Back from the dead and Pic Heavy

Sometimes it's really surprising how time goes by so fast.

I was shocked to realize that I have been gone for over a year and don't really have an excuse for it.  Life just happened, as it does sometimes.  Not all of it good things and some of it really good things.

I sat down today to work out what I have stitched since my last update and was totally shocked to see that I only had one other finish in 2015!  I don't understand how that can be, as I can't recall stopping stitching.  Need to look into that further, but for now lets leave it as one more finish.

But first let me go make a cup of tea, as I think this will be a long post, and I may need the refreshment...

Back and lets see...

I got two FO's framed in 2015.

Ladybird Fairy was a gift to my Nanna and I didn't realize that I took such a bad photo of the framed stitching.  Will have to take a better photo next time I'm visiting her.

Then I got Jewel of the Water framed at the same time.

My one and only other finish for 2015 (which sadly only makes 3 FO"S for the entire year) was:

Autumn Fairy by Joan Elliott.

Started:  23 December 2014 and finished 27 December 2015

2016 was better, as far as finishes are concerned, and will hopefully continue to be just as good through 2017.

Christmas Decorations:

Started:  03 January 2013

Finished:  02 January 2016

Cut Thru Cottage

Started: 10 May 2014 

Finished 29 January 2016

Don't Bug Me (Needlebook)

Started:  03 March 2016

Finished:  15 March 2016

Curious Cats

Started: 18 April 2016

Finished:  20 May 2016

Autumn Goddess

Started:  21 May 2016

Finished: 25 July 2016

Forgive Quckly

Started:  09 June 2016

Finished:  13 June 2016

Living With Charm

Started:  14 June 2016

Finished:  18 September 2016

And lastly:

Eeyore Candy Cane

Started:  24 September 2016

Finished:  27 September 2016

Winter Fairy (finally the overdue pictures)

Firstly a huge thank you to everyone for their wonderful comments on my Ladybird Fairy!!

And here is the overdue pics on the completed Winter Fairy.

Second Finish of 2015

I can't believe that it's only my 2nd finish.  Here is hoping that the second half of the year will be a bit more productive with the finishing.

Ladybird Fairy


The kreinik on the wings was a total PITA as it is done using 032, and I had to have very good light and still had to mark off on a working copy every step of the way, just to keep track of what I had done and what needed doing.  But it was so worth it as the wings sparkle so prettily.

I love this design but unfortunately this is not mine to keep.  It's a birthday gift for my Nanna and I will make myself one in about a year or two.  Need time in between to get over doing it as I don't tend to do the same design twice.  Now just to get it framed at the end of the month, and it will be ready for when I see her.

Has it really been that long?

Definitely time for an update, I think. 

I actually had to look back to see what I had updated on last because it's so long ago that I just couldn't remember.

I last posted only a tiny bit of HAED Pure Nature's progress, yet I did actually manage to put the finish of page 1 under it's tab, but never said anything about it.  So here is progress:

Page 1:

 

Page 2:

 

Page 3 so far:

Next time I work on it I will be hitting background and heading in the direction of the humming bird.

I also started on Scaredy Cats.  I wrote the date of starting down somewhere but now I can't remember where and it's driving me nuts.  Not much progress done yet but hopefully that will change soon.

 My grandmother saw my winter and summer fairies by Joan Elliott and she requested one but she would love it to match her lounge colour scheme, which is red and black.  The two options were Poppy Fairy or Ladybird Fairy.  She said that she loves ladybirds, so that made the choice easy.  I plan on getting it framed and giving it to her for her birthday in August.

Started:  07 April 2015

 

And I finally, shockingly have my first finish (yip how sad) of 2015.

Winter Fairy by Joan Elliott:

 Just realized that I never took a pic of it and it's already dark now.  Will take one and update with the picture tomorrow.

Started:  13 January 2014

Finished:  03 May 2015

HAED Pure Nature Week 3

I must say that my rotation is really working out for me for the most part.  When I work on Cottage I really look forward to the following week when I get to work on Pure Nature.  I do tend to find that my first 2 days on Cottage takes me awhile to get into it.  I normally do the least stitching on the first 2 days.

Current progress:

This part is making me very nervous as that new bit under the flower is her face *gulp*.  I got so nervous I asked another lady on facebook, who had posted her 4 pages of progress of Pure Nature, because hers didn't look like this either.  But she assured me that she also got nervous at this part but the further along you go, the more it will blend in and won't look so yucky.  I really do hope so because I definitely don't want a face that looks like she has got a terrible sunburn:-)  But on the benefit of the face, I manged to get a whole column done in one day because there is only about 2 colours per 10x10 block and my stitching sped up considerably.

I am working on the last two columns of page 1, so that means by the end of next week I should have 1 page finished and the start of a new HAED called Scaredy Cats.

I was mad enough to join in the HAED 2015 Goals SAL on the yuku group and felt extremely ambitious enough to say the following year goals:

1.  3 pages of Pure Nature
2.  3 Pages of Scaredy Cats
3.  3 Pages of Midnight Vigil

I don't know if I mentioned that I did buy Midnight Vigil at the last sale and so I have been able to see that the first 3 pages are actually rather easy looking.  First two have a fair bit of colour in them but not confetti heavy and the third page is about 80% one colour and 20% a different colour.  Should make those 3 pages go quickly.

But I will use the first half of the year to determine how my current rotation is working towards those goals, and If I see that it won't work I will change it in June.

Quick Cut-Thru' Cottage Update

Just a quick post to show last weeks progress.

I have stayed up way too late working on Pure Nature.  My head feels like it's full of cotton wool and my eyes feel like sandpaper.  But I really wanted to finish the 4th column of my HAED which puts me now half way through page 1.

That means that the next column I start will be the beginning of her face.

I am really enjoying doing this.  By the time I started getting tired of the green of her hair, I hit the pink flower and now that the green and pinks are getting tiring I get to look forward to doing her face.

Okay off to bed now.

Happy stitching.

Cut Thru Cottage Update

Here is the update from the last week of stitching on it:

Before:

And as of 18th it looks like this:

 

 

In my dreams I would like to finish the kitchen this week, but considering all I have done in the last two days, is backstitched the flower basket and a bit of the roof, I don't think that's going to happen but lets see.

I have tried to teach the daughter to cross stitch about 4 times in the past but no luck.  She is a perfectionist which she didn't get from us, and we have tried to teach her that it's ok not to do something perfect when you learn to do it, she still has a hard time.So obviously her learning to stich would not look like the picture, mine certainly didn't, she has always given up after 2 or 3 days because she wasn't happy with her standard of work.

Well last night she asked me to let her try again.  So I first sat her down and explained very carefully that it won't be perfect, it won't be easy and she has to just be ok with it and just keep on at it and then I showed her designs that she could be doing in a year if she just keeps working at it as motivation.

Out came the magazines and patterns, fabric was chosen and we sat down for a few minutes where I had to refresh her memory on how to do things.  She only got a few stitches in before bed time and today was a long, busy day so no stitching done yet:-(  Here's hoping that tomorrow will be the day for her to feel like doing it again.  I would like her to learn so that at times where we are somewhere and she is a bit bored she can just pull out her stitching and have something interesting to do with her time.  I know I will probably regret it when I am hunting for fabric to use for a design, only to find out she took the last piece, or when I have to go thread shopping for 2 but until that happens I am excited for her to learn.