I feel like I haven't worked on a proper confetti HAED in ages, the only other HAED I've worked on recently is my Hannah Lynn and as I've been working on the black on that I haven't been changing colours and colouring in for ages. I love it, it looks great, the castle is defintiely filling in, there's a proper tail developing and I've started to colour in Patrick, which is great!
Did everyone have a good International Hermit and Stitch Weekend. Mine's been pretty good, but I was predicting that it would be. Ben was away and I didn't have much planned, so I was hopeful that I've have something decent to show. I've been good though, I haven't just stitched. I've managed to make it to the gym and go out for a coffee with a friend as well. But here's the progress that I have made. Firstly my progress on the Passione Ricamo SAL, I finished page two. Granted I'm still two pages behind, but it's progress all the same. And I can see the beginning of her wings, so she's starting to look like something, which is good. I'll have to try and see if I can get another page done before the next one's released in a week or so, it seems unlikely, but you never know.
Secondly, I've managed to get back to Dragon Rider. I didn't think I'd have much to show on this, but it looks better than I expected to. If I compare it to the last pic I can see a fairly major difference. Although you guys, my poor follwers, probably won't actually be able to see much difference, I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it. There's more castle than there was in my last progress picture, and you can also see a but more tail than you originally could, well, I'm happy with it anyway..JPG)
I finally finished the first page of Pride and Prejudice, and I love that it's finished becuase it makes such a difference, and has really bought the page together. I actually finished this while watching Persuasion, so not quite right, but it was close. I do love how this is turning out actually, it'll look great once it's finished! I can see the beginning of his eye now, and that's her forehead at the bottom. It seemed to take me quite a while to do the easy stitching on this page, but I love the outcome so it's all good.
Secondly, an update on the Passione Ricamo SAL, there's not a massive difference since my last post, I've basically done some more blue! The advantage is that the blue is very easy stitching, and I should get the rest of the blue finished today (if I dont' I'll be seriously worried about my stitching speed). It's International Hermit and Stitch weekend this weekend, and Ben's away, so I'm planning on having a proper hermit and stitch. I want to finish this page (including the start of the wing on the right, which'll probably stray into the next page as well), and then planning on moving back to Dragon Rider who has been long neglected and feeling unloved.
I've been saying that I'm going to finish this page for hte last couple of weeks, so hopefully I'll actually manage it this week, it's this pesky second job that's the problem, it's eating away at my stitching time. Hopefully you can now see a bit more of what it actually is, I know my last couple of posts on this have been a bit of a brown shmush but I'm now absolutely determined that I can see what it is, and I've put a picture up in the right bar of what the finished picture will look like, so that might help you to identify it.
I was hoping to have a page finish to show this week, but it hasn't quite happened. However I am nearly finished, a decent stitching time this weekend and I'll get this page done. There's no counting involved on this page, the back ground is one colour and the remainder of the hair is another, so it's mindless. I got loads done last night as Ben and I have a bit of a film sesh... RED (Helen Mirren, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman) which I loved, it was action, silly and cheesy but very enjoyable, the Two Towers, which I love anyway, it's a good stitching film. So hopefully I'll get this page finished tomorrow.
You may remember that I couple of weeks ago I posted about a lovely kit that I'd bought from the lovely Anna at Serentiy Designs, well here's my first progress pic. I'm loving working on it, it's a lovely easy stitch, the shading looks lovely and it seems to stitch up really quickly. I haven't spent much time on this and I seem to have managed a chunk of progress already, and that's including the fact that I'm an idiot and missed out a row of stitches then had to frog loads. I know it doesn't look like all that much just yet, but I can already see what's it is and what it's going to turn into, and that makes me happy! If you're not sure by the way, this is the top of Darcy's face and his hair!
Also, as I've admitted before, I'm really struggling to put Clara down for any period of time, so of course there's yet another update to show for her as well. I've not reached the far right side which is great, because it means that I know how big she's going to be, and I'm still completely in love with her.
