkles.

Due to a slight moment of stupidity on my part this is on 32 count rather than 28 count, which is what it should be on, but I didn't notice until I'd already started sewing, so now I'm crossing my fingers that the beads fit okay despite the fact that the fabric's the wrong count, I think it'll be okay.

I can't do much more on this now because I'm waiting on teh beads and threads that I had to order, including some very nice Caron Waterlilies dyed threads which look beautiful. Can't wait for them to arrive so I can carry on with it. It'll look great when it's finished, lots of speciality stitches that I've never done. Can't wait!

2012 Stitching Plans

2011-12-28T14:35:00.000Z

Okay, it's that time of year where we all start making plans about what we're going to stitch in the next year, and having seen the gorgeous (and ambitious) list that Joysze's set herself for this year, I thought that it was probably about time I thought about doing mine.

So, I'd love to say that I'm going to finish my first Heaven and Earth Design, but I think that that might a little unlikely. Instead I'm going to aim to achieve the following.

HEAD: Lance and Gwen: The top row, so that's 3 pages to complete

HAED: Dragon Rider: The bottom row, so that's 7 half pages.

Maia: Winter's Majesty: Next row, so that's actually only two pages

Dragon Dreams: Fairy Tale Sampler: Complete

Pixel People: A chart off the bucket list, there are 3 to choose between

Cross Stitcher: King Arthur Sampler: At least the first page.
Joan Elliott: Start a Joan Elliott chart
Dork Stitch: Come to the dark side

I think that's more than enough, but I think (maybe) that it should be just about achieveable, I hope!

I know I've seen that a few people have already put their lists up, but for those that haven't, go on, give it a shot.

Right, I'm off to order the speciality bits that I need for my Fairy Tale Sampler.

Happy Stitching!

Final TUSAL of the year

2011-12-24T11:36:00.001Z

The final, slightly blurry TUSAL of the year, with the threads from Little Snap Dragon and Big Bang Theory in it.

Hope everyone has had a good year, has a good Christmas and is looking forward to the New Year.

and it all started with a Big Bang!

2011-12-24T09:00:00.000Z

A quick little Pre-Christmas finish.

I wanted a little project to work on this week having finished Little Snap Dragon last week, and this little chart was calling out to me.

This lovely little chart is by Wee Little Stitches and I just loved it. In fact I recommend a quick visit to her site if you are in any way a geek, cos she's got loads of charts in this style, there are at least three others that I want to do, Princess Bride, Monty Python and Firefly!

I have to admit that I don't normally like working on little charts, I don't know why, but I have enjoyed this, although Leonard is a little cross eyed, but I'm willing to admit that that probablyt has something to do with my stitching rather than the charting.

I hope everyone has an absolutely lovely Christmas, I'm sure I'll get another post in before New Year, but just in case I don't, I also hope that everyone has a lovely and happy New Year.

IHSW and a finish

2011-12-19T20:14:00.000Z

Well, I had a productive International Hermit and Stitch weekend. Much to my surprise I managed to finish Little Snap Dragon, and I think he's rather sweet.

I've been working on him (on and off) for fifteen months, although there was a seven month gap in there, so I've actually only been working on it for about eight months.

I didn't enjoy it very much when I started, and I wasn't quite convinced with the shading, but in the last few weeks when I've been working on it the shading's all started to make sense and it seems to have stitched much faster, possibly because I was finally pulling everything together.

I've also promised Ben that I'll mention him in this post and how the fact that I finished it is partially down to him.

Having had quite a busy Saturday (his final family Christmas shopping, a two hour power cut which involved me trying to finish off a stitched Christmas card as part of his secret santa for his works do in the evening) on Sunday he glanced over my shoulder while I was looking at other blogs and noticed that it was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend. As such he declared that I wasn't allowed to help him with the chores that he had to do and that instead I had to stay home to do some Hermit and Stitching as the weekend declared. He also then agreed to watching Miracle on 34th Street while I stitched later on in the day. Which I thought was very sweet of him and meant that I got Little Snap Dragon finished around 10 o'clock yesterday evening.

I hope everyone else had an equally lovely and successful International Hermit and Stitch Weekend.

Now I'm debating what to put on the frame to replace him, I think I've decided that it's going to be the Fairy Tale Sampler and fabric that I bought a few weeks ago from the stitching fair, but mum's agreed that I can have these off her for Christmas (I couldn't really justify buying it), so I can't do anything with that for a week.

Happy stitching!

Another week... hopefully!

2011-12-17T11:21:00.000Z

He's getting there, and I'm hoping that one more week (I've got next Friday off and currently nothing planned) will be long enough to get it finished!

He's got a a torso now (do dragons have torsos?), and he almost looks like he's attached to his wings now.

The flowers and stalks are all finished, so all that's left is the dragon himself, which is very exciting because it means that I can see it all coming together now.

Oh yeah, and it's International Hermit and Stitch weekend. I don't know how much time I'm going to get this weekend, but I'll give it a show.

Happy stitching!
Oh yeah, and I'm still useless with commenting (think I might have to cave in and get a new computer in the new year), but I'm going to make a concerted effort to comment on as many blogs as I can over Christmas and New Year, just to prove that I haven't forgotten anything.

The end is in sight

2011-12-10T11:22:00.001Z

I've done two weeks on this and was going to put it away to work on something else, but when it's so close to being finished I haven't got the heart to put it away. So hopefully, in the next couple of weeks I should be able to show a final finish for the year.

I was planning to get a lot more done yesterday because I had a half day. Unfortunately I had the half day because I had my wisdom teeth out, so I spent more of yesterday feeling sorry for myself than I meant to, so I didn't manage to do quite as much stitching as I was hoping to, but I did a little bit, so that's better than nothing.

There's a definite dragon shape appearing here, but right now he doesn't quite seem to be attached to his wings, I'll have to work on that this weekend, so it looks like it's actually all the same thing. There's not much left to do, the last couple of colours to finish the stalks, half a flower above his snout and of course the rest of the dragon. End of the year? Yeah, no problem!

Little Snap Dragon is Growing

2011-12-03T10:42:00.001Z

I can't believe how quickly this is stitching up. More to the point I can't believe how slowly I used to be working on this. I've only got a page and a half left to do and I'm done, and I've done three half pages this week. It's completely possible that I'll have this finished by Christmas. Why was it taking me so long to stitch this last time? Getting used to working on HAEDs has obviously done wonders for my stitching speed cos I'm suddenly so used to working on quite fiddlyh stitching. The only thing I'd say about this is I seem to be changing colour all the time, even more often than I feel I do with a HAED, don't know why that is.

Oh yeah, for HAED fans, have you seen Selina Fenech's three new pin up witches? I really hope they get charted, they're just lovely. Oh yeah, and I crumbled on the HAED sale again, I am a bad person!

Anyway, I better get my ass into gear and out of the house, I'm a volunteer usher at my local theatre and it's my first shift doing the Panto today, so I better get ready for that. Happy stitching everyone.

Oh yeah, and I apologise for not commenting much at the moment. I've complained about the vagaries of my computer in the past, so I won't go into that again, but I'm also having some problems with blogger that when I try to comment it tells me that I don't have permission. It's happening quite randomly, some days I can comment on one blog and not another and the next it's the other way round, so I apologise for not being more chatty, but chances are I've tried to comment and the computer's refused to let me!

A little bit of Stash Enhancement!

2011-11-26T15:08:00.000Z

Okay, so I said I wasn't going to be anything at the Knitting and Stitching show, but lets be honest, we all knew that that was a lie, I had good intentions, but it just wasn't going to happen. So here's what I got, a chart called Fairy Tale Sampler which I fell in love with, and its going to be my new year challenge because it's got some speciality stitches in it which I've never done, so I'll do that.

I also bought some beautiful fabric to stitch it on, from a company called Sparklies I recommend her, she's got some absolutely gorgeous fabrics, they're lovely!

Finally, I fell in love with another Bothy Kit, called Kings & Queens. It's gorgeous! What do you think? Isn't it great! I'm going to have to get it at some point.

Little Angel is FINISHED!

2011-11-26T15:05:00.000Z

Right then, a miracle has happened, I've managed a second finish in 2011, I really didn't think that that was going to happen. Here's Little Angel by Maria Diaz.

I've got mixed feelings about this one. It was quite an easy stitch, although I really did get sick of the sight of cream, as it felt like that was all I worked on for two or three weeks. It does look really effective now that it's finished, although I do have to say that it's really not to my taste, I've only stitched becuase it's a present for some friends who are due to have a day in new year! In fact Ben's even declared that the mum on this looks a bit like our mum to be, although I'm not as sure that I can see it. But it does make it look even more thoughtful than it actually is, so I'll go with it if that's what he thinks!

Of course, the fact that Little Angel is finished means that the frame is freed up and Little Snap Dragon can finally go back on to a frame and I can stop feeling guilty about the fact that I've been neglecting him for nearly an entire year! I love this piece, I settled down to work on it again last night and am back in love with him. It's such an easy stitch. I have a vague memory of thinking that was a bit confetti based when I was stitching it originally, but after working on a couple of HAEDs this is suddenly really simple to work on.

I was going to work on Dragon Rider this week, (Ben's away so I've got a day of stitching goodness ahead of me) but now that I've got Little Snap Dragon back I just want to keep working on it, I reckon I can get the wings page finished today, and hopefully the stalks on the bottom page as well if I put my mind to it and really work on it today (and this week of course, but it may be a busy week this week).

In other news, it's the knitting and stitching show in Harrogate today, and seeing as I live about 5 minutes walk from where it's being held I couldn't not go, so before my stitching marathon can start I'm going to see if I can test my will power and see if I'm capable of spending an hour or two in a room with that much stitching stuff and not buy anything... I suspect that I can't, but you never know, I could surprise myself.

TUSAL

2011-11-26T15:01:00.001Z

I forgot TUSAL again, I'm useless.

Here's this month, it's mostly light blue and cream from Winter's Majesty and Little Angel this month!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend

2011-11-21T20:01:00.001Z

Good evening all, did everyone have a good International Hermit and Stitch Weekend?

I got quite a bit done, although it's not really looking like much because all I've done it add more cream. I'll be honest, I'm getting a little bored of cream, but I know it'll be worth it in the end. I've still got to do mum's top, her neck and face, babies sleeve and face. I'll get there, I'm hoping to get it all done this week, then all I've got is the darker colours and the backstitch. The aim is by the end of the year. Two finishes in one year, can such a magical thing happen?

I haven't had a chance to check out everyone elses proress yet, but I promise I will, and will leave comments on as many as I can.

Filling in some blue

2011-11-19T16:12:00.001Z

I'm a bit late posting this week. I somehow ended up covering for one of Ben's receptionists when she couldn't make it into work this morning. Gulible? Moi? I guess I must just be a loving girlfriend.

I've managed to make a fair bit of progress though, there are who sections that I practically filled in now. Although there are also whole sections that don't actually have any stitches done. But, as predicted with the end of the evil little flowers, my love of this piece has returned, and I am rather enjoying seeing the shape of her actually appearing now.

