IHSW (sadly picture free)

I had a really good International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, sadly I cant prove it!

My computer went fizz on Saturday (possibly the reason why I got so much stitching done, to be fair), so I can't upload my pics to show you, I'm on a public computer writing this and it won't take my memory card!

I finished my page on Heather and managed quite a bit on P&P as well, taking my computer to be repaired this week, so will hopefully get it back before next weekend so that I can atleast do another update then!

I am officially sulking!

Pre IHSW

First, my update of Dwarven Leader, it turns out that I had the perspective all wrong, what I thought was the beginning of his beard is actually where his eyes are going to be. I spent last weekend working on his face, so he does have a little bit more shape than he once did. I only work on him in short bursts

And here's Heather who I still love working on, but I think that I'm finally getting to the stage where I'm happy to put her away and work on something else without getting distracted by her again. We were playing a game on Facebook this week where we posted one picture containing all of our WIPs, my picture had 10 WIPs in it, 1 of the girls had 48 WIPs in her pic, so we're now all using her as out excuse if we want to start something new. I'm going to try and finish this page of Heather and Pride & Prejudice, and then I'm thinking that some older projects will see the light of day, it's about time that Lancelot & Guinevere, Chakra Fae and Winter's Majesty got some love. So I'm going to try and get a couple of page finishes in, then move on to some unlobed projects! And it's International Hermit & Stitch this weekend, and Ben's planning on going out a couple of times, giving me the perfect opportunity to actually settle to do some stitching!

Have fun!

Heather is now at 3 pages

Latest update of Heather, she has some hair (just for a change), but she also has half of her goggles as well, and I'm still loving working on her. I've forced myself to put her away for a couple of weeks so I can work on something else, but I think I'm going to miss her, so I'm sure that she won't be missing for long.

A tiny update

I don't really know where this week went, but I don't have much progress to show... although the advantage of doing the black on a Hannah Lynn is that it doesn't take much work to make it look like I've actually progressed. And I know, I'm meant to be finishing my page of Pride and Prejudice, but the smaller stretchers for Millennium frame arrived and I just couldn't resist trying them out. Now that I've got stretchers that are the right size for me, I offically love my Millennium Frame, just like everyone else in the stitching world already seemed to.

However, to make up for my lack of stitching I do have some news which is very exciting for me and probably a lot less exciting for everyone else, but because I'm excited I'm sharing it anyway. I got a new job! I handed my notice in to my old job yesterday and start in my new at the beginning of April. After what seems like years of trying I'm finally taking a step in the direction I want to go in and have a job with a local (very nice) hotel, I'm so excited! Looks like I might actually achieve one of my New Year's resolutions after all! Yay!

Pride and Prejudice

Not much to show I'm afraid, I haven't had much time to stitch since posting my IHSW pic. Hope everyone else has had a more successful week!

February IHSW

My update for International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, not as much as I was hoping for, but not a bad showing all the same. I've only worked on one colour this weekend (my stitching is rather monochrome at the moment, I think whatever I choose next, I'll have to make sure that it has some colour in it), but there's quite a lot of that colour, I've still not quite finished down the right hand side. I hope everyone else had a lovely IHSW and I look forward to seeing all your progress over the next couple of days.

Pre IHSW update

Pre-International Hermit and Stitch Weekend progress update. Firstly, I managed to finish the second page of black on Heather last weekend. I'm starting to think that my six page target on this might not be as overly ambitious as I originally thought. I do love working on the black on Hannah Lynn's, they're so easy to stitch and stitch up so quickly, especially as this is tented, making it even faster than usual.

 

This is what I'm going to be working on this weekend. I'm just starting to see this page take shape rather than it being a random brown shmush. To be honest, this page is mostly hair, so there isn't really much to see anyway (hmmm, bit of a theme here, today I have mostly been posting about hair). Ben's reading over my shoulder as I type this and has just asked "So, does that mean it's International Hermit and Stitch Weekend this weekend?" When I said it was he replied that "It's also FA Cup Weekend." So it looks like we're both going to get to do what we want this weekend. Happy stitching all, I look forward to seeing your IHSW progress in the week.

