Boxing Day :)

wow two posts in as many days, alert the media!!!

So I hit the sales in Oxford today and came away with a few things I'd been looking at before Christmas.

I put the voucher my brother gave me towards ZombieU and then bought a couple of other games preowned for the 3DS and a walkthrough guide for the Super Mario game I recieved yesterday (yes I'm stuck already)

Bought a couple of cd's and t-shirts in HMV, then bought Batman Arkham City for the WiiU when I saw it was reduced :)

Been playing ZombieU in the dark tonight and honestly it is terrifying!!! Not really a 1st person shooter gamer, prefer platformers such as Mario & Sonic but I am enjoying playing it!

Hoping to get some stitching done after work tomorrow!!!

xX Fiona Xx

Merry Christmas to all....

and to all a good night :)

Today has been spent in the company of my parents and younger brother, I've recieved some wonderful gifts from my friends, a beautifully stitched cushion from Michelle (and some smellies!) and a Christmas banner kit by Dimensions from Kath.

My other presents have been mostly gaming related, a new 3DS XL, Paper Mario Sticker Star & the Guiness Book of Records Gamer's Edition from my parents. A £15 voucher for Game from my brother and my friend Simon bought me a Super Mario plushie toy & a voucher for the Nintendo
E-Shop.

I also got a ticket to go and see Muse in Coventry next may from my friends Dave & Toni (so looking forward to going!) and then the typically smellies and chocolates (did not last long!!!) from co-workers and other extended family.

so onto 2013, hasn't the year gone quickly?!

2012 was not a good blogging/crafting year for me, I didn't keep up with any of my SAL's or the TUSAL and for several months at a time my crafty bugs went AWOL. But enough of the bad points!

Highlights of 2012 were joining a knitting group on Thursday mornings & learning the basics of Crochet, starting several personal challenges and making fairly good headway on them even if I didn't manage to finish them, emptying the majority of my finishing pile and actually making my cross stitched pieces into items I can enjoy.

So onto 2013 and my hopes for the year.

This time last year my project bag was almost empty, save for a large project and two slightly smaller ones. This year however my project bag is overflowing with half started works and almost finished items. For this reason I will not be joining the Crazy January Challenge in 2013.

I will be following along with the TUSAL posts but I will post up at the start of each month rather than on the new moon. I have created my own blog calender so will be scheduling my posts around that in the attempt to blog more often than I have this year.

I have joined the Santa's Village SAL, I'll post a link to the blog when I've actually made a start, houses 1 & 2 are out now but I have yet to purchase either of them.

Lizzie Kate announced a monthly ornament series that I also hope to at least purchase if not stitch next year.

I'm aiming to finish all my current projects and I have a wicket basket full of small charts I hope to stitch as well as trying to work through some of my kit stash.

I bought lots of yarn this year and I hope to crochet a throw designed by Lucy @ Attic24 on Thursday mornings at my knitting group.


I think that's everything, hopefully I'll be back before the new year with photos of my presents but if not then I shall see you all in 2013 :)

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

xX Fiona Xx

October Round Up & November Goals

Still waiting on two charts which are on back order so no stash pics just yet.

Now that it's Halloween Night (not that you can tell here...I had one trick or treater!)

October's challenges were just that, a challenge. For some reason I found it hard to stitch this month and as such didn't really get much done.

• Finish Halloween Rules....No
• Finish Green Flip-it Series....No
• Finish Nose Garden....No
• Finish Hello Kitty....No, it got binned early in the month, so I guess technically it counts?!
• Finish Witchy Brew....Yes!!

Yes the only thing I managed to get finished was Witchy Brew however I have only one challenge in November and I am going to achieve it!

November's Challenge is *drumroll please*.....

 

FINISH SUPER MARIO THROUGH THE AGES

 

I have been posting about this piece for over a year and I'll be damned if I'm going to blog about it next year!! Now I've been doing some maths (shocking I know given that I struggle even with a calculator) but it's actually achievable to have it finished by the end of the month if I stitch a little every day.