And now, for International Hermit and Stitch weekend and the following week I'm back on to Little Angel, which contains a lot of cream. I've just had to go and buy a second skein!

Cream, cream and more cream!

2011-11-12T12:46:00.001Z

There is a lot of cream in this piece, so that's pretty much what I've been stitching this week, as the title says, cream, cream and more cream!

It is starting to look a lot better with the extra colours filling in. I think that there are only about four colours left, but I think it's time for a break, I'm getting fed up of the all the cream.

Hope everyones stitching is going well, I'm enjoying everyone's progress and am starting to manage to comment on other people's blogs, so all is good in the world!

I can see it!

2011-11-05T11:33:00.001Z

Now that I've got a third (start or a fourth) colour in here, the shading's starting to look better. I'm hating the darker colour less now that it's all fading in a bit better. I'm pretty comfortable that I'll be able to get this finished within time. Little dude is due in January, and it'll probably be a couple of months after that little dude is christened so plently of time. But I'm aiming to get it finished in time for the birth so I've just got to get it framed for the christening.

So, now I'm debating what to work on next, I think I will take a week off from this, but I can't work out what's calling to me the most. I do love Dragon Rider which is technically what I'm due to work on. But my love for Winter's Majesty is returning and she has seen periods of neglect this year. Also, Lance & Gwen has seen a drought this year, so it'd be nice to work on that. But if I work on Little Angel then when it's finished I can get back to Little Snap Dragon. Basically I just can't decide. I'm sure that I'll make a decision at some point in the next 24 hours!

Oh yeah, in other news we went to see Bill Bailey in Sheffield last night, he was absolutely brilliant, really funny!

Nearly finished the flowers!

2011-10-29T10:58:00.000+01:00

I know, it actually doesn't look like much, but this is a big step for me, I've nearly finished the evil flowers on this section, which means that my love of this piece has returned, because that's the bit that I really don't like working on. You can almost see this page taking shape, so it's a start!

I actually want to make a bit of an apology today. I'm not commenting on people's blogs at the moment. My computer is going through a bit of a tempremental phase (I think it's telling me that it's going to break soon - must remember to back everythin up!) whenever I try to open a second page then it keeps freezing my computer, so I am reading most people's blogs I think, but I'm always worrying that clicking another link to comment will be the one that causes the freeze! I'm debating gettin a tablet for internet browsing, but I'm undecided at the moment, so generally I'm just potterin along.

Also, I may go a bit quiet through out November. I've signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writin Month), which means that I'm meant to try and write 50 000 words in November. To be honest, I'm not convinced that I can see it happening. But if by some fluke it does, if I disappear, that's why!

Tusal of the month

2011-10-27T20:38:00.000+01:00

Here's the latest (very blurry) update.

Happy stitching!

Little Angel update

2011-10-22T22:00:00.002+01:00

I know, not the most original of titles this week!

Here it is, two colours in, but I'm not sure about the shading thus far. It doesn't look right somehow.

I'm hoping that another couple of colours will even it out a bit!

Hope everyone's having a fun weekend!

Internation Hermit & Stitch and Parking

2011-10-17T20:08:00.000+01:00

I've made another attempt at parking, and I'm actually getting along with it a lot better this time... and I've created the beginning of some small mushrooms (it's not a very good picture, but they're there, honest!).

I didn't get as much done this weekend as I was hoping to, but I've achieved a row and a black smush, so that's not bad!

Hope everyone else had a good Hermit and Stitch, I'm off to check out everyone elses stitching!

Return of the Evil Flowers - The Evil Flowers Strike Back

2011-10-15T12:14:00.000+01:00

For some reason that I can't quite fathom the colours haven't come out on this quite as well as I would have liked, but then I also didn't get as much stitching done on this as I would have liked, so perhaps it's just one of those weeks!

You can see the beginning of the next set of evil little flowers (hence the title) down the right hand side, and that's mostly what I've been working on this week, along with a little bit of the fur trim on her cloak.

International Hermit and Stitch again this weekend (it seems to have come round really fast this month. Is everyone joining in? I've got a few plans for today but hopefully that will also involve some stitching time, and I haven't got much planned for tomorrow yet, so hopefully so progress will be achieved. Dragon Rider is coming out again, I've only got half a page left to finish the first column, so I'm keen to work on that and try and achieve it, start to give me an idea of the size of a completed HAED. Unfortunately the latest Terry Pratchett novel also arrived today, so there's a chance that I'm going to get distracted from my stitching by that.

In other news it was my birthday on Thursday so I had a day off, and Ben took me out to lunch (local pub/restaurant called the Pine Marten, really nice), and we went to see the Three Musketeers in the evening at the cinema. I'm getting behind in my reviews, but I might try and get round to posting a review of that this weekend when I want a break for squinting at 25 count. And what did I get for my birthday? Ben got me a purple ukulele! It currently sounds like I'm torturing cute furry animals when I try to play it, but I'm going to try and play it (well practice chords at the moment) a little each day until it stops sounding like the torture of cute furry animals, and starts sounding like something that vaguely resembles music.

Have a fun weekend all, and enjoy the stitchathon if you're joining in!

DrumChasers

2011-10-15T11:46:00.000+01:00

Better late then never, I said last Sautrday that I was going to put this post up, and I'm only just getting round to it now. Lazy, that's what I am, just lazy. Also increidibly disorganised and forgetful!

Anyway, I said last week that I'd been to see an incredible show called DrumChasers which is touring at the moment, unfortunately just coming to the end of it's tour actually, so this may not be massively relevant to many of you, but I do suggest keeping an eye out in case it comes somewhere near you. I believe that it will be heading to Holland (I think) soon, and also that there are plans to head to London at some point.

The cast are mostly unknown. The only exception being Stephen Fry who I suspect most people will have heard of, however he wasn't there. A voice over of a narrator was pre-recorded and played in the right places. The narrator explains what is happening and gives you a bit of history on the plot because, apart from a couple of lines from Mr Bennett there's little to no dialogue.

To give you a vauge idea of what DrumChasers is think of a percussion show (something along the line of Stomp but with drums and percussion instruments in feet - there's an entire routine played on the triangle!) with a Romeo and Juliet style plot with warring factions and star crossed lovers and that's pretty much a run down of what the show is, but it doesn't really do justice to the sheer joy and power of the show as a whole. I have to admit to not being able to play any form of musical instrument, but that doesn't mean that I can't see talent in others, and these guys were incredibly talented. It absolutely amazed me the sort of beautiful noises that could come out of instruments that is basically someone hitting an object with a stick. It made me completely fall in love with Xylophones and Glockenspiels (sp?), they make such a beautiful noise.

The show takes places in the backstage of a theatre where the caretaker (Mr Bennett played by Jack Warner) is tidying up. I think the entire audience fell in love with Mr Bennett, he was brilliant, and his plot arc was very dramatic! As he's tidying there are some odd noises and the DrumChasers invade the theatre.

The first DrumChaser that you really see is Weckl (Rachel Stone), who practically speaking isn't actually a DrumChaser, but I'm not going to get that involved in that detail here. First and foremost, I want her hat, it was brillant. Weckl is the force that keeps the two warring factions apart, through the use of two lightsabre esq weapons (and yes, you can buy replica in the foyer - there were a lot of happy kids there). Weckl didn't get as involved in the percussive performances as some of the other performers, but she was a beautiful dancer was was fabulous to watch, giving a macabre but sensous performance, and her fascination when she inspected Mr Bennett when she first saw him was a joy to watch. She also leads the audience in some percussive clapping of their own at the end. Yes, there is audience participation, but don't worry, it isn't scary and you won't be dragged up on stage, but you'll be amazed, even you can be involved in making lovely percussion noises through only the use of clapping.

The second performance that caught my eye was Buddy played by Simon Morgan-Thomas. Buddy was one half of the love story and is a character who is relentless in his determination to bring the two factions together.There is a charm in his depiction of a young man in love for the first time, not quite sure how to act to impress her, his efforts hampered by the warring groups who don’t want to see love across the divide, and it's a beautiful moment when, rather than presenting his love with a bunch of flowers he presents her with a bunch of drum sticks tied with a ribbon. He was also the only cast member to come out into the audience at the end of the performance, drawing smiles (if also a little nervous laughter, especially from us) from all that he approached. Again, another dramatic arc that had the audience on the edge of their seats at the end.

Finally you have to mention Gene & Jansen, performed by Amy Kelly and Roger Chapman, who are very much the comedy duo of the ensemble. They are the trouble makers of the group and responsible for the two funniest routines in the show. One of thses is a brilliant UV sequence. I did theatre when I was (a lot) younger and logically speaking I knew how the UV sequence was done, most people will but, despite the fact that we were sat on the front row, I still couldn't actually see it being done, and it was such fun to watch.

Another routine that I loved was when they decide to steal tambourines of Mr Bennett because they're fascinated by the noise they make. It's a wonderfully playful routine where the tambourines are passed round the stage in an elaborate game of piggy in the middle while Mr Bennett trys to chase after them to get them back.

Overall, as you can probably tell, I loved this show and have been enthusing to anyone who will sit still for long enough (people are starting to avoid me). It was fun and imaginiative, and really high energy. Suitable for all the family there were families with young kids who were fascinated by the noise and colours to groups like ourselves who just sat there open mouthed at some on the sounds and routines created. If it comes near you, I really do recommend going to see it becuase it was just such fun.

The web address if you want to see their tour dates etc is www.drumchasers.co.uk

There's also a trailer on the site! And a shop - personally I'm hoping that they'll add a dvd eventually

Whoop Whoop!

2011-10-09T13:27:00.000+01:00

Another update a day later, this isn't like me at all. But I've finished the page, which makes me very happy, so I thought I'd share that happiness with all my lovely followers in blog land!

Two pages done, I can't even remember how many more to go, possibly 12 full and 7 half pages to go, but it's only another half page before I've finished the first column, and if I've remembered that right that means I'm nearly (ish) one seventh of the way through!

But anyway, I love it! I love the difference that filling in all those little white gaps makes! I still love the castle, but now I've got a tree that I love as well, so all is good in my stitching world!

So now I'm debating what to work on next, I ought to go back to working on the birth sampler, but I don't really want to. I do love this and am very tempted to go straight onto working on the next page, but it's also a long time since I worked on Winter's Majesty, and I am feeling bad for neglecting it, and I've been neglecting Lance & Gwen for even longer and also quite fancy picking that up again. Hmmm, decisions decisions!

And review for DrumChasers will still follow, I'm still composing!

So near and yet so far!

2011-10-08T09:03:00.000+01:00

I meant to finish this page this week, but it didn't quite happen. However I did manage to finish all the confetti so all that's left for this page is the black now, so hopefully should be finished in the next couple of days.

I'm loving the castle! As per usual when you've got your nose three inches away from it you can't really see what's developing. Now that I look at the picture I can see the shading and the shape of the castle when it was just a bit of a grey shmush when I was working on it!

I have a question... I set myself targets to finish by the end of the year, and unless some kind of miracle happens, I'm not going to achieve them so, what do I do?

Do I pick one or two to concentrate on so that I can achieve some of my targets and let some others fall by the wayside

Do I continue to work on each of them and get each one closer to where I was aiming to be?