Heather has hair

To be fair, I think that's how I'm going to be describing Heather for the next six months, she has quite a lot of hair, so I'm probably going to be stitching her hair for a while yet. I do love working on her (just as I always love working on Hannah Lynn's designs, the black stitches us so quickly). Have you seen Hannah's latest Alice in Wonderland series that she's working on? I'm absolutely loving them!

I give, this is who it is!

I know that I'm probably the only person who's been amused by the 'mystery' stitch, so thank you all my lovely followers for your patience with me... but I give, this is what I've been working on. Dwarven Leader, art work by Jankolas, charted by Paine Free Crafts, which I fell in love with when she released it, so I had to start it straight away. As you can probably imagine, there's a lot of background to stitch so I have sort of skimmed over the background a bit to get me a bit more central so I'm actually working on him instead.

 

Here's the latest update on it, there's a little bit of hair in there now, although it's not a great picture, I really struggle to get a decent picture of the pale background. He's actually going away for a while now. I'm stitching in little short bursts at the moment and his hair is quite confetti, and confetti when I've only got short stitching times drives me crackers. So I'm settling to work on something else for a while then I'll come back to this when I've really got time to sit and work on it.

 

Another mystery update

It still doesn't look like much, so I'm going to hold off saying what it is for another week. However, the guess I had of Linda Ravenscroft by The Maiden I'm afraid isn't right though, but I can see the logic. She's very fond of 3770 backgrounds, which will be included in the shading here. I am enjoying working on it, unfortunately, there a lot of working happening at the moment (stupid jobs, taking up valuable stitching time) so there isn't as much stitching as I'd like.

First International Hermit and Stitch Weekend of 2013

Well, here's my first progress picture of the new project, but I'm afraid that I'm not admitting to what it is (other than a cream shmush, obviously), until I've got a bit more to show and it actually starts to look like something.

I can think of a couple of bloggers who may well be able to work out what this is because they know me through facebook, and a few more that will rather like this once I give in and admit what I'm actually stitching on (for instance the lovely Joysze who always so generously hosts IHSW).

I have to admit that this pic looks more productive than I actually was, I did half of this during the week. I was hoping to get loads done this weekend but it just hasn't happened! I've got a couple of major stitching weekends planned already this year (whenever Ben goes away I hole up and work on my stitching), but none that close, so I'm (sadly), doing little bits here and there... especially with the second job. But I'm sure it'll start to look like something soon, and I'm quite excited to see what people think of it when it does!

Hope everyone who joined in had a lovely IHSW, have a lovely week.

Pride and Prejudice has returned!

I've started the second page of Pride and Prejudice and I love it, there's only 2 colours in and you can already see his head taking shape! (Okay, I know it's still a bit of a shmush, but humour me).

It's such a lovely project to work on, but I have an admission to make, I've been distracted by another project (yeah, like I needed another start). I started it this week but don't have much to show yet, so I'm going to wait to post an update. It's International Hermit and Stitch this weekend, so I'm hoping that I'll have a bit more to show and will be able to unveil my exciting new start on Monday!

Happy stitching all

Birthday Cake - How to make a terrible Death Star

Step 1: bake two half spheres of cake (I cheated and bought a half sphere mould).

Spend a long time trying to work out why it takes twice as long to bake as the recipe said it would (I still haven't worked out an answer to that!

Step 2: create some grey royal icing - buy royal icing, keep adding black food dye until it's a particularly unappealing grey colour

Step 3: create lots of butter cream icing. Sandwich two halves of cake together, cover the outside in the remainder of the icing

Step 4: roll out icing, wonder how on earth you're going to move something that big and prone to stretching/breaking. Somehow manage it by draping over rolling pin, drop on to cake and hope for the best.

Step 5: Do your best to smooth royal icing round a (kinda) sphere, a shape that is not meant to be iced. Suddenly realise you can't remember what a Death star looks like, google death star, realise there's no hope because you're definitely not that artistic. Stick additional bits of icing on in attempt to make ball of grey look like death star. Consider using lego men to make it look more star warsy. Try to make a Millennium Falcon out of icing as another clue, fail, give up!

