Hectic month with not much stitching!

Sorry it has been so long without an update from me but I have been cat sitting for my parents and they are not very good stitching buddies as they will ignore me until I pick it up and then once in my hand they are desperate for attention. But you have to forgive them as they are very cute 

So now to update on what progress I have actually made

Firstly on my HAED, this project I find very strange as I can either get lots done in one sitting or not much done in a whole week, so a weeks progress can be done in one evening rather than spread over a few days.

Then:                                                              Now:

I only have about 1400 stitches to go to get to the end of the page so fingers crossed I can finish before the end of the month!

next i have also been working on my unicorn as it is a lot easier with the cats to work on something in hand rather than set up my stand for the HAED. I had put this away again as I hated stitching with the DMC metallic thread it was horrible to use and kept splitting, it was only when I watched a Youtube video did I realise that metallics were not all equal in quality and that other stitchers found DMC to be particularly bad. Because of that I decided to but the kreinik equivalent threaads and I find it a lot better to stitch with... its not easy but compared to DMC it is almost perfect

Then:                                                                Now:

 

thats all from me for now, will try to get a couple more updates before I go on holiday in a little over 3 weeks 

TTFN and happy stitching x

 

Finally got to start!

Hi Guys

So this weekend I finally got to start "So many books so little time" By Randal Spangler.

As promised here is where I have left Siberian gold as I packed it away on Saturday, It may go into a rotation at some point but for now it is being put away so I can focus on So many books!

I know I have gone on about this project since I got the chart but finally I have begun stitching :) on sunday I finished charting 2/3 of the fabric after finally completing my baby blanket. And set myself up to work on Monday as it was the bank holiday weekend here in the UK

So after about 3/4 hrs of stitching on monday I managed 500 stitches, I think the is quite successful considering it is the first time I have worked on such a small count.

I decided to use 1 over 1 on the 25ct as I think it gives nice coverage and the 2 over 1 test I did seemed very bulky and difficult to stitch, as this will be a labour of love I wanted it to be enjoyable rather than a tough stitch!

Yesterday after I came home from work I managed a couple more hours work and managed a little under 500 stitches, after working in 10x10 blocks on the sunday I decided to try working in 20x20 blocks and it works up really nicely and is easier to stick to than the 10x10 blocks. 

I also stitched the first row up to the edge of the first page as the 2 colours were only needed on the row, and this was easier and neater than parking 

At the end of Day 2 this is what I have

The sad thing is I got very excited that I can now see the edges of the first brick, but if the small things keep me happy Im sure that the project will be enjoyable :)

I also added to my stash, I got to kits from Hobbycraft that I love and couldnt resist when they had their half price sale :)

On that note I will love you and leave you :)

Happy stitching 

  

   

More crochet than stitching!

Hi Guys,

so last week incorporated both WIPocolypse day and IHSW but to be honest I was more focused on my crochet than my cross stitch as I wanted to finish the baby blanket.

Well good news :) the main stitching is finished!

So all that is left is to sew in the ends, which I did half of last night so just half to go, and then I need to wash it!

This has definitely been my favourite thing that I have crocheted since I began a little under a year ago and I love the look and colour of it :) Now I just need to wait a month before I can give it to my work colleague and I hope she loves it as much as I do!

So stitching wise I have done very little and hardly picked it up since last monday, I will be focusing on it more tonight and I am hoping to put Siberian gold away for a while and start on "So many books" at the weekend as I will then have finished 2 projects as promised to my OH. 

I will post an update on how Siberian gold looks before I put it away and I am sure that I will work on it a little at times to give me relief from the HAED confetti!

Happy crafting :) 

Lots of change!

So last week I told you that I had got myself a seat stand as I wanted everything to be set up for when I start "So many books so little time" and I wanted to test it out one Siberian gold to see if I like it. 

Well the answer is that I love it, it makes stitching so much easier and I am more comfortable as I dont have to hold the frame anymore :-)

In just a couple of hours the first day I had it this was my progress of Siberian Gold :-)

I managed all of the blue and a little of the grey!

So I am now a big fan of stands :-)

My second change is my method of stitching... with my HAED after gridding the fabric I realised that stitching one colour at a time as I have been doing with Siberian gold was not going to work unless I  only stitched one page at a time, but the idea of digging through the piece towards the end of every page filling in the confetti was not so appealing. As I want this project to be perfect I decided to research different methods and discovered "Parking" Inititally I was skeptical and thought that it looked messy (I hate when my stitching looks disorganised - a major reason that I remove threads from presorted kits onto bobbins is I dont like the threads being tangled) But I thought there was no harm in having a go... if I hated it then I hadnt lost anything than maybe a couple of hours.... so on friday I had a go starting in the top left corner of Siberian gold

After an evening of stitching I had done about 200 stitches, slowly but then I was using a method that was very different from my usual stitching... I enjoyed it but wasnt completely convinced...

