Jan IHSW and Snow!

Its SNOWING!!!

Well it has been anyways. It won't break any records but when I woke up this morning there were a fresh 4 inches of snow on the ground.

This weekend was PERFECT for hermitting away. Of course the project of choice was Avarice. Page 17 is getting on for halfway through now.

Here's a start pic. the column and a bit is page 18 and the end of another row. I am looking forward to a fast page finish there!!

And at the end of the weekend stitch - in...

As the gems get smaller they get easier but not less confetti if you know what I mean.

I am looking forward to finishing this page. I hope another week and it will be done.

Til the next update

xx

November IHSW report

IHSW was all of a sudden upon me and guess what? Yep. I worked on Avarice. I just cannot put her down!!

There has been a fair bit pf progress since my last post. 2 pages and a bit in fact....

The last left side page of heavy confetti gems has been completed, and on page 14 her beautiful hand appeared. Here is a pic at the start of the weekend:

There were around 1200 stitches to finish this page.

And here is an overall after IHSW pic with the first row of page 15 in place. I am LOVING the block stitching on her skirt. At the end of this row there are some more gems but hey, its the payoff for a few easy pages.

I love stitching her. I can't get into rotation with Firefly because she keeps calling me.

So. Life? you ask?

I am trying to increase my fitness levels and I have started running again. I did it years ago, restarted earlier this year but injury forced me to stop until I lost a little weight so I did. I restarted though and I am really pleased with how its going so far.

I want to be a lean, mean stitching machine!

I have a long way to go and I am realistic, but I want to change ME within the next 6 months. I am focused on it and I WILL do it. First goal, 7lbs/3kg before Christmas season starts.

Children are all fantastic, house is great. New car coming soon.. hubs happy about that LOL.

Can you believe next month it will be a year since we moved?!?!?! Time flies.

Til the next update!

xx

Avarice Page 10 Finish, Late WIPocalypse.. And Life Update!

Whoo! I am so pleased to get this one done! I really wanted to finish this in time for the WIPocalypse at the end of August but I am almost 2 weeks late! A page and a column and the second row is complete. That's the next task!

This page saw her other arm completed and the next one is confetti hell. More gems. The next row sees the last of the gems on either end then its just lovely block stitching for a good while.

Pics:

My next pic is one of me and the family that I wanted to share from our recent holiday in North Wales. We are on a boat on the middle of Llyn Padarn, a lake in the town of Llanberis. The town is at the foot of Mount Snowdon and the day we were there it was so clear we could see the summit.

From L - R,. Me, Hannah, my husband Jon, Victoria (sticking her tongue out as usual LOL) and Lauren peeking out.

We had such a good time and the sun shone down on us that day :-))

Next, Lauren started pre school this week My baby is 3 1/2 already. She has truly come a long way this year being unwell with one thing and another. Anyway, here she is in her school uniform:

That's all for now, Don't forget IHSW this weekend - hop over to Joysze's Blog and sign up!!

xx

August IHSW, TUSAL, Holiday and other news!

So I had a holiday. a week in Wales

We had good weather and bad weather but as per the previous post I was quite unwell throughout it. My chest infection properly took hold and although I tried not to let it interfere with my holiday then what happened? It took my stitchy bug!

I barely put in 50 stitches on Avarice. All week. When I came home I got out my stitching on a sunny day to sit in the garden and this happened:

And thats all. Nada else.

It isn't even worth posting a pic of my TUSAL jar. Its not changed since last month.

Our holiday was, on the whole, fabulous. We got to explore where we haven't been before, and refresh our memories on places we have been and people we have met in the past.

I got some lovely stitching stash, I won;t share it now but I will next post.

Its early in the AM here in the UK and I got the news a couple of hours ago that my Mother is seriously ill in hospital. I needed something to do while I wait to be able to go to her and blogging seemed perfect. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers that she pulls through. She is currently on an assisted breathing device.

