Getting excited!

It's almost Christmas!! My mum is giving me the best present ever!! There wasn't really anything in particular that i wanted this year so she's filling a box with all kinds of stitchy stash!! I have no idea what I'm getting but i can't wait to find out!! Only 10 days to go!!! Finally got to put my tree up today and treated my mum to a trip to the cinema, we saw Inkheart & it was awesome!! Didn't follow the book completely by otherwise was very good! On a stitching note I have completed all my UFO's from this year so start 2009 with 4 WIP's which I have started to work on.

just in time for 2009!!

finished all my UFO's from the past year, only 4 WIP's to carry over into the begining of next year and I've made a start on finishing those as well!! So happy!!

Finished!!!!

A few mistakes here and there but you can't really tell. Swapped the coloured threads on the lights for DMC Light Effects colours and they really sparkle!! Can't really tell in the picture though.

Now working on finishing off Collecting Flowers & the last few xmas cards!

Tree Light Tangle is nearly finished!

Only 2 more red lights & the last of the back stitch to go!! I think I'll be finished before the end of the weekend! Working tomorrow & have a party to go to afterwards so won't get any time to stitch but nothing planned in yet for Sunday so should get in done, will post pics up when it's finished. Just wish I knew what I was going to do with it afterwards!

well it's back to work for me...

But have had a lovely week off, tidied up my stitchy stash (is messy again now but not the point!) did some stitching (not as much as i previously planned), saw my family & bought more stash!!

Ok, there we go! Stash pic one is a card kit from The Bold Sheep called tree light tangle I picked up from John Lewis, along with some of the Anchor Lame threads, plan on using them to stitch the tree lights in the kit to make it a little more christmassy! Picture 2 is the stash I picked up from my local craft shop, masons. Really nice place, sells lots of different crafty items including alot of cross stitch stuff. Picked up Nora Corbett's 'Ivy' chart, DMC stranded cotton shade card, 2 mini chart books for the DMC Linen threads & almost the entire set of DMC Linen threads!! (bit of a spending spree but my mum works there and I get to use her 20% off everything staff discount!) Lastly had been admiring Shell's work over at 'cross those stitches' and finally caved and bought the DMC raindeer card kit or as Shell's nicknamed it 'Dopey Raindeer' (Bargin on ebay @ £1.50!)

Dragonfly Tile was a download from patternsonline.com & is my Nan's chrstmas present. The green backstitched border is meant to have confetti stitched flowers in it but I ran out of time to do them as I went to see her on Saturday; She really liked her present (she's like a big kid, mention presents and she want's it straight away!) but as she's decorating her house atm she wasn't too sure where to put it! Second photo here is my current WIP, tree light tangle, I started it on Saturday and have just got the lights & backstitch to do now!

urgh....

had about 2 and a half hours sleep last night as it took a little longer to finish stitching my Nan's christmas present than I expected. Usually would have a few weeks left before I had to give it to her but as my Dad is going away on business for 2 weeks before Christmas we're going to see the relatives today :) I am really looking forward to going as I haven't been to my grandparents house in about 5 years :) Remembered to take a picture of her present before wrapping it up and will post it up after we get back tonight.

Xmas Shopping...

is finished!! All my pressies for people are wrapped up and hidden away so noone will see them accidentally. Headed over to Milton Keynes shopping centre today to do the last of it and ended up buying myself a cross stitch kit from John Lewis & some Anchor Lame threads as I can't get them from my local shop. Started stitching my nan's Xmas pressie last night & it's almost finished. Wil post pics up in the morning!

I'm back!!

not that I ever really left, have managed to stitch another xmas card so I am slowly but surely getting there...did buy a few more mouseloft kits from ebay (four to be exact) but they are all rather quick & cute, which brings the running total up to 7 stitched & 17 to stitch! Having realised it's less than 40 days till Xmas work on the Mirabilia Halloween Fairy has ceased in a desperate attempt to stitch my cards in time!! Luckily I have the next week off work and haven't much planned as I am almost finished with my xmas shopping, just one last trip to the shops should do it & my partner is at work all day so I should be able to stitch relativly uninterupted :) Photos will be uploaded eventually, but not until noticable progress has been made! Although I may upload some pics of the Halloween Fairy as she is coming along nicely and will hopefully be finished before the new year!

