She's a little minx!

I had every intention of working on Chakra Fae this week, and even started with a few stitches, but it turns out that Clara is a little minx. She started calling to me and I just couldn't resist. This is now all the black on the first page, and I'm very excited! I've been wanting to work on a Hannah Lynn chart for ages, because I love the idea of doing the outline and then colouring her in, and she's just as gorgeous and much fun as I was hoping, but I am now going to get back to Chakra Fae from when I picked her up last week.

For those of you in the UK who had an uber long weekend last weekend last weekend, I hope you had a good time. Mine was pretty manic. Dad's local canal (I'm feeling very guilty because I can't remember what it's called), had restored part of the canal and they'd organised a joint jubilee/it's just been opened celebration. And for something that was organised by amateurs, it was absolutely mahoosive! I was helping my dad's fiance out on her stall and Ben was running on the stage, it was brilliant fun, but basically meant that we got up, went to the site, came home, had a drink, went to bed, got up, went to the site... so I went back to work this week for a break. However, I was only back for two days, I'm off again today as we're heading to Chester for a cousins wedding.

Mouhaha!

I did it! I did it! I finished the page!

She's suddenly come together this week, and is actually starting to look like something rather than just being a shmush! I can see arms and hands, and even more excitingly, there's the beginning of a neck and face. So yay, very happy!

So, what to work on next...

Long weekend for us Brits, 4 day weekend for the Jubilee, but I don't think that I'm going to get much stitching done. My dad's been organising a festival this weekend, so we're helping them out, probbly fairly long days. Although Shirl's said that she might be able to help me with my crochet if we've got some quiet time, which when thus far I've only mastered chain stitch, will be very helpful!

Happy Stitching!

Slowly but surely

I've been a very remiss blogger and stitcher this week. I have done some, and I can see the difference, but I'm willing to accept that if your nose isn't 4 inches from it you might not be able to. It's been a bit of a busy week (and especially weekend), and I've been trying to learn to crochet after the girls at Harrogate Craftwork Group inspired me, but so far I've only mastered chain stitch, via the use of books and youtube, in my defence I think left handedness is counting against my a bit... and I'm trying to make sure I can do a halfway decent chain until I move on to the next stitch. That's my excuse anyway!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend

Once again, there really is a difference, you can see it a bit more now than you could on Saturday. Unfortunately some of the stitching is almost exactly the same colour as the fabric, so you can't really see it. Hope everyone else had a productive weekend!

Another tiny update

Well, you know what I'm like with Winter's Majesty, it takes me a lot of work to actually get anywhere with it. I honestly have worked on it this week, although not all that much. It was our craftwork group on Thursday, so I tend to take something a bit more portable with me for that, and I just don't seem to have had much time for stitching this week, although I don't have a decent excuse for it. However, it's International Hermit and Stitch this weekend, so I'm hoping to actually make a dent into it this weekend.

And on an unrelated note, Gizzimomo has made another gorgeous finish. I'm quite envious of her stitching, so I thought I'd send everyone else there to make you all a little green as well. She's an incredibly fast stitcher (although she does always insist that it's just that she has the time to stitch), so while I'm labouring through this page at the moment, I'm especially jealous!

Tiny Winter's Majesty

Just a little update this week, because I was working on QS Clara up until Monday (yes, it was Clara, well done those who guessed. I'll put a picture of her up in my WIP pictures as well!

So, here is my update, it's basically just a little bit of blue filling in, but because it was filling in, it looks like more than it actually was.

In other news, how do you change your settings so that you get your comments via email? I've got it set up on this blog, so I must have worked out how to do it, but it's not set up on the Harrogate Craftwork Group blog, and I've just been in and can't remember how to do it.

Thanks

Happy Stitching!

Can you guess who she is yet?

I got distracted this weekend... I should have been working on Winter's Majesty, but I found myself getting distracted by the mystery stitching instead?

Can you guess who she is yet?

A lucky win

 I was lucky enough to win a giveaway at Swirlyarts recently, and as she was doing a makers fair relatively close to where we live she said that I could go along and pick my prize if I wanted, which I did, and she was massively generous. She gave me four cards, 2 sets of large envelopes, a notebook, 2 sets of gift tags, 1 set on mini envelopes and 1 set of stickers. I felt really guilty stealing that much from her stall, but she was insistent that it was what I had won, so I fely really lucky as well! She makes the cutest stationery, all of it 'upcycled', so the envelopes are made from snoopy comics and story books, the note book is an underground map, they're just all absolutely gorgeous, I was so excited to win. I'm planning on donating some of it to my step mum to be, because she does more paper craft that I do, and will make better use of it, but it's all so cure that I just had to share on here first.