Til the next blog... think its WIPocalypse soon??

xx

A week's rest and relaxation!

Off for a week's holiday tomorrow.

In the nick of time really as I am unwell with a chest infection.

Taking Avarice with me. The place we go is very rural with no tv/radio/phone signal so the girls play and I stitch, hubs reads and we all get a buzz from going back to basics.

Expect a mammoth post when I get back - and by my reckoning it will be IHSW! Joysze if you read this then sign me up when you put up the post!!

Til next weekend
xx

July IHSW and tutorial post

So this IHSW once again Avarice got in there. I just love stitching this piece. And the bottom half of her face is now complete!

I started carrying threads/parking/whatever your preferred choice of name for this part hence the loose threads.

Isn't that face amazing? A testament to the talent of Marta Dahlig (original artist) and Michele Sayetta's charting.

Speaking of HAED I have been very fortunate. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have received a further 2 charts through the RAK programme. So to add to my stash I have Dahlig's Umbrella Sky and another piece called Cleaning House!. Some further Dahligs have been released and they are now already on my list LOL. That takes my Dahlig stash up to 5 with about 7 on the WL!

No new start this month. I am on holiday later on in August though so I might get the new one started up then!!

Oh and check out my Tutorial page - I uploaded the method for my framing of Wiz

Til the next update!

xx

IHSW June report

This IHSW I worked mainly on Avarice, but a little on Wiz too.

There is a  battle for computer supremacy over the weekend here and seeing as the weather hasn't been all that great the girls have spent their time indoors. Unfortunately my pattern for Wiz is on USB storage rather than hard copy so I can't stitch it up as much as I wanted. Anyway.

I finished page 7 on Avarice! Yippee!!!

This was very confetti heavy so I am looking forward to page 8 which is mainly block stitching. Some confetti comes back after that though with dress detail coming in.

Overall view:

But that was not the last of her this weekend... I got in a good 700 stitches on page 8 too.

I did those in around 3 hours. Very fast! Lots of black on it. I am really going to enjoy this page!!

And Wiz? Well. Lookiee here! Wiz is looking AMAZING. The lion has suddenly jumped out and Dorothy's face is starting to come in now.

I am rather enjoying the change into cross country stitching with this rather than the block work of Avarice.

Hope everyone had a great IHSW. TUSAL report tomorrow... ish.... :D

xx

IHSW, TUSAL and WIPocalypse!

Short post today. No main computer! I am posting from my Tablet.
Luckily IHSW< the WIPocalypse and TUSAL all came within days of one another so I can condense into one post. And I am late posting this!!
I worked on WIzard of Oz for both IHSW and the WIPocalypse. I need this piece finished.. and soon! About 8 weeks left. I also came by a posilock stand ready for my next start. Once WIz is done I am starting Dahlig's Firefly.
My ORT jar looks good too.. Lauren is my model for it this month... She is well recovered and was more than happy to pose with it! I will squash my thread down too although there is still loads of space in the jar.
Opinions sought... I often stitch up little cover kits that I get on the front of magazines. I am usually left with threads over. What do you do with them? Do you add them to ORT's? Or put them in your stash to use on a different project? I have a box with some in and I have hesitated to add them to ORt's as it almost seems like cheating??
Anyway onto the pics! I have a feeling they may be skewed... urgh. Once I get my computer back I will turn them.
Turned out to be a longer post than I thought...
xx

IHSW March!

Yes I actually managed to put in some stitching!! Yay me!

I had a good weekend actually - it was Mothering Sunday here in the UK so I decided to get my chores out of the way ASAP so I could indulge in my stitching!

I continued Avarice page 5 and here is how she looks now.

Not too far away from the end of the page., Just some confetti to go. I have a couple of hours today as I got extra chores done yesterday so once again I can sit and stitch :D

Other news - Thanks all so much for your comments on my last post and the sympathy messages. Losing Sinead was incredibly hard, I was affected more deeply than I thought I would be.