Passione Ricamo Mystery SAL, the third page arrived today, so last weekend I decided that I ought to get my ass into gear and get some progress in on page to... I'm trying to never be more than one page behind, but I'm sure that it'll get worse as the year goes on. There's lots of filling in left to do on this page, although that dip in on the right side is the beginning of her wings (I was looking at the chart this morning), so I feel like I ought to get started on those.
And finally, a tiny little update on a much neglected project. This lives under my desk at work for cold or rainy lunch breaks when I don't want to go out, and, despite how miserable the weather's been this summer there haven't actually been many rainy lunch breaks, so it's just got absolutely no attention at all. I did manage to get a little done this week when the weather was pretty miserable, and she she's almost started to resemble a person instead of a sunburnt teddy bear I thought I'd put a little picture up and show what's happening with her.
I do love working on Clara, she's completely addictive. My first Hannah, and defintiely not my last, she's so lovely to stitch!
I've managed to do a bit more on the Passione Ricamo SAL. It's really odd stitching something when I don't know what it's going to look like.That little unstitched in the bottom corner that I thought was going to be wing is actually the moon, but I think the next page shows the start of her wing. I'm still behind, but I'm starting to catch up, and hopefully I'll be able to get a bit more done on her this week. The border is actually really glittery, but my camera hasn't managed to pick that up at all.
Clara started calling to me. She's developing a bit of a habit of doing that. It was stitching group on Thursday and she seemed like a nice project to take with them, and then I didn't want to put her down again yesterday.
I bought a lovely Pride and Prejudice kit from Serenity Designs recently, and as Anna's making and selling her own kits I thought I'd put a review up and try and get her name (and thus some of her gorgeous kits) out there.
It's quite sad just how excited I am to see the starfish... I ought to have put some purple in really to make him look less like a starfish and more like a wizard, but he's then and you've no idea how happy I am to see him... I'm also seeing definite castle development, and that dark green streak in the top right corner is the tail with goes across this page, although it's not that obvious that that's what it is yet! However, I may have over strived on my Olympic ambitions, of finishing this page and the black on the next page of Clara might have been a mistake, so I'm thinking that I'll extend my deadline, and instead say that it's going to be my target for the Olympics and Paralympics instead.
There isn't much to show from this week. I didn't get much done in the evenings, but was intending to make up for that yesterday evening during the Opening Ceremony. Sadly I got completely distracted by the opening ceremony, so only got an hours worth of stitching done before I got distracted.
I also wanted to show you this... Ice Blue Winter by Zindy Nielsen, which I've been completely in love with since she was released... I mentioned on one of the stitching groups that I was debating with myself whether I could justify buying her while the sale was on, and half an hour later she was in my inbox because someone had sent her her me.
Barely any progress on Dragon Rider though. In fact I did the red for the turrets, just so that I'd be able to see some progress for this week, although if you really squint at it (ie practically close your eyes), you can see it starting to take shape. The red gives you the turrets, and I can just about make out the shape of the door way on the castle, although that might be hopeful imagining. It's international hermit and stitch this weekend, so I'm hoping that I'm actually going to be able to make some progress that's visible this weekend.
And finally, this is the start that's going to replace Darth Vader, this was what I did at Harrogate Craftwork Group on Thursday, and it kinda looks like a slightly sunburnt sea lion with a beach ball at the moment, but I'm hopeful that that will soon change and actually start to look like something else, for instance a person. I'm an eternal optimist!
I'm a bit late posting this week cos we were away over the weekend, visitng friends in Ireland, which also means that I haven't got much stitching done either. You can't really see much progress, and you really can't see what the next page is going to turn into yet. There will be the beginnning of his tail in the top right corner, and the wizard will be on this page in the bottom left corner, I think I can vaguely see the white space where he's going to be, but if I'm right then I think he might be a bit of a funny shape, but I trust to the charting, he'll appear.
