IHSW #11

 Hi Stunners!!

I actually had the weekend off so I could participate in the IHSW. And I managed a page finish. It's been so long since I've been able to say that. It's the bane of the chronic new starter! :>

Firstly though here is my progress for the October leg of my SAL with Kim. This is Girlie Sketch #6 by Earl Carpenter III charted by Tammy from  Colour Cascade Fabrics These beautiful girls are being stitched on "Back to Black" opalescent 20ct. 

I really enjoyed working on this one! For November Kim and I are off to play with the Apocalypse Princesses from Paine Free Crafts. I will be starting work on Aurora. She's the only one guzzling booze and smoking. Now that's a rebel Princess. 

For the IHSW I worked exclusively on Nancy Goodaim:Space Ranger. This is from Eclectic Blokes Design by Aly Fell. Isn't she wild, love her! I'm stitching the charismatic Nancy on 20ct bling Dark Fantasy from Colour Cascade Fabrics. 

That's all stunners. Thank you so much for stopping by, I'm still trying my best to keep up with all the blogs.

I hope life is truly magical for you all! Kisses

xo Alicia 

Wipocalypse #10

Hi Stunners!

This is getting to be a bad habit of mine, being such a bad blogger.  Sorry but it's going to be a little big this post, but I promise it's mostly pics and not a lot of my stuff and nonsense rambling.

I guess first up should be the Wipocalypse wip so here is my progress on Large Treasure Hunt Bookshelf - HAED

Just over half a page progress. I blame the new Jason Statham Needle Minder for not quite getting the page finish. There were way too many ogling stops, but that stern look gets me back on track pretty quickly now.

Monthly SAL with KIM



For My August SAL with Kim, I decided to restart Rose Cerise, the 2 over 2 on 28ct was not working for me. The stitches looked too big and I found it hard doing over 2 on a chart that was not the traditional HAED shape. The counting did my head in and I made a few counting errors as a consequence, which led to...urgh frogging! Now she is being worked 1 over 1 on 28ct Swallow even weave from the lovely boys at Sew it all Australia.



Rose Cerise - August 2014 SAL

For the September SAL we worked on Magical World from Tilton Crafts. I was happy enough with my progress though I would have loved to have achieved a page finish.

My focus wip for August had been "Lost In You". I managed to get a page finish which satisfies one of my Goals for the HAED BB. Only 4 more to go!

There's her thumb in the lower right corner. The next page has alot and I mean alot of white for her hand and lower arm. So it will be time to don those white cotton gloves! 


THANK YOU TO ALL THE BEAUTIFUL EARTHBOUND ANGELS IN MY LIFE.

I'm always humbled by the generosity of all the beautiful crafty people that I am honoured to know. I just want to sing out another thank you to these ladies that gifted me these charts for no occasion. Thank you so much girls I am so grateful and appreciate these lovelies!


A Night of Enchantment from the stunning Downunder Julie



Sharine the gorgeous girl from  Charbella Stitching chose Castle Fest Wendalin Aotenshi


The magnificient lady from Pull the other thread gifted me with the beautiful Peacock my Love


The lovely Helvi chose the gorgeous mystical chart Le Petit



and the fabulous Nguyen of Spices of your of Life sent Wishing on Stars. Which will be my Tilton Crafts new start which Kim has organised in the FB group.



and the naughty little minx also sent me the Lovely Lady Macbeth from Eclectic Blokes Designs.

I want to start them allllll! Do these girls know my taste or what? Thank you so much ladies, you are the stars!

A quick aside, Helvi has recently started "The Key" by Melissa Dawn (HAED) if you get a chance pop over to the site http://firstheavenandearthdesign.blogspot.com and check it out. It's a magnificent chart and Helvi is one of those crazy stitchers that only works one project at a time!!!!! I know right, weird! So Helvi progresses really quickly through her wip and so far it's absolutely beautiful.