Step 6: Stick the candles in the top and hope for the best!

He worked out what it was meant to be, so I'm basically happy with the outcome, and it tasted a lot better than I expected it to considered how long it was in the oven for!

First full week of 2013

Here she is, I finally finished the top row of the Passione Ricamo SAL, I even finally got round to getting the colour that was missing from her wings! I've still got to do her beads, but I'm going to do those last as I don't want to accidently crush them with whichever frame I happen to be using at the time... I'm now only 3 pages behind, for now! 

And Heather, I love working on her... even after I had a major meal down where I'd done most of the page and realised that half of it was wrong and needed to be frogged... I seriously considered chucking her and starting again, but I was good, I unpicked it all, moved it one stitch across and stitched it again. This is the first page and the beginning of the second, and Hannah Lynn charts are just such a joy to stitch when you're working on the black, (I haven't tried colouring one in yet, so I can't really comment on that)!

It was Ben's birthday this week so I made him a cake (cake post to follow), and took him to Xscape which is a real snow slow not that far from where we are. I'd bought him a couple of hours on the slope and me a couple of hours of being made to feel stupid by a snowboard instructor. It actually went a lot better than I expected it to. Skiing was such a disaster that I kinda expected snowboarding to go the same way, but, while I was still pretty terrible. I was less terrible than I expected!

First post of 2013

I said I was going to finish this page by the end of the year, as you can see, that didn't happen! However I am close, and I would have finished it by now, if I hadn't got distracted by my New Year start. I'm now 3 and a bit pages behind (chances of me ever catching up = zero) as the latest page was released on the 1st of Jan. I'm a little concerned as the latest page has the beginning of some writing on it, and I don't know what it's going to say, and I don't know if I want there to be writing on my stitching. I'll wait and see what it says, but it has put my off a little bit!

Secondly, my new start for the New Year, shes lovely! Another Hannah Lynn by HAED (as you can possibly tell by the bold black outline and nothing else). I'm tent stitching over 1 on 28, and had forgotten how fast that goes when you're doing blocks, I feel like I'm flying through this. I know it doesn't look like much, but I've only had 4 or 5 hours on it, and by my standards this is really fast! I've set myself the goal of the top row of black (5 and a bit pages) by the end of the year, and at current pace I might actually achieve it. It's not often I set myself a goal that's actually achieveable!

Now some other bits and bobs, I don't know how many people have heard of TiltonCrafts run by the lovely Shelley, but she does some gorgeous charts and has recently mentioned that she's found some lovely Sailor Moon inspired artwork that she's thinking about charting, but she didn't know how popular they'd be. I think they're great and said that there are a surprising number of geeky stitchers, but I'm curious, how many of you would be interested? Also, while I'm sharing cross stitch designers who are incredibly bad for my bank account also head over and have a look at Sarah's painefreecrafts who also has some gorgeous charts. Sarah's only been running for a month or so, so she hasn't got many up on her site yet, but she's got three that I'm going to end up buying pretty much as soon as they're on the site because I'm already absolutely in love with them, and many more that will make their way on to my bucket and wish lists.

Thanks also to those of you who showed an interest in a stitchers retreat and said you'd be willing to help me out by answering questionnaires and such, I'm really grateful and will contact you when I've got my butt into gear and started sorting stuff out.

Finally, there is apparently a slight issue with blogger at the moment where you can't upload pictures if you use Internet Explorer. Blogger are aware of the issue and are apparently dealing with it, but as it's now the weekend the general advice is to not hold your breath for it to happen any time soon. In the mean time, it's only a IE issue so if you're feeling brave download another browser temporarily and that works fine, I'm currently using Google Chrome. I know that may not be relevant to many, but it took me a while and a lot of getting frustrated with blogger to find out why it wasn't working and how to work round it, so I thought I'd share

2013 targets

You can tell it's coming up to the end of the year, all those this is what I've done and this is what I'm going to do posts are coming up.