I also bought this off her, a little chicken, which she describes as perfect as a paper weight or pin cushion, and as Ben's forever complaining at my for using the arm of the sofa as a pin-cushion, I thought that he would be perfect.

I haven't managed as much stitching as I was planning to this weekend, and absolutely none on Winter's Majesty which is my current rotation, I kinda got distracted by my mystery new piece of stitching.

A Multiple Update - shock horror

I've got a selection of updates this week... the odd thing is, I'd say that I actually haven't done much stitching this week, because I hurt my neck at the beginning of the week (thank goodness for living with a chiropractor), and so I couldn't stitch for a couple of days, because I couldn't bend my neck. So suprisingly I've got a lot more progress  to show than I thought I would. First up is Winter's Majesty, which is the latest rotation piece, started after I put Chakra Fae away last weekend. I've only put a couple of colours in, but it seems to have made loads of difference. And there are no white flowers on this page (woohoo!) so there's a chance that I might actually enjoy this page rather than threatening to throw it across the room, although it's still quite half stitch heavy. But after injuring myself I had to put this away for a few days as I just couldn't work with the huge frame balanced on my knees like I normally do.

Secondly, Come to the Dark Side, which I think might be the most popular thing that I've ever worked on. As I've mentioned in the past, he doesn't get much love (and even less update posts), because he lives under my desk at work for rainy lunches but I bought him home last night so I could do the colours that only had half a dozen stitches (cos I didn't want to take those to work for just a few stitches). I do love him. Don't think it'll take much more now, it's only the greys on Vader and the moon, then the blue border, but it depends on how many rainy lunch breaks I have in the next few weeks.

And finally, because I couldn't work on my projects on big frames, and because Vader had been left under my desk at work, I needed something a bit smaller to work on in the mean time. I haven't done much, because even then I couldn't stitch for long (this week has been absolute hell for me... I didn't realise how much time I spent stitching in the evening... I've spent a lot of time playing Castleville on facebook this week), so it's only a tiny update. Can anyone guess what it is? If anyone does I'll be absolutely stunned. I'll give you a clue, she's a HAED! This will be my new travelling pattern once Vader is finished, and so will possibly be living under my desk at work and will defintely be going to craft group with me.

Friday Finish Blog

Have you ever heard of the Friday Finish Blog? It's a lovely blog which, every Friday, has another finish posted! The lovely Julie mentioned it on her blog, where she's also having a giveaway.

TaTaTaTa - first page!

Ben's away at the moment, meaning that i've had absolutely loads of time for stitching, it's been brill, and as such I've got the first page of Chakra Fae ready to show. That was a lot of 3770, but it was worth it, looks brilliant, even if I do say so myself. There's a slight line in the stitching but I reckon that'll fade out over time, especially with a bit of a rinse as well when it's finished!

Another day of stitching ahead of me, currently debating what to work on next. I think it might be about time that Winter's Majesty got some attention, although I could change my mind some time between posting this and picking up my stitching so I wouldn't count on that being my next update.

Happy Stitching!

Did you have a good IHSW?

Good evening,

Did everyone have a good International Hermit and Stitch Weekend? I'm currently alternating my stitching between doing the confetti stitch on the right side and some nice block stitching on the rest of it. I am rather enjoying her, and tent stitch is lovely, it stitches up so fast.

It's also World Book Night tonight, so I spent my lunch break wandering around the local town giving copies of Small Island by Andrea Levy to random people, I'm most proud of having stopped a policeman and given him a copy! Although I am contemplating using the last few that I have to introduce myself to the people that live in my building. (I've lived here for 3 years, how shameful is it that there are people that I haven't met yet)!

And finally, I have to thank the lovely Milly (who has the nicest blog name that I have ever seen) for nominating me for a Liebster award. I'm afriad I'm wussing out on nominating this time, cos I've lost track of who I've already nominated and I'm running out of interesting facts about myself.

The start of Chakra Fae

Welcome to the world of 3770. Which is what a lot of this page is. This is quite a nice page to stitch actually, there are little patched of confetti on teh right hand side where the branches, but there's loads of mindless block stitching as you can see.

