.:time for an update:.

seeing as it's been a week since my last update I felt compelled to write something...pics will follow...maybe... I have been doing a lot of stitching this week, mostly in the evenings after work and on my days off and have finished all the whole stitch on my friend's birth sampler; I've also made a start on the back-stitch. Hoping to have it finished by tomorrow or Tuesday evening, then I only have to chart the details and stitch them to have it done completely Seeing as I feel very badly about not completing any of my WIP's from the start of 2009 I plan to start doing 4 of them in a weekly rotation, hopefully this will get me through doing them as I hate 2 of them and 2 are ones I'd quite like to see finished lol. I'm planning to do this as soon as I finish the birth sampler as I always find that one 'big' finish spurs me on to complete something else soon after. The projects I plan to do this with are:

• Spring Newton (a SAL from the WOXS forum that I still haven't finished and I'm the only one who hasn't)
• WTP 'Water Games' (was supposed to be my mum's birthday present last September and I'm not even 1/4 of the way through)
• Mirabilia 'Halloween Fairy' (Love this design, would love to have it finished and framed before October)
• Jo Verso's 'Housework Fairies' (seem to keep making mistakes with this design and it was getting me down, sooner I finish it the better lol)

Hopefully I'll be able to post weekly updates on them and we'll see some progress happening much faster than it is now lol. After these designs are done the only WIP I'll have left to work on is 'Lickle Bit Shy' which I don't like doing at the moment as I find it had to distinguish between the various shades of cream used in the design; & 'April Showers' from Somebunny to love which I only started recently. I won't be letting my WIP pile up like that again, it's so hard to work on too many different things at once; it's been nice focusing on the one design and watching how quickly it comes together.

I will post an updated pic of the birth sampler before I work on it tomorrow, then I'll post another pic when it's all finished. I think that's everything for now.

Happy Stitching everyone! :-)

Resolutions update :-P

Well it's over halfway through 2009 so I decided to look back at the resolutions I made at the begining of the year to see how well I'm doing at keeping them so far. My resolutions were : Stitchy Resolutions

• complete all my current WIP's
• start & finish 'popcorn flower's for you' in time for my grandma's birthday
• learn how to do french knots once & for all
• to complete at least one large project (one of the mirabillia or passione ricamo charts i have in my to-do pile)

Other Resolutions this year are:

• pass my driving test
• put any bonuses I get from work into my savings account (and not spend it!!)

So far I haven't completed any of the WIP's I had at the start of the year, however I have managed to add projects to the list and some of those have been finished! I haven't even started the popcorn chart for my Grandma's birthday and it was at the end of May. My mum has shown me how to do french knots but I haven't got to grips with them yet but I've made a start lol! Obviously the large project has to wait till I've got some of these WIP's finished lol. I've passed my theory test and the practical driving test is being booked at the end of the month so fingers crossed I'll get it over with soon :) My savings account is empty thanks to driving and paying off my credit card #:( soon as they are sorted I can focus on saving up :)

So there we are, things can only improve I think :)

Weekend Update

Picked up the new issue of CrossStitcher today & I'm loving the Margaret sherry free kit, however I'm a bit annoyed that the other mouse designs later in the issue feature the same mouse pattern as the freebie kit with an extra border & wording. They could have produced 3 different mice to make a set of 4 instead of printing the same pattern twice... OK rant over, on the whole the mag is very nice & next months issue looks very interesting too. Work on the birth sampler is still moving forward at some speed, have almost finished the back end of Humphrey & hope to get it finished by tonight; so there will only be the backstitch left to do next week. I'm a little nervous about charting the details but I plan on charting them onto graph paper first so i can tweak it size before stitching. The jewellery I made earlier this week didn't hold up very well under wear and actually fell apart while I was at work but I will probably take an hour or so out of stitching this evening to fix them, will post up pictures when they are all fixed :-) Hope everyone has had a nice weekend, mine has definitely been more relaxing than I'd expected it to have bee, even if work was manic yesterday :-) Watch this space for photos, I'll try and post them up later on but if not it will be tomorrow. Happy stitching!!

No update yet...

only did 5 minutes of stitching today, was too tired to read the chart lol, hope to do some tomorrow as I have sunday off so can stay up later :)

Charity Shop Stash :-)

My mum found me the coolest thing ever in the charity shop yesterday, an easy clip frame brand new in the packaging for £4!! It's only a small one but it's great! She also bought me a big cross stitch book that would cost £20 brand new for £1!!! Will post pics up tomorrow along with a sampler progress pic as it's really coming along :-) Also made some more jewellary so I'll post up some pics of that as well!! Happy Stitching Everyone!!

Photo Update as promised!

This is my birth sampler progress as of today (only 5 weeks till Karmay is home with Mum) I think I'm on target to get it finished & framed :-)

And this is my progress on the lavender card from cross stitch card shop, gave up shortly after starting but will finish it after the birth sampler goes to the framers lol

Definate progress is being made

Finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with this birth sampler now so photo will be up by the end of sunday, hopefully I'll have finished this perticular section and moved onto the final hurdle before the backstitch!!! :-) enjoy the weekend everyone, hope the weather is nice for you all :-)

.:Birth Sampler update:.

well, finally got all the details from my friend for her sampler, have made some progress on stitching but not enough to merit a new picture, will post one up sunday when i will have made more progress...hopefully lol :-) might start doing some of the backstitch... Also got my subs copy of WOCS and theres not much I wanna do in this issue, I've decided to stitch everyone one of my immediate family a coaster for christmas and I like the school ABC for my dad's one, I like the Joan Elliott fairy mother & child design and the WTP design but thats it. I might stitch one of the japanese dolls for my nan as she loves oriental stuff like that but I'm not 100% sure about it. happy stitching everyone & have a great weekend :-)

new mini stitch

started stitching the lavender card kit that came free with the latest issue of cross stitch card shop a few days ago, started off really well but there are 4 different shades of purple used for the lavender and so it's taking longer than I originally expected to stitch! Upside is that there is hardly any backstitch (yay!)