Here's my latest Chakra Fae update, I have an admission to make, I think I've been getting bored with her, that why there isn't much progress, every time I pick her up I just get really distracted, so I've decided to put her away for a while then come back to her before I completely lose my mojo. She is lovely, I don't know why I can't settle on her at the moment, but I figure a bit of a break will probably do the trick.
So, here's one of the things that I've been distracted by... and I can't believe how long this little patch of blue has taken me to stitch this week. Some of you may have noticed my tiny little post a couple of weeks ago that I posted about the Passione Ricamo Mystery SAL, which I signed up to, well this is the start of her. There will be a gold border round the top and left side of this, with many purple beads like bunches of grapes, but I think half the stitchers in the UK must have signed up for this because when I went to order the Treasure Braid from sewandso they were out of stock, so I've got it all on back order. I have got the pretty purple beads, but as I'm using Q-Snaps for this I want to leave all the beading until last, as I'm a bit scared of what the Q-Snap might do to the beads. Also, it's really weird stitching something and having absolutely no idea what it's going to look like when it's been finished. Because it's a mystery SAL there hasn't been a picture released of what the final design is.I'm assuming that little white bit that's missing Treasure Braid is going to be the start of her (? - I don't even know that for definite) wings.
Finally, one of the groups I'm on on facebook (HAED Addiction if you're interested) recently set up a list of email addresses so that if you wanted to RAK someone from the group you could go onto the list and find their email address so you could go on to the HAED site and find their wishlist, which was a lovely idea. Anyway, I put my name on this list not really thinking that anything would come of it, but one of the kindly ladies sent me this lovely Faces of Faery by Jasmine Beckett-Griffith. I absolutely love her (the kindly lady and the Ninja). It was the two Ninjas that converted me to JBG's designs so I'm loving this. But I think it'll be a while before I get her started. I'm thinking that she might be started when Clara's finished.Although I'm also thinking that, as she's a bit smaller I might try her on 18 count instead of 25... I figure that (after Clara, which I've already started on 25) when the designs are a bit smaller it might be worth doing them on the 18 count, for the sake of my eye sight. I'm fine with 25 count at the moment, but I'm also aware that the last time I went to the opticians (my glasses are like bottle bottoms they're so thick), she reeled off a list of things that could go wrong with my eyes, and that there wasn't really much I could do about it, other than go and see them as so as I spotted anything wrong... anyway, that was an unexpected moment of 'poor me', I'm honestly not, I figure that I'm fine and if it happens then it'll be resolved, so please don't think this was a pity plee, it's just part of, when I can work on bigger fabrics, I'd probably be doing my eyes a favour if I did.
I thought I'd done quite a bit of stitching this week, but it doesn't really look like it, now that I look at the picture, although there's definitely a bit less white than there was the last time I updated.
Hola!
I'm getting my post in early this weekend so that I can (hopefully) get my head down and get some stitching done for International Hermit and Stitch weekend... if you haven't signed up, there's still time, head on over to Joysze's and put your name down, it's all fun. Anyway, firstly this week I've got an update on Come to the Dark Side, from the lovely Dork Stitch who always gets a lot of love. I swear he's the most popular thing that I've ever stitched. There isn't a massive difference since last time, I've basically started the border, but as it's the weekend I thought I'd bring him home for a photo.
The second update is the lovely Chakra Fae by Linda Ravenscroft. This is my first attempt at tent stitching. When I'm up close I always umm and ahh that the coverage isn't good enough, but when I take a step back to take a picture it looks fine. I'm happy to see a bit more colour in this page (although I've also got some nice mindless 3770 to do), although I'm suddenly starting to realise how big this is going to be when I see the size of her hat!
Despite the distraction of Clara, I have managed to get a tiny amount done this week, and it's not 3770, which does make a pleasant change. So I've got a little bit of pink, and the patch that looks black on the right is actually a gorgeous deep purple, it's just not a very good picture!
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.
I did it! I did it! I finished the page!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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?
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.
