Sunday, March 31

Glass Aglow Update and New Starts

I just completed 10 hours on this piece and I managed to finish the first one and also start the second one:
























I also have 4 new starts that I am going to work into my existing rotation.

I will be doing a Cut-Thru SAL with 3 ladies.

Debbie, Linda and Sharon.

It is a Monday SAL so I am interested to see how it progresses every Monday.

You can see links at Debbie's Blog


Oh I almost forgot to say that I will be doing Gypsy Wagon.

My other starts are gonna be a Christmas stocking for my daughter, an advent calendar for my daughter and lastly Book of Ink Circles.

BOIC was a 2008 freebie mystery SAL where they sent out each part.
I have downloaded all the pdf's, but I haven't looked at them as I want to keep each one a mystery to myself.

Friday, March 29

A Early Happy Easter!

I hope everyone enjoys the Easter holidays and the long weekend.

My daughters school had their yearly Easter Sale today.  Each mom has to make 24 eggs to sell at the school and the money goes towards whatever the school needs.

You pretty much take an empty egg shell, decorate it and fill it with little sweets.

These are the 2 types I did for the sale:























I did Pigs and Ladybirds of course.

Here are some of my favorite ones... but there were many, many different ones.



































































































And my absolute favorite... a dog in a teacup:






















I hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter weekend.

I am busy sorting out threads and fabric for a few new starts.

Thursday, March 21

Summer Fairy Update and Kitten Pics

I just finished 10 hours on Summer Fairy.

I started her wings and worked on some ribbons on the right side:














I did a lot of backstitch in her skirt, yet it doesn't look like much in the big scheme of things:














And this is what she looks like so far:


































Sorry for the wrinkles but she will only get a bath and iron once she is done.

And now for some kitty pics! Don't worry I won't do it that often.

This is just a cute pic of her in her bed:


















And this is usually how we spend the evenings... first one is her asleep and second one is obviously awake:-)























Sunday, March 17

QS Literate Dragon Update

I feel like a snail with this piece.

The second page has already been released and I am not even half way done with the first page.  But I have to remind myself, slow and steady, and eventually it will be a FO.

I will now work on Summer Fairy for 10 hours and then will bring out Mini Eternal Promise for 5 hours and see what I can get done.

I realise that I should of probably chosen a easier HAED design instead of 2 with a lot of confetti but I might go and buy some 18 count at the end of the month and start a new one that's easier and put Eternal Promise away until Literate Dragon is finished.

Friday, March 15

Beginnings

I learned to stitch when I was 16.

I never had a relative who did it so it was pretty much me teaching myself.

It was my 16th birthday and I think my one aunt didn't know what to get me, so she got me a kit of two cards with butterflies.

I totally buggered it up!! The kit didn't come with "beginner" instructions and I only ended up with one very badly made card and the other one I had to chuck.

Then a few months later my other aunt (who I lived with) bought me another cross stitch kit.

This one actually turned out better and I did complete it.  I was never happy with the face though.
I then made a clock for my then boyfriends mother for her birthday as he requested me to make it.

When I finished high school I went off to college and the stitching stopped due to no finances at all to indulge my hobby.  Sadly my aunt died soon after I started college and due to family politics etc all my stuff was then thrown out to make room for her husbands new girlfriend and her children.

Sadly my completed project was one of the things thrown away.

Fast forward to when I was 23, married and just had my daughter.  I made three biggish designs to go in her room and then found knitting, which led to spinning and that lasted for a few years.  About three or four years ago I came back to my first love and I haven't put the needle down since.

But I found that I always wished that I could still have that first successful piece that I had made.
Then yesterday I was in the child welfare shop and guess what I found!!!

That is the design that my aunt bought me and that got chucked.  I may not have the original finished piece but at least now I can re-stitch it and it will always remind me of my aunt.

Tuesday, March 12

A Giveaway!!

Karen at My Stitchy Ramblings is having a fantastic giveaway to celebrate 100 Followers at her blog.


If you love hand dyed fabric you definately should check it out, as she has some gorgeous ones in her giveaway!

Monday, March 11

TUSAL Update and 2nd finish of 2013

Firstly here is my March TUSAL Report:
























Sorry for the use of flash as it's a dreary day here, and autumn is in the mood to give us a taste of whats to come.

A Friend Like you was the piece I worked on first since I implemented the 10 hour rotation and by the time I got to 10 hours there was only the backstitch around the middle basket and french knots left to do.  So instead of putting it away, I decided just to finish it.

So 12 hours took it from this:  

 To a Finish:


Now I will just have to find a frame for it and then do the framing and I will be able to give it to my friend.

KSP (the new kitty) is doing very well.  We have had her for a week now and she is so well behaved and so loveable that it really is wonderful to have her here.

She has already become my stitching companion as she keeps me company and sits on my lap while I work.

I got a question in my last post about what the numbers mean on my sidebar.

Well the ones that are numbered 0 are ones that don't have a specific place in my rotation.
Granted I don't even have two of them started yet, as every time I wanted to buy fabric to start them, the money was needed for something else.  But I have enough to work on so all is good.

Anything from 1 and higher is the numbers of my rotation.  I worked on A Friend Like you, and so after 5 hours of Literate Dragon, I will then work on Summer Fairy and so forth.

Now to go finish cleaning so that I can sit down with Literate Dragon.  The 2nd page has come out already and I haven't even got half of page 1 done.  But it will get there eventually.

Sunday, March 3

A New Addition To The Family

We got her yesterday and my daughter named her Kitty Soft Paws, KSP for short.

She is 7-8weeks old and a very busy kitty.

I have been a very bad blogger lately and life has just been so busy with many things I want to do.

I have been reading and trying to teach myself to sew my own clothes as I am just tired of trying to find nice clothes in shops when I don't like the current fashion.

The sewing has been a bit of a headache as I made a mistake near the beginning due to the pattern not mentioning whether the ties had to be on the wrong side or right side and now almost half way finished I realised that I put them on the incorrect side.  So right now it's in time out and will have to wait till I am in an unpicking mood as it needs to be fixed.

With the way things are at the moment I have been stitching some day and not other days and decided that my current rotation won't work now.  I used to keep a piece for two days and then move onto the next.

Keeping it that way will mean little progress made on each piece before I moved on, and so have now decided to try the 10 hour rotation again.  Yesterday I actually managed a whole hour of stitching (yay for me) and will hope to come back soon with some actually stitchy progress.

Thank you so much for everyone that left me such lovely comments in my last post, much appreciated, and Linda Hocus Pocus is not from a magazine... it's from the Joan Elliott book Bewitching Cross Stitch