On a bit of a sadder note my big sister has been struggling with some womanly issues and has just been advised by her Gyno she will not be able to have her own children. As you can imagine she is devastated. I feel so helpless and so sorry for her.

So I am stitching this chart for Gail (sis) it's called Rose Zircon - October birthstone by Maxine Gadd and the chart is from Mystic Stitch.  And yes as you have probably guessed she's an October baby. The fabric is an ice dye from Colour Cascade fabrics. It's a bit of a lucky dip as you choose up the colours and Tammy dyes it. I think it turned out perfectly for this chart. I chose hot pink, grey, and lilac. I will be stitching all the black background so I think it will really pop on this fabby. Yes? No?

Okay that's all from me stunners. I'm off to start working on Rose Zircon. I'm almost caught up with reading all your blogs, I have about 20 posts to go. So please bear with me. Take care stunners and may only the magical encounter your life.

xoxo Alicia

Wipocalypse #8

Hi Stunners!!

I'm BACK! Sorry for the long hiatus, I won't bore you with the details but it was pretty much due to house/dog sitting duties and a fiasco involving a staircase. Anyway I'm back now and the best thing about being holed up with an injury is that there was more time for stitching!

So here is what I have been working on: 

Firstly for my Wipocalypse piece Large Treasure Hunt Bookshelf. I finished page 2 so that's 3 and 3/4 pages done.

My SAL #2 with the magnificent and talented Kim is Magical World by Igor Morski at Tilton Crafts. We will post on the first of every/other month. This is half of page 1 completed and is being worked on 28ct white linen 1 over 1. I can't wait to get across to that magical world!!! 

Another new start is Carnival Moon by the beautiful and very talented Aimee Stewart - HAED. This is a bit of a focus piece because I can't put it down. The colours are amazing to work with and every sttich reveals a bit of detail. It's mad! I love it. I'm stitching on Opal Turquiose Swirl 28ct from those lovely boys at Sew it all and working it 1 over 1. 

My beautiful and generous friends!

I was completely spoilt for my birthday by my awesome and very generous crafty friends. 

Mary Moore gifted me Enchanted and Santa's Workshop from Tilton Crafts!

    

Margaret Hislop gifted me Vintage Toy store also from Tilton

Witchfest another Tilton gem (this one was a gift from the Crafty Princess :>)

 

Nikki Northup RAK'd Awakening from one of my fav artists Enamorte (HAED). Dearest Nikki you know me so well. I love love love this chart!!!! 

Angie, Mark and Charlie RAK'd  Esmerelda from Paine Free Crafts and if that wasn't enough sent me a Gift Voucher for Colour Cascade fabrics 

      

with which I bought the chart "I've been waiting for so long"

Kim Howe sent me a very generous Gift voucher for Colour cascade fabrics which I have ordered the fabric for "I've been waiting for so long" and some thread. New start here I come!!!

And Nina my lovely friend and the beautiful author of Pistellen-Stitching sent me a stunning Pink blingy key ring and bookmark set. And a large block of chocolate which I devoured straight away. Yummy! 

Thank you so much stunners I was so touched and humbled by your thoughtfulness. It totally made my birthday! Thank You Thank You!!

Apologies

I have to apologise to you all for being so behind in catching up with all your blog posts. Due to the injury sustained by falling down said staircase I was forced to languish in my craft room and as the computer room is downstairs I had to use my phone for internet access and I hate reading/commenting on blogs from the phone. It just doesn't do your posts justice. So I will be spending the next few days solely and holy reading and commenting on blogs so I apologise if you get comments from me for posts almost 2 months old. It's okay if you don't reply as I will probably inundate you LOL!!

That's it for now stunners! I hope you have all been well and for my fellow Aussies that the Winter wasn't too harsh for you. 

Take care and be kind to yourselves.

Lots of love and hugs

Alicia xo

YOTA #5

 

Hi Stunners!

 

 

Welcome to YOTA #5.