I've got one that I've got to finish, the birth sampler needs to be finished by the end of the year because you can't ask a little dude to wait to be born, but other than that I've got no time limits to work to.

I will actually do a second post later, I went to see the incredible DrumChasers last night because I knew someone who was in it, so I've promised that I'll put a review together for them, so second post to follow! Hope everyone has a good weekend and that the rugby fans aren't shouting at the TV as much as Ben is!

The start of Little Angel

2011-10-01T08:33:00.000+01:00

Here's my first week on Little Angel. Seeing as I actually haven't had much time to work on it I'm quite happy with how much I've done and how fast it's stitching up. Despite the fact that I've done one and a half colours you can clearly see the picture taking shape, how often can you say that?

This is one of those projects that I know will look great when it's finished, but it's not really to my taste so there is an element of knowing that I have to work on it, as oppossed to wanting to. But as I say, it seems to be stitching quite quickly so hopefully it shouldn't be too much of a struggle to get it finished in time (as long as she's roughly on her due date, early January).

I started a second job yesterday (like my life isn't full enough), so I'm now waitressing at a local little restaurant two evenings a week, which is a bit of a catch twenty-two, because it means that I'll have more money to spend on my hobby (for the first time since being an undergrad I'll be being paid weekly and in cash - it's a bit like having pocket money again), but I'll have less time to work on the hobby. Although the money is going to be used for other things as well. I also have a couple of days off coming up in the next couple of weeks which will involve some stitching time. Off this coming Wednesday on a random day off, the following Thursday for my birthday (woo hoo, I'm such a kid, still get massively excited about my birthday) and then Ben's away for a conference that weekend as well, so a bit of a stitching marathon will (hopefully) happen in the next few weeks.

So what to work on next? The rotation has crumbled a bit in the last few weeks so I'm pretty much picking up whatever I want to work on for a week until I wor out what I'm going to have as my rotation. Was putting Little Angel away last night and debating what to work on next and as my brain was fried from an 8 hour office day then a 4 hour waitress shift I decided Ben could decide instead.

Me: What shall I work on next?

Him: (Surprisingly decided and almost excited) Dragon Rider!

Me: Is that because that's the only one you can name?

Him: (sounding insulted) No, you like Dragon Rider, you're working on the baby one as well.

All pretty true really, I do like Dragon Rider, and am generally referring to Little Angel as 'the baby one' myself. Anyway, England/Scotland rugby match has just started, so I'm off to stitch through that while Ben watches it and gets far to over excited for this time in the morning!

Tusal-y goodness!

2011-09-28T20:00:00.000+01:00

I'm a day late, I'm sorry! And it's an appalling photo, all in all, this post has gone well!

My first (and probably last) finish of the year!

2011-09-24T10:00:00.000+01:00

It's finished! Yay, I got a finish in 2011, I was starting to think that that wasn't going to happen! And it is, almost certainly going to be my only finish of the year, so I'd better make the most of it!

I finished the Dictionary of Tea, and this makes me very happy. Now I have to contact the friend in quesiton and get her to come and collect her present for one of her friends as this was (technically) a commission piece!

I loved working on this, Bothy charts are such beautifully easy charts to stitch, it's all whole stitches and it's the easiest back stitch that I have ever done. And it really makes the pictures pop out where they didn't really look like much without it. Also, love the fact that you actually get 10 little projects or finishes when you do the Dictionaries.

So, this finished, next project sorted and about to be started. We have friends who are due to have a little dude in January so I'm doing a Maria Diaz chart which I think is called 'Little Angel' but I seem to have thrown away the page that had the title on it, so I wouldn't swear to it.

A saucy little pot

2011-09-17T09:50:00.001+01:00

Here it is, the penultimate teapot, only one more to go. And it has to be said that I rather like this one. I saved my two favourites till last (as is often the case with my stitching, I think I've had this rant before - start with the boring bits/the back ground and it helps to stop me from losing interest because I've still got the best bits/the central focus to look forward to!) so here's my second favourite tea stitched, and I've only got my favourite one left to do. My plan is that by this time next week it'll all be finished and I'll be able to call the friend who asked me to do this in the first place to tell her that's it's all finished and she can give it to the friend that she bought it for a few years back. And in turn I can start on the birth sampler that is beginning to stare accusingly at me whenever I go anywhere near it.

I have really enjoyed working on this kit, it's the first time I've done a Bothy Threads and it's been most enjoyable. I'll probably do a little review of the kit etc next week when I post my finished picture of it... I will finish it by next weekend, if I have to stay up until all hours to do so... and I've just realised that this is a rather foolish promise as I'm busy next weekend and pretty busy this week. But I want it to be finished so one way or another this will be achieved.

And in other news... why would Michele have another sale on the HAED site, it's good for neither my will power or my bank balance. I ended up with another 3, Raven's Treasure by Meredith Dillman, Rapunzel by Linda Ravenscroft (she looks so grumpy and yet I still love it for some reason) and QS Genevive by Hannah Disney... they're all charts that are on my bucket list at least. And I was thinking about it the other day, cross stitch (even taking into account the seriously addictive nature of stashing), is quite a cheap hobby really. Yes it can be a bit of a painful outlay when you first buy the kit or kit up your chosen chart, but think how long that then lasts you. If you worked it out at cost per hour I'd be surprised if it was even close to a £1 per hour, it's probably only a matter of pence per hours fun and enjoyment, in which case, pretty cheap hobby, especially when I consider that a couple of hours at the cinema is £10, an hour at Zumba is £4, an hours badminton £12 and a couple of hours at the theatre £15. And just think, once you've made the initial outlay your hobby is then free for the period of that kit/chart! See, suddenly that few pence per hour on your stitching, not so bad. Check it out, justified out stitching addicition (and even the stashing to a certain degree) in one simple paragraph

After a gap - a new tea pot

2011-09-12T08:26:00.004+01:00

I've been quite for a week. We've been on holiday and got back and some unnatural hour in the morning on Sunday morning, so that's why I haven't been commenting etc!

Here's the latest teaapot, and I'm not sure that I like it as much as the others, I don't quite like the writing on it for some reason, it looks oddly uneaven, and that's after I altered it slightly. It's improved a little from how it looks on the chart, but still doesn't quite look right to me somehow. Only two teas left!

I'm just in the process on catching up on everyones blogs for the last week, but I don't know how well I'll do, so I apologise if I don't manage to comment on all the blogs like I normally do.

TUSAL

2011-08-30T19:51:00.001+01:00

Another months TUSAL (I'm a day late, I apologise). Hope everyone's had a good month of stitching to get them to this point?

It's not a very good picture so you can't really see much of it, but the new stuff is mostly brown from Dragon Rider and blue from Dictionary of Tea.

Tiny update

2011-08-27T11:01:00.000+01:00

After my quite productive Hermit and Stitch last weekend I actually haven't had much stitching time this week so there isn't much progress to show, only about an hour or so. It's probably not even 200 stitches, possibly not even 100. So there honestly is a difference, but you might have to really squint to see it. There's a little more grey and black been filled in And I still love the castle, I got so excited when I could finally see the castle appear, and I do like the twists on the tree.

I'm going back to my Dictionary of Tea this week, in a final push to get it finished so it can go back to my friend to give to her friend. The end is in sight on it so that's where I'm going.

Thank you for everyone's comments on parking, I'm still undecided about that I think. I think it's quite good when doing really confetti sections, which some of this page has been, but I think I'm a cross country girl at heart, so I suspect I'm going to end up doing a combination of the two on my HAEDs, cross country for the bigger colours to give me a base to work on, then a bit of parking to do some of the more fiddly confetti bits that are needed to finish off.

IHSW or July

2011-08-22T20:05:00.002+01:00

Here's my progress or International Hermit & Stitch Weekend, and I'm quite proud of my progress, even if I do say so myself, there's a definite difference between Saturday morning and Sunday evening, it's not quite the page finish I was aiming for, but it's close enough.

And I should probably explain by the way, it's a new technique to me, but it's something that half of you, if not more, are already using. I thought I'd give parking a go and see how I get on with it. I can see the logic or it, but at the moment I'm getting a little confused with all the different threads. I'll keep it up for the rest of the page, and for one of my next page starts and see how I go from there.

I think I've managed to comment on most of the progress pictures that have gone up so far, but if I've missed anyone I apologise.

Weekendiness and a gorgeous kit

2011-08-21T14:04:00.000+01:00

I hope everyone's having a lovely weekend and those that are joining in are having a productive International Hermit & Stitch! I've just had a rather exciteable phone call from the boy who is now on his way home again, apparently it was a fun stag weekend, riding go-karts and jumping off cliffs (absolutely mad!)

I have discovered a beautiful kit, I've never heard any mention of it before, and it's just lovely! It's the Grand Ball by John Clayton and I'm competley in love with it, and can't understand why no one's told me about it before this point.

As for my stitching, it's going well, not quite where I wanted to be, but I've still got another 3 or 4 hours before he gets home, so there's still time, and I'm trying a new technique, so I'll see how that goes and whether it makes any difference!

The emergings of a tree and a castle

2011-08-20T11:29:00.000+01:00

Right then:

Chores done (mostly)

Jogging done (again, mostly, I'm not designed to be a runner)

Breakfast done (and the point of the jog ruined in the process)

Boyfriend evicted from the house (kinda, he's on a stag weekend... again... I swear, he has to be running out of friends that aren't married)

Nothing else that I have to do today (except possibly go out for a smoothie, the weather's gorgeous out there), let the stitchathon commence.

Here's my picture of where I'm upto at the moment, (once again I look at the photo and suddenly see what the stitching actually looks like). I've actually managed quite a bit this week due to a bit of time off, so my ambition is to get this page finished this weekend, I reckon it's just about doable is I really do have a proper stitchathon this weekend.

Hope everyone enjoys International Hermit and Stitch weekend, can't wait to see all the progress pictures.

Calami-tea

2011-08-13T10:41:00.001+01:00

Another tea pot has been completed, and it looks pretty cool, even if I do say so myself, and there are only another three left, so I'm so close to finish on this, which my friend will be very grateful for, because it'll mean that she can get it framed up (should I be generous and offer to do it for her?) and give it to her friend, as it's always been intended for! About another three weeks worth left on this, but I'm going to put it away for a couple of weeks now, as the call of Dragon Rider has just been too strong.

I packed this up when I finished the back stitch last night and got Dragon Rider out and thought, 'Well, I might as well just decide which colour I'm going to do next... Well, I might as well thread the needle up so it's ready for me to start tomorrow... Well, I might as well do a couple of stitches, just to attach the cotton... Well, I might as well do this little block here... Well, I might as well do that block there now that I've decided which way round I'm going to go..." and so on, you know how it is. I'd pakced Dictionary up because I was going to go to bed, and then I lost another half an hour to Dragon Rider, ah well! So, two weeks on this, including International Hermit and Stitch Weekend next weekend, where Ben's away so I really am going to hermit and stitch, hoping to get the second page finished, where I think I'm a little under half way at the moment, it's possibly a little ambitious, but it'll be fun!