So I thought I'd publically declare the targets that I'm setting myself for 2013. These are far to ambitious and if I achieve half of them then it'll be a miracle (especially after the failure of the 2012 targets), but it's nice to plan. Even if it does all crumble around my ears!

 

So, as this is a majority stitching blog I'll start with the stitching targets:

• Start a Joan Elliott chart - this was a target that I completely failed at last year so I thought I'd include it again. I haven't decided which chart yet, but I'd like to start one by her
• Complete the black on the top row of Heather (6 pages) - seeing how much I've loved working on Clara this year, this one might actually be achieveable. Heather is a SAL, she's the full sized chart rather than the BB SAL and is my chart for the Raketeers SAL on facebook
• 2 pages of Dragon Rider - I've done one full and 2 partials this year, so again, might actually be achieveable.
• 2 pages of Chakra Fae - I fell out with her a bit during 2012 so I might not manage this one, I only managed a page and a half so far cos I got bored with her, but I'm hoping I might settle to her a bit more this year.
• 2 pages on Lancelot & Guinevere - only managed one this year, but my next page moves away from background and includes a bit of person, which is exciting.
• Colour in the top row of Clara (2.5 pages) - I've loved doing all the black, so I'm hoping that I'll enjoy the colour just as much and might manage this target
• Finish Passione Ricamo SAL - I'm currently nearly 3 pages behind, meaning this is going to be about nine pages to stitch, but they're quite easy pages, so you never know, I might surprise myself and manage it
• 3 Girls on Girls of the World - the trouble with this being an 'under desk' project means the amount of time spent on it is a little haphazard. I've manage 1 and a bit in about 6 months, so three in a year might be achieveable.
• 2 pages on Winter's Majesty - I seem to fall out with this on a regular basis, so I'm not holidng my breath, but you never know, it might happen!
• 2 pages of Pride and Prejudice by Serenity Stitch - I do love working on this, so hopefully I'll achieve it, especially as I've got two more of her kits waiting in the wings to be started, and a few more screaming at me to buy them.
• FINISH SOMETHING!!!! - I think this is actually the least likely of all of the stitching targets, but you never know, pigs might develop flight!

Sort of stitching target:

• I've been thinking of trying to organise a stitchers retreat for UK stitchers, and received a relatively warm reception to the idea (both some stitchers and non-stitching friends), so I'm going to try and get my arse in to gear this year, look into the logistics of it then take the plunge. I may ask you lovely followers to help me out with this by completing questionnaires and giving me feedback. I've got very grand and exciting plans, but am trying to temper them into starting small (seeing as I have no budget) and let it grow a little more organically!

Non-stitching targets

• Continued attempts at getting fit. I tend to measure myself on calorie burn at the gym because all the machines measure that and it's a good standard to work on, and I generally average around 450 per session, so I'd like to push that a bit higher, and I'd also like to get my running distance up, it's currently (I think, I don't actually pay that much attention) a little over a pathetic 1.5km, so ideally I'd like to get that up to 5km, but it's probably more realistic to aim for 3km
• Write something, anything, just actually feel like my writing is developing and not just stagnating horribly (all this in my copious free time).
• Move my career forward. The stitchers retreat is kinda part of that, if I could make that into a viable business that would be great, but that also isn't going to happen in the near future so in the mean time I'd like to get the idea off the ground and in look around for other career opportunites. I've (hopefully) made a sstep forward this year with the second job, because it's giving me some of the experience that my CV was apparently missing, so this year I just need to make that work for me.

Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it!

Bucket List (end of 2012)

As it's the end of the year, I thought I'd pst an update on the Bucket List - this is basically an annual update on the fact that I am clinically insane - but it keeps me amused all the same.

