CJC 2012 comes to an end....

and now the fun really begins!! 15 starts in 15 days is fairly straight forward, the hard part is finishing them by 2013!!

Day 14's start was supposed to be Jingle all the way, however the aida I bought to stitch it on is sooo soft & flexible that the stitches were getting distorted so I frogged and opted for Tigerlily by Nora Corbett instead, I've had this design in my stash since it first came out and I've been itching to start it, I'm stitching her on 22ct white aida but now I'm worried that she's going to be very small when finished (final design size just over 7x5!) so I may restart on 16ct. I'm looking at ways of stiffening the aida for Jingle all the Way and so far I think I need to get some interfacing to strengthen the fabric and stitch through that.

Day 15 was supposed to be Pumpkin Row by Chessie and me but due to some other news which I will get to in a minute I wanted to stitch something small so picked the scissor fob included with pumpkin row instead (just visible in the lower right corner of the pattern picture) & managed to finish one side !! I think I'm just going to stitch the year & my initials on the other side so this is technically finished too!! Stitched on 16ct? Aida using the recommended threads. The design is actually supposed to be made up of smyrna stars (sp?) rather than cross stitch but I felt more confident with cross stitch on the aida & I think the design works just as well.



So thats two projects completed and 13 to go!! I'm also starting a Lizzie Kate with my mum this week, she's stitching Christmas by the Letter & I'm stitching Halloween Rules!

Till next time, happy stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx

Has it really been a week??

It seems a week has flown by without me paying attention, luckily I have just about kept up with the Crazy January Challenge, even if I have only managed a couple of stitches a night! Hey a starts a start right?!
First up (as promised) the photos of days 5 & 6

Day 5, Darcy Day:

Day 6, Peep:

Day 7 was Life's a Stitch by Lizzie*Kate:

Day 8 was Dog's leave pawprints by Lizzie*Kate

Day 9 was Button Button by CCN

Day 10 was Peppermint Twist by LHN

Day 11 was Dandy Dreams by Silver Creek Samplers

Day 12 was Nose Garden by San Man Originals

Day 13 was Witchy Brew by Witchy Stitches

All designs have been stitched on Aida using the recommended threads with the exception of Nose Garden which I am in the process of substituting the recommended Six Strand Sweets for DMC, GAST & WDW.

Will post up final two days of the CJC tomorrow!!

Happy Stitching
xX Fiona Xx

Days 5 & 6 of the CJC

were filled with frogs!!! No photos to show just yet (will upload later) but day 5's start was Darcy Day by the sampler girl, mananged to get a few lines of Darcy's sillouette done after frogging several times!

Day 6's start was Peep by Lizzie*Kate, I've substituted the linen provided with 14ct sparkly aida for ease of stitching, again it was stitching up pretty quickly and I was just about the start the basket below the chick when I realised I'd started stitching way to low on the fabric, a quick stitch count showed that my finished piece would just barely fit on the fabric (3 holes from the bottom to be exact) which left no room for finishing so I had to frog it all and start again, only stitched a row before stopping for the night!

Hoping to do a little more on both of these over the weekend but will take photos of them first! I also received the buttons for 'lil easter' so later on I'll be doing the finishing work on that piece too :)

Day 7's start will be life's a stitch by Lizzie*Kate.

Happy Stitching
xX Fiona Xx

CJC Day 4 A Start & A finish!!

Today I feel the need to quote Winnie the Pooh and wish you all a 'Happy Winds-day' as it is undoubtably a rather blustery day here indeed! ( and a rather blustery night too!!)

My start for the January Challenge today was 'Lil Easter' by The Sunflower Seed, stitched on 14ct aida from my stash using the recommended Sampler threads. Really enjoyed stitching today as the colours were lovely and bright, the chart was very easy to ready and stitched up very quickly, so much so that I finished it today as well!

Stitching is finished, I ammended the chart as I felt the original 't' didn't look enough like a 't', I'm just waiting on the buttons which will hopefully be here tomorrow. Planning on finishing this as either a flat fold or a mini cushion for my display....

Tomorrow I will be stitching but I haven't decided what!!

xX Fiona Xx

crazy january challenge day 3

Not much to show off today but here is my pitiful start on Snowman '10 by Lizzie Kate, had massive problems with the WDW thread tangling and knotting so this is as far as I got before calling it quits for the night! (Was gone midnight as it was movie night at my friend's house!)

Tomorrow's start will be 'lil Easter'

xX Fiona Xx

Crazy January Challenge Day 2 Good Things

Today's start for the January Challenge was Lizzie Kate's Good Things. It's stitched using the recommended threads on aida & I plan to mount this in my DMC box when it's finished. Didn't get to much done today as I only started stitching once I got in from work but here is how far I got:

it's not much but it's a start!!

Tomorrow I will be stitching Snowman 10 also by Lizzie Kate!

Happy Stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx

Crazy January Challenge Day 1

So today was the first day of the Crazy January Challenge (CJC) and as I was working I decided to take my start for today into work with me so I could get started during my lunch break. Seemed simple enough as the chart, threads and fabric had already been kitted up all I needed was my hoop, scissors and I was set...that was of course until it came tomy lunch break and I realised I'd forgotten the most important part of my stitching kit...the needle...DOH!!

Despite my grandparents coming over to spend new year's with my parents and my friend popping round for a few hours this evening I have managed to put needle, thread and fabric together on JBW Design's Alphabet Pumpkin and this is as far as I got before stopping for the night:

It's stitched on brown cloud 16ct aida using the recommended sampler threads. The design actually only uses 3 colours and I've finished 2 of those today, the lettering that makes up the main body of the pumpkin is all stitched using a single colour.

Tomorrow I will be stitching Lizzie Kate's Good Things.

Happy Stitching

xX Fiona Xx