Is it really Wipocalypse time again? - post #5 - a month later I manage to finish this post

Is it really that time again? It seems I have posted my progress only yesterday.

Oh well the blogging feed says what it says so be it. [please note I wrote this bit a long while ago, its seems it along with photos has been in drafts forever]

Let start with a biggie ... I have a finish wooohooo (I was going to share it in a separate post in advance, but the time has run out it seems).


I recently had this finishing mode. Where I had one finish after another. This, the Snowflower Diaries' one, I also completed my input on the latest doll in progress. Hair sewn, and body stuffed. She is looking gorgeous. Then I picked up my knitting (a project being stored for a year or two). It is a jumper that I almost finished and only had half the sleeves to go. It has a mildly complicated pattern so once you put it down picking up and figuring out what line of pattern you are on amidst what to increase what to decrease. Anyhow it isn't done yet, but getting close. I am now beginning slowly to decrease the sleeves, just above the armpits essentially. The confusing part is that I think the pattern is telling me to decrease too slowly, and judging by my tension I will have a rather long shoulder. I need to find my original tension sample. I have decreased the amount of stitches according to this, but as most of pattern tells you how much to knit in length rather than rows I don't remember paying too much attention to that.

Christmas Candle

you saw this progress a few days ago in the Tuesday post:

April 2014

May 2014

But I am actively stitching on this project at the moment. Getting through all that confetti hair. It isn't too bad to be honest I imagine the golden leaves to the right will be a lot harder if the first leaf that I had on page #1 is anything to judge by. Threading just for one stitch! common this is just plain cruel. I think I'll leave for last that way I can start gridding next page and move on the threads to next page.

Ember II

After a large input in April, May saw little stitching:

April 2014

May 2014

I have finished the first flower and started working on the next one.

QS Poisonous Beauties

April 2014

May 2014

Since the photo has been taken back in May, there is actually a little bit more stitched on this one.

And for the big finale ...

Lean on Me:

April 2014

May 2014

It is finished!!! Mind this was meant to be mentioned in the promised 'finishing mode' post, but that was back when I was ahead. And now I am a little more that behind.

Anyhow till soon. There is still TUSAL update from last month to go ... and almost time to begin afresh with this month's updates.

P.S. The questions of the month were: what designs or themes do you really wish you could find? What do you think is missing among stitching designs?

Well to answer I'd have to say I wish I could find Judy Rossouw work easier. They either cost a fortune and then a fortune in postage, or just nowhere. 

I wish I could buy kits for cards. The sort with pre-printed card blank. I am including 2 examples. One was a free kit with World of Cross Stitching. And the other I have created myself around the design. There is only a few I came across in this style.

Smalls #5 - Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe + a giveaway

I know I know it is Tuesday and no Tuesday Extravaganza (to be fair there is almost no progress from the last picture). I am seriously behind in several other updates too and will try to catch up in the next week or so. I thought of posting this finish as it is inoffensively simple (only one photo pretty much).

This is an 'Alphabet Ornament Collection: A' by Nancy Turner of The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

I have stitched this with 'the best orange' (hand dyed by Nancy) on evenweave (dyed by my lovely mum with red onion skin and aluminium mordant).

The green fabric is essentially a bit more green than what my camera took. It looks nice, I love the green and the threads (especially the blended effect from light to dark on A), it was a pleasure stitching! But I think I will be restitching this design again. As I feel there is too much of a military sense about it. Not sure why. Must be this shade of green. Maybe once I will make it into a proper finish it will feel less so. I wander what will happen if I stitch green on orange? maybe the second side to this ornament? what do you think? And have a cord in orange and green. I am also planning on stitching another A from the same set of charts. It has a bird in the pattern!

Would you like to stitch something in Nancy's threads, if so she is having another one of her generous giveaways:

click here

You have until 15th of June 2014. 

Till soon,

P.S. a sneak update for next month's finish ... the sheep are coming ... you can probably guess what I am stitching next

I'm late, I'm late, I'm very very late or Stitch from Stash #5

I just got back from visiting friends and family down South this morning (night bus is not the best way to travel) and need to rush out to work. So pictures at a later stage (I'll try to edit the post when I come home).

I bought:

$9.50 'Moonlight and Moonbeam' by Ravenscroft (HAED chart) ... it was on 50% sale.

£3.96 14 packs of assorted Madeira embroidery thread (ebay)

£1.39 'Cross Stitch Herbs Fruit and Flowers' book after 30% (Works)

£6.49 Simply heritage flower charts (ebay)

£1.20 Cross stitch material Magic Guide 14" x 18" ecru (ebay)

$/£15.82 was carried over plus the $/£ 25 allowance. I have $/£18.28 to carry through to next month. Mind it was a close call. I didn't bid on about 6 kits I was planning onto. Go me.

Till soon,

Tuesday extravaganza returns and another orchid photo

Hello all,

A few years ago I have started stitching my first HAED 'Christmas Candle' in conjunction with my sister's first HAED. We decided to call this (sort of) SAL: Summer Extravaganza. It was meant to be a competition of who gets to finish first. Then the life slightly got in a way and although we have both been stitching, neither of us updated on the progress in the official Tuesday post. For my sister's blog click HERE. I think she updating hers a day late (naughty, naughty ... though who am I to judge, judging by my frequently late posts).

So here goes my current week's progress

last update that you seen (Wipocalypse me thinks)...

13/05/2014

close up

You can see from the closeup that I have all the confetti to look forward to now.