Oh yeah, and I'm about to go back and edit my Bucket List (again) and add yet another 4 on, I think that puts me over 60... it's looking less and less likely like I'm going to finish this list, because I just keep adding to it.

And on that note I think it's time to set some mid-year targets... I've just looked at my new year targets and I'm basically gonig to throw that out of the window.
1. Another page of Lance and Gwen
2. Finish the page I'm on and do the half page below on Dragon Rider
3. Next two pages of Winter's Majesty (that might be ambitious)
4. Finish Dictionary of Tea (easy)
5. Birth sampler for friends. (it's picked, but I need to finish Tea to free up the frame, and to make sure I've got all my threads)
I think it's mostly do-able, but Winter's Majesty might be my down fall as I'm a bit on off with her at the moment.

Check out the monster post... right, I'm off to decide what to spend this months audible credit on!

Wish me luck (in all of it)! Happy stitching!

Kim x

The Bucket List

2011-08-09T20:42:00.002+01:00

I pinched this idea from The Enchanted Burrow, she's just finished her latest WIP and while deciding what to stitch next she started thinking about what would be on her stitching Bucket List. And it got me wondering what mine would be. And remember that I've already got 5 on the go to finish first so for the sake of accuracy, I'll put those on the list first:

HAED: Lancelot and Guinevere (Fenech)

HAED: Dragon Rider (Spangler)

Maia: Winter's Majesty

Bothy: Dictionary of Tea

Kustom Krafts: Little Snap Dragon

Birth Sampler

Passione Ricamo: Once Upon a Time

Passione Ricamo: My Lady of the Snow
Passione Ricamo: Mediterrano

Passione Ricamo: Fairy of Dreams

Passione Ricamo: Seredipity Fae

Passione Ricamo: Selene, the Moon Goddess

Mirabilia: My Lady of the Mist

Mirabilia: Venitian Oppulence

Mirabilia: The Kiss

Mirabilia: Three for Tea

Mirabilia: Midsummer Nights Fairy

Maia: Geishas

Lanarte: Indian Beauty

Dimensions Gold: Mighty Samurai

Memoirs of a Geisha

Self Designed: Susan Sto Helit (Discworld)

Self Designed: Princess Bride

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Alice in Wonderland

HAED: Selina Fenech: Bubbles

HAED: Selina Fenech: Lady of Avalon

HAED: Selina Fenech: Titania

HAED: Selina Fenech: Mab

HAED: Selina Fenech: Gloriana

HAED: Rebecca Sniz: Gothic Lament

HAED: Dahlig: Hope

HAED: Selina Fenech: Impossible Love

HAED: Selina Fenech: Nephalia

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Raven's Treasure

HAED: The Tempest
HAED: The Soul of the Rose

HAED: Nene Thomas: Deidre

HAED: Rachel Anderson: Emerald

HAED: Rebecca Sniz: Enchanted Evening

Joan Elliott: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Fairies.

Joan Elliott: Earth, Water, Air and Fire Goddess

Joan Elliott: The Renaissance Ladies

Cross Stitch Collection: Regency Ballroom (gone completely blank on designers name)

Cross Stitcher: King Arthur Sampler

Cross Stitcher: Medieval Lady

Oh dear, I make that 46 charts (plus 5 already on the go), and that's just off the top of my head. If I average one a year (some easily small enough, some far too big, so it'll average out), then I might just manage it. Wish my luck!

A stitching I will go, a stitching I will go.ey, ay, adieeo, a stitching I will go.

So go on then, be brave, what's your bucket list, then look back once a year, add on the ones that you've found in the last year and cross off the ones that you've completed, it'll be fun!

Kim x
EDIT:
Dimensions Gold: Jewels of the Orient (again)
Dimensions Gold: Elegance of the Orient
Dimensions Gold: Enchanting Geisha
DImensions Gold: Japanese Maiden
Lanarte: Geisha
Maia: Hutari Mai
Maia: Zojoji Temple
Maia: Yumezakura
Maia: Kihaku
Maia: Tsubaki
And suddenly I've hit 57, oh bother!

2nd EDIT:
Bothy: Cut Thru Castle
Mirabilia: Spring Queen
Mirabilia: Summer Queen
Mirabilia: Autumn Queen
Mirabilia: Winter Queen
Penguin Parade (can't remember the make)
LOTR: I've got for Lord of the Ring Charts by Fluffy Kittens (I kid you not), I'd like to do one of them, don't mind which)
Cross Stitch Collection: Heathcliffe
Cross Stitch Collection: Robin Hood (think these two would nice in a nursery for some reason)
And that's 73 - one a year means I now need to reach 100 - this isn't looking good! And I'm going to have to buy 27 of them. HELP!

3rd EDIT:
Heritage Craft: The Grand Ball - John Clayton
HAED: Hannah Lynn: QS Genevive
HAED: Hannah Lynn: Alice Lost
HAED: Hannah Lynn: Annabelle
HAED: Hannah Lynn: Glacier Lily
HAED: Hannah Lynn: Runaway Princess
HAED: A Source of Admiration
HAED: Linda Tso: Ice Winds 2
HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Rapunzel
HAED: Dahlig: Vanity
HAED: Dahlig: Avarice
HAED: Dahlig: Gluttony
HAED: Dahlig: Sloth
HAED: Dahlig: Wrath
HAED: Dahlig: Envy
HAED: Dahlig: Lust
HAED: Dahlig: Light
HAED: Dahlig: Love
HAED: Dahlig: Ophelia
HAED: Dahlig: Pandora
HAED: JJB: QS Alice in Clockwork
HAED: Randal Spangler: Train of Dreams
HAED: Randal Spangler: Flights of Imagination
HAED: Randal Spangler: Hit any Key
HAED: Randal Spangler: Sundae Delight
HAED: Randal Spangler: Medieval Shelf
HAED: Randal Spangler: Treasure Quest
HAED: Rachel Anderson: Sapphire
HAED: Rachel Anderson: Ruby
HAED: Rachel Anderson: Garnet
HAED: Selina Fenech: Bright Skies + Dark Waters + Centre Section
HAED: Selina Fenech: Hide & Seek
HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: December Glow
HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mask of Colours 1
HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mask of Colours 2
HAED: Meeting on the Turret Stairs
HAED: Meredith Dillman: Blossoming Spring
HAED: Meredith Dillman: Fall Fire
HAED: Meredith Dillman: Queen of the Night
HAED: Meredith Dillman: Summer Sun
HAED: Selena Fenech: Bewitched
Passione Ricamo: Spring Fairy Spirit
Passione Ricamo: Summer Fairy Spirit
Passione Ricamo: Autumn Fairy Spirit
Passione Ricamo: Winter Fairy Spirit
Passione Ricamo: Fae Eyes
Passione Ricamo: Moon Fairy Spirit
Passione Ricamo: Winter Beauty Princess
Passione Ricamo: The Night
Self Designed: Wicked
Bothy Threads: Kings & Queens
Dragon Dreams - Fairy Tale Sampler
Pixel People: The Princess Bride
Pixel People: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Pixel People: Big Bang Theory
Pixel People: Firely
129 - I have to be stopped!

Winter's Majesty Lives!

2011-08-04T19:51:00.000+01:00

Winter's Majesty has returned, and while I enjoyed working on her I got bored quite quickly, so I think it might be a long time before I manage to finish it! But there's quite a difference (I think anway). I've done all the back stitch on the bottom third (but most of it's gold, so it doesn't photograph very well. And you can see shapes beginning to take place on the page above. the blue/grey is the beginning of her elbows, and the red to the right shows the beginning of the shape of her shoulders. She's gone away again already, but I'll come back to her soon I'm sure. I go in fits and starts on this, so I'm sure I'll have another fit on her soon enough!

Ooops, TUSAL Time already

2011-07-31T12:16:00.004+01:00

Where does the time go? It can't be this time already!

There isn't much difference in mine anyway, a bit of cream and one solitary thread of gold I think, doesn't seem to have achieved that much stitching in the last 4 weeks.

I'm also just going to give a plug to Shirl's lovely blog. She's got two and I've plugged the other one in the past. One is dedicated to her card making and the other is what she refers to as her 'other blog'. This contains other craft stuffing including stitching where's she's currently working on a really cute kitten kit by DMC!

The full size of it

2011-07-30T13:15:00.000+01:00

You can now see the full size of Dictionary of Tea, and I've only got four left to do. I am still really enjoying it, it's so lovely to work on, I even enjoy the backstitch because it's very simple and easy to follow, unlike other kits I could mentions (Tatty Ted - grumble, rumble!).

I can see the end of this one now, it's about another four weeks worth to get it finished, although I am now going to put it away for a couple of weeks and work on some other projects, Winter's Majesty is feeling neglected and I'm missing Dragon Rider, so I'm going to go back to those over most of August I think then make a concerted effort to get this finished over September so I can start the birth sampler with a January finish deadline. (Eek, when I say it like that 2012 is perilously close, how did that happen?)

In other news, Ben and I went to Barcelona last weekend and had an absolutely brilliant time. Beautiful city, I've got so many lovely photographs, I might put a couple up over the weekend, but there's currently nearly a hundred of them, so I might need to do a little editing and trimming first.

And my legs hate me, I've missed Zumba this week, and my teacher is away next week, and I've eaten too much chocolate so in a moment of guilt I decided to go for a little run when Ben went to work (and believe me they really are little in my world), I'm not a natural runner and I don't have the stamina so it's half run and half walked, and I was still only out for about 22 minutes, but it's a start, and it's eleviated some of the chocolate guilt! Talking of which, I have photos of cool chocolate from Barcelona, I'll defintiely put some of those pictures up as some point.

Happy stitching all!

Memory's Wake & IHSW

2011-07-20T21:25:00.002+01:00

I know I've got quite a few HAED fans following my blog, so that possibly means that I've also got a few Selina Fenech fans following my as well. Personally I really love her work, as you can tell by the fact that Bubbles is my avatar and Lancelot & Guinevere was my first ever HAED pattern that I started, talking of which, I really must go back to that at some point soon, I've been missing it!

But, anyway, for those Selina Fenech fans that are reading this, did you know that she's recently released a book? Memorys Wake, written and illustrated by her fine self. I'm a fan of Selina on facebook and follow her blog and I can tell you that the art work is gorgeous, and I've read the first couple of chapters and am now well and truly hooked and am going going to have to read the rest as soon as possible. If you're interested in knowing a bit more about it, or in getting hold of a copy yourself then why not check out her website at http://memoryswake.com

In other news, I didn't post for this months International Hermit & Stitch weekend, because I managed about 50 stitches in cream and you can barely seem them so it would have been a pointless post.

Happy stitching (and reading) all!

EDIT: Just remembered, mdgtjulie asked me about how the theory test works in the UK for those who care read on... if not, just stop at the last sentence and pretend this bit doesn't exist.
I've actually been learning for a while, the test in the UK is split into three, but you can start driving on the roads (as long as you've got an instructor or someone who's over 21 and passed their test 3 years ago or more in the car with you) before you've done any of the tests, so I'd had nearly 15 hours of lessons before I did my test this weekend. I did 2 parts of the test, a multiple choice and a hazard perception (they show you videos and you click when you see a hazard), so now I'm just continuing with my lessons and waiting for my instructor to decide that I'm no longer dangerous and agree to me using her car to do my test! And I think she's starting to be convinced so woohoo!

