I surrender

I've finally accepted defeat and accepted that the lure of Dragon Rider has become stronger than the lure of Belle, as beautiful as she is. I do still love her, but I don't have a very long attention span, and combined with the fact that I've had very little free time over the last few weeks so haven't really had a chance to work on her, I've got it into my head that it's time to move on, and poor Dragon Rider has been around for years, so he's always worthy of a bit more love and attention. 

Secondly I've started a new baby blanket, I ummed and ahhed over these colours for a while, but am finally happy with them, although there are  still a couple of different ideas that I'm playing with for how to lay the blanket out. This is the Granny Sunburst square (I used Bella Coco's tutorial) in King Cole Cherished

Beauty and the...

Quick update this week. I don't have much to show, what I do have to show was done on Sunday evening, I haven't picked up a needle or a hook all week. I can't work out if I'm on the wane on this one, or if it's just because I've been busy and tired, but once that idea starts to settle in my head a project doesn't tend to stay out for much longer. I'm sure it'll be out again soon is she does go away though.

Slow and Steady...

 Just getting this progress update in before the end of the weekend, I don't even have an excuse for why it's taken me so long today, we had quite a quiet day, I've just been continually distracted by other things. I actually took the pictures before breakfast (although I am willing to admit that the breakfast was at lunch time), it's just taken me this long to get them on to the computer. The Beast continues, so much for having this section finished by the end of the month, but then I was always a little bit ambitious, so I'm not really surprised by that. 

The hat continues as well, true to form I've actually done more since I took this picture, but am to lazy to take another picture. By the time next week I might even have finished it... although I really can't have that as a might, it's a birthday present for someone, so if I don't get my arse into gear soon they're not going to get it on time. Not sure how much time I'll have next week, but I'm sure that I'll have something to show at least. This will be done, and hopefully I'll have some more stitching to show as well.

Beauty and the...

Beast... it's definitely the right description for this dress... it's an absolute beast. There was me thinking, week and a half, I'll get these pages finished no problems, suddenly I'm not quite as sure as I was. I am loving it though, still. and wish I could get a decent picture of my beautiful fabric. It went to craft group with me this week and both she and the fabric got lots on compliments, I just wish I could spend as much time as I wanted to on her, although hopefully I won't have a bad week this week, I'm just trying to balance my time between this and the two projects that I should be working on, which is what I'm heading back to next, happy crafting all.

The Beast

Greetings from the dress that I once saw someone describe as 'The Beast', which s turns out is a pretty accurate description.

Having said that, I am absolutely loving working on this. I was hoping to finish the outline on the bottom two pages before I posted this week, but haven't quite hit it, but I'm pretty close, and I'm hoping to get there before I go to bed tomorrow! The best thing is, once I've finished the edge, there is only one colour left on these pages, so it's mindless stitching, best of both worlds, I have really enjoyed working on this, and then I get mindless stitching, and suddenly, I've finished the first two pages, *cough* apart from the back stitch *cough*.

New Year Start... HAHA!

This week has not gone how I planned... I had time put aside Wednesday evening and Friday morning where I was going to stitch, then it turned out that what I really wanted to do with that time is work, so unfortunately my New Year New Start actually have about 20 stitches on it, and is massively dwarfed by my new crochet project... what could it be.

Happy New Year all, hope you had a good one!

Last progress of the year, and what will your new start be?

And secondly, my New Year, New Start, what's the New Year without an exciting new start. And this beautiful young lady will be my New Start. Belle in the Mucha style by Hannah Alexander. She has done most of the Disney Princesses and they are all being charted, with back stitch (shock, when did I last willingly do back stitch?) and pretty bling. I'm slowly collecting all of them, but so far I only have three Princesses, and they're limited edition as well, I was basically doomed the second I saw a friend working on Tiana and she pointed my in the direction of where to get them. I want them all, and I want them all now!

In the mean time I have some pretty fabric and will put the first stitch (and it may well literally be the one and only stitch) and New Year's Day.

Secondly I have the lovely Harley Quinn, who I'm going to put away now seeing as Belle is due out in a couple of days now. Technically I've got my page finish as I combined a partial page and a full page, the partial page is finished, and I've technically got a foot as well, it doesn't look like much but there is definitely a foot there, and we've got the beginning of her skirt/cloak as well. Although I did suddenly realise the other day that there is going to come a point when I'm stitching her crotch, and that's probably going to be a slightly weird few days for me.

Finally,  finished the sheep hat, I finally finished it, I'm so proud, even if it does look like a slightly deranged cat, but it's finished so I'll have to take that as a win, and hope that the friends whose little one this is for will be forgiving.