And a terrible photo of my other blooming orchid:

my purple blooming orchid

Mind the colours are a lot deeper in real life. The pot is dark purple ... unless you shine the lamp on it, and the three flowers are also more purple (although also intense and bright). I'll try taking better photos.

Till soon (I still need to brag about my 'finishing' mode),

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),

Stitch from Stash #4

Hello, just a quick update before I have to rush/run to work. There is lots of stash in this update ... and I am still in budget! Thank you to my lovely family who got me lots of stitchy things for my 25th birthday. "Quarter of a Century makes a girl think" (from 'Some Like it Hot')

First up I have some photos of that job lot I bought last time with threads.

sorted into 3 bundles

24 dmc

163 anchor

190 other companies

And I spent £35 if you can remember. So it is not too bad. Mind now I need something to use all those random threads on. And I am not 100% certain about the anchor ones as some are really old and have somebody else instead of Coats listed on the labels. But the logo is the same.

Stash wise mum got me the following kit:

It is  'Victorian Roses' by Candamar Designs. I can't wait to start stitching it ... look at all the gorgeous threads:

My sister gifted me four lovely charts by Little House Needleworks with buttons:

I have already sorted the fabric and threads for all 12 designs ... even though I only have charts and buttons for 6. I think I am going to start on 'Love' next month.

What did I actually buy then ... a magazine:

£4.25

It was a huge disappointment. The cover design is nice, and one other, but as magazine was packed up I did not realise that was all that would interest me in it. I don't think I will be buying this one again any time soon.

I also bought the Fizzy Moon kit exclusive from the World of Cross Stitching for £19.99. But it still hasn't arrived (almost a month now). And I am worried as they have put the price up to £24.99 now ... I will have to wait and see. But I would have felt a lot better if it was in my stash draw!

Okay I carried forward $/£15.06 + this month's allowance of $/£25 which is $/£40.06 I could have spent. I only spent £24.24. So I have $/£15.82 to carry forward. But the scary part next month is May ... and for some reason May and June are the worst for my cross stitching shopping sprees. Good luck to me!

And just a quick note on the projects from stash that I started this month:

Ember II

QS Poisonous Beauties

Till soon,

TUSAL #4 & Wipocalypse #4 ... some progress and new starts

Hello all,

and here is finally me with a stitchy update. I finished work early this afternoon and came home with a full intention if sitting down and posting. Instead as it was nice weather I have repotted three orchids. I have separated mum and baby (one of my orchids had a baby, or keiki), last time I potted them together, but I thought maybe they want their own pots. I could have left them for longer before repotting but the mum had two new roots one of which was growing straight into the cable tie support. I also finally braved cutting off flowers from the third and repotting it (it got left out last time). Since one of my others is in bloom (3 huge purple flowers) I am not as upset with the repotted one. I recently bought a sixth orchid to my collection cheaply thinking I could save it. But I do not know. It is very different to my others and I found 4 spiders on it so far. So at the moment it is in quarantine in the bathtub. I will try repotting it the next time.

orchid that lost its flowers and a biscornu (I might have forgot to share this finish with you)

But I promised cross stitch, so ...

Tusal:

2014 and 4th lot

2014 so far

I definitely need a bigger jar. Though I must admit some of the threads were not from stitching but the sort of my thread shopping from a charity shop (I mentioned it a while back) ... so finally got to it. But more on it in the next Stitch from Stash update.

Wipocalypse:

Christmas Candle:

March 2014

April 2014

Alright this actually looks like no progress whatsoever hmmm. I promise you I did do a few night of stitching on it.

QS Literate Dragon:

March 2014

April 2014

Slightly more progress than on the previous piece. Need to get this one out again soon. I have missed it.

Lean on Me:

March 2014

April 2014

A bit more backstitching done.

Okay now onto real progress. I have started two new projects. The kit was from stash, and the HAED was started using stashed threads and chart, fabric bought last month, and the frame my mum got me for Christmas.

So the new starts are:

QS Poisonous Beauties by Jasmine Becket-Griffith (9 pages)

April 2014

and

Ember II by Maia

April 2014

One flower is almost fully stitched.

closeup

That's all for now. I need a small finish for next week's update ... and I am at a loss. I have completed the kit my sister gifted to me on Christmas ... but as I stitched the grass in columns of 6 crosses using hand dyed floss ... it looks slightly wrong. So I do not know whether I should unpick and start that area again.

Till soon,

P.S. Almost forgot to answer ... how do I keep my stash organised? [edited to include photos]

in the cupboard on the right ...

1 shelf full of progress in individual folders/pockets (and a box of winded thread)

1 shelf full of stashed kits, free kits from magazine in the purple box, and bits and bobs including needles in the yellow one

In the centre set of drawers:

1 drawer of fabric and hand dyed floss

a bit ruffled

Then ...

1 drawer (this one in my desk) of current haeds as in box of winded threads and printed charts

the bottom box with umbrellas has buttons, needles, etc, transparent box on top has all my finishes, and behind the picture ...

2 boxes with a total of 4 drawers full of dmc threads

1 cardboard box of anchor threads under bed (top one)

2 frames next to drawers with stitching

and under drawers 5 bags of threads and some fabric ... you can see one of the bags here

and 3 boxes of cross stitch magazines:

the one in the centre ... the rest is some of the knitting ones ... I have more of those

half the box on the bottom

Mind, there is also a binder with magazines, which I forgot to photograph.