Harmony now finished ... or the first Wipocalypse check in ...

Dear all

I cannot believe that January is now over ... and that I have survived it.

During the month I had little time for stitching, so I picked a project with one colour to concentrate on ... one that had not much left to do. Guess what ... with how tired I was I had to unpick twice!

And here is the finish:

Harmony by Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe:

Complete - January 2016

Stitched in 1840 Red Violet as dyed by Nancy of Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

I think in January we were meant to introduce ourselves and our projects. I think I have done the latter in December or rather early January and my projects can be found on my Wipocalypse tab.

And I have some exciting news on the personal front ... some of you might remember I was sitting some exams in December ... well I passed them. And I think this means I am now a semi-qualified chartered accountant! There are still 3 more to go, plus some e-assessments before I become fully qualified, so maybe I should not yet get overexcited.

Until soon,

A random assemble of facts ... Wipocalypse - November, the sheep #1.10 and #1.11, giveaways and Christmas cards

Hello all,

Thank you for all your good wishes. I have finally got internet sorted and life moves on. I am truly a digital age girl ... no internet and functioning becomes difficult ... bank account ends up going overdrawn and charges pile (phew did not happen this time round), another knitting pattern sells on ebay and I have no clue I need to post! If you like knitting and looking for patterns. I have a 'few' listed HERE (big thank you to my sister who helped me list them all). I have it set up that postage discounts apply automatically to UK buyers, for international I can do manually (but I think ebay only lets this happen for auction style listings). So let me know if you are interested in that.


Wipocalypse ... I have missed a month again with this whole lack of internet.

'Harmony' by the amazing Nancy of the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe has loads of progress on it: 

This is due to all that travelling I done in the last few months. It is hard to keep changing colours when you are on the train, hence this is a perfect project. Also Nancy is having a few giveaways ... so exciting ... it is the famous Christmas countdown she did the previous year. Look below for more info.

More stitching was done on 'Venice' by Michael Powell:

Well this is a little of an understatement as I am about a page and a half done and this is just slightly an old photo of progress you haven't seen. I have been working mostly on this so another update later on ... and then I have diverted to a different project. But next time.

My sheep progress is as follows:

1000 stitches

1000 stitches

And the next 100 stitches ... I need to really stop skipping weekends or I will get confused in photos by this rate.

1100 stitches

1100 stitches

I think it is really coming along.

Remember I said I was having a giveaway. Well not that many people entered so I have two winners. Snoopy and Sarah. Congratulations girls! 

The system is a little bit stuck, and it says the order is being processed so hopefully it will be with you soon.

And to leave it on a positive note. The above mentioned Nancy's giveaway ...

The 1st Day of Christmas giveaway over at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

 And the 1st prize is hand dyed fabric.

And speaking of Christmas ... there are some handmade Christmas cards by me over at my Etsy shop. There is even hand drawn/painted detail on some.

Click HERE.

Till soon,

Stitch from Stash - September 2014 and I have a new start ...

Dear all,

I am not certain about this month's report ... or rather whether to weep or be proud. I spent ... a total of zero pounds/ dollars/anyothercurrency (a first since I embarked on this challenge). I was way too busy with the move, and poor with spending all that hard earned cash on letting agents, rent, additional rent, and even it seems now going to be overlapping rent. It's not that the money went to  something nice (like a brand new printer for which I will need to start saving again soon) but hey ho that is life, and a girl needs a place to call home. And things should settle down soon, deposits and fees are a pain, but they tend to attack suddenly at the start.

But on the even brighter side ... I made a start from stash! Perfect!  And I have £/$45.03 to carry to the next month (or whenever I will actually have money). For the hardcore addict that I am it is sooo nice that I managed to resist the urge.

It is 'Harmony' by the amazing Nancy of the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. I bought the chart from her in June (the spree month to be precise ... and if I am not buying any time soon I am planning on starting plenty from stash!). Fabric is evenweave (28 count I think although might be 32), it was bought and accounted for in August (and still for some reason coming out grey when it is more cream/peachy).  

latest threads won - featuring 1840 red violet in which I am stitching

The threads that I am using are of course hand dyed by Nancy herself, which I won awhile back and forgot to share photos of. I wish I could afford the entire collection (as do many others no doubt) ... one day. Nancy is soo generous, and this was actually a second time I won a giveaway from her. And this is my entire collection so far:

after a few projects stitched already there is still plenty!

Till soon,

Smalls #4 - a lovely The Snowflower Diaries finish, my new orchids & TUSAL #5

Hello all,

a slightly belated post on my latest finish for the smalls sal. It is 'Cherry Tree' by TheSnowflower Diaries. If you remember it was gifted to me as a kit for Christmas by my sister. 