So on saturday morning I set myself up to give it another go, I decided that if I didnt love it after that then I would leave it and go back to one colour at a time, so I started stitching at about 9am and after a few hours I decided to stop for something to eat... I was amazed to see that 4 hours had passed and that I had been so completely absorbed in my stitching, the parking was a lot quicker and with every 10x10 block I was eager to move on to the next... it was so addictive and there was a small sense of achievement with every block... this was the progress on saturday.

So now I am a very different stitcher than the one who began this blog in February, back then I was a one WIP at a time stitcher who enjoyed working one colour at a time... now I have multiple projects and love the parking method... seems strange that it has happened so quickly. 

So my progress so far after another stitch fueled day yesterday is almost 1500 stitches in 3 days... for me that is huge and I cant wait to get back to it... Roll on the weekend :-)

For the rest of the week I will be focusing on my crochet and getting as much as I can done on the baby blanket. 

The sooner I get it finished the sooner that the OH will let me start So many books... also the baby is due in June so I need to get it finished by the end of the month. 

Happy stitching all x

I have a finish :-)

Hello my lovely bloggers :)

So yesterday I had another finish :) The excitement of having 2 finishes so far this year is great, I have loved all the stitching and crochet this year and it is showing with how much I am getting done.

My finish was the kittens in mugs piece:

This is what is was like when I last spoke about it on 22/04/2014

An this was the finished piece yesterday after being ironed:

And I love it so much every time I look at it it makes me smile... I love all the little details and though it may seem silly my favorite part to stitch was the little bumble bee as it finishes off the piece perfectly :-)

Another reason I am excited is that I am now 1 step closer to being able to start my first HAED. I promised my OH that I would finish at least 2 of my current projects before I started it and this is the first. I also plan to finish the baby blanket which seems to be taking quite a while atm... I just need it done by mid june. 

Another reason for me to be excited is that today the final threads for my HAED arrived :) so I need to spend a little time sorting through them tonight.

My seat stand also arrived this morning and I cant wait to test it out :-) after a long time searching the web I decided to go for the Elbesee 10" Seat frame. 

Finally I decided to also buy a magnifier to help when I start my HAED... I have always thought that I have very good eye sight and I have never felt the need to have a magnifier before however after spending several nights gridding the 25ct fabric for my HAED I have realised that a magnifier will definitely help and hopefully stop me getting eye strain. 

Happy stitching 

x

Happy Easter and April IHSW

Hello again, 

I hope you all had a lovely Easter, it was lovely for me to get the time off with my OH as we actually got to spend 4 days together. Our usual weekends together are only the Sunday as the OH teaches martial arts on Saturday mornings so he is up at 7am. We were able to enjoy a day of shopping, visiting family and some downtime =) YAY for a long weekend!

So IHSW this month amazingly landed on Easter weekend which for us in the UK is a 4 day weekend =) this meant that despite all the jobs and plans we had this weekend I still had lots of time to stitch.

So the first thing I did was finish off the second kitten from Kittens in Mugs...he needed a face and some backstitching =)

Then on Friday while tidying and organising my craft stuff I found an old cross stitch that I began in 2010. This was only my 3rd ever project and I fell out of love with it, but when I took t out I realised how close I was to finishing it so it has now moved from an UFO for a WIP =) The design is Unicorn by DMC

This was how it looked on Friday:

And after a weekend of this being my main IHSW project this is where I left it last night:

I also worked on a crochet blanket for a friend from work who is having a baby, this is where I have got to on that:

So all in all I have had a very productive IHSW, its just a shame that every weekend cant be the same 

Happy stitching x

April WIPocolypse

Hi Guys

So its time for a WIPocolypse update, so as I said in my first post I was a one project at a time kinda girl, well this is a lie now, all you wonderful bloggers have given me an itch for new starts and so I have actually started a new project this month rather than work on Siberian Gold. But I have promised myself that I will only have 2 cross stitch projects on the go at a time and a couple of crochet projects. That way I wont have to ignore one hobby to do the other.

So here is what I have been working on :-)

Its my Kittens in mugs cross stitch that I got from Ebay about a month ago and it is soooooo cute...I love the expression on the little ginger cat. Once finished this will make its way to my desk in work and it will make me smile to myself. This is such a simple stitch and I am treating each kitten as a finish which is unusual for me as I generally prefer to complete each colour in the whole piece. 

This months topic is how do you keep your stash organised?

Unfortunately no picks as I forgot to take them this morning so I may try to add the pics tomorrow

I have recently decided to try out Bobbins and storage boxes as even though I am working with kits at the moment I want to get into good habbits for when I eventually try to undertake a HAED. I also moved to Bobbins as my ability to spread my crafts around the house is quite impressive (and drives my OH insane). I really like them as it is nice and  compact and I dont worry about the threads getting tangled on thread organisers (I know some prefer these but I'm not the neatest of people so sometimes I have ended up with a knotted mess)

My projects and future projects I store either on the old music stand I talked about in my last post or inside the foot stool. My crochet/knitting projects are all stored in reusable fabric bags/in boxes and all of these are dotted around the house depending on where I last stitched...I really need a craft room!!

Happy stitching and I hope you all enjoy a lovely Easter weekend :-)