1. HAED: Lancelot and Guinevere (Fenech)

2. HAED: Dragon Rider (Spangler)

3. Maia: Winter's Majesty

4. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Chakra Fairy

5. HAED: Hannah Lynn: QS Clara

6. Passione Ricamo: 2012 Mystery SAL

7. Soda Stitch: World Collection – Girls

8. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Heather

9. Bothy Threads: Kings & Queens

10. Bothy: Cut Thru Castle

11. Cattitudes: Not only do I not know what’s going on

12. Cattitudes: To Bathe A Cat

13. Cross Stitch Collection: Heathcliffe

14. Cross Stitch Collection: Regency Ballroom

15. Cross Stitch Collection: Robin Hood

16. Cross Stitcher: King Arthur Sampler

17. Cross Stitcher: Medieval Lady

18. HAED: A Source of Admiration

19. HAED: Aimee Stewart: Night Flight

20. HAED: Aimee Stewart: The Teamaker’s Daughter

21. HAED: Aimee Stewart: Journey’s End

22. HAED: Annya Kai: Autumn Own Trio

23. HAED: Dahlig: Hope

24. HAED: Dahlig: Iris

25. HAED: Dahlig: Light

26. HAED: Dahlig: Love

27. HAED: Dahlig: Vanity

28. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Alice Lost

29. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Melinda & Moohoo

30. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Miss Marabelle

31. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Amanda & Axel

32. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Annabelle

33. HAED: Hannah Lynn: QS Genevive

34. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Payton

35. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Little Miss Deelish

36. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Runaway Princess

37. HAED: Hannah Lynn: Smartie Pants

38. HAED: James Christensen: Shakesperean Fantasy

39. HAED: JBG: Faces of Faery 185

40. HAED: JBG: Faces of Faery 187

41. HAED: JBG: Faces of Faery 162

42. HAED: JBG: Faces of Faery 141

43. HAED: JBG: Poe

44. HAED: JBG: QS Alice in Clockwork

45. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Daughter of Avalon

46. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Daughter of the Reef

47. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Lady Autumn and the Green Man

48. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Maiden Spring and Jack the Green

49. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mask of Colours 1

50. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mask of Colours 2

51. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mistress Summer and Lord Baccus

52. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mistress Winter and Jack Frost

53. HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Rapunzel

54. HAED: Linda Tso: Ice Winds 2

55. HAED: Matt Stewart: Eternal Promise

56. HAED: Meeting on the Turret Stairs

57. HAED: Meredith Dillman: Alice in Wonderland

58. HAED: Meredith Dillman: Blossoming Spring

59. HAED: Meredith Dillman: Dancer

60. HAED: Meredith Dillman: Fall Fire

61. HAED: Meredith Dillman: QS Airships

62. HAED: Meredith Dillman: QS Steam Punk Fairy

63. HAED: Meredith Dillman: Queen of the Night

64. HAED: Meredith Dillman: Raven's Treasure

65. HAED: Meredith Dillman: Summer Sun

66. HAED: Nene Thomas: QS Whispers

67. HAED: Rachel Anderson: Emerald

68. HAED: Rachel Anderson: Ruby

69. HAED: Randal Spangler: Flights of Imagination

70. HAED: Randal Spangler: Hit any Key

71. HAED: Randal Spangler: Medieval Shelf

72. HAED: Randal Spangler: So Many Books, So Little Time

73. HAED: Randal Spangler: Sundae Delight

74. HAED: Randal Spangler: Train of Dreams

75. HAED: Randal Spangler: Treasure Quest

76. HAED: Rebecca Sinz: Enchanted Evening

77. HAED: Rebecca Sinz: Despair

78. HAED: Rebecca Sinz: Hope

79. HAED: Selina Fenech: Bewitched

80. HAED: Selina Fenech: Bubbles

81. HAED: Selina Fenech: Hide & Seek

82. HAED: Selina Fenech: I Put a Spell on You

83. HAED: Selina Fenech: Impossible Love

84. HAED: Selina Fenech: Jinxed

85. HAED: Selina Fenech: Lady of Avalon

86. HAED: Selina Fenech: Mab

87. HAED: Selina Fenech: Nephalia

88. HAED: Selina Fenech: Titania

89. HAED: The Soul of the Rose

90. HAED: Zielinska: Asian Fantasy 1

91. HAED: Zielinska: Asian Fantasy 2

92. HAED: Zielinska: Asian Fantasy 3

93. HAED: Zindy Nielson: Ice Blue Maiden

94. HAED: Zindy Nielson: Snow White

95. HAED: Zindy Nielson: Snow White Falls

96. Joan Elliott: Air

97. Joan Elliott: Earth

98. Joan Elliott: Water

99. Joan Elliott: Fire Goddess

100. Joan Elliott: Autumn

101. Joan Elliott: Spring

102. Joan Elliott: Summer

103. Joan Elliott: Winter Fairies.

104. Joan Elliott: Blue Geisha

105. Joan Elliott: Garden Geisha

106. Joan Elliott: Cinderella

107. Joan Elliott: Rapunzel

108. Joan Elliott: Sleeping Beauty

109. Joan Elliott: Lavender Fairy

110. Joan Elliott: Sweet Pea Fairy

111. Joan Elliott: Oriental Lady Beauty

112. Joan Elliott: Oriental Lady Grace

113. Joan Elliott: Oriental Lady Wisdom

114. Joan Elliott: Renaissance Lady 1

115. Joan Elliott: Renaissance Lady 2

116. Joan Elliott: Renaissance Lady 3

117. Joan Elliott: Poppy

118. Joan Elliott: Iris

119. Joan Elliott: Butterfly

120. Joan Elliott: Ladybird

121. Joan Elliott: Lavender

122. Joan Elliott: Dragonfly

123. Joan Elliott: Rose

124. Joan Elliott: Lily

125. Joan Elliott: Chrysanthemum

126. Joan Elliott: Snowdrop

127. Joan Elliott: 2012 Christmas Angel

128. Joan Elliott: Sweetpea

129. Lanarte: Geisha

130. Lanarte: Indian Beauty

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

132. Magical Cross Stitch: Dark Sorceress

133. Magical Cross Stitch: Earth Goddess

134. Magical Cross Stitch: Fairy Queene

135. Maia: Geishas

136. Mary Hickmott Designs: Penguin Parade

137. Memoirs of a Geisha

138. Mirabilia: Autumn Queen

139. Mirabilia: Midsummer Nights Fairy

140. Mirabilia: Shakespeare’s Fairies

141. Mirabilia: Spring Queen

142. Mirabilia: Summer Queen

143. Mirabilia: The Kiss

144. Mirabilia: Three for Tea

145. Mirabilia: Winter Queen

146. Mystick Stitch: Mark Spain:

147. Mystick Stitch: Mark Spain:

148. Mystick Stitch: Mark Spain:

149. Mystick Stitch: Mark Spain:

150. Mystick Stitch: Mark Spain:

151. Passione Ricamo: Fae Eyes

152. Passione Ricamo: Fairy of Dreams

153. Passione Ricamo: Mediterrano

154. Passione Ricamo: Medieval Enchantment

155. Passione Ricamo: Moon Fairy Spirit

156. Passione Ricamo: My Lady of the Snow

157. Passione Ricamo: Once Upon a Time

158. Passione Ricamo: Selene, the Moon Goddess

159. Passione Ricamo: Spring Fairy Spirit

160. Passione Ricamo: The Night

161. Passione Ricamo: Winter Beauty Princess

162. Pixel People: Firefly

163. Pixel People: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

164. Pixel People: The Princess Bride

165. Pixel People: Labyrinth

166. Self Designed: Princess Bride

167. Self Designed: Susan Sto Helit (Discworld)

168. Self Designed: Wicked

169. Self Designed: An Anime Chart

170. Serenity Stitch: Pride & Prejudice

171. Serenity Stitch: Merlin

172. Serenity Stitch: The Hobbit

173. Serenity Stitch: North & South
174. Tilton Crafts: Hocus Pocus
175. Tilton Crafts: Wonderland

Birth Sampler

Dragon Dreams - Fairy Tale Sampler

Dork Stitch: Come to the Dark Side