Yup, definitely a banner!

2011-07-16T15:09:00.001+01:00

Finished the banner, which is good, because that's what I was aiming for this week. I haven't had much time for stitching this week because life has got in the way a bit, but my extreme slackness can be justified, and I'll explain in a moment. In the mean time, yup, definitely a banner, finished it last night. I was debating whether the writing looked odd because it's in one strand when the writing on the squares is in two, but I think it actually looks okay. It was pretty simple, after doing the outlines for the three shades of blue, and doing the capitals and spoons it was all simple filling in.

So, the reason for my slackness... after far too long I restarted my driving lessons a few weeks back and had to re-take my theory test, which was this morning, so I've been revising for that all week, but I passed, so that makes it all okay.

And in other news, I need to get the Dictionary finished and off the frame because the frame needs freeing up again, because friends have just announced that they're expecting in January. A chart has been chosen for them, so it's simply a matter of getting the Dictionary finished and off the frame and making sure that I've got the supplies I need for a new chart. Poor Little Snap Dragon, he's always getting evicted for other charts that need completing, and this time he's not even going to make it back on to the frame, he'll be replaced straight away.

Anyone else having serious trouble resisting the HAED sale by the way? I'm contemplating a little congratulations present to myself!

Oh yeah, and in answer to comments after my post last week, I don't think that there's anything wrong with my blogger dashboard, it just looks like it's been completely redesigned and I don't like it at all. To my mind it's more fiddly to use, especially when it comes to scrolling through and reading other people's blogs, but I don't seem to see a way of changing it back to the old dashboard.

The beginning of a banner

2011-07-09T10:58:00.000+01:00

What's happened to blogger? I don't like the way the Dashboard looks and I now can't find anything, help! And it looks weird! (If you could hear the petulent tone in my voice right now...)

Anyway, in other news, Dictionary of Tea update, I aim to complete a section every week that I work on it, so I've finished my section for this week and started next weeks section as well, considering how busy the week's been I've actually had quite a successful stitching week.

My aim is to finish the banner this coming week, as I'm counting that as a section just the same as one of the squares, I figure it's roughly the same amount of stitching, and once I've finished that I'll be half way through. 4 squares and a banner done, and 5 squares left to do.

Happy stitching all!

There's a difference, honest!

2011-07-02T09:49:00.000+01:00

I know you can't see much difference between this and last week, but honestly, there is a difference, I have done more stitching on it since my last update, honest! There's two and a half colours been added since last week. But I've been busy this week and so haven't had as much time to work on it as I did the week before. But I still love it, it's such fun to work on.

You can see the tree still (like it was was going to disappear), and you can finda see the background castle developing more, there's a little bit of stonework appearing now. But, much to my disappointment he now needs to go away for a while so I can work on some other projects.

In answer to a few comments that have been made about my updates on this over the last couple of weeks... I keep saying that I'm going to try stitching the 10x10 blocks but I never quite get round to it because I like doing a colour over an entire page. There are pros and cons to it, I like seeing the picture develop when I stitch like this, but it does occasionally mean that I miss a couple of stitches in each colour and have to go back and re-do them. However with the 10x10 blocks I can't be bothered with re-threading my needle everytime I change colour again, which is going to be a lot in a confetti area, and I'll probably just end up tangling my threads anyway.

In other news, if the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain ever tour anywhere near you, go and see them, they are absolutely brilliant. We saw them on Wednesday and they're sickeningly talented and really funny!

First TUSAL of July

2011-07-01T19:28:00.000+01:00

You can see some gold fuzz this month because of my little falling out with Winters Majesty, but I've also managed to get some greens and browns from Dragon Rider in there as well, all in all, despite this week not being particularly awe inspiring, it's not been a bad stitching month all round

I Stitch therefore I am

2011-06-25T11:54:00.000+01:00

Do you ever feel like that, that you spend far too much time thinking about or working on your stitching, or is that just me!

I'm pretty proud of my progress this week actually, having moaned at the weekend that I hadn't achieved much during International Hermit and Stitch Weekend I then had quite a productive week. I had a day off during the week and apart from a couple appointments had nothing that I had to do, so I got stuck into my stitching, and it's actually starting to look like something, which makes me very happy. There's definite tree development, it's a lovely twisty oak tree and you can see the trunk taking shape now. And you can also see, which I'm much more excited about, the start of the castle in the background. To be fair, if you don't know what you're looking for you probably wouldn't spot them, but I do and yay! For those that aren't sure, the red smushes to the right are the turrets of the castle and you can see the beginning of the grey stone work, although I only started that colour last night, so there isn't much of that yet.

As is always the case, I've spent a week on this and got completely addicted to it again, so it's going to get a second week. I'm going to have to get back to Lancelot & Guinevere eventually (and I will, I haven't fallen out with it) but at the moment I'm indulging my addiction to Dragon Rider.

In other news, do you ever get really surprised when you see yourself mentioned in someone elses blog? I see people mention each other all the time, recommending sites or showing off the work of their friends etc, and I've mentioned other blogs in the past for no other reason than what they're working on is pretty and I want other people to see it, but I get strangely surprised and really excited and flattered when someone mentions me, especially if it's completely out of the blue. As you may have guessed from my ramblings (there's a reason why my blog was originally called Random Ramblings) I had that happen this week by the lovely Norwegianstitch so I'm going to return the favour and give her a mention. She's got some really cute kits at the moment!

And while I'm talking about random referrals, I'm going to give another one, have you ever checked out The Manbroiderer's blog? He does some absolutely gorgeous stitching and so fast as well, definitely worth a visit. Perhaps I ought to start doing a blog of the month, this month I have mostly be following... And Fast Show fans out there here the voice when they read that?

Anyway, after quite a long and rambly blog, have a lovely week, I'm enjoying seeing everyones progress, I'm actually feeling a bit guilty because I discovered you're only allowed to follow 300 blogs so I had to delete a few no longer used blogs from my list before I could add some new ones. Anyway, happy stitching!

Dragon Rider and IHASW

2011-06-20T20:02:00.000+01:00

Another International Hermit and Stitch Weekend has been and gone, and unfortunately I didn't manage to get much done. One way or another it was a busy weekend so I didn't get much of a chance to. You can see a small smush which, I believe, it going to be a tree trunk, so at least I know what I'm stitching! I try to start these pages with a colour that's relatively spread across the page so I've then got something to count against when I'm adding more colours in. I know it doesn't really look like it at the moment, but this is actually two different colours, although there isn't much of the second colour in there now.

Did everyone who joined in have a good International Hermit and Stitch weekend? I've seen loads of progress so far and I hope left comments for everyone that has posted (if I've missed you I'm really sorry), and everyone has made me feel quite ashamed of my tiny amount of progress.

Having said that, I'm off to do some stitching now, have fun all!

A Moment of Indecision on Winter's Majesty

2011-06-18T10:39:00.000+01:00

I had a moment of indecision about my stitching this week, as the title suggests. I started stitching on the third page this week, then decided that I really ought to do some of the back stitch instead because the idea of doing all the back stitch for this at once is just wholey depressing!

So, you can see the red smuch where I started on the third page, when you can't really see where I've started doing the back stitch on the bottom right page. I looked at the chart and though 'ooh, actually, that back stitch doesn't look too difficult, I was expecting it to me much more complicated', what I didn't notice was that a lot of it's in metallic gold :-( It's not fun! Then I fell out with it, because the chart says you should use two strands of the gold, so I started doing that, and decided that it looked far too bling and was far too difficult to stitch, it was shreading my stitching and shreading the gold thread as well so I unpicked that (that was fun) and re-did it with one strand. But I'm now trying to work out whether I've done it in 1 strand or two because each strand is made of two strands and I'm basically very confused by it all and decided that I'm just going to do it my own way!

In other news, it's International Hermit and Stitch this weekend so let us know if you're joining in and have a happy stitching weekend. I'm back onto Dragon Rider this week for my hermitage, woohoo!

And finally, Bev has got annoyed with blogger and moved over Wordpress and to celebrate is having a giveaway so why not go and check out her new blog here and sign yourself up for her very generous giveaway.

A Choice of Teas

2011-06-11T08:44:00.000+01:00

We now have a choice of teas and I'm a little under a third of the way through, with 6 teas to do and a title!

I'm quite enjoying this one, it's like working on lots of little projects, so I'm getting lots of little finishes, which is fun and gives me a sense of achievement on a regular basis.

Considering just how much I hate doing back stitch (and don't we all!) I'm actually pottering along quite nicely with this one, I've never done a Bothy kit before but it's quite nice,e asy back stitch, not ending up randomly in the middle of stitches or anything like that, which is what I always dislike about backstitch, a stitch rarely goes across more than three stitches at once. The most fiddly to date has been oddity for back stitch, although it looks brilliant now that it's finished!

Can you guess what it is yet?

2011-06-04T10:47:00.000+01:00

Another page finish, woohoo! And once again, I'm seeing the picture more than I can when I'm actually working on the stitching so, here we see the moonlight shinning through the trees, and a tiny little bit of dragon wing on the top right hand of the page - I'm all excited because there is definite dragon showing on this page, but I'm now going down rather than across so it's going to be ages before we see any more of the dragon!

This page has taken me about (and this is quite approximate) 42 hours (5 more than Lance & Gwen because it's been so much more confetti - and I had to frog one colour three times), which is a bit scary, because it makes me realise how long this is going to take me to finish it. It's 21 pages, but only 12 of those are full pages, at a rough estimate that means that I've got a little under 700 hours to go. Not even vaguely scary!

I've had a little flurry of page finishes just recently, which means that it's now going to be absolutely ages before I get any page finishes at all! So I'm going to have to keep coming back to these posts, just to remind myself that tehy do happen!

I'm re-organising my rotation a bit, I've decided (for now at least) to have two focus pieces and they will be this (Dragon Rider) and Dictionary of Tea, due to the fact that these both have intended homes, whereas everything else I'm just stitching because I like them, hopefully one day they'll look nice or my wall. So the plan is a week on this, a week on DoT a week on Lance & Gwen, a week on this, a week on DoT and a week on Winter's Majesty, repeat adinfinitum (spelling? It looks weird!) until I either finish something or get bored and change my plans.

I haven't had much opportunity for commenting this week, due to a major falling out with my computer, so please be assured that I have be looking and that everyone's stitching looks incredible!

TUSAL of June

2011-06-01T19:37:00.000+01:00

And while I'm on the subject, how is it June already? I seem to have mislaid 2011!

I don't think it's got much fuller this month, which is odd, because I thought I'd managed a decent amount of stitching, but never mind.

Here's to a better, fuller month this month!

Oh look - a bit more black!

2011-05-30T20:01:00.000+01:00

The title says it all really, I've added a bit more black to the stitching and it's getting gradually bigger. You never know, I might actually finish it eventually, it seems like I've been stitching black for ages, and it doesn't really seem to be getting any bigger.