 

Here's how I worked it out:

 

Total stitches in piece: 23,328

Stitches completed: 7,482

Stitches left to work:15,846

No. of stitches required per day to finish: 528

 

Given that I'm working this on magic guide aida that's just under five and a half blocks a day :)

 

Sadly I won't be able to start this until the 3rd as I'm away on training for the next 2 days with work and I really don't want to take my stitching with me so on Saturday I'll have to have a bit on a hermit weekend and stitch around 1600 stitches to catch up (16 blocks)

 

Wish me luck!!! I'll be posting updates every few days

 

xX Fiona Xx

nothing stitchy to report

my copy of the new Professor Layton game currently has my undivided attention, however my latest order from 123stitch also arrived today so I'll do a stitchy stash post tomorrow :)

Teaching Tuesday :)

'Tonight I have been sharing my addiction with someone close to me (before you all get worried, its totally craft related and harms no-one and nothing-with the exception of my bank balance!)

My friend Sam asked me to teach him to cross stitch a few weeks ago and nw that we've had some free time I've been able too!

After Sam picked out a chart he liked the look of (something small, a little backstitch & a few colour changes) I pulled the equipment he'd need, explained the difference between Anchor & DMC, went over the basics (how to make a cross, work stitches in a line or singularly, start off, finish a thread etc) and then pretty much left him to it while I got on with my own project.

 

While Sam was stitching I managed to finish off 'Eat Locally', I know I said I was going to finish it yesterday but I kinda fell asleep instead! Here is 'Eat Locally' & 'Save Water' finished, next up is 'Keep Our Air Clean'.

 

 

I took Sam home around 9PM, after 3 hours of stitchy fun. I think he enjoyed himself! (Well I hope he did!)

 

 

And a close up of Sam's first Cross Stitch, he's taken it home to finish :)

 

Till Next Time, Happy Stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx





Monday Musings

Lots going on this week, my friend Sam is coming over tomorrow night to learn how to cross stitch!

Should be fairly easy to teach him the basics, after all if I can pick it up anyone can!!

As well as playing teacher this week I shall be working on:

•  Green Series, 'Eat Locally' is almost finished as we speak, shall be finished before bedtime tonight I think
• Knitting Mug Hug christmas presents at Needles & Natter on Thursday morning & during my lunch breaks at work, have one act on from lunch today and I'm aiming to be on my second by Thursday.
• Possibly getting another Halloween Rule completed before the weekend.

Also found out that my friend from work is expecting a little boy in March :) Looks like the Lizzie Kate Birth chart I picked up at Ally Pally will be getting stitched sooner rather than later!!

xX Fiona Xx

Ally Pally, finishes and more :)

Well a week ago today I went to Ally Pally with my mum for the stitching show, we met up with Michelle & Kath there. There were a couple of cool exibits there, one called 'the unfinishables' which tied in with a book release of the same name, the exibit was all those unfinished items that everyone has lurking in boxes and drawers, the ones you know you will never finish but can't bare to throw away.

The second exibit was a really awesome knitted model village, I took quite a few photos of this one and no matter how many times I look at them, I still find things I didn't spot before!!

The show itself was huge! However I think I bought home the least amount of stash I've ever bought from a show!

Few Lizzie Kates, including 3 of the new 6 snow belles, and a few other charts from my wishlist, fabric from sew-it-all, 2 FQ and some new scissors.

I also bought some Rico Design Aran Wool.

I also got my christmas presents from Michelle & Kath but I'm being good and waiting until christmas to open them (mum's hidden them!) however one of them was 'jingling' all the way home...hmm...

This week I have been off work, using up the last of my holiday days as I'm not allowed time off over November/December so I've been stitching. I finished Witchy Brew, it only took 2 days :) Love this design!! Stitched in DMC's and GAST :)

Continued with Halloween Rules, only 3 to go now!

And did a little work on Green Series Flip-its.

I have decided to bin Hello Kitty, the person it was for doesn't want it now and I'm not really into Hello Kitty so I figure why waste thread!

I realised I never showed a photo of Button Button finished so here's how it came out, I added flower shaped buttons to the flower centers and stitched it in DMC.