 

I've had a very busy craft month. I just wish it meant more stitching than stashing and organising. But now that is done, I'm good to settle into seriously fun stitching.

 

 

I've added another project to my YOTA SAL. I kind of had to otherwise this project kept getting pushed aside and I really want to keep up. Saying that I'm already behind. This is the Passione Ricamo 2014 SAL. We just received the 3rd page today but below is the first page minus the Castle at the top. But that will be done by next YOTA...stop laughing, it will I swear. Plus I will  have the 4th page of Guardian Angel done too...it's not funny!!

 

 

PR 2014 SAL

 

As per my previous blog post I bought a full set of DMC so I had to turn this....

 

 

 

into this.....



 

 

It took almost 2 days, and 1 and a third bobbin chests, and a sore wrist, but well worth it as now I won't be wasting money kitting up for every chart. I will just keep replacing them as they get a bit low.

 

 

Okay that's it for YOTA and now for the stash enhancement. Just a quick warning for the faint hearted maybe you should pour yourself a glass of wine, or grab a coffee before proceeding...

 

In my defence, ahem ahem there were just too many awesome sales on.

 

Shelley Lee of Tilton Crafts and Sarah of Paine Free crafts offered a very generous promotion that if you RAK'd (random act of kindness) a chart for someone they selected a chart from your Wish List and sent it to you for free. There was so much rak'ing going on as cross stitcher's are such a lovely, kind and giving mob that my stash grew quite large.

So here they are...ta da!


These are Tilton charts that were gifts from 3 awesome girls!



Cinderella - gift from Kim H 

 

Falling in Love - a gift from Kim N

 

 

World - a gift from Gwen





Gwen and I are rocking this one out together, our first post will be the 1st June! Woo hoo!! Stay tuned.

 

I've added a link to their blogs in the captions, these girls are amazing stitchers' as well as just being amazing ladies! Thank you again ladies, I'm truly very grateful. Mwah!

These are the Tilton charts that were gifts from Shelley of Tilton.

Alice ReDo

Gaia (my challenge chart!!)

 

Music Room

 

Planets Align II

 

Sanctuary



Happy Halloween

 

Save the Queen (which I will be changing to Save the Princess - as god knows I need it!)

 

 

Gifts from Sarah - Paine Free Crafts

 

Arwen

 

 

Farewell to Lothlorien

 

 

 

These were gifts from me to The Crafty Princess:

 

Tilton Crafts

 

Magical World

 

Kim H and I are stitching this one together. We started it for the Stitch-a-thon for Sophia and I managed to get half of the first page completed by the end of it. Pics to come next post. Kim recently told me that we have 49 of the same charts. We will be doing SAL's together for 3 lifetimes. Luckily she's a fantastic person and I adore her so this is totally cool with me!! Poor Kim though being stuck with me.   :'(




Metropolis

 



Alice Vignette



Spring

 

Love thy Thread

 

Loneliness of Autumn

 

Heaven and Earth Designs

Dreaming Too

Nikki who is an administrator for HAED requested this chart with me in mind. How sweet is that?? It was the first one I bought during the sale. She knows me so well LOL!! I will stitch her as soon as I finish (or at least get halfway) through Feel the Magic). Thanks again Nikki!

Large World Traveller Bookshelf

Enchantment of the Wolf

 



Lord Bucket - I love how he still manages to look so regal whilst standing in a bucket. A very difficult thing to pull off!!!

Matilda and Theodore's Secret Place

 

 

 

Whew that's it. I have now reached 330 charts (including my 52 wips).

 

I have a good mind to just start all of them and to hell with it, but as I already miss ones that don't get worked on for a while, I think this is me being just a little too indulgent!!!

 

Thank you for stopping by, I promise next post (wipocalypse) will be only stitching pics and no more stash enhancements.

 

Stop sniggering!!!!!

 

Take care my beautiful fellow crafters. Have a great month of May and may it only be filled with sunshine and rainbows!

 

xoxo Alicia