Having said that, I haven't really had much stitching time this week, so I'm going to give it a second week and try and get this page finished this week, look, a flying pig!

You may notice the colours and detail are a little different to my usual pictures this week. I've just inherited a new camera and it's a lot posher than my old one!

IHSW and a page finish - woop!

2011-05-23T19:49:00.000+01:00

I finished the page, and all the evil flowers (well, on this page at least, that's for that Joyze :-) ). Thank you for all your support and encouragement on the flowers, I got there eventually, and I've finished the page as well, which makes me very happy. It's odd, because when you look at this page, you can't really see much or what it is or is going to be, although, as is often the case when I (metaphorically) take a step backwards and see the photograph that I'm posting as opposed to the tiny little bit that I've been working on, I actually start to see the picture develop where I couldn't see it before. I can see her elbow, and that's the first time I've noticed that, despite the fact that that's actually on the page that I finished a few months ago. But this is the first time that I've looked at it as a whole instead of a stitch at a time.

Did you get involved in International Hermit and Stitch Weekend? I didn't do as much as I wanted, but a page finish will do me. What progress did you manage?

I hate the little flowers!

2011-05-21T10:02:00.000+01:00

The title pretty much says it all! I hate the little blue and white flowers. I go in fits and starts on this piece, sometimes I love it and sometimes I hate it, and that generally coincides with whether I'm working on the horrible little flowers or not, and at the moment, I am, so I hate it!

To be fair, I haven't done much this week, I don't seem to have had much time in the last few weeks, so what little progress I have made was done in about an hour and a half last night, so not much at all really.

It's International Hermit and Stitch this weekend though, so hopefully I'll get some done, as I've done so little I'm going to give it a second week in the hope that I'll actually get some visible progress, in fact I'm hoping that I'll manage to get this page finished this week. If you want to sign up to Hermit and Stitch then pop on over to Joyze's blog to put your name down so people can see the progress that you've made!

More tea on display

2011-05-14T15:43:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update this week, I haven't really done much stitching, and what I did do was last weekend. I'm onto the second tea picture, this one is frui-tea, but as you can see, it doesn't really look like it yet. Its just been a busy week one way or another, and I haven't had much time.

I did get to the launch party of a new musical though, which was really good, got to hear a couple of the songs.

I think I've got a couple of localish followers so, if anyone lives near Harrogate, keep an eye out for 'Boiling Frog' It's running 14th to the 16th July at Harrogate theatre and looks as though it's going to be fab, so head on over if you're in the area.

Multiple updates

2011-05-07T19:49:00.000+01:00

Good afternoon, I know that I'm a little late on my update this week, but this is due to the fact that I've been out with some college friends this afternoon (haven't seen them it years, it was brilliant).

A couple of weeks ago I inherited a kit from a friend. She bought A Dictionary of Tea a couple of years ago intending to stitch it for a friend's birthday present, did a little bit of stitching on it when she first got it and hasn't touched it since, so a couple of weeks ago she asked me how I'd feel about taking it on for her and seeing if I could achieve more than she had.

So, Ben was away last weekend and I decided to spend some of my time working on this, as she'd requested. I haven't done yet, but I've managed to complete the first square, seeing as it wasn't my main project for the weekend I'm actually quite proud of how much I did manage to get done. It's about 10% done, so that's not bad for a start, and apparently she's quite happy with the progress so far.

However, as I say, that wasn't my main project last week, in stead it was Dragon Rider, and I'm also quite happy because I managed to get all the confetti done on my first page of Dragon Rider, and all I've got to do is finish all the black now.

I was actually quite disappointed with it because it really wasn't looking like much, but I'm looking at the photo as I type this and I'm starting to see the picture appear. If you're not sure what the blue, black and green smush you're looking at is, allow me to explain. It's the light shining through the trees, you can just about make out branches and stuff appearing, and the sky is pretty self explanatory. There's also a little brown splodge to the top right of the photo, that will be the beginning of the dragon's wing so, woohoo, the dragon has appeared in the stitching.

TUSALly goodness

2011-05-03T18:58:00.000+01:00

And that's pretty much all I have to say about that.

There's quite a lot gone in this week, it's been a surprisingly productive stitching weekend. Pics to follow

A page finish - woo!

2011-04-30T09:07:00.000+01:00

I'm really excited (it's probably quite sad how excited actually) because I've finished my first page of Lancelot and Guinevere, and it's actually starting to vaguely look like something, although possibly only if you know what you're looking for.

1 page down, another 18 to go (although 4 of those are minor pages).

This was actually my target for this year on this particular project, I set myself the goal of finishing my first page because I didn't know how long it was going to take me, so it turns out it was quite a low target and I probably should have set high. However, as it was my target and it has been achieved I'm thinking of putting this away for a while to work on some other targets. I've got 3 other projects on the go with a lot of work to be done so I think I might concentrate on those for a couple of months, especially as the kit I inherited off a friend because she's never going to get it finished for her intended friend so I need to work on that as well.

And in other news, did you see the wedding yesterday? Judging by a lot of the posts I've seen already then a lot of people did. I did see it, although, despite being in the UK I'm afraid that we hadn't travelled to London to see it, but we were invited to a street party by a friend so she invited us over to to watch the wedding with her first then went to the street party.

The dress was very pretty, as was her sister's maid of honour dress. There seem to have been some nice moments, and a couple of funny ones (did you see the cart wheeling verger and the police man leading the crowd in cheering?) Whatever you were doing yesterday, hope you had a lovely day.

International Hermit and Stitch progress

2011-04-18T20:16:00.000+01:00

So, did everyone have a a fun International Hermit and Stitch Weekend. I didn't get as much time as I was hoping to, but then I've done more than I was expecting to so it's all worked out really.

I think I only managed to put in 3 or 4 hours altogether, but it seems to have really pulled this piece together, and suddenly it's looking like this page is nearly finished, I don't really know how that happened, but woohoo. There's only about 3 colours to go into this now. The centre of the red ribbons and the centre of the flowers and I'll be done, so can I get it done this week? Not sure, but I'll give it a shot.

I've loved all the progress that I've seen over people's work this weekend, and if I haven't seen yours yet, I'll make sure that I pop over and have a look soon

The tiniest update in the world

2011-04-16T15:29:00.000+01:00

It's the smallest update that the world has ever seen, but I seem to have had no time for stitching in the last couple of weeks. This progress picture has an entire hours worth of work since the last picture, and that was done last night knowing that it was Saturday and due an update today, but it's something, and after a two week drought that was a good hour.

However, it's International Hermit and Stitch weekend this weekend so I'm hoping to get some done. Expecially after a conversation with Ben this morning.

Him: You know it's the match this afternoon (Man United & Man City)

Me: You know it's International Hermit and Stitch this weekend.

Him: Oh.

Also, we've got a couple of long weekends coming up, and Ben's going camping for one of them, so I'll probably hermit up and stitch as well. Especially as I'm inheriting a commission from a friend. About two years ago she excitedly told me how she's bought a kit that was perfect for her friend and she was going to make it for her. This week she admitted that she hadn't touched it since she told me about it, and would I consider doing it for her. And it's a Bothy, and I quite fancy trying a Bothy, so it's all good.

Have you all seen that HEAD has a sale on by the way, you can get 50% with the discount code, so yes, I caved, Lady of Avalon by Fenech has now been added to the 'to stitch' pile.

Happy stitching everyone, especially those of you who have joined International Hermit and Stitch weekend, I look forward to seeing everyone's progress.

Quick TUSAL update

2011-04-03T20:26:00.000+01:00

Quick TUSAL update, it's not gone up much this month because I've mostly been working on my HAED and I don't get many random threads left from that, although there were a couple of frogs to contend with.

If you squint, you can see wings

2011-04-02T14:00:00.001+01:00

The more I look at it, the more I realise that this is quite a funny looking page, with the blank central page. You've got to really hope that I can count otherwise the centre page is going to be an absolute disaster when I do get to stitch it. But you can see my usual stitching style, do the most interesting page last (ie the bulk of the dragon), because it stops you from getting bored when you're coming to the end of a project.

I haven't managed to get much done this week, I've been out pretty much every evening this week, which hasn't really left much time for stitching, but at least I can see some progress and it doesn't feel like I haven't achieved anything at all. But I'll have to try harder this week, because I'll have to do more on Winter's Majesty to make it look like there's been actual progress. Wish me luck.

And finally, the giveaway - the winner is... Just Flo. If you want to drop me a message with your details I'll post the little package out to you.
On that subject, a few people asked where the scissors were from, it's a website called Anita's Little Stitches and she's got some gorgeous scissors.

Give Away

2011-03-27T16:52:00.000+01:00

As promised, I hit my 100th post (and got a new job), so I'm having a little giveaway to celebrate these facts.

I'm afraid it's not the most exciting in the world but there's a selection of DMC variagated threads. There are 28 threads altogether, some bobbins and some skeins, but as far as I can remmeber none of them have ever been used. 4 of them, I'm not sure if they're DMC, but I don't buy Anchor so I can't think what else they could be. There's also a really cute (I think anyway) pair of scissors.

Normal rules apply, please be a follower and leave a comment on this post if you want to enter. If you want a second entry mention this giveaway in a post of yours and mention in your comment that you're going to do that. This will close 12.00 (GMT) on Saturday 3rd of April, and will be picked in the very technilogical manner of all names in a hat (bowl) and pick one out.

I'm happy to post outside of the UK if you want to enter.

I think that's everything, good luck

A smush of Dragon Rider

2011-03-26T10:34:00.000Z

So, here it is, my last Dragon Rider update before it gets put away for a few weeks as I work my way through my other rotations.

I am quite chuffed with how much I've got done, each time I've put a picture up I've really been able to see the difference between the latest and last updates, so that makes me happy, although the fact that I had a week off between jobs really helped that. I'm starting to see shades in it now, which I wasn't for a long time. You can see the greens and browns at the bottom and the splashes of brighter blues look great.

You wouldn't believe it but I've had to do one symbol three times (which yes, means I've had to unpick it twice). I don't know what it is that I had against this symbol, but I kept stitching it in the wrong colour. The first time, I can almost understand my mistake, the symbol was a 6 but I did the colour that was the symbol for 5, but the 5 was directly below the 7 in the list, so I think I saw the shape and asumed that it was the 6. Stupid, I know. Then, took it out and replaced it, only to find that I'd done the wrong colour a second time because apparently I can't read across in a striaght line. But never mind, it's all corrected now.

I am a little disappointed because after two weeks you can't really see anything, it really is just a smush. If you're interested this is the top left page, so it's tree, with light shinning through it, but at the moment it's smush. But I am quite excited because I can see it developing, and I'm already looking at what will be the next page (the page below this one) and there are bits of that that I really want to get onto, but I'm being good and finishing this page before I move on.

In other news, I've now started my new job, I'm settling in and think that I'm learning my way round and working out what I'm going to do. So woohoo!

And finally, I'm thinking of getting Kindle (e-reader). Does anyone have one? What's it like, what do you think of it? Is it worth it? Personally I'd only get a WiFi one, not bothered about the 3G, I'm thinking that they might be quite useful for travelling and holidays. But at the same time, I am a great lover of proper books and I just can't decide.