Hey look, a week of finishes or sorts

First up, I finished the dress, woohoo, so here's a pic of us before we headed out to LFCC for the day. It was good fun, and the dress stayed intact for the entire day, which is some kind of miracle. There isn't a single photo of me on my own, so this is me with the very talented Steffi who is an amazing Elsa, amongst other things.

Also, this is interesting. The SyFy channel does a SyFy Fan Cam and it's kinda cool, even for the unphotogenic like me, just because it's fascinating to have that frozen shot from all angles. You can find Steffi and I's shot here.

I'm already planning my next costume (it may be a little bit addictive), although this time I intend for there to be a lot less sewing involved.

Secondly, I managed to finish my third page of Heroes and Heroines, which means that I have moved onto another (new) project. I love how this is stitching up but after three pages I was starting to wane, so I've moved on before I lose the love, Next up, ExMachina, but I'll be back t this very soon as I do absolutely love it!

I miss my cross stitch, but...

... the Belle dress is nearly finished. This picture is incredibly unflattering (and may well be the first time that my face has appeared on my own blog) and bodice is inside out and held together almost entirely by pins, but, it kinda looks like a dress. I'm actually much further on than this, having spent the entire of today stabbing myself with a needle (it turns out that the fact that I cross stitch most days does not mean that I am any good with a needle, I have visible stab marks). The top is now almost complete, I've just had to order eyelets and a little tool having discovered that I don't have everything to do that with, but it's quite sad how proud of myself I am for achieving this, and it's also quite sad how much I've missed my actual stitching, but hopefully I can now get back to it.

I'm so slow!

 

I am loving working on this, but progress has been a bit slow this week, as I've been concentrating on other things, but you can kinda see the stairs taking shape.

And this is what's distracting me. You've seen some of the progress pictures on the bodice, here's my first shot of the skirt to go with it. It was laughably large at this point (ie I could fit a friend into the waistband with me - we tested, and it was dragging on the floor, I'm short but I'm not that short) but I have now elasticated the waitsband so it's all rouched and I've started taking it up so it's now ankle length, but I'll be honest, I don't have the energy to try and take a decent shot tonight, and hopefully it means that I'll have something to show next week. All my time is going on this right now because I've suddenly realised that I've only got two weeks left to finish it, so my stitching has fallen by the wayside a bit, and it turns out that I really miss my stitching. But, the sooner this is done, the sooner I can get back to it, and I wil be really proud of myself if this turns out even vaguely recognisable. And as it's all hand sewn (I really must get a sewing machine) I'll also be really proud of myself if it holds together for the entire day.

And I've already got an idea what my next costume should be, and this time I might be able to convince Ben to join in. He was debating this time, but I think I've lost :-(

So I'm carrying on with Heroes and Heroines, I don't know if I'll make it to the end of the page before I move on to something else, but I decided to carry on while I was on a roll with it. Scarlet's skirt is showing at the bottom, and you can see the beginning of that on this page as well, but this page is mostly bookshelf and stairs. I haven't got as much as I've had to show the last couple of weeks but it's still progressing nicely.

Next up I'm continuing with the attempted bodice making. On the left is draft two, it horrible fabric while I work out the size, but it vaguely fits and I'm proud to have got it that far.

Below is the bit I was really scared of, starting in the proper fabric, obviously it still needs a bit of work, and I had to tuck it slightly at the arm hole, because it was gaping, but I'm starting to vaguely see what I'm actually aiming for.

Bits and Bobs

So, firstly I've manage to finish the second page of Family Values, and the page really came together at the end, especially the scythe, I really wasn't seeing that until right at the end.

Secondly, excuse the gratuitous boob shot, which, now that  type it probably isn't the thing to type on something that could be searched by google, but now the idea of someone searching that and ending up here is amusing me so it's going to stay in. Also excuse what is an incredibly unattractive photo of me. Anyway, I'm learning to sew. I'm trying to make a costume for LFCC but I've never made things in my life. I bought a pattern, got it out of the packet, stared at it for a while then put it back in the package and messaged a friend who is good at sewing, she is not teaching me to follow the pattern. This is a mock up of the top, it's the wrong fabric and too small, but it's tailored and I'm proud of that fact that, with her help, I actually managed to make something of sorts.

And finally... when I started this year I said that there wouldn't be any new starts but gave myself a couple of get out of jail free cards. These were mostly gifts for other people, but also included two designs that I knew had been sent to charters and so I was just waiting for them to be released. Typically they were both released in the same week and I'm now officially doomed. Here's my first of these starts. Heroes and Heroines, Supersized by Aimee Stewart and charted by HAED. It took me quite a lot of staring to work out what this is, it's pretty much nothing but bookshelf, there isn't really any picture in this page.