Last year we knew that she didn't have many more years in her and we decided then that we would adopt a retired racing greyhound. So thats what we have done. Tony has joined our family and he will be joined soon by Chloe. Both ex racing dogs, Tony is 7 and Chloe 2 1/2. Both spayed/neutered, they are proving to be a hit with the children and the neighbours! Truly gorgeous dogs they are.... here is Tony doing what he does best - he sleeps for up to 18 hours a day... and this is his favourite place.

He looks very happy dosen't he?

Till next time

xx

The saddest IHSW post.... Ever!!

This is as far as I got!! Life ran away with me taking my stitch bug with it.
Hubs is off work with a bad back and the tail end of half term meant that i did nada.
I promise I will do better next month.
xx

IHSW and TUSAL report

So we had the first IHSW of the year and its TUSAL time too - nice coincidence!

Mm which to do first???

Ok then. IHSW it is. I worked on Avarice, as she is my WIPocalypse piece I decided to spend the time on her.
I only had a limited IHSW as my finger is either fractured or very badly bruised. What I had to do was train myself to use my index finger underneath my work as a guide rather than my middle finger. Was a bit awkward but I got some done.
I had visitors this weekend, my Mother and husband came for Sunday lunch and I spent a good part of the day with them. Anyway here is my before pic:

I am getting through that gem. Lots of confetti and its been a right royal pain in the bum. I am looking forward to the areas of block stitching to be honest. However I plodded through as I want to do this piece in order rather than dart from one area to another.

So we come to the after pic:

And with what I have done during daylight today its getting there. I have probably only got about 400 stitches in the entire weekend. A poor show really from me, but broken fingers and lots of confetti makes for slow going.

So now what about the TUSAL? I hear you ask...

Well I had quite a quandry about it. I joined up last November and thought that I would be well back stitching... broken fingers and house move notwithstanding... anyway.

My first problem is what do I put my ORT's in?

For most thats simple, but I live in a home with 3 enthusiastic girls where things get knocked, banged, broken, lost, found, lost again,... etc etc. I decided on a pasta sauce jar. Then I changed my mind.

I got a really nice jar that had coffee in it.. with a clear glass lid and bung so it will stay sealed up. As long as its kept where it won't be broken it'll be great. And I intend to fill it by years end.

Here it is:

A few threads from Avarice line the bottom.. its a BIG ol jar.... pic taken on my windowsill in the winter sun so it picks up some of the colours. Loads of browns, creams and greens in there.

So that's the lot for Jan TUSAL and IHSW. Full stitchy update and WIPocalypse update soon

xx

IHSW approaches!

And I have managed to break a finger! Child related accident. In stopping her from doing something she shouldn't I managed to bend my middle finger back and crack! ouchy! So I have some strapping and a buddy for it. Its my left hand and I am right handed so I can still do most things.. although they do take longer!

Anyway, to find out more about IHSW or indeed sign up you can either click the image over there <--- or click here and go to the lovely Joysze's blog.

IHSW and the first TUSAL pic of the year coming up after the weekend.

xx

An actual stitchy update!

Been a bit wayward of late with stitching but still managed some progress.

First a completed piece for Victoria's bedroom (if we get the house but even so its hers anyway) Excuse the fact that it is neither cleaned nor ironed. I am a slattern ;)

Secondly its another IHSW coming up. If you don't know about IHSW and the concept,then go over to Joysze's blog  .

Here is Avarice before the start. I am hoping to finish page 2 as its a bit labour intensive, Theres alot of confetti and colour changes on the gems. Looks easy but its frustrating to say the least!

So two opposing designs! Lets see what the weekend brings!

Fruits of my labour!

I had an awful cold this weekend and I am still not great now. But I started Avarice! I am (I reckon) just over 1600 stitches in and it looks great. I am loving the way it feels under my hands too if that makes sense.
There are about 20 different colours in just this small section. So intricately charted. I have to say though I am enjoying every stitch so far even though the cold has made me feel cruddy!

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xx