I am not sure if many of you are aware but I was struggling, through my own fault, with this design. The green grass on the bottom left I stitched in columns of six (as I was stitching from centre outwards and did not want to make a counting error). Well, as you know this hand dyed stuff tends to be slightly variated. So I had myself columns of six highly visible. I was then debating of whether to leave it that way or unpick it. In the end I unpicked half of the stitching (as the rest was not too bad) and tried matching the shade of floss to the remaining block (to avoid the dreaded line). I think it has worked. 

fabric and thread info

Here are some close-ups of my new orchid. I bought it for £6 (half price!) in a ceramic pot. Pretty good deal as a pot normally costs £2 at least.

And my Tusal update. Not a lot as my last update was soooo late.

2014 so far in a jar

and after some prodding

Till soon (I have another finish to show off),

Big update: TUSAL and Wipocalypse - post 10, 2 finishes, thank you, an exchange, and a giveaway

Dear all,

You must have notice me being away from blogging and emailing for some time now. I was a 'little' busy. But I am back (I hope). I thought I would do one big update ... but not sure if I will manage and it might stretch over a few posts. 

TUSAL

First up ... belated [sigh] TUSAL update. To find out about this click HERE:

October next to 2013 (so far)

2013 (including October)

Next up Wipocalypse (yet again belated) ... I have two finishes so thought this might be the quickest way to update you on them.

Wipocalypse:

1st finish is "Blue Bird" by Sub Rosa. I have done it as part of the 2013 SAL

For 2013 SAL blog click HERE.

For Sub Rosa blog click HERE.

For Sub Rosa shop click HERE.

The boring info: stitched on Kiwi Illusions (Hand-dyed embroidery fabric), Jubilee 28ct, Drifting Sands; in Anchor: 10, 131, 143, 281, 310, 754, and an unknown (I lost the number from the dark pink.

There is a second design of a set with just flowers which I will do at a later date. I was planning some lovely cushions from this but unfortunately a) we still have no sofa to put them on, and b) there are a few other projects demanding my attention.

2nd finish is a bookmark I have designed and stitched as part of an exchange with Sarah. More to follow on that. It features the Big Ben, which I designed using colour pencils and graph paper. I am now a proud owner of a cross stitch software programme, so will convert this into a proper chart some day for others to stitch.

It is stitched on Zweigart 32ct, Belfast Linen, Cobblestone; in DMC: white, 413, 414, 420, 471, 501, 524, 645, 729, 738, 904, 938, 3371, 3770, 3817, 3822, and backstitched in DMC white and 3371. I had the shade numbers for the brown and blue tapestry threads used ... somewhere. Until I find where I kept them are left guessing.

detail

Some progress on the QS Literate Dragon:

June 2013

October 2013

Will I finish this by the 2nd December? Most likely no ... especially if I pick up a few extra projects to do between now and then.

Field of Poppies:

June 2013

October 2013

Vertical gridding done. Evenweave is a pain to grid! I just can't wait to start stitching. All I need to do now is the horizontal lines [grunt].

Thank you

I would like to say thank you to Bernadett of Petite Armoire (click HERE to see the blog) for the lovely gift she sent me. 

I posted the 2009th comment on her blog (when Bernadett's younger daughter was born).

Exchange with Sarah

As you have probably guessed from the above I have done an exchange with Sarah of Sarah in Stitches (click HERE). This was great fun.

Gifts I received:

Sarah sent me some exciting tea (how I love tea!), a hoop, some patterns, a card, ... 

... gorgeous aida wich would be perfect for a pillow's front panel, and ...

... a snowman hanging (just noticed that in my closeup the christmas tree charm is out of place ... silly me and my photography).

And I sent Sarah:

There are also some newly dyed fabrics by my talented mum to share. But I will update you on them next time. 

Giveaway

Lets finish on a nice note ... a lovely giveaway from Nancy of the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe:

Deadline: 15th November 2013

To enter: click HERE and don't forget to mention that I have sent you.

Bye bye for now,

P.S. Don't be surprised if you get a few months old reply from me... if I ever end up getting around to replying.

Not one, not two, but three finishes to show ...

Dear all, 

Before I show off my latest finishes I wanted to make a claim to fame. Some of you have already noticed that I was featured in the latest issue of the World of Cross Stitching, on the reader panel.

The World of Cross Stitching issue 206

... and here is proof ...

Following my comment on the Gorjuss chart the publishers were kind enough to post me a second copy. And so you know my predictions came true!

And now onto stitching ...

#1 - Biscornu #671 

These biscornus will be made up soon ... I promise ... but for now here are the panels. The chart was acquired from the Floss Box (check out the sidebar for that). Fabric is 14 count aida - cream ivory in colour. I have used just anchor for this project: 211,149, 146, 266, 29, 144, 27.

back

front

#2 - Come With Me by Snowflower Diaries

I completed it on evenweave dyed with fennel (like the puppies I stitched earlier) using dmc 102 variated. Purple is my favourite colour so I am quite happy with it. A proper finish finish is to follow.

And finally .... something you probably were not expecting to get finished/or have forgotten entirely about ... I finished the backstitching... finally:

#3 - Kiongozi - Dance Leader

Original art work by the Kenya artist Gakonga.

Stitched in anchor on count 18 cream Aida.

Kit by Fleur de Lis

 Till soon,