My other news is that I entered a giveaway and my new local branch of hobbycraft when it opened here in Oxford and I won!! I've now got £25 worth of vouchers to spend!! :)

 

 



Well thats everything for now, sorry its been such a long post!!! Will try to update a bit more often now!!

xX Fiona Xx

One more sleep

till Ally Pally!!!!

So Excited!!!!!

Lol will do a proper real update with *photos* when I get back!!

October Already?!

Wow the year has gone so fast! Hard to believe it's October already.

Suppose I'd better set myself some targets for October then ;)

1. Finish Halloween Rules
2. Finish Green Flip-its Series
3. Finish Witchy Brew
4. Finish Nose Garden
5. Finish Hello Kitty Head

Fair amount to do but my stitchy bug is back so who knows? I might just do it!!

September was a pretty good month, I spent more time knitting than stitching though, I finished the scarf I started back in January (not for the CJC sadly!) and I knitted my first ever 'mug hug'. Pretty pleased with the way it came out, it looked like the picture in the book and it fitted round my mug!

Stitching wise I did manage to finish Button Button, which was a january challenge piece so I only have 4 left to go!!

xX Fiona Xx

I'm still here honest!!

I'm just not in a blogging mood right now and my laptop is playing up lately.

I have been stitching however and will hopefully have some decent updates on the way soon!

See you all soon

Fiona xx

Sunday Stitching update.

Not much crafty happened this week, I think after my finishing frenzy last week my bugs disappeared for a well deserved break ;) hopefully they will come scurrying back next week as I have an exchange piece to finish!!

I popped along to Needles & Natter again on Thursday, met some more lovely crafty people and enjoyed a few cups of tea and....I learnt to crochet!! Only the basics so far, I can make chains and join my chain to form rows.

I was super excited and popped into my local wool shop on the way home for some scrap yarns to play with & keep practising. Soon got bored making rows and rows and rows though so went on youtube to find out about Granny Squares. One of the main reasons I wanted to learn to crochet in the first place is because I found this lovely Granny Squares Throw pattern on Ravelry from Attic24.

I am a great admirer of Attic24, as are many of the ladies from Needles & Natter, we had great fun discussing our favourite patterns she's produced. Mine are Summer Garden Granny Squares Throw, Ripple Throw & Crochet Bag and I'm hoping to make all three...

Anyway, the tutorial Lucy of Attic24 has written for Summer Garden Granny Squares seemed simple enough that even a total newbie like me understood them, I did struggle with connecting my chain to form a ring and where to go from there (hense youtube) but other than that I did manage to make a square!! I fudged my trebles and I know exactly what I did wrong now but I still ended up with somethign that was almost square & certainly looked like a granny square!!

I will upload pics of my crochet endevours soon!

I also managed to stitch half of my next halloween rule, still 4 months behind though, will have to get back to it after my Alice exchange pieces are done!!

xX Fiona Xx

Christmas Yoshi

Tiki I got the pattern from spritestitch.com but as I can't find the pattern to link to it I'll just post it here.

Hope this helps :)

The finishing pile is no more :)

I am thrilled to announce that apart from 3 pictures that require framing~which I may or may not do this afternoon~ I have completly emptied my finishing pile :)

My final ornament- lil valentine

Peep Cube

Top view

ABC Pumpkin

Check out the backing fabric!!

Santa 10

Backing fabric~so happy that I have enough for all 11 Santa designs & enough for this year's design too :)

Newton's Law Blossoms

All my finishes from this week together, bit of a collision of holidays but it makes me feel quite proud to see it all in one place.

My goals for my second week of holiday are:

• Halloween Rules catch up
• Finish Alice exchange piece
• Button Button (at craft group on Thursday morning)
• Finish Eat Local on Green Series
• Finish Hello Kitty stitch

Bit of a long list but as I'm off and the weather is looking pretty grim this week I might supprise myself again :)

Happy Stitching!!
xX Fiona Xx

Flat Fold Finish!!

Today was not as productive as I'd hoped...I managed to finish one flat fold.