Twilight Movie

Have just watched the trailers from the twilight movie out in cinema's Dec. 19th and I can't wait!!! It's one of my favourite book sagas (twilight by Stephenie Meyer) and so far it looks like it's going to be immense!!! lol on a stitching note my Halloween Fairy has both her wings now, will post pics as soon as I can locate a camera that works!

mini finish

took a break from stitching halloween fairy to focus on getting better which seems to have worked, headaches are going away and stomach pains are less frequent which is a good thing :). Have spent a bit of time reading a few of my favourite books and decided to stitch one of my favourite quotes about books onto an aida band scrap i picked up in an aida goody bag from a show. Took about 2 hours to chart the design up so it would look balanced & fit onto the band and about 45 mins to stitch. I'm pretty pleased with the end result, just need to back it with some interfacing to make it a little more sturdy & some felt to hide the stitching at the back.

In case you can't read it the quote says 'some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed & some few to be chewed & digested' Also just for fun here is my Newton's Law kit 'season's greetings' finished after 3 xmas' of stitching!

grr...

ok so trying to cross stitch when your ill & tired isn't the smartest idea...had nearly finished stitching a wing on halloween fairy but thought it looked a bit funny, thought nothing of it and when to bed, looking at it this morning i realised that i'd started stitching it 4 lines lower that it should be and spent the best part of 2 hours rippiing it all out again. Not a happy bunny ....also probably won't finish it before november 5th but as long as it's done before next halloween it's all good

better day today

Finished Newton's Law kit 'Season's Greetings' (finally!) lol has taken 3 xmas' to stitch but it's done, just waiting for it to dry so I can press it & frame it! Gone back to stitching Halloween Fairy & I am loving the threads she came with! They are cresent colours hand dyed threads & they are lush! Only downside is that they aren't colourfast so I'm having to be really careful about not marking the fabric so I can get away with not washing it! Although I know I won't finish her by the end of today I hope to have her finished by November 5th! Then it's back to xmas cards if I'm lucky I might get them finished by mid November.

well that didn't go according to plan

smacked my head really hard this morning and still have a headache now, haven't been able to focus properly on anything for to long so haven't really got any stitching done. Started backstitching season's greetings and started seeing stars!! Hopefully I'll get some stitching done tomorrow

illness can be a good thing...

time off work = more time to stitch!! Good thing too as my mirabilia Halloween fairy kit showed up 2 days ago and i haven't put it down yet!! Only have her face, arms, legs & wings to go! Have also stitched another two xmas cards, one from the latest issue of card shop & a christmas tree design from hobbycraft. Went to Bicester & Swindon over the weekend to pick up some threads & ended up leaving with the Tinkerbell Heart kit I want to do for my friend's birthday, more xmas card stitch kits (have 21 in total now, only 16 left to stitch) a cupcake shaped pincushion & a workbox to keep all my extra needles & random buttons & embellishments in. Am going to bed now as tomorrow I hope to finish off more of the Halloween Fairy (aiming to be finished by the end of the day on Friday) and maybe backstitch my newton's law or somebunny to love UFO's (probably Newton as it's an xmas one) If there's still time left in the day after that I may stitch another card....

Really good day today

After finishing the penguin off (still really happy about it, but won't be doing another anytime soon!) I did another two christmas cards, so only 3 more to go now! I thought I had 10 mouseloft kits but I've only got 8 which means I'm over 1/2 way there now

It's finished!!!!!

Has taken ages due to some killer backstitch that I really didn't enjoy doing but after about a month of putting it off, he's finally finished!!

My Penguin:

Was originally intended to be an Xmas card but now that he's done I don't really wanna part with him!

Woo 3 cards down & 7 to go!

I've made 3 xmas cards so far and I am chuffed to pieces!! Hope you like them!

Also managed to get my glow in the dark thread so as soon as my cards are done I'll be stitching my ghostie...probably gonna be a bit late for Halloween this year but at least he'll be ready for next year!

So many cards....so little time....

well, not really, have about 10 cards to stitch in total and i've done 2 so far so i'm 1/5 of the way there. Found a really cute halloween chart that was free off the Passione Ricamo website that I'd really like to stitch but will have to wait until I manage to get some glow in the dark thread so for now I'll make do with a rather cute bat animation.

Also managed to do some work on Water Games *finally* pics coming soon

My Stitching

Took some photos last night of my stitching projects, both new and old (and forgotten!) I'm hoping it will inspire me to finish some of them off! check them out for yourself here: http://cross-stitching.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1231023361/m/3611008635 Gotta say it's working, I definitely feel like I need to do some back stitch today so I'm hoping to finish my penguin & maybe do some work on somebunny 'collecting flowers' today! More photos to follow!!