Ebay Stash!!

Finally my eBay haul has all arrived!!

Got some cream (not pictured), yellow & lilac 16 count Aida, 2 hand dyed aidas in 14 & 18 count, a book of cross stitched alphabets, a disney calender from 2003 (don't know which issue of WOCS it comes from) & a pirates of the carribbean stitch kit. I also bought issue 161 of cross stitcher but forgot to include it in the picture. Also pictured are the Mr Bump kit I bought from my local stitchy shop & a stitch roll that orginally came free with an issue of cross stitcher (no idea which one though) which I got from a charity shop for 75p!!

Still working on the birth sampler for my friend's baby & she's named her Carmae Destiny (spelling needs to be checked before I finish though!) Will post a new update at the weekend.

Happy Stitching!!

speedy finish :-)

Got my subs copy of cross stitch crazy yesterday and when I saw the ladybird cards i just knew I had to stitch one of them straight away...

now i'll always know where my stitchy bug is!!! Stitched on 14 count white aida using some anchor and some DMC threads. Took about 3 hours to stitch up :-) back to the birth sampler now.

Beading Break!

Took some time out from stitching today as it was too hot to concentrate on the chart symbols & I've been having some upper back pain for the last few days so decided to visit the doctor just to make sure it's nothing major as my mum suffered with a severe back problem last year, luckily it's nothing serious just a muscle pull apparently (still hurts though ).

Popped into the stitchy shop on the way home as my mum wanted to pick up some more chains for the necklaces she's been making & some extra beads & stuff. So we were looking at all the charms & beads in the bargain bin, when mum remembered that she needed some findings as well, which is when i spotted the cutest little giraffe charms on sale for 50p each (40p each with my mum's discount )

So cute!!I just had to buy them (there were only 2 left) so decided to make some jewellery this afternoon.

This is the necklace I made using one of the giraffe charms some mid sized amber beads, silver spacers & blue & gold sead beads.

This is a watch I made out of a bracelet I bought from work, I loved the beads in the original bracelet but not the way they had been put together so i decided to make a nice summery watch, problem is that the watch face is quite heavy so I've had to re-string the beads a few times to get the 'strap' the right size. The bracelet is made using some green beads I picked up some the stitchy shop last wednesday, silve spacers & mid-sized pink beads, love the colours together and goes well with most of my summer wardrobe

These are the rest of the pieces I have made in the last year or so, I don't make jewellery very often as I get frustrated with it easily but sometime I enjoy it. The three bracelets at the top are just beads on string but I also made matching earrings to go with the blue & green bracelet (just frogot to include them in the picture. The two bracelets below them are made from memory wire, bugle & sead beads, I taught a few of the girls in my youth group how to make these 2 years ago. The necklace is one of my favourite pieces, it's made using jade green & clear swarofski crystals & bronze dragonfly shaped spacers, I've also made two more of these necklaces using pink and lilac swarofski crystals & silver dragonflies for two of the girls at work as maternity presents.

Hope you like my jewellery, happy crafting everyone :)

P.S on a stitchy note I also picked up a bothy threads Mr Bump kit (£2.99) & the 2009 DMC catalogue for free! and my ebay haul has begun to arrive lol will post a pick when its all here

I make Jewellary..

...but only when the mood strikes me lol

Hot Off The Hoop!

...well it was two hours ago but I've only just found the camera cable... This design was featured in a cross stitcher calender from 200(3?) I think and was supposed to be finished in time for my nan's birthday back in march but due to personal issues I lost my stitching bug, now it's finished my mum has decided that she likes it so I'm going to frame it and put it in the kitchen :-) It's stitched on 14count rustic Aida and is stitched in DMC threads. Although it took ages to finish I really enjoyed stitching it. Now that it's finished I've gone back to stitching my friend a birth sampler for her new daughter. This is how far I've gotten after 3 days of stitching it. Hoping to do more this evening :-) Happy Stitching everone

Stash Updates :-)

Went to the car boot yesterday and managed to get a few stitchy bargains Got myself a pincushion kit with a cat design on it for £1, a needle case for 50p, the frame was £3 but i'm going to use it to frame a humphrey's corner design once I've stitched it & the best bargain of my day 2 hardback cross stitch books for 80p each!! I also bought some really cool fabric which has a beads & ribbon print on it for £1.50 but forgot to include it in the picture lol, all in all i had a really good day (even if i did get sunburnt!) Went to my local stitchy shop last wednesday & decided to treat myself with the haul pictured below Picked up 3 new kits, some fabric scissors, iron on interfacing, some thread cards & lots of lovely Aida, mostly 14count and a few 16count, they are all cutoffs but are usually big enough to do most designs so i usually pick up a few everytime i go in various colours but this was the first time I'd seen the impressions aidas from DMC in there so I went a little crazy... Also bought some scissor sharpeners & some blue & cream stripey linen fabric to make myself a shopping bag but again forgot to include it in the picture :-)