And really finally - this is my 100th post, so I will be doing a giveaway, but, one of the things that I want to do, I'm waiting for it to arrive in the post, it was posted from America about a week ago so hopefully it'll be here soon and then I can get it all sorted.

Are you a Disney fan?

2011-03-24T20:51:00.001Z

Then have a glance at this, it might amuse you

I've never tried to put a video into my blog before so this may not work at all. I love the chorus. And whether you're a fan or not, you've got to be impressed by his versitility.
Just in case it doesn't and anyone's interested, here's the link One Man Disney Medley

International Hermit and Stitch weekend

2011-03-21T10:48:00.000Z

Did you join in with International Hermit and Stitch weekend this weekend?

I actually managed more than I thought I was going to, so I'm quite chuffed, there's actually a noticeable difference. Although having said that it's still a smush that doens't really look like anything. To be honest I'm not convinced that this page is going to look like anything, I think it's going to take hte addition of a second page before you really start to see a picture forming in this one. But it's getting there, not bad for only my second week on this dude.

It's a funny page to stitch to be honest, there's loads of confetti, but half of it's the same colour (black) so once the confetti's done the second half will absolutely fly through.

A New Beginning - look at the smush!

2011-03-18T09:19:00.000Z

Ooops, a new start, how did that possibly happen?

This gorgeous new design is/will be Dragon Rider by Randal Spangler (there's a picture to the right if you want to see what it's going to look like). I talked about my plans for this one etc so I'm not going to bore everyone with that again. It's going to be a present, I've not told the person in question but it's also not a massive secret. She's not a follower on here, but she knows of it's existence so if she seens it happening I'm not massively bothered.

Believe it or not there are five colours in this so far. I know they're in there and I can still only count three in this picture, and Ben's just flat out refusing to believe me. You can see the black, the green and the blue, you can't see the navy blue and the dark brown though, but trust me, they really are in there. Gotta love the shading and confetti - I know it'll be worth it in the end. I love the turquiose actually, it's a gorgeous colour anyway, and it's such a lovely splash of colour in what is a very dark page.

I'm updating a day early today because I've got a couple of things that I want to get done tomorrow that may get in my way. It's also International Hermit and Stitch weekend this weekend. I'm cheating slightly, I am looking to be a little busy this weekend so I'm going to have my weekend today instead and see what progress I can achieve. As is often the case, as this is a new start it gets to be worked on for a second week so I should be able to get loads more done.

I've finished my old job now, it was my last day on Wednesday, and I'm going to start in my new job next Wednesday which is quite exciting, but also a little nerve wracking.

Oh, and has anyone seen the gorgeous new chart on HAED? Lady of Avalon? She's absolutely gorgeous! I know, I shouldn't have been looking it's Dorothea's fault, she added it to her wishlist and it's stunning. And there's a sale on at the moment - this is just a dangerous thing.

Ooh, and I'm coming up to my hundreth post, so I'm debating a little giveaway to celebrate that and my shinny new job. So keep your eyes out. I've got to wait for something to arrive first but once it has and I hit 100 then something will happen!

Check it out

2011-03-14T20:41:00.000Z

There's a gorgeous and massive give away over at Rhode Island Stitchers. So pop on over if you link many shiny and beautiful things.

In other news, I only have two days left at my current job, it's quite exciting

Look, a window!

2011-03-12T09:04:00.000Z

I'm seeing a window arch, and this makes me happy. However, I also thought that I'd done more than I actually have last weekend, so I'm a little disappointed. Despite that there is quite a bit of progress so it's not bad, but I was aiming to get this page finished this weekend, which, to be fair, was possibly a little optimistic on my behalf. I don't seem to quite have the speed and time that other people have.

I am still really enjoiyng stitching it though. There's just under 30 hours gone into this so far, which is a little scary really. I've done nearly 30 hours and haven't managed to finished the first page yet. Be afraid, be very afraid, but as I say, I'm enjoying it, and that's the most important thing.

This weekend, Ben's on yet another conference so I've got another weekend of stitching and dvds ahead of me. The more eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that another picture appeared in my WIPs pictures on the right a couple of weeks ago, Raymond Spangler's Dragon Rider (another HAED, oops, how did that happen?), so my plan is to start and work on that this weekend. I say plan, I did actually start and do a tiny amount last night so it's already started. I've now got an odd sort of frame which blocks out the size of the first page. More than 50% of this page is the same colour (black, oh joy!) so I did all the black on the outside line of the page to give me something to work around seeing as I don't grid at the moment.

In other news, it's my last day at my current job on Wednesday. I was told I was being made redundant a few weeks ago. I've not mentioned it on here because it was never my intention to use this blog as a big heart out pouring, I'm not really good at things like that, plus, when I was a little worried myself I'm not good at people being nice to me, I'm much more likely to get upset about people being nice to me than I am at the thing that I'm actually worried about so I decided to avoid that happening. However the future is now rosey, I know that a job is there for me and all is good in the world again, woohoo!

Look, it's starting to fill in

2011-03-05T09:25:00.000Z

I'm strangely chuffed with this weeks progress, despite the fact that I haven't actually got that much done, but what I have done has been little bits of gap filling and (to me at least) it's made a massive difference. I've now got a couple of areas that are completely solid stitch.

I'm progressing with this much faster than I did the last page, and much faster than I expected to, probably because the last page was SO slow and fiddly.

Haven't really been able to get much stitching done this week, there's been a fade in the mojo, however, I'm relatively sure that's it's a temporary lull that's simply because I've got a lot on at the moment. I've got the flat to myself today, so I'm thinking that it's time for a day of stitching, dvds and chocolate (whoop whoop) which should get my mojo back. Now, what to watch...

Happy stitching everyone.

Another month's TUSAL

2011-03-04T18:24:00.000Z

It's looking much fuller this month, mostly full of greenness due to teh frog incident, but at least it looks like there's something in there for the first time. It may have been a disaster, but atleast my jar's looking fuller!

Gridding?

2011-03-02T11:59:00.000Z

Has anyone tried that DMC ready gridded fabric. I'm afraid I've completely forgotten what it's called. Two strands are dyed red so that it's ready gridded for you, then when you wash it, the lines fade, at least their meant to.

I bought some 25 count because I thought it would be good for HAEDs, thankfully I decided to do a test piece first, and I'm so glad that I did. I did a square of black and a square of white to test the two extremes and the white has picked up a pink tinge where the reds faded, and it hasn't completey faded so it's completely useless anyway.

Has anyone else tried it? Has it wored for you? I'm just wondering whether I've got a dud batch or whether it's something that I've done wrong, any ideas?

On an unrelated note, for the first time in goodness knows when, I hit my writing target last month, woohoo!!!

Oh bother

2011-02-26T11:37:00.000Z

My latest update, but I've now fallen out with it. I had done a lot more, but I was visited by the little green critters that go ribbit last night and consequently, spent as much time unpicking as I spent doing the stitching in the first place. As such I'm glad that I can now put it aside for two weeks and hopefully will be a lot less annoyed with it (and lets be honest, myself) when I next go back to. However, despite the frogs it is looking much more than it was when I last finished. I've finished the fourth page, technically the fifth (there were about 20 stitches) and am now on the sixth page so I'm well over half way now.

In other news, we've had a plumbing nightmare this last week and a half. We haven't had a shower for the last week and a half, we chased this up a couple of days ago and are now getting a new bathroom, which is very exciting. Then the day we found that out I managed to snap the top off one of the taps in the bath. I'm not that strong so I'm swearing that it was already rusted or similar. So, despite the fact that we're getting a new bathroom, in the mean time we had a plumber out yesterday replacing the tap that I snapped so that we do at least have somewhere to wash that produces warm water.

The development of the brown shmush

2011-02-20T19:40:00.000Z

I've just eaten the biggest dinner and am now so fat and feel so full, but it was wonderful. We've got a lovely Thai restaurant at the end of the road and we recently discovered that they also do takeaway, so Ben randomly suggested that tonight would be a good night for a takeaway, and who was I to complain? So I've just eaten the biggest portion of lemon chicken and rice noodles with spring onion and pork, and consequently am refusing to feel guilty about just how fat I currently feel!

Anyway, a brown shmush update, it's looking better, it's definitely starting to look like something, albeit it in quite a vague way. This is the top right corner, as you can probably guess, and consequently is made up of wall and window arch, but it's really developed since my last update of it, so I'm quite chuffed with myself really! Having said that, I think this is about 20, maybe 24 pages, so as I think it's about 21 hours worth of work so far, and I haven't even finished the first page yet, I think it's going to be a while before I finish this project, although, as my aim was to finish the first page by the end of the year, I think that, unless a major catastrophe occurs, I should be able to finish that and much more.

This is also my Internation Hermit and Stitch day update, I think about five hours went in this weekend (thank goodness for Ben working in the morning and watching the footie in the afternoon), not as much as I've achieved previously, but still a pretty hearty chunk!

Notwishstanding by Louis de Bernieres

2011-02-19T08:10:00.000Z

I've been reading this for ages, becuase it's all short stories it's something that you can pick up and put down without worrying that you'll forget what's already happened. There is a vague link between the stories and there will be vague references to things that have gone before but not so much so that it'll be a problem if you've forgotten something.

As with anything that's a collection of short stories there are some that are better than others, and there's quite a selection here, some are happy, some are sad and personally, one that really freaked me out, I don't know why exactly but one of the stories really got me and it took me ages to get to sleep after reading it.

The general premise of the book is that it's set in the village of Notwithstanding and basically tells the tales of many of the people that live there, mostly concentrating on their little habits and foibles. Some characters re-appear, albeit briefly, in other characters stories, and others are only ever side characters. Personally I really wanted a story about the mad nuns but they never made it to centre stage, they were always just careering round corners far to fast with little regard to other road users, but I really wanted to hear more about them.

I did enjoy it, although as I say, some more than others, although, having read it I don't think that I'd bother going back to it to read it again. If you've read anything else by Louis de Bernieres then this might come as a slight surprise to you, if felt very different to anything else that I'd read by him, not quite so lyrical, although that doesn't necessarily make it worse, in fact I found this much easier to read than previous books.

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend

2011-02-18T07:11:00.000Z

It's that time again, are you joining in this weekend?

It's International Hermit and Stitching weekend this weekend coming (I know, I'm really late reminding people of this), so are you going to stitch with us?

Head on over to Joyce's blog and leave your address so we can see what progress everyone has made over the weekend.

I'm quite looking forward to it, I've barely had a chance to get any stitching done this week (ie the brown shmush is still looking pretty shmushy) so I'm quite looking forward to getting some done and actually hoping to see some progress. And if I don't get any progress, it's nice to see that there are other people out there making better progress than I am.

Talking of progress by the way check out Gizzimomo's blog. I've declared her to be the fastest stitcher in the west (if you think you're faster, let me know :-) ) she's done nearly a full page of her new HAED in a week.