Still it had been in the finishing pile for ages and now it's not, plus it was a type of finish I hadn't tried before so that may have had something to do with the time spent on it.

Halloween Short Stack by Waxing Moon Designs.

The flash has made the ribbon look really bright, it's more of a golden yellow in real life.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the sewing machine out and get making some cushions & pillow style ornies, maybe finish Peep as a cube and Lil Valentine as my last flat back orny too.

Till next time, happy stitching

xX Fiona Xx

Needles & Natter & More!!

More first :)

Keen observers/followers of my blog will have no doubt noticed a shiny new page at the top of my header.

Very early Wednesday morning I couldn't sleep so I decided to sort through my finishing pile and see just what I had in there and see if I could come up with some way of organising it better so that I could try and work through some of it before adding more finishes to it! I divided my entire pile into seperate catagories for flat back ornys, cusions/pillows etc and wrote them all down on my new page under the different catagories.

I'm hoping to get my entire pile finished off before I go back to work on the 13th. So far it's going very well, I have finished 7 things since Tuesday!!

Lots of flat backed ornys

My oldest finish, cosy christmas wishes from 2009

My first January Challenge finish, Lil Easter

Life's A Stitch

All Hallow's Eve

Peppermint Twist



Christmas Yoshi :)

Also the theme for August is 'Try something new', so in keeping with that theme I tried a new type of finish, I finished Is It Too Late as a present style cube :)

Really pleased with how well it came out and at how simple this type of finish was, will be doing again I'm sure :)

I also went to Needle & Natter today for the first time, as I have been playing with fabric & trims & glue for the last few days I haven't been stitching so I decided to take Button Button along. The ladies there were really friendly & although there were 10 of us there today including my mum & myself that is apparently a quiet day!! Despite doing an awful lot of 'nattering' (introductions as everyone showed up, explaining what crafts I do and for how long etc) I did manage to get a little bit of stitching done.

(The picture is shiny because I took it without getting my stitching out of the plastic pouch I store it in when I'm not working on it)

One of the ladies at the group has offered to teach me how to crochet! I'm very excited to learn as it's another craft I can do when my stitching bug deserts me! (and I've been looking at Ravelry again) I'm looking forward to next week's meeting all ready!!

Tomorrow I hope to finish one last ornament (lil valentine) a cube (peep) and try my hand at making flat folds, I'm a little nervous of those....Then I just have two cushions to make & a few framed pieces to do and my finishing pile will be gone!!

Wish me luck!!

Till next time, happy stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx

it's here, it's here!!!

Yes my halloween copy of Just Cross Stitch finally arrived!!!!

so excited!!! Found too many designs I want to stitch!

Obviously I couldn't just order a magazine...these are the other bits that snuck their way into my basket prior to checkout :)

LHN Tree Farm, WMD Primative Greetings, Stitchy Kitty's Snowman Trio (and the buttons to finish)

Plum Streets Christmas Is Coming & Threadwork Primative's Kingle's Crow

Stashing aside I have also been stitching today, here is how button button is progressing, pretty happy with the way it's turning out so far. I am almost halfway though :)

I have two other bits of crafty news to share, firstly I discovered Ravelry today. I'd heard of it before but after an email from stitchyangel about some mitts she finished recently I thought I'd go and check it out....big mistake!! I have found sevenal patterns I've been wanting to knit/crochet, many from Attic24 of who's work I am a great fan! It's all such colourful hooky goodness :)

My second bit of craftying news is that I have found a craft group about 5 mins away from my workplace, they meet every Thursday from 9 till 12 at a local tea room called Rosie's. The group is affectionatly called 'Needles and Natter' and apparently any and all types of needles are accepted! I'm going along on Thursday to check it out and I'm thinking of taking either Witchy Brew or Dandy Dreams with me. Originally I was going to take Button Button but I think I may have it finished before then but if not I may take it along and finish it.

Till Next Time, Happy Stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx

Button Button update

More progress to show!! Stitched some more while watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Probably the most I will actually watch of the Olympics too, much rather be stitching ;)

Before I show how much I have done, I have noticed that more often than not I will put my stitching down to make a cuppa, answer the phone or door etc, (a problem that every crafter no doubt faces) but instead of pulling my needle through the fabric and parking it at the side, most of the time I leave it like this....