I'm trying tent stitching this time, so this is 2 over 1 on 28 count. It's better coverage than I was expecting, so I think I'm going to be quite happy with teh coverage. It looks a little dodgy when you've only got a couple of stitches, but when there are a few together they seem to fill the space better.

It's International Hermit and Stitch weekend this weekend, and we think that Ben's got a football match tomorrow (which may well end in them going to the pub afterwards) so I'm hoping that I'll get plenty of stitching time tomorrow.

Also, I had a few requests for the pattern of Come to the Dark Side in my last post, it's not my chart, it's dork stitch's so I've put a link in my previous post, which will take you to her post, where you can download the chart!

Come to the Dark Side

Here's my first draft of Come to the Dark Side, it's my lunch break/portable pattern, so it gets get to see the light of day very often, and this is the first time that it's made it home to have it's picture taken. It doesn't get worked on very often, especially as I only work on it when I don't want to go out on lunch (usually because it's raining).

I'd also like to introduce to the other blog that I set up yesterday. The Harrogate Craftwork Group blog, which is a shiny new craft group that's just started in our area. There's not much on the blog yet, but keep an eye out, I'm hoping to get some pictures up of everyone's work soon.

PS I've had a few requests for the chart, it's a free download from dorkstitch. I won't send it to anyone because it's her chart, but if you go here you'll be able to download it!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I got a finish! Woohoo!

It has to be said, I'm quite liking it and I'm quite proud of it, there are so many things in this that I've just never done before. All the different speciality stitches, beading, stitching over two, hand dyed threads and fabric, I'm generally just very proud!

I have altered it slightly, as I was working on the wrong count fabric for the beads I bought, I couldn't get the bugle beads to look right, so i've put the central bead motif then so of stitched a swirly pattern going out.

I finished it sooner than I expected, I thought I was probably going to have another week on this before I finished, but now that I'm finished, I'm looking to my next project, this weekend I will be winding bobbins and putting fabric onto the frame so that I can start Chakra Fae! woohoo!

What I've learnt about my followers!

1. You all love voting for what people should work on next (well, who wouldn't).
2. Several of you are quite indecisive!
3. You're HAED lovers, they were definitely the charts that got the most votes, although the Mystic Stitch was a slow burner and King Arthur did get a few votes, no one loved World Collection.
4. There are loads of Hannah Lynn fans (and who can blame you)
5. You're all fans of colour, loads of the comments on Genevieve, Melinda and Moohoo and Chakra Fae were because you liked the colours
6. You're not adverse to stamping your feet and shouting ole every once in a while.

Thank you for all your opinions, I'm very grateful. Melinda & Moohoo and Genevieve got the most votes, with Chakra Fae in a close second and King Arthur only one behind.

I'm afraid, as I'm a little skint Chakra Fae is going to win due to the fact she's already kitted up, although I think the next one after that is going to Hannah Lynn, there's definite love for her designs!

Fairy Tales gets a tiny update

I love Fairy Tales Sampler, even if I only get a tiny bit of time on it, I seem to get loads done, it just stitches up so quickly, it's great, not getting much time to stitch, and not having to feel guilty about it cos I still got loads done. It's not a very good photo though, the had to use the flash and it completely bleaches out all the colours, very upsetting.

Thanks to everyone that's commented on my previous post and given their opinion. I love putting up options of what I might stitch next, cos it's great seeing what everyone elses opinions are. If you haven't already left your opinion, have a look at the previous post and let me know which part you like. Although, I made no guarantee that I'll go for the option that most people choose!

Happy Stitching!

I need help deciding! What next?

I need help, Fairy Tales Sampler is coming to an end, least way I reckon it'll be finished in the next couple of weeks, so, as I'm sure most of you can sympathise with, my mind's already straying to what I might start on next. I've got it down to a few, and now I want people's opinions on them please.

QS Alice in the Clockwork by JBG. A HAED, of course (most of the ones on this list are). She's a QS and so has the advantage of being a bit smaller and so might actually be finished in the same decade as I started it. It's not to bad on confetti that I've seen either.  But it is a bit brown, and I maybe want something a bit more colourful.

I know, it's a truly terrible photograph, I've had to photograph the chart, because I couldn't find a picture of what it would look like finished. It'll be quite a simple stitch compared to most of the others on this list, and it is what I originally said I was going to work on once Fairy Tale Sampler's finished.