Backstitch is the enemy

Spent all week trying to backstitch the margaret sherry penguin card design from cross stitch at christmas and it's pure evil!! None of the stitches go through the holes in the aida, it's all through the stitches so needless to say i haven't done very much, also I'm sort of making it up now as it's mostly small dashes and i can't see them on the chart very well. No wonder most of my UFO's exist because I don't want to do the backstitching!! I'll get round to it eventually (maybe!!)

damn... failed again...

still haven't finished the same quarter of my WTP project, still haven't taken any photos of my W'sIP & i still haven't finished the new project i started a week ago...feeling lame about it all but on the upside, penguin (new project) should be finished tomorrow if i go and do some stitching now & then i can try and do some of 'water games' tomorrow afternoon. ;-P

yet another new project!!

just a small one, shouldn't take more than a week to complete *lol i say that now but my shifts at work this week suck!* doing one colour at a time and there are only 10 different colours, mostly whole stitches as well.

Finally making progress!!

After a week of feeling like I'm being pulled in a thousand different directions I finally managed to get some stitching done, have almost finished the ironing fairy, just need to stitch her washing basket but she began to do my head in so I swapped over to Water Games for a while, I am determined to finish this quarter before October!! Finished Eeyore now so it's just the background to stitch before this section of the chart is finished, have decided to backstitch each section as I finish it so I don't have to go back to each section after the cross stitch is all completed. Luckily it seems that only key features & characters are backstitched in this chart so there's not much to do anyway! Went to the stitch & craft show 2008 at Sandown Park last sunday and came away with loads of goodies!! (spent just over £100 but it was worth it!) Best buys were my new free standing frame, clip on chart holder & daylight lamp and 4 Newton's Law kits for £12. Also picked up some sparkly hand dyed Aida & a Forever Friends Wedding Sampler that I'm going to give to my parents for their 25th wedding anniversary (it's in two years so i have plenty of time to stitch it )

got lots done, still loads to do!

Having completed the stitching fairy I decided to do the backstitch on the gardening fairy I stitched about a year ago. I've decided to alternate between water games & the housework fairies to get them both finished. I started with the ironing fairy yesterday and completed the majority of the main stitching today (very simple charts to follow as they are mostly whole stitches with one or two fractionals and very few colour changes) just need to stitch the washing basket & finish the outlines tomorrow. Then I hope to finish the quarter of water games I have already done half of, just the rest of Eeyore & a tree to do!! :) Bought a really nice frame & mount for both Lickle Bit Shy & Water Games so I can frame them up as soon as they are complete!! :)

Moving on...

Since I stitched the stitching fairy a couple of days ago, I decided to do the rest of the series of 'housework fairies' from May 1998's issue of Quick & Easy cross stitch. It consists of 'the ironing fairy' 'The weary fairy' 'The dusting fairy' & 'the hoovering fairy'. Back when i first saw these designs in 1998 ( i was 10 at the time!) I came up with a 5th fairy 'the laundry fairy' but never put my design down on paper, until today!! I spent the best part of this evening trying to put the chart together in a way that was original but still looked like it was part of the set and I think I have successfully managed it. Only way to know for sure is to stitch it! I am very excited about it though as it is the first chart I have ever designed myself!!

My Stitching Fairy

Didn't feel fantastic yesterday so took a break from work and mum's WTP picture to do a quickie stitch for myself. Took most of yesterday evening and finished the majority of the backstitch this morning, just need to buy some metallic blue thread to outline the wings and some black seed beads to dot the 'i's' and give her an eye. (meant to be french knots but they are the bane of my existance!)

Woot! 0_o first post & I'm a happy stitcher!!!

Went to the new Hobbycraft store in Bicester yesterday and picked up a couple of new kits to add to my ever growing stash of kits/charts & mags. I picked up a Newton's Law bookmark & a Popcorn kit I plan to stitch for my grandmother. Also grabbed a couple of plastic hoops as the wooden ones seem to have marked my work. Got home and decided to browse the Polstitches website looking for some hand-dyed aida to stitch a mermaid chrt onto, bought that & some of the kreinik threads I need to stitch it, then went to my local stitchy shop today and picked up the rest of the threads/beads I need to start her!! Can't wait till the fabric arrives so I can get stitching :) All in all, a good couple of days, now if only I could finish this Winnie the Pooh chart for my mum in less time than I actually have to do it in (it's her birthday in 8 days) I'd be ecstatic! :-P