Yes that's right, with the needle poking straight up through the fabric...honestly sometimes I have to wonder at my own stupidity, I mean I manage to poke myself with it when I pick it up again too and I still do it!!

Anyway, inepitude aside, here is how much I got done tonight

I'm hoping to get more done tomorrow but as I'm going to Portsmouth to see family I can't really see it happening, still you never know!

Till next time, happy stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx

Button Button

Did a little more work on Button Button tonight while watching NCIS :)

Have decided this is going to either be a flat fold or a padded hanging orny when it's finished so I'm using the DMC alternatives to stitch the design, this way it will be washable!!

Happy Stitching!

xX Fiona Xx

Sun, Stash & Stitching

The three things that make every stitcher smile :)

Yes the sun has finally been shining here in Abingdon and my god it's been lovely!! Sadly the weatherman keeps telling me that the rain clouds are due back this weekend but I'm choosing not to believe him!!

I have some lovely new stash goodies courtesy of eBay. The Christmas in July theme continues as they are all festive designs, it really is one of my favourite holidays!

A couple of Lizzie Kate Charts

Limited Edition GAST Winter thread pack

Lizzie Kate'sChristmas Rules

Also picked up some Aida grab bags and an OOP dmc thread from my LNS when I went in to pick up some DMC 739 for Super Mario ~ I couldn't leave without buying more than one thing now could I?!

And lastly I have some stitching to show. I forgot to sign up for IHSW as usual but I still stitched anyway. I finished Mario #1 (bar 7 stitches in the colour I'd run out of...stupid background)

And frogged and restarted 'Button Button' by CCN. (Originally started too low on the Aida) But as I've really not done much there isn't a photo :)

Not massive amounts done but I was also out enjoying the sun!!

Happy Stitching
xX Fiona Xx

Super Mario Sunday!

Yes its finally time to show an update of Super Mario!!

Originally I was going to stitch the entire background before filling in all the Mario shaped gaps but since coming back to this design after almost a year I decided that filling in the upper marios before continuing with the background is probably a much better way forward. Once I have filled these gaps I will finish the design by stitching a page at a time. There is about 2 pages worth pictured here and there are 6 in total.

I have also managed to finish organising my threads today :) Now I only have to keep on top of it when I finish a project! ~ wish me luck! ~

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend, we finally had some sunshine here so I also mowed the back garden and got just a little bit sunburnt!

Till next time, happy stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx

Unexpected Organisation

No stitching to show today, for some reason I kept putting my needle down and so have very little to show.

I was determined to have a significant amount done on super mario today so that I coud finally show an updated progress picture but sadly it was not meant to be, I went to change colours on one of the Mario's in the design only to find that I didn't have the colour in my project pack.

I knew I had taken out some of the colours for some of my crazy january starts but I thought I had put them all back again once January was over. One massive hunt through all the projects I had kitted up, in my wip bag and through my pot containing all my 'used threads to be put away' later and I'd found the missing colour. (DMC 311 not that anyone really needed to know :-P )

However instead of going back to my project I found myself sorting through threads, putting away doubles in the towers they are meant to be in, windign new threads onto bobbins and finally sorting out the GAST threads I received either early this year or late last year into flossbags. yes they have been sat there for so long that I have forgotten!!

Still have a little more to do, varigated threads and metallics to go onto bobbins too and I need to check back through those kitted up projects before storing the last of the GAST threads but I can finally say that my threads are almost organised!!

Now if only I'd gotten some stitching done.... LOL

Till next time, happy stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx

Happy Dance Thursday!

Santa 10 is finished!!!

Only slight changes I made were ommitting the bottom border and stitching Santa's beard and eyebrows in plain white dmc thread rather than the whisper fibres recommended. I plan on finishing this as either a flat fold or a flat orny.

Have gone back to work on the Green Series by LK now :)

xX Fiona Xx

P.S have figured out a solution to my photo problem, I'm uploading to photobucket first :)