And on an unrelated but it popped into my head, do you ever think about what'll happen to you stitching in years to come and even after you've gone? I have, which is why I raise the question, if you think about it, we're always seeing things to historical homes that young girls did hundreds of years ago to learn their needle skills. WIll people look at our stitching and talk about what it shows about the era? Will our stitching last long enough for this to happen? It's just a thought that amuses me sometimes!

A little bit of gap filling!

2011-02-10T19:25:00.000Z

It's a little green, and I don't really know why, camera must have had a funny five minutes, sadly I think it always has five minutes all the times.

However, there's been a lot of gap filling this week, so it's starting to look like it may, one day turn into a piece of solid stitching. I thought I'd done loads this week, but now that I'm looking at it there doesn't seem to be as much progress as I thought there had been, I'm most disappointed.

What you have created, if it has a name, is some green

2011-02-05T10:40:00.000Z

I don't know, it just seemed like an apt description of this weeks' stitching somehow. It's not looking to bad considering that it's only had a couple of evenings on it. Even better when you consider that I'm probably about halfway through this page already, there's a little bit of green left (basically just filling in the gaps) then a flower and a half, one on the left on that little off shoot and one at the top finishing the flower from the page above. This one is stitching up nicely at the moment, so I think my New Year resolution of finishing this should be a nice easy finish.

I was asked what I had on the go the other day, it's the three on the right hand side of the page, Winter's Majesty, the brown shmush that will eventually turn into Lancelot and Guinevere, and of course, Little Snap Dragon, and I'm hoping to get two of those finished this year, although I'm not convinced that it'll happen.

TUSAL of February

2011-02-03T18:41:00.000Z

I swear it's actually got emptier. You can see a bit of green in there which is from working on Little Snap Dragon last night, I'm working on a new page.

There will be a picture posted of the stitching later in the week, after Ben's rugby with the boys night and consequently my stitching night tomorrow.

Have fun every one, enjoy your stitching!

2011-01-31T21:03:00.000Z

I made ten attempts at taking a photo and this brown shmush was the best that I could come up with. I've got to get a camera that doens't turn the anti shake off when I turn teh flash off, otherwise my world's gonna be full of brown shmush's for some time to come.

It doesn't look much bigger than the last brown shmush, but I've added a whole shade or red/brown and half a shade of mustard, it's all very exciting.

I was weak!

2011-01-30T17:54:00.000Z

I was weak, I just couldn't resist. I saw her at a really good price last week and I ordered her (shhh, don't tell Ben!) and she arrived yesterday.

Isn't she just fabulous though, I just think it's such a lovely chart.

I do have a stitching update, but I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to take a picture yet, we've had people staying this weekend, so my normal updating pattern was broken.

We went to Malham yesterday and the boys (being boys and a little insane) decided that they wanted to climb the waterfall (see, just crazy) and convinced Kate that she wanted to as well. Carole and I decided that we most definitely didn't wish to climb the (might I add, frozen in places) waterfall and so stood at the bottom because we genuinely wanted to know that they survived the experience before walking round to meet them at the top. We watched most of this from behind our hands but despite that it still has my favourite moment of the weekend at this point. When they'd picked their ways across the rocks to the base of the waterfall Carole, looking and sounding completely exasperated suddenly went 'Yes yes, you're very brave, now come back.' I just found it so funny for some reason.

Anyway, everyone did survive and we all came back to the flat, via the chippy, for an evening of fish and chips and playing on the Wii and fun was had by all.

International Hermit & Stitch Day - a Regular thing?

2011-01-27T22:49:00.000Z

What do people think? Would you be interested? Joyce has mad this suggestion on her blog, and we're wondering whether people would fancy it and get involved with us.

Pop over to her blog and leave a comment if you're interested in joining in on a regular basis, then we can see how many people want to join in.

Kim x

The beginning of Lance and Gwen

2011-01-23T20:17:00.000Z

Do you ever question your own sanity? That's what I was doing when I started working on this on Wednesday night. The smallest I've ever worked on before is 18 count so 25 seemed absolutely tiny, I felt like I was going cross eyed trying to do the tiny little stitches, I'm still debating whether to invest in a magnifying glass to make my life a little easier.

I'm absolutely loving working on it though, after that initial moment of panic when I first started it and now having such fun, I love it! I know it doesn't look like muhch right now, it's the top right page, so you can see the beginning of the arch over the window, which is something.

I've had this little rant on this blog before I think, I always start on the most boring part of the chart because it means you've still got the more interesting bits to look forward to, so I'm going to work all the way down the right which is basically wall with a bit of window, then head across towards the people.

There's about 10.5 hours gone into this so far and though there isn't much there so far, it is stitching up quicker than I was expecting it to when I first started.

So, how about everyone else? Did anyone join in with International Hermit and Stitch Day, what progress did you make? About 8 hours of this were done on Saturday, so that's quite a chunk of my progress so far. I'm debating carrying this on for another week, because I have really enjoyed it so I might give it a little more time just to progress a bit. We've got a friend staying next week so I'm probably not going to be able to get much stitching done anyway, so I may as well carry on with this one.

Kim x

A cunning plan - International Hermit and Stitch Day

2011-01-20T19:45:00.000Z

Joyce and I have hatched a cunning plan, and we're hoping that others will join us in it. She mentioned that she had a piece of stitching that she really wanted to work on so she was thinking of hermiting up and stitching this weekend. I'd also made a similar plan for myself due to having the flat to myself on Saturday when my other half goes to a conference so we've decided to launch International Hermit and Stitch Day.

Join us, it'll be fun. Joyce is much more organised than I am so, if you fancy joining us pop over to her blog and leave a comment on her post and we'll both pop to see what progress you've been making. We'll both be posting out progress to what we've achieve from our hermitage on Sunday or Monday so even if you've only got a couple of hours, why not join in with us?

Kim x

I took pity on her

2011-01-16T11:50:00.000Z

After my truly pathetic amount of stitching update last week, I decided to give Winter's Majesty another week. Sadly it's been another pathetic amount of stitching, but I figure two little weeks almost adds up to one decent amount of stitching. A combination of Lego Harry Potter addiction and attempting to get fit is really cutting into my stitching time. Also I'm currently stitching pale blue on to pale blue, so when I do stitch you can't really see what I've done anyway. But this coming week is my start on my HAED, I'll get it all framed up and do a bit of test stitching this week to see whether I'm going cross or tent stitching and one or two strand then I'm gonna have a big stitch-a-thon this coming Saturday while Ben goes and learns about sports chiropractics.

I've decided which one I'm going to stitch by the way, it's Lancelot and Guinevere, I decided that there were many convincing arguements for it. Thank you for all your answers and comments by the way, I think that that's the most feedback I've ever had on a post. Poor Bubbles got completely over ruled, only 3 votes bless her, but it was pretty close between Lancelot and Guinevere and Alice so it was a combination of Lancelot and Guinevere being the one that Ben preferred and the fact that, as a few people pointed out, they were my first buy so I really ought to stitch them first. Although I do have to mention Joysze who made a strangely compelling arguement for Bubbles which almost made me choose it, all she said was "BUBBLES, BUBBLES, BUBBLES!!!!!" but somehow it just tickled me and really made me want to choose it, I think because (in my head at least) she sounded really excited about the decision.

What would your 15 have been?

2011-01-15T20:21:00.000Z

I poached this idea from Lindsay at Caring Stitcher because I thought it was a fabulous and fun idea. She, like myself, values her sanity to much to have started to Crazy 15 challenge, because it would only end badly, but she thought it would be fun to pick the 15 that she would have done if she could.

1. HAED – Lance & Gwen by Selena Fenech

2. HAED – Bubbles by Selena Fenech
3. HAED – Alice in Wonderland by Meredith Dillman
4. Passione Ricamo – Once up a Time (I think that’s what it’s called)
5. Ballroom Scene from Cross Stitch Collection by Sandy Littlejohn
6. King Arthur Sampler – Cross Stitcher
7. Memoirs of a Geisha - iconic shot, white face & black hair – bought it on the internet, no idea!
8. Princess Bride – Iconic Shot – designed myself
9. Susan StoHelit (fan art or a Terry Pratchett character) designed myself
10. Mighty Samurai – Dimensions Gold Collection
11. Medieval Lady – I think Cross Stitcher again
12. HAED – a Spangler design – I don’t even know which one, there’s one of a dragon on a motorbike that I saw once and it just instantly made me think of my mother for some reason, so I’d quite like to stitch that one.
13. Indian Beauty - Lanarte
14. Tea for Three – Mirabilia
15. The Kiss - Mirabilia

As you can probably see, it's a completely unrealistic list and I'd never have completed it in a year, would have lead to tears and blood shed, but they're the 15 that I really want to do (well, at the moment anyway - it changes a lot) so I'd love to have started them.

So, what would everyone elses lists have been?

Winter's Majesty - if you squint it's kinda grown

2011-01-09T14:17:00.000Z

I honestly have done some stitching on it, I know it doesn't look like it but I really have. There's one complete colour been added since my last update and I'm about halfway through adding a second colour, so it's grown, just not in a very visible way. I knew that Lego Harry Potter was going to be a problem for my stitching time, especially as I then got Ben lego Batman for his birthday, which we're both equally addicted to, so I'm having to be very strict with myself and make sure that I do actually do some stitching.

Thank you everyone who's commented on which HAED I should start on next, it's looking very much like a two horse race at the moment, poor Bubbles has only got two votes bless her, so it looks like it's going to be either Alice or Lance and Gwen, but who can same, I am very easily swayed, and it's not guaranteed until I actually start stitching. On this note by the way, Louanne over at Our Friends' HAED SAL has matched me up with a buddy so that I can post my progress on my first project over there. Their spaces for posters are completely full so Susan has kindly volunteered to put my posts up for me so that I can still have posts up there. I don't currently have a link for Susan's blog, but as soon as I do I'll put that up as well. I'm sure that if your a HAED fan you'll already know about the blog, but if you don't, pop over there are some lovely pieces growing at an astounding rate over there.

Finally, and on a completely unrelated note, this amused me so I thought I'd share. This is my corner in the bedroom, my bedside table and that corner of the room. It's commonly referred to as the book mountain, it isn't at the highest it's ever been, but it's not far off, and that last time it got this high there wasn't a subsidiary heap next to it. This is the 'to read' heap, and it's growing. There's a big variety books here, the ones that are lying down on top of the bedside table, I'm part way through, also the first 5 on the top shelf of the bedside table. The bottom shelf of the bedside table is my collection of books by one of my favourite authors that happened to fit there quite nicely, which I read a lot. There's a few of my dad's books in there that I've pinched the last couple of times that I've been down to visit, there's some library books, my book group book (although that's actually one of the ones lying down), and everything else, that's just stuff that I want to read, so I've put it next to the bed so that it's one of the ones that I'll think to pick up next when I'm next choosing a book. Also, the bear is sitting on three lever arch files, those are most of my cross stitch charts, there's also a row of stitching books and some kits behind the bear. Basically, this is the corner of the house that's most relevant to this blog.

How's everyone doing on their New Years resolutions by the way?

My stitching ones are going well, most of my fitness classes start this week, but I haven't done any writing yet!