QS Genevieve by Hannah Lynn, she was the first Hannah Lynn that I bought, I just liked her. I wish my hair looked like that, and he gloves are adorable, I've got a pair like that, but they're less delicate.

 Melinda and Moohoo, another Hannah Lynn. She's just adorable, and I quite fancy the idea of doing a Hannah Lynn like this, where you can do the outline on a page then colour her in. And I like the colours on this, and I want a hat like Melinda,it's cool! Oh yeah, and my mother loves owls, and I think Moohoo is cute!

Chakra Fae by Linda Ravenscroft, this is the one I'm kinda erring towards starting next, there's a SAL on facebook which I'm currently a member of, but I'm not yet stitching. I have also kitted her up. I bought her as soon as she came out just cos I loved the colour, although there is a lot of 3770 (beige) background, as you can probably imagine from the picture. I'm just not completely sure that she'll fit on to the frame that I'm about to free up, hence the debating.

 My first pattern bought from Soda Stitch Pattern Mall, they're adorably cute, although I'm thinking that I might use this as my next portable pattern to live under my desk at work and go to craft group with me. I always need one that's a bit smaller and portable, because I'm unwilling to take HAEDs out because they're a bit unweildy when they're on a scroll frame.

My first Mystic Stitch, I bought 5 Mark Spain charts from them recently, I love the Ladies of Spain collection, and think they'd look loely on the wall when finished. I love the skirts on this pictures, and the hand painted backgrounds (well of course they are, but they actually look hand painted - you know what I mean)!

So, there we are, more than I can possibly decide between. I've got an inkling, but I'm not quite certain and would love to know what other people's opinions are.

Wonderful Blogs

I want to thank the lovely Tazzy from Bouncing Bellies and Flashing Fingers (best name ever) for sending the Leibster in my direction.

I'm going to cheat slightly this time, as I've already sent a few nominations flying around, and this time I'm just going to point you in the direction of some of my favourite blogs.

A Fairy Princess and Dreams who does some beautiful stitching!

A Riot Patch of Pixels because she does some fabulously geeky stitching

Ambitious Stitching whose blog I've only recently started following, but so pretty!

Ana ~ Stitch who has fabulous taste

Bla. Bla? Bla! who is a lovely blogger, always leaves lovely comments and does beautiful stitching

Confessions of a Make Up Addict who reviews many lovely things, as it happens she's also a stitcher, but she doesn't blog about it.

Made by Ella I went to school and college with Ella, she's an incredibly creative person and makes many beautiful things!

Fairies, Dragons and Mermaids... Oh My a shared blog with many gorgeous fantasy stitches on.

Gizzimomo's Stitchy Place Dorothea does gorgeous stitching and always gets loads done, she's magic!

Diary of a Manbroiderer another super fast stitcher with fabulous taste, he always stitches things that I love.

Our Friends' HAED SAL If you're a fan of HAED then you probably already know about this one, in fact you're probably a poster, I am!

Stitchandie Mirabilia and Chatelaine, so gorgeous!

Wee Little Stitches properly geeky charts, they're great

Random Ramblings founder member of International Hermit and Stitch weekend who does so much lovely stitching!

And 5 (more random facts)

1. I'm an absolute chocaholic

2. I'm getting more and more drawn to chatelaine, I'm gonna have to stitch the Chinese, Japanese and probably Fairy Tale Castle at some point

3. I think Derren Brown is a fascinating but scary man

4. I'm completely obsessed with Pocket Dragons and don't even want to consider what my collection is worth

5. I really want to see Adam Hills live

A Dragon Rider Page Finish

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

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

Liebster Mark II

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

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

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

Faerie because she has wonderful taste in charts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. I want to learn sign language

A Tiny Bit of Brown

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

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

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

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

Yiota's X-Stitch

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

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

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

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

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

IHSW and an Honour

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, 5 things about me, I have no idea

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

2. I'm obsessed with Penguins and Dragons

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

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

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

A quiet page

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

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

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

You have to look at this!

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

A double post!

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

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

Winter's Majesty's a little closer

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

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

Tiny Little Update

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

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

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

So Many Books, So Little Time

Jinxed

QS Clara

Charka Fae

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

Happy Stitching!

Return of Winter's Majesty

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

